With just under a week to go before the premier of Marvel/ABC’s "Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.," the hotly anticipated new show based in the Marvel cinematic universe, the Prairie Nerds have some thoughts and predictions on what is in store.

Created for television by “Marvel’s The Avengers” writer/director and general nerd god Joss Whedon, and under the control of his brother Jed Whedon and his wife Maurissa Tancharoen, the show follows a group of field agents for the mythical organization known as S.H.I.E.L.D. (Strategic Homeland Intervention, Enforcement and Logistics Division), led by Phil Coulson, a high-ranking agent thought dead after the events portrayed in “The Avengers.”

The agency has been directly mentioned in one way or another dating back to 2008’s “Iron Man,” where S.H.I.E.L.D. features prominently during the climax after literally making Coulson wait in the lobby for most of the film. After a considerable build-up with vague rumors of “The Avengers Initiative” brewing through 2008’s “The Incredible Hulk,”2010’s “Iron Man 2,” 2011’s “Thor” and “Captain America: The First Avenger,” the agency took the dead center spotlight for “The Avengers” in 2012. While a lot of what makes S.H.I.E.L.D. tick was featured in that movie, ABC’s "Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.” will hopefully fill in a lot of those gaps, and bring lesser known aspects of the Marvel Comics Universe into the light.

The show, while set squarely within the same universe as the last seven superhero movies Marvel has produced, as well as another five set to open over the next two years, "Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.” promises to be a more grounded police procedural/espionage show. None of the main characters have any special super powers that we know of for certain, and though it will acknowledge the existence of events outside the show itself, no real major cross-over events are scheduled as of yet.

Instead, "Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.” will focus on the relationships between a group of agents hand-picked by Coulson. The team consists of five people, each with their own unique set of skills, which they use as they deal with emerging superhuman individuals and advanced technology around the world in the name of national security.

The Comics version of S.H.I.E.L.D. has its roots planted back in 1963, when Nick Fury was introduced as the leader of an elite Army unit fighting back in WWII. Fury started to appear in a modern incarnation in “Fantastic Four” later that year. Initially a CIA agent, Fury and S.H.I.E.L.D. (then called Supreme Headquarters, International Espionage, Law-Enforcement Division) made their first appearance in in “Strange Tales” #135 in 1965. Fury was now a cold-war spy, as Marvel tried to cash in on the popularity of the spy genre, which was at its height thanks to James Bond, “The Man from U.N.C.L.E.” and Michael Caine’s Harry Palmer movies.

S.H.I.E.L.D. stayed a mainstay on the comics racks with only a few gaps in publication ever since, and has had a lasting effect on the Marvel Comics Universe.

How close the Television version will adhere to the comics version is anybody’s guess. We nerds have our own ideas about what the show should be about and about how they will work out Coulson’s death:


James Royal

I know the show is going to have a strong espionage element, probably a lot like "Alias," but I don't want them to lose sight of the fact that it's set in a universe full of beings with super powers. Early clips have shown that there will be a certain element of this, but I think "Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D." could be a great platform for introducing characters like Luke Cage or Iron Fist into the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Every episode doesn't need a superhero or a powered-up bad guy -- you'll likely lose casual viewers that way -- but I hope that there's enough to keep comic fans happy.

Three words: Life. Model. Decoy. The Agent Coulson of the series isn't Agent Coulson. It's a Life Model Decoy of him. For those unfamiliar with LMDs, they're basically an android recreation of a person, sometimes so much so that the android begins to believe it really is the person it imitates. There are roughly 7 trillion Nick Fury LMDs running around the Marvel Universe. I'm betting Agent Coulson on the show will eventually be revealed to be an LMD and that he'll be upgraded or somehow changed to become the Vision in time for "Avengers: Age of Ultron." By then, the series will be two seasons in and hopefully on solid enough footing to lose Coulson. My alternate theory is that the Coulson killed by Loki was an LMD and that the real Coulson survived, though that seriously cheapens his death in the movie.


Jason Powers:

What I’m hoping to get out of "Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D." is something similar to the BBC’s “Torchwood.” A spin off the wildly popular “Doctor Who” not-a-reboot, “Torchwood” was a covert British agency tasked by the crown to identify and obtain extraterrestrial technology for study and observation(and of course, to create new weapons). “Torchwood” had a decidedly science fiction spin to it, but the same basic principle can apply to of "Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.," only with supers instead of aliens. That being said, I kind of hope they don’t focus entirely on superheroes. A freak-of-the-week show only goes so far, as we’ve learned with “The X-Files,” “Fringe,” “Smallville,” and many others. There needs to be a grounding narrative that keeps viewers interested, and the more realistic the better.

I agree with James about the Life Model Decoys. LMDs were introduced within the pages of S.H.I.E.L.D., and though they have spread out into the rest of the Marvel Comics Universe, they were a S.H.I.E.L.D. mainstay and still are. Between the LMDs and the Skrulls, there might not be a single real human character left in Marvel. However, one of the things they liked to do in the old S.H.I.E.L.D. comics, was to send out a LMD in place of an agent when certain death was on the line. So rather than the Coulson from the TV show being an LMD, I think maybe the one that got killed by Loki was the real imposter, though that would make the TV Coulson much less interesting.

I kind of hope they never explain it. I would love it if Coulson could just show up after being impaled on the magic pointy glow-stick and everyone is mystified that he’s alive again, but too afraid to ask him about it, and then they never actually explain it.


Matt Clayton

My biggest concern for this show is not what we see on screen but how the executives at ABC deal with the show after it starts.

