[TV] S.H.I.E.L.D.

Well be aware my assumption was assuming this character is truly HIVE from the comics. The villain Viper at one point is killed by Leviathan and the leaders of Hydra come across her bullet ridden corpse. Hive quickly reanimated her with his parasites, which latched to her brain. Later on, she was able to remove the parasites with the help of HAMMER but remained alive.
Think of it this way, in the body of Will the parasite was not exactly a powerful fighter. His fight with Fitz was mostly bumbling around because of the leg wound and the fact Will was not much of a combat expert. This means the parasite may rely on the abilities of it's host, rather then adding anything of it's own.

Now he has the body, and likely memories, of Grant Ward, a deadly assassin who was said to be on the same level as Black Widow. This is likely why Malick sent Grant Ward in the first place, knowing he was the only one "worthy" to become the parasites next host. HYDRA will likely do everything in their power to heal up Wards body so that the parasite can have his strength secured.
Yeah, but, like i said, that works even without that being a power of the "parasite"...

While the thing itself showed no signs of healing the vessel.
 
While the thing itself showed no signs of healing the vessel.
It lived for years on whatever astronaut it took over before Simmons ever showed up on the planet. It must have some ability to maintain the host, but even if it doesn't or can't I'm sure Hydra will fix him up physically so it'll have a decent host to live on.
 
It lived for years on whatever astronaut it took over before Simmons ever showed up on the planet. It must have some ability to maintain the host, but even if it doesn't or can't I'm sure Hydra will fix him up physically so it'll have a decent host to live on.
Exactly, it's not exactly unprecedented either. We have had multiple people come back from death in this show, all through various methods (Kree blood on both Coulson and Skye, Inhuman powers in Jiying, etc.) This is going to be some way for them to keep Ward in the show long after the parasite storyline comes to it's conclusion, I can just feel it in my bones.
 
I'm not saying they wouldn't, i'm saying it would be inconsistent with the way the parasite was shown to work.
 
It's good to see Agent Carter again. And whenever I see Kurtwood Smith I expect him to call anyone else in the scene a dumbass.
 
I really like this season of Agent Carter. I know a lot of show have a "sophomore slump", but I think this season is way better than season 1. The villain is better, the story is clearer and the stakes are higher. I think they've made a really good use of characters from both seasons. I have no idea what the ratings are, but I hope there'll be a season 3.

That being said, there's a few tropes I really wished they had skipped:

1)Did we really need a love triangle? I'm glad they got rid of this (mostly), but it seems like such a cliche for a female character. Part of me wishes they hadn't made Dr. Wilkes pull a gun on Peggy, because I liked the chemistry between them. And it sucks that they broke up Sousa and Violet so easily.I'm glad they didn't put any unnecessary jealousy from Ana about Jarvis' new "hobby". Speaking of which...

2) Ana can't have children due to a bullet wound. I found myself rolling my eyes at this one. Because to give a female character any drama, she either needs to be raped or barren. What's more important to a woman's identity than what's going on with her vagina?!? /end sarcasm. I'll give this one a pass because it feels like they handled it less ham-fistedly than Age of Ultron. They gave Jarvis good sense to tell Ana she's perfect, since it's really not that important as her being alive and with him. (I know he berated himself for being a "coward", but dude, alive is better than "dead and once-fertile".)

3)Peggy joining the SOE due to her brother's death. This feels like the least Peggy Carter-thing they've come up with. I don't buy that Peggy would turn down the SOE just to be married. If they had made her join behind her fiance's back, I would have bought it. I know there were certain social expectations at the time, but that whole flashback felt out-of-place with everything we know about Peggy and how driven she is.
 
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I enjoyed the '40s Broadwayesque song and dance number at the beginning. Also how part of that sequence was filmed like a Golden Age, black and white picture.
 
I really like this season of Agent Carter. I know a lot of show have a "sophomore slump", but I think this season is way better than season 1. The villain is better, the story is clearer and the stakes are higher. I think they've made a really good use of characters from both seasons. I have no idea what the ratings are, but I hope there'll be a season 3.

