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Yeah we don't know what his powers will be like when he returns (other than presumably just being telekinesis) but the guy has regular dudes distract him while scientists come up with a plan that just might work written all over him. Personally I'm more interested in how they decide to render him given that I presume he won't be a full CGI character despite last weeks ending.
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# ? Oct 15, 2013 18:12 |
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# ? May 4, 2024 16:37 |
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Humbug Scoolbus posted:Another couple that crashed and burned... I was really surprised neither of these got picked up. For Frequency I assume they looked a little closer at the content of some of the later issues or it was a two expensive with the digital effects cost of 2005. Aqua-man I don't know, it was just as 'good' as Smallville and that's clearly what they were going for. They even had in a built in excuse to have the lead wet and shirtless as much as possible. Maybe Aqua-man is still just too goofy to most audiences.
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# ? Oct 15, 2013 19:02 |
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From what Warren Ellis has said, Global Frequency died mostly because of one executive who got pissed off about the pilot leaking online.
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# ? Oct 15, 2013 21:15 |
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Dr. MonkeyThunder posted:Aqua-man I don't know, it was just as 'good' as Smallville and that's clearly what they were going for. They even had in a built in excuse to have the lead wet and shirtless as much as possible. Maybe Aqua-man is still just too goofy to most audiences. As someone who likes Aquaman I can assure you--no one outside of comic fandom knows anything about Aquaman beyond Superfriends and Entourage jokes. Meanwhile everyone at least knows Superman is "important" as a superhero, even if they had gently caress all idea he was raised in Central Kansas. A solo Aquaman project is just never going to gain any traction, and not for a lack of trying over the years.
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# ? Oct 15, 2013 21:22 |
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I had never heard that they were planning a Global Frequency show, and now I'm sad that we won't get it. That would have been a kick rear end show.
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# ? Oct 15, 2013 21:41 |
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I'm sorry, but I have to bring up the Justice League of America pilot from 1997. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w0kHSllsVOE I'm so sorry. This is the only pure clip left on Youtube, but you can find the whole thing on shadier video sites if you're curious. It's really, really dire. We owe CBS for never greenlighting this thing.
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# ? Oct 15, 2013 21:59 |
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Two more openings... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eqB36FsglEE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rnSU2AalfKg and the 7 minute Batgirl Pilot... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S5GdStZKIxU
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# ? Oct 15, 2013 23:36 |
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mind the walrus posted:Meanwhile everyone at least knows Superman is "important" as a superhero, even if they had gently caress all idea he was raised in Central Kansas. Superman's origin is so well known and so ingrained into the general culture that kids practically come out the womb knowing he's the Last Son of Krypton, so yeah it's a pretty big difference.
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# ? Oct 16, 2013 00:46 |
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MelvinTheJerk posted:Well to reiterate, his greatest weakness is that he's a lovely person always focused on the wrong goal. In the mini series he's focused on trying to become a crime boss. In the above issue he's trying to embarrass the WCA and, I poo poo you not, set up a floating island where he can keep Tigra as a sex slave. Again, this is a dude who controls GRAVITY. When he brags all the time about having god like powers, he's not making GBS threads you. He really is that powerful. He just can't control himself, so he's a joke. The best Graviton Moments, like the best moments for many characters, is in Thunderbolts. Evil Psychologist Moonstone is basically pressganged into being Graviton's shrink, and finally after simmering as a subplot for a couple issues while the Thunderbolts are off being excellently written elsewhere, Moonstone finally has a breakthrough with Graviton about how petty he is. The next issue is Moonstone and the Thunderbolts finding out that Graviton decided to turn part of California into a floating island with his face on it and give the power of flight to basically a group of mallrats. The man is just built pathetic.