I'm convinced "Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D." is going to be a big hit, but what will the patience level be for ABC if the show struggles the first few weeks from a ratings standpoint. Does ABC have the stomach to allow a show a chance to build an audience and win over folks who have questions about how this Marvel concept will translate to the small screen?

I'm hopeful they do. From what I've seen and what my fellow nerds are predicting for the show, I'm positive it's going to be a ratings hit.



Special Guest Nerd Jonathan Ainley:

It’s easy to bandwagon yourself on Joss Whedon’s recent success with “The Avengers,” assuming the punchy dialogue and not-too-serious tone will transfer straight to a small-screen success. However, it’s just as easy to take an opposing stance of abject cynicism, marking this as a clear money grab on IP that, without the success of "The Avengers," no one would give two craps about. The caveat that most comic book adaptations are terrible is far from being debunked.

Let’s face it; Marvel (read as: Disney) ain’t in this for the street cred. They want to put butts in seats come blockbuster season (oh, and maybe could sell some comics while they are at it). My irrational fear is that they won’t bother “unveiling” Luke Cage in the show when they know they are going to be making him his own movie in the future.

Let me put it this way – I want the show to be good. The S.H.I.E.L.D. characters (Fury, in particular) have produced some genuinely interesting stories over the years. Since the series takes place in the “Marvel Cinematic Universe”, it frees the writers from the shackles of strict “616” continuity - Marvel characters tend to carry a lot of past baggage with them, what with all the retcons and resets (*cough*).
However, if the rumor that this show is going to be more of a hollow crime procedural than a story-arc based series ends up being true, then I just may need to keep this thing at arm’s length.

As for Agent Coulson, as much as I would enjoy getting real weird with my answer, I really like Jason’s idea of never really knowing what happened (spoiler alert: he was saved by the giant claw from the end of ‘Toy Story 3’). Most characters would just end up assuming his reappearance involved Fury, a guy who has already done some pretty shady stuff.


Chris Moore

If we are to surmise that Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. will be about agents investigating the appearance of super-humans around the globe, then I think it would have to heavily rely on the team getting a report of some weird activity each week and then having parts of the team going to investigate the occurrence. This will be how most of the first half of the season will play out. Perhaps a few episodes in, a real big threat or person will emerge that will have the team and show push towards a real defined arc.


As for characters in the show, I’m not expecting to see too many really big named superheroes to appear in the show. Do I hope they appear?
Of course I do. Having not very well known heroes become more common household names would be amazing. But for now, we will probably get super-humans created specifically for this show. Over the course of the show, the Agents will indeed spout lines that will be references to other superheroes in the Marvel universe that will make comic book readers chuckle, but if the show is going to get really serious into the superhuman mythos, they are going to have to get some named characters in there. Look at the ABC show Once Upon A Time. That show went character heavy on Day One. We have Snow White, Prince Charming, Rumpelstiltskin, The Evil Queen and Red Riding Hood out in force every episode. Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. is going to need to do that at some point.





The whole Coulson dead/alive thing is really making people wonder just what in the world is happening. At first I just wanted to say: Agent Coulson is alive. He survived and Nick Fury made the whole thing up about him dying in order to get The Avengers to ban together. Plus, this is the comic book universe and the only people that have perhaps stay dead are Uncle Ben in Marvel and Abin Sur in DC. Anybody other than that, death just doesn’t happen. But you know what: hearing Powers and Royal talk about Light Model Decoys; sure, let’s do that. You know why: Because it
goes two ways: The first being that the Coulson on the show is a LMD and that is an entire seasonal arc right there. The new agents begin to ask a ton of questions about it and uncovers some secret project that unfolds for an entire season that ultimately has Coulson becoming Vision. The other: someone asks why he isn’t dead, and Coulson staunchly says: “Light
Model Decoy. Not dead. Great vacation.” and THAT’S IT! We laugh, we clap real quickly and we move on. Both work in the universe and it answers the question on everyone’s mind.



Micah Choquette

Back when I wrote our first in-depth look at Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. I noticed a series of remarks that set the tone for my expectations for the show. First of all, let's be careful not to rely too much on previous movies (or future movies) to provide plot points and characters for the show. In my mind, this is an attempt to create something new around a character that has been with us from the beginning, and has become a much-loved character, even if he's not as super-powered as the others. The idea of making a television show around the character of Agent Coulson just fits. The personality Clark Gregg brings to the role is ideal for television. It'll be especially interesting to see how they adapt the character and the story to the small screen, but let's remember what Joss Whedon (who is directing the pilot) said: "We're not creating an Easter egg farm".

As for what happened to Coulson, I kept thinking back to another favorite character of mine from a few years ago. He was a government agent that quietly but diligently stood by your side as you faced the world's worst villains. His name was Donald Ferguson and he was in "Invincible", a great ongoing monthly series from Image Comics (the creators of "The Walking Dead").



Donald Ferguson was also a robot. The day the world found out, he was almost nonchalant about it: "Wow, look at that. I'm not human. Oh well." It was that kind of low-key personality, plus the black suit, receding hairline and dark glasses that immediately reminded me of Agent Phil Coulson. Still, Donald was every bit as crucial to the whole storyline as Coulson has been, and with both, we all know the world wouldn't quite be the same without them.

As you can see, most of the Prairie Nerds have roughly the same ideas about Agent Coulson.

The rumors of Coulson eventually morphing into The Vision is only a rumor, but I'll admit - I'm intrigued by that. The Vision is a character that I'd love to see in Avengers 2, along with Ant Man and of course Ultron - so I expect the intensity level to be quite a bit higher this time around. A lot of drama.

So there you have it. What do you think? Let us know in the comments.


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