That being said, there's a few tropes I really wished they had skipped:

1)Did we really need a love triangle? I'm glad they got rid of this (mostly), but it seems like such a cliche for a female character. Part of me wishes they hadn't made Dr. Wilkes pull a gun on Peggy, because I liked the chemistry between them. And it sucks that they broke up Sousa and Violet so easily.I'm glad they didn't put any unnecessary jealousy from Ana about Jarvis' new "hobby". Speaking of which...

2) Ana can't have children due to a bullet wound. I found myself rolling my eyes at this one. Because to give a female character any drama, she either needs to be raped or barren. What's more important to a woman's identity than what's going on with her vagina?!? /end sarcasm. I'll give this one a pass because it feels like they handled it less ham-fistedly than Age of Ultron. They gave Jarvis good sense to tell Ana she's perfect, since it's really not that important as her being alive and with him. (I know he berated himself for being a "coward", but dude, alive is better than "dead and once-fertile".)

3)Peggy joining the SOE due to her brother's death. This feels like the least Peggy Carter-thing they've come up with. I don't buy that Peggy would turn down the SOE just to be married. If they had made her join behind her fiance's back, I would have bought it. I know there were certain social expectation at the time, but that whole flashback felt out-of-place with everything we know about Peggy and how driven she is.
Agent Carter is likely canceled. Hayley Atwell has another show at ABC.
 
Yeah, I was gonna say... Disney is almost certainly planning another sophmore season of Agent Carter for next year and I imagine she could make another appearance in the movies at some point. ABC doesn't get to make THAT call.
 
Gonna have to stream the season finale for Agent Carter. Stupid election coverage that didn't tell anything because it was all early voting results.
 
I was so disappointed with the Agent Carter season finale. They set such high expectations and then just farted it away.
They set up all this stuff with Frost over this whole season, and then the best climax she gets is walking doe eyed into a trap, springing the trap with zero resistance on her part, leaving the actual dangerous climax being whether Daniel would get sucked into the rift or not. She didn't even get to build the mcguffin she designed, it was stolen and built within minutes by Tony and crew. They do nothing to explain why Jason was pulled into the rift rather then Frost a few episodes back, giving him all that Zero Matter. They never explain why Frost was unable to force extract it from Jason. They just have Jason explode (which... cures him) and all the Zero Matter gets sucked into Frost anyways, making all those questions about why it didn't "choose her" pointless. The best we get is a passing monologue by Jason saying Zero Matter is a cancer trying to consume our world. We already could kind of tell that.

Yes, it's not the worst season finale I have ever seen, but it left me terribly underwhelmed. Even with a dimension devouring super cancer, I never felt the tension or threat like I did when Howard was flying the bomber with the rage gas towards times square. It felt like they just ran out of time and needed to close up shop as quickly as possible.

Also, poor Jack. His story deserved better. He deserved to die a hero, not nonchalantly gunned down by an assassin after Peggy gets to have kissy face with Daniel. It left a really bad taste in my mouth after so much growth he was given.
 
I was so disappointed with the Agent Carter season finale. They set such high expectations and then just farted it away.
They set up all this stuff with Frost over this whole season, and then the best climax she gets is walking doe eyed into a trap, springing the trap with zero resistance on her part, leaving the actual dangerous climax being whether Daniel would get sucked into the rift or not. She didn't even get to build the mcguffin she designed, it was stolen and built within minutes by Tony and crew. They do nothing to explain why Jason was pulled into the rift rather then Frost a few episodes back, giving him all that Zero Matter. They never explain why Frost was unable to force extract it from Jason. They just have Jason explode (which... cures him) and all the Zero Matter gets sucked into Frost anyways, making all those questions about why it didn't "choose her" pointless. The best we get is a passing monologue by Jason saying Zero Matter is a cancer trying to consume our world. We already could kind of tell that.

Yes, it's not the worst season finale I have ever seen, but it left me terribly underwhelmed. Even with a dimension devouring super cancer, I never felt the tension or threat like I did when Howard was flying the bomber with the rage gas towards times square. It felt like they just ran out of time and needed to close up shop as quickly as possible.

Also, poor Jack. His story deserved better. He deserved to die a hero, not nonchalantly gunned down by an assassin after Peggy gets to have kissy face with Daniel. It left a really bad taste in my mouth after so much growth he was given.
I am almost certain they redid this episode (and a few others) after test audiences fell in love with Jason as a character. It would certainly explain why we got multiple weeks of double episodes: they started late because of the reshoots. I'm pretty sure Jason's going to be sticking around as a character next season, though he probably won't show up as much as this season.