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# ? Oct 16, 2013 02:59 |
Mr. Maltose posted:The next issue is Moonstone and the Thunderbolts finding out that Graviton decided to turn part of California into a floating island with his face on it and give the power of flight to basically a group of mallrats. The man is just built pathetic. Which is why the new version for AoS is such an improvement. He's got a cause and, even if his methods were brutal, his basic point is more or less sound. There 's a lot of dangerous poo poo out there and fighting to keep people safe is exactly what SHIELD is all about. It's just that after the Battle of New York, Hall's decided that SHIELD itself can't be trusted and so he's got to take matters into his own gravity powered hands! It's much better than "loser who lucks into godlike power" angle from the comics. This version of Hall is basically Magneto, a supremely powerful guy with a good point and a "ends justify the means" point of view.
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# ? Oct 16, 2013 03:19 |
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A constant gently caress-up, neurotic and petty loser with immense powers sounds way more interesting to me as a villain for Agents of SHIELD than Magneto 2.0.
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# ? Oct 16, 2013 03:46 |
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Yes, exactly.
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# ? Oct 16, 2013 03:48 |
We'll have to agree to disagree, because to me it's much more interesting to have a villain with depth and a reason to do what he does rather than a moron with superpowers. The latter is a one episode and done affair while the former is something that can become an ongoing tragedy if handled correctly.
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# ? Oct 16, 2013 07:52 |
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You're right, if only there was a supervillain who was more than just a dumbfuck in a costume. Oh woe, where is a villain with actual depth in the Marvel Universe. Graviton isn't a moron. He's small minded. He's petty. He doesn't always think things through and he constantly underestimates his potential. He's what a regular dude would be with superpowers. If anything, Marvel suffers from having a glut of super villains who stand as A Superhero But Over The Line. Graviton is a tragedy, because he is among the strongest people on the planet but is so self defeating he commits only base ego-powered supervillainy. It's not him going adoyhadoydoy time to get my face punched, it's every human being alive who could be something but is weighted down by their own issues. Calling him a moron is honestly an insult to the character. Mr. Maltose fucked around with this message at 08:13 on Oct 16, 2013 |
# ? Oct 16, 2013 08:10 |
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When you reduce every other idea down to a bumbling, Mr. Magoo style cartoon, I imagine turning every villain into Magneto does seem quite deep and compelling.
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# ? Oct 16, 2013 09:00 |
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Prison Warden posted:Superman's origin is so well known and so ingrained into the general culture that kids practically come out the womb knowing he's the Last Son of Krypton, so yeah it's a pretty big difference. I was wrong. Kids might know flying guy in cape, but some of the basics like Krypton, Lois, and the Daily Planet aren't as ingrained as you'd think.
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# ? Oct 16, 2013 14:19 |
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Waterhaul posted:Yeah we don't know what his powers will be like when he returns (other than presumably just being telekinesis) but the guy has regular dudes distract him while scientists come up with a plan that just might work written all over him. Personally I'm more interested in how they decide to render him given that I presume he won't be a full CGI character despite last weeks ending. Probably t-1000 style; have him CGI for some quick, moving around shots, then he reforms as himself
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# ? Oct 16, 2013 15:29 |
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The latest episode of Agents of SHIELD featured some mysterious unexplained 'alien' text: Anyone recognise that alphabet? It could be Doop language for all I know.
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# ? Oct 16, 2013 20:26 |
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I'd presume that everything alien on the show for the next while is just going to be Chitari/Thanos stuff.
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# ? Oct 16, 2013 20:34 |
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Snowglobe of Doom posted:The latest episode of Agents of SHIELD featured some mysterious unexplained 'alien' text:
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# ? Oct 16, 2013 21:42 |
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If Doop became a regular character I wouldn't watch anything else, just buy the DVD set and put it on loop.
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# ? Oct 16, 2013 21:58 |
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For best results he should be a green screen puppet like Slimer and not CG.
