Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.

Superman views Metropolis 1939
DC Comics

Those of us that were kids in the age before cable television, video games and computers frequently relied on comic books and a vivid imagination to waste away the hours.  Some of the best comic books featured superheroes like Batman and Superman, arguably the first two superheroes.  

Over time there was the advent of sidekicks and with the arrival of multiple others with super powers, the logical next step was the development of teams of superheroes combating equal groups of super villans.  

There was “The Justice League,” “The Avengers,” “The X Men” and then, there was The Strategic Homeland Intervention Enforcement & Logistics Division, better known as S.H.I.E.L.D.

S.H.I.E.L.D.  is the fictional secret government agency created from the genius of Stan Lee for Marvel Comics.  This espionage agency, which manages the efforts of super heroes combating those bent on undermining peace, justice and the American way, is headed by Colonel Nicholas Joseph “Nick” Fury. Fury is the former World War II hero and former CIA operative.  He is non-aging and among other things as the Director of SHIELD, a recruiter of superheroes.

The Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.  ABC Promotional Photo

This fall a new television series premiered called “The Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.”   This old school comic book junkie was secretly thrilled to learn of this new series.  I envisioned weekly appearances from various superheroes and super villains performing various amazing feats in real world scenarios. 

I envisioned for example, Aqua man summoning a pod of Killer Whales to thwart a fleet of pirates off the coast of Africa preventing the hijacking a cruise ship with government VIPs on board.  Or maybe like the latest of the X-men movies was tied in to the Cuban Missile Crisis.  You get the general idea.  And with the magic of today’s CG (Computer Graphics) technology, I imagined it was all very do-able.

Then I saw the first episode of this new series.  Trying to give it the benefit of the doubt, I watched it again On Demand. The special effects were decent and the storyline wasn’t that bad either.  There was comic relief in abundance but, to the point It was really kind of hokey.  And none of the superheroes I was already familiar with made an appearance.  By the end of the second viewing, I felt I needed a shield to protect me from the extremely poor writing and worse acting.

To say the least, it was somewhat of a letdown.  If I were Siskel and Ebert, I’d cut off my thumbs and call it a day.  While I fully expect to watch it at least once more, unless there is a significant improvement in the next episode, I don’t anticipate this show surviving more than six weeks.  View at your own risk of intense boredom.