As for Jack... he got his traitor's reward. There was no other path for him once he was actively working with the enemy AND then betraying that enemy. That's just how it works in spy fiction.
 
So Agents of Shield is finally back on, and the lower-left quarter of the screen has a flash flood/severe storm map blocking everything. The curse of network TV.
 
Here's something interesting: Fitz and Simmons have joined the Ultimate Spider-man cartoon on Disney XD. F&S are original characters created for the Agents of SHIELD show, so it's surprising that Disney has enough faith in them to expand their roles into the comics and cartoons.
Actually, they've already started turning up in the comics. There is a new S.H.I.E.L.D. comics series currently going which features them as part of a team that Phil Coulson has brought together.
 
Actually, they've already started turning up in the comics. There is a new S.H.I.E.L.D. comics series currently going which features them as part of a team that Phil Coulson has brought together.
It's still surprising and probably a marketing decision by Disney. I know it's been done before with things like Harley Quinn and the current incarnation of Mr. Freeze, but it's actually not that common to see the comics drastically effected by other depictions or to see things from other materials make it into other mediums.
 
It's still surprising and probably a marketing decision by Disney. I know it's been done before with things like Harley Quinn and the current incarnation of Mr. Freeze, but it's actually not that common to see the comics drastically effected by other depictions or to see things from other materials make it into other mediums.
Maybe not super common, but there is definitely a history of this sort of thing happening. Jimmy Olsen was created for the Superman radio show before he turned up in comics, and the Riddler became one of Batman's most iconic foes thanks to the 1960s Batman tv show.

That said, I can definitely see the marketing decision to push for more recognition and connectivity among the Marvel properties.
 
Coulson's been showing up here and there for awhile now, but Fitzsimmons I didn't know about, that's cool. I enjoy them both when they're not the drama-bomb of the season, so more isn't a bad thing.

I'm hoping after today's episode they'll get a little more like they used to be.
 
Maybe not super common, but there is definitely a history of this sort of thing happening. Jimmy Olsen was created for the Superman radio show before he turned up in comics
Pretty sure kryptonite was from the radio show too, because the voice actor for supes went on vacation, and they had someone else do a "weakened supes" voice...

Also, i think Perry White and the name change to Daily Planet from Daily Star where from outside the comics too.
 
I'll have to rewatch the episode at a later date. They cut something like 30 minutes from the show here in Ohio because Kasich won and had a speech.
Just a refresher or spoiler, depending if you saw the scene.
It turns out the reason absorbing man was able to survive touching the diviner is because the experiment that gave him absorbing powers also makes his blood immune to the effects of terragenesis. Using his blood, they can make a "vaccination" that would prevent humans from ever being able to transform into inhumans. This is likely going to be used as the mcguffin to "cut off" the inhuman cast when it becomes necessary.
 
Just a refresher or spoiler, depending if you saw the scene.
It turns out the reason absorbing man was able to survive touching the diviner is because the experiment that gave him absorbing powers also makes his blood immune to the effects of terragenesis. Using his blood, they can make a "vaccination" that would prevent humans from ever being able to transform into inhumans. This is likely going to be used as the mcguffin to "cut off" the inhuman cast when it becomes necessary.
This raises all kinds of ethical concerns.

What fucking right does the Government have to prevent Inhumans from discovering their heritage and acquiring their birthrights? This is the whole mutant cure thing all over again and THAT is analog for a "cure" for homosexuality/non-whiteness/whatever social trait people hate.

It's just... my god, really? REALLY? They are doing this shit again?
 
This raises all kinds of ethical concerns.

What fucking right does the Government have to prevent Inhumans from discovering their heritage and acquiring their birthrights? This is the whole mutant cure thing all over again and THAT is analog for a "cure" for homosexuality/non-whiteness/whatever social trait people hate.

It's just... my god, really? REALLY? They are doing this shit again?
They haven't gone that way yet, no one is mandating any cure at the moment.

In the comics, inhumans would often be pretty grotesque. They don't always get the fun powers, and there are many reasons someone might not want to turn into one.
 