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# ? Oct 16, 2013 22:04 |
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Mr. Maltose posted:The best Graviton Moments, like the best moments for many characters, is in Thunderbolts. Evil Psychologist Moonstone is basically pressganged into being Graviton's shrink, and finally after simmering as a subplot for a couple issues while the Thunderbolts are off being excellently written elsewhere, Moonstone finally has a breakthrough with Graviton about how petty he is. You are actually getting two (kind of three) Graviton storylines missed up there. The very first Graviton storyline is where the T-bolts fight a robot Hulk sent at them by Zemo, purely to gently caress over his old team for daring to do stuff without him. The Hulk Robot was channelling energy which was used to summon Graviton from the loser dimension he was stuck in. Graviton basically completely wipes the floor with the T-Bolts and the Great Lakes Avengers. The closest they have to winning is when Atlas jumps out of a plane, sizes up to maximum height and starts wailing on Graviton for a few pages. And even then, Graviton basically defeats him after he gets half a second to recover enough to fight back. He is only defeated when Moonstone explains how he's going to lose because he thinks too small. He leaves, and comes back in Issue 28. At this stage Graviton shows up over San Francisco with a floating island full of an army of "thugs, low-lifes and Highlander fans" who he extends his superpowers to. The T-Bolts (and Angel) only were able to win when they got Machine Man to share his technology that negated gravity. The T-Bolts beat on Graviton, and Moonstone tries needling Graviton about how pathetic he is. Instead of crumbling, he lashes out and very nearly destroys California, until they turn him into a Black Hole. He returns in the third story. That's the one where Moonstone is pressganged into being his personal life coach and motivational person. She allows him to overcome his ego, and he masters his powers to such an extent that he was able to defeat every hero on the Marvel Earth at once. In short, those are excellent stories, and you should totally re-read them.
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# ? Oct 16, 2013 22:57 |
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poo poo, I got the order backwards. Anyway, everyone should read Thunderbolts because the length and quality are mind blowing.
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# ? Oct 16, 2013 23:04 |
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So this weeks episode of Arrow had Ollie fighting China White and Bronze Tiger, while trying to deal with Brother Blood causing an uprising in the city AND then got Roy Harper taking up the Red Arrow mantle and still hasn't dealt with Black Canary around. Basically it's the anti-Agents of SHIELD.
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# ? Oct 19, 2013 11:19 |
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Waterhaul posted:So this weeks episode of Arrow had Ollie fighting China White and Bronze Tiger, while trying to deal with Brother Blood causing an uprising in the city AND then got Roy Harper taking up the Red Arrow mantle and still hasn't dealt with Black Canary around. It's also in it's second season, how many C-listers had arrow introduced by it's 4th episode? I don't even understand the compulsion to compare the two shows, Arrow's never going to be able to do fun gags with X-Ray specs or wonky gravity adventures and SHIELD isn't trying to be the Dark Knight the tv show.
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# ? Oct 21, 2013 06:01 |
Through four episodes of Arrow you had...Deadshot. So yeah, not really any more than Agents did with Doctor Hall.
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# ? Oct 21, 2013 06:38 |
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DynamicSloth posted:It's also in it's second season, how many C-listers had arrow introduced by it's 4th episode? Deathshot, Deathstroke had been shown, Merlyn, China White... And they're both superhero shows and people have expressed dissatisfaction at SHIELD's lack of comic appearances.
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# ? Oct 21, 2013 19:34 |
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IDW has decided to get on the TV bandwagon and adapt some of their original properties. So far they're doing: Life Undead, V Wars and Brooklyn Animal Control. I've never read any of them so I have no idea if they'll be any good or not.
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# ? Oct 21, 2013 20:14 |
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Waterhaul posted:And they're both superhero shows and people have expressed dissatisfaction at SHIELD's lack of comic appearances. Well, Arrow is a show about a superhero, where Agents of SHIELD is a procedural show that happens to take place in a world with superheroes. It's okay to be disappointed that it doesn't have more comic jazz in it, but the show is trying to do its own thing. It essentially has zero SHIELD agents from the comics outside of Fury and Hill cameos (Coulson has made the jump from movies to comics, but that's different), so I went in expecting the comics material would be sparse. It's really an apples / oranges comparison because they're coming at their comics material from entirely different angles.