So they have a way to deal with the large number of inhumans now.
Meh, a vaccine that only works before you get powers is as useful to limit the number of inhumans on the show as much as just making the gene as rare as you want via writer fiat.

They're more likely gonna use it as a plot device for ppl that want it mandatory and those that think it's ethically wrong.
 
This raises all kinds of ethical concerns.

What fucking right does the Government have to prevent Inhumans from discovering their heritage and acquiring their birthrights? This is the whole mutant cure thing all over again and THAT is analog for a "cure" for homosexuality/non-whiteness/whatever social trait people hate.

It's just... my god, really? REALLY? They are doing this shit again?
I guess it depends on how you look at it...
Unlike mutants, Inhumans are not technically "born" as Inhumans. They have a dormant gene that converts them into Inhumans when exposed to terragenesis, but otherwise are completely human. Going back to the "cure" for homosexuality angle, being gay is something you are born with, you can't change that. However, imagine you were born a completely straight male, with a loving wife, going well into your prime, and then take a fish pill that turned you gay / asexual / whatever due to some dormant gene that you have no say over. Are you saying the guy should just live with it because that, in the end, is who he really is? Again, remember, this is not the person he grew up being, the new feelings were forced onto him at a later age.

Lash is a good example of this. Andrew was a happy pacifist on his way to getting back together with his ex-wife when suddenly terragenesis was thrust onto him, and now he feels a constant pain / yearning to murder other Inhumans, with his only relief coming from said murders. A once passive psychologist exploding peoples chests because he can't help himself. Are you saying if he was given the chance to vaccinate himself and keep who he was entirely intact, the person he grew and matured into for the last 40 years, he is ethically wrong?

BTW they have Daisy and Lincoln talk about it. Lincoln on the side of a vaccine and Daisy saying they should all just "accept their gifts".
 
I guess it depends on how you look at it...
Unlike mutants, Inhumans are not technically "born" as Inhumans. They have a dormant gene that converts them into Inhumans when exposed to terragenesis, but otherwise are completely human. Going back to the "cure" for homosexuality angle, being gay is something you are born with, you can't change that. However, imagine you were born a completely straight male, with a loving wife, going well into your prime, and then take a fish pill that turned you gay / asexual / whatever due to some dormant gene that you have no say over. Are you saying the guy should just live with it because that, in the end, is who he really is? Again, remember, this is not the person he grew up being, the new feelings were forced onto him at a later age.

Lash is a good example of this. Andrew was a happy pacifist on his way to getting back together with his ex-wife when suddenly terragenesis was thrust onto him, and now he feels a constant pain / yearning to murder other Inhumans, with his only relief coming from said murders. A once passive psychologist exploding peoples chests because he can't help himself. Are you saying if he was given the chance to vaccinate himself and keep who he was entirely intact, the person he grew and matured into for the last 40 years, he is ethically wrong?

BTW they have Daisy and Lincoln talk about it. Lincoln on the side of a vaccine and Daisy saying they should all just "accept their gifts".
Except we're right back into X3 territory: The existence of a cure means that it will inevitably be forced onto the public in one form or another to maintain the Status Quo. Yes, there are people out there who would want the cure... but is it right to allow that cure to exist as a threat to the Inhumans who like what they are and are otherwise law abiding citizens? Remember, the same tool that can be used to cure your problem can be used to unwillingly strip another of their life. To use your example, imagine a gay couple, married and with adopted kids, well into their prime... except the government shows up one day and shoots one with a syringe that that turns people into whatever the government decided was "normal". That person's life is effectively destroyed in the same way as your example. It's not like it couldn't happen ether, especially in the Marvel Universe. Fuck, there would be a huge push to do it RIGHT NOW in the real world. You think the religious right wouldn't be dumping their "cure" into food/water/everything in order to force the issue? At least the Inhuman community had the fucking courtesy to only do it to the willing.

Ultimately, this isn't even a choice between liberty or restoration: there is nothing inherently wrong with being gay/Inhuman and suddenly realizing it's what you are is nothing to be ashamed of. You aren't being forced to eat fish or fish oil pills ether. But it IS wrong to force someone to conform to your definition of "normal" when they aren't doing anything wrong, which is what inevitably happens when the government decides it can.
 
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