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# ? Oct 21, 2013 20:20 |
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Alien Rope Burn posted:Well, Arrow is a show about a superhero, where Agents of SHIELD is a procedural show that happens to take place in a world with superheroes. It's okay to be disappointed that it doesn't have more comic jazz in it, but the show is trying to do its own thing. It essentially has zero SHIELD agents from the comics outside of Fury and Hill cameos (Coulson has made the jump from movies to comics, but that's different), so I went in expecting the comics material would be sparse. It's really an apples / oranges comparison because they're coming at their comics material from entirely different angles. The problem people are having is that there is not really any valid explanation for why the comic material SHOULD be sparse and that the show so far seems to be going out of its way to avoid comic material, such as refusing to just admit that the secret big bad guys this season are either AIM, Hydra, or both. We've been introduced to both organizations in the movies already, so it is kind of stupid that they are avoiding using them so far, while dangling this "where is this mysterious supertech coming from, who could possibly be behind this?!" plot thread in front of the viewers in almost every episode aside from the Graviton one (which quickly defused AIM speculation by introducing a character who does not seem to be affiliated with AIM or Hydra as the source for THAT episode's super science funding group.)
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# ? Oct 21, 2013 20:42 |
They're playing the long game. That's how all the Joss shows worked, with clues and hits scattered throughout the first half of the season followed by a ratcheting up of pressure in the second half and a blowout in the season finale. Even if you have doubts, as I do, about how much Joss is still involved in the show, the remaining principles all worked on Spartacus and that had much the same structure. If that's not to your individual taste, well that's fair. We all don't like the same things. But if you're expecting the show not to be playing the long game then you're ignoring the history of the people making the show.
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# ? Oct 21, 2013 20:51 |
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ToastyPotato posted:The problem people are having is that there is not really any valid explanation for why the comic material SHOULD be sparse and that the show so far seems to be going out of its way to avoid comic material Arrow isn't tied to a greater shared universe, though (to my knowledge?). On the other hand, whenever you introduce a new character in AoS, you're making it a bit harder to introduce and/or use them in potential future movies, which are obviously the big money-makers and take absolute precedence. They might also feel obligated to at least half-rear end a reason for why the characters they introduced won't be showing up to punch Ultron in two years, too. There are ways around that, sure, but I think that would count as a "valid explanation". I don't know about the example you provided, either, since obviously they're trying to build up a mystery, and not "refusing to use" anything.
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# ? Oct 21, 2013 21:00 |
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jng2058 posted:They're playing the long game. That's how all the Joss shows worked, with clues and hits scattered throughout the first half of the season followed by a ratcheting up of pressure in the second half and a blowout in the season finale. Even if you have doubts, as I do, about how much Joss is still involved in the show, the remaining principles all worked on Spartacus and that had much the same structure. That's fine. I just wish it was better now and not at some nebulous point in the future. It's not bad, but it almost immediately squandered its own potential in favour of being as safe and inoffensive as possible. I guess the same could be said about the Marvel films, but at least they had more energy and creativity to them than this has had so far.
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# ? Oct 21, 2013 21:01 |
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ToastyPotato posted:The problem people are having is that there is not really any valid explanation for why the comic material SHOULD be sparse and that the show so far seems to be going out of its way to avoid comic material, such as refusing to just admit that the secret big bad guys this season are either AIM, Hydra, or both. Well, the Marvel movies have been relatively low-key, and they're following in that motif. It's not really aimed at comic fans - it's glad to have them along for the ride - but instead is trying to push Marvel material to a mainstream audience, and is making big ratings, so it's successful for the moment. Arrow, on the other hand, is unapologetically genre TV, and is very successful... for WB show. Arrow may have a firmer grisp on its viewers, but it's grabbing for a smaller piece of the pie. I'd love to see the most ridiculous comic nonsense featured, myself. "That's not Frank Castle, that's... some kind of... Franken-Castle!" But that's what the show is going to be about and I'm willing to just take it for what it is. It's not grand TV, but it's fine and fun enough for me to keep up for now and see if it has sharper hooks in the future.
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# ? Oct 21, 2013 21:27 |
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ToastyPotato posted:The problem people are having is that there is not really any valid explanation for why the comic material SHOULD be sparse and that the show so far seems to be going out of its way to avoid comic material, such as refusing to just admit that the secret big bad guys this season are either AIM, Hydra, or both. We've been introduced to both organizations in the movies already, so it is kind of stupid that they are avoiding using them so far, while dangling this "where is this mysterious supertech coming from, who could possibly be behind this?!" plot thread in front of the viewers in almost every episode aside from the Graviton one (which quickly defused AIM speculation by introducing a character who does not seem to be affiliated with AIM or Hydra as the source for THAT episode's super science funding group.) Hydra are literally Nazis it'd be a bit hard to justify a main character being recruited from an organization whose public face is effectively a Hitler's scientists fan club. I like Arrow fine, but I don't really get the point of naming a character Tommy Merlin or Speedy when they have nothing in common with comic character of that name. I think Arrow is in far more danger of overreaching if it tries to introduce more fantastical comic book elements into it's mythos, when Flash and the superpowers start showing up it's going to really mess with the tone of the show.
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# ? Oct 22, 2013 03:26 |
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Hakkesshu posted:It's not bad, but it almost immediately squandered its own potential in favour of being as safe and inoffensive as possible. It hasn't even had time to reach its own potential. You want the show to do big things immediately, but big things don't have much impact when you barely know the characters involved. Whedon shows, as mentioned before, tend to be a slow burn at the start but the later payoffs are much better for it. Also, how is the show being 'safe and inoffensive'? It isn't supposed to be Law and Order: SVU.
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# ? Oct 22, 2013 04:28 |
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DynamicSloth posted:I like Arrow fine, but I don't really get the point of naming a character Tommy Merlin or Speedy when they have nothing in common with comic character of that name. The point of naming him Tommy Merlyn is so that he can be related to that other Merlyn.
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# ? Oct 22, 2013 04:36 |
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jscolon2.0 posted:The point of naming him Tommy Merlyn is so that he can be related to that other Merlyn. It was also a red herring as everyone thought that Tommy was going to turn into a villain like Smallville, but they turned it on its head with Barrowman Also they named her Speedy and gave her a drug habit, as there have been other Speedys.
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# ? Oct 22, 2013 04:42 |
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# ? May 4, 2024 16:37 |
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Regarding SHIELD, it's a matter of balance. Surely it should be possible to find a middle ground between the two extremes of "every character/thing the agents encounter is something recognizable from the original Marvel Universe" and "nothing but original characters plus references to/recycled plot points from the previous MCU films. More broadly, it should also be possible to find a workable middle ground between having some wildly fantastic element like alternate dimensions/evil sorcerers/lost ancient civilizations with incredibly advanced technology/aliens secretly living on Earth in every episode, and feeling like it's set in a universe where almost none of those things could exist.* But it hasn't found either yet. *Based on interviews with the crew, this is in large part because those elements haven't been established firmly or at all in the MCU films yet, but that just means that this show may have launched a year or two too early to be allowed to fully realize its potential. Actually, SHIELD has arguably skewed MCU continuity a bit to make its universe more mundane than it ought to be; it's been largely written with the implication, most explicit in Skye's opening monologue and Hill's speech in the pilot, that the general public wasn't aware of the existence of superhumans until Avengers, which makes little sense given events in Thor, Captain America, and (especially) The Incredible Hulk.
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# ? Oct 22, 2013 05:08 |