Marvel ramblings: Hail Hydra!

Some randomish bits of crazy talk in the wake of CAPTAIN AMERICA: WINTER SOLDIER and AGENTS OF SHIELD: Turn, Turn, Turn.

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Garrett/Clairvoyant: Hail Hydra? Yeah, yeah, whatev…

I hope/don't yet believe that the Clairvoyant is just a Hydra lieutenant. I stand by my theory that the CV is someone who's been involved in all parts of the SHIELD turducken, but only for his own goals. Even if Ward were free to express his own independent thoughts, he wouldn't need to "Hail Hydra" because that's not to whom he'd pledge his allegiance (extorted or freely given). His allegiance is to Garrett, who has so far enjoyed being taken for the CV. When SHIELD agents storm the room he and Coulson's team are in, he calls out Sitwell's recruits with a "Hail Hydra" out of convenience more than loyalty. He explains as much when he describes how he turned his sails.

I'm finding it less likely that Garrett has had access to the Insight Algorithm now. I was hoping that the CV would have stolen/duped a beta of the algorithm for personal gain and planned out most if not all of SHIELD's confrontations with Centipede. Now it seems that he's a gifted button-pusher and strategist whose taken genius-level advantage of the SHIELD's HR department's files.

Which, incidentally, are now out in the open, thanks to the events of WINTER SOLDIER, no? I'm gonna not go out on a limb here and say that Fury's super fancy secure tip top secret files were not released (Coulson's recovery, GH-325, among others), tho. So, Avengers Initiative files? Perhaps a seed for something like a Young Avengers team? The Index? Which could be tapped for super-skilled and super-abilified human resources for good and evil, no? Skye's history? Weapons designs? Project Pegasus? What else?

So, what IS Garrett's/the CV's motivation? Survival? Being on the winning side?

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Hail Hydra: Ward?

Can Ward be a double agent? We're meant to understand that he killed all those SHIELD/Hydra guys in the corridor while Skye was hiding, right? He eyed that knife on the floor, got to it, used it.

Hrm… Any chance he's kept a sliver of the Berserker staff in his utility belt?

I've got two possibilities:

1. He's under Centipede-tech remote control, like Deathlok. He could've been implanted before or early in his tenure as part of Coulson's team, without his knowing. Not sure where that would've been likely in show continuity, but I'm sure there's a gap where it could happen. The connection might not have been activated for control until more recent events, and until then used for passive intel gathering. This certinaly fits into an explanation of his shooting Thomas Nash, the prop CV. He finds himself pointing his weapon directly at the man who's been manipulating him by remote for days, weeks, maybe months. What can Nash possibly do to Ward or anyone/anything Ward cares about (leverage) before he shoots and kills him? Nothing. Maybe there were even remote commands like "PLAY ALONG AND TAKE ME INTO CUSTODY," "ALL ACCORDING TO PLAN," playing in Ward's eyes. But Ward's doing that bullet math, and when Nash's mechanical voice starts explaining what will happen to Skye, he carries the one and fires. F it. At this point, the real CV would stop transmitting to Ward's implant. So, Ward would still have the hardware in his head, but see no more commands and believe that he's truly free and the CV is dead. Until it's revealed that he shot the wrong man, that is. New commands would have appeared in his HUD when Hand gives him the opportunity to execute Garrett. And, if that IS what happened, then the CV is still transmitting, which means that the CV can't be cuffed and restrained Garrett, right?

2. This is kind of a romantic notion, but he's legitimately in man-love with Garrett. He's not a Hydra agent, he's a Garrett agent. Garrett's training was such that he instilled unquestioning loyalty and respect in his agents. Ward believes in the man. If he's doing something that appears shady, he's doing it for the right reasons. Yeah, definitely a tough sell given that Garrett was involved in activity that led to Coulson's torture and Skye's near-death, but how's Ward been sold to us since the show began? The good soldier, the specialist, the guy who makes the tough calls in the field.

Frack, just came up with a third possibility…

3. What if Ward agreed to be implanted and it's to receive commands from Coulson. In this scenario, Coulson suspected Garrett, or someone close, early on, and had Fitz-Simmons implant him (w Skye's help?). So, when he turns on Hand to save Garrett, he's acting on orders given by Coulson. AND, his sidearm would've been replaced with something that wouldn't kill his targets, but make it appear he did. AND and, the drive with all the data from The Bus that Ward is carrying is a decoy with false or corrupted data.

Crazy talk?

Maybe. But I like it. =)

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Hail Hydra: Heads or limbs?

I love that Garrett and Coulson have that little back and forth about the Hydra oath, Garrett thinking that it's "Cut off a limb…" but Coulson certain that it's "Cut off a head…" From what I think I remember from my Steranko NICK FURY reprints ("Dark Moon Rise, Heck Hound Hurt" anyone? =) and forward is "limb" but yeah, in the Marvel Movie Universe so far, it's been "head." I never thought twice about the "limb" in the comics, as that works scientifically (and graphically, for when agents do that Vishnu-looking pantomime standing behind one another) in reference to the microbiological hydra. The image of a gooey microscopic organism with tentacles around its mouth doesn't seem very romantic or inspirational, tho, does it? But in the comics, they pulled it off, and it fairly described the organism's actual structure. "Head," however, evokes the mythical Hydra. Much more awe-inspiring, no? And that dude was about being multi-headed.

You can see the legacy of the change in the design of the Hydra sigil. The figure is more Cthulu than Hydra, a (red) skull with tentacles below it rather than a body with multiple heads.

I wonder if the Garrett-Coulson exchange is a pet peeve of any of the writers, heh. In any case, I appreciated the in-story wink and nod to the comic book organization.

Heh. Would be awesome if AGENTS OF SHIELD encountered a, like, 5-agent rogue Hydra group that split off over the oath. =)

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GH-325.

A drug/extract refined from the chemistry of an extraterrestrial (perhaps extradimensional) being, a blue-skinned being whose remains were held in some kind of stasis in a lab marked T.A.H.I.T.I. at an off-the-books SHIELD facility known as The Guest House. The Guest House has been destroyed. I'd love for the being to have slipped thru a portal between worlds to Earth, but at this point, I'm thinking we've got to go with alien, and if it's a blue-skinned alien in the Marvel Universe, it's got to be Kree.

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084: Skye.

Skye was an 084 before she was injected w GH-325 to save her life. The search for her origin revealed that her parents were killed, but we never get names for them, nor any mention of their species (which in most any other TV show context would not be conspicuous =). The simplest, most basic details are given: she was orphaned, her parents killed or found dead. Now, let's add a few details…

In the wake of a massive energy discharge, SHIELD agents were sent in to investigate the source. At the epicenter of the phenomenon they found the baby who would be called Skye. Her parents were found nearby, killed by gunfire. One was human, the other, unknown. They were in front of a structure built to camouflage the wreckage of a spacecraft. The bodies of armed operatives in bright yellow hazmat suits were found surrounding them. Heh.

In the Marvel Comics Universe, the Kree are either pink- or blue-skinned. I'm not certain of the differences between them besides color, but both are capable of mating with non-Kree species. The Kree Empire has a history of mucking about with the genetics of other races (including Human), effectively producing Kree hybrids with unusual abilities/characteristics. This is what Skye is. A child of love and/or science, we can't know just yet, but I'm a sucker for the stranded alien/alien spy scenario, y'know? An extraterrestrial finds itself in dire straits on Earth. Stranded (or if a spy, assigned to gather intel), it learns Earthican ways and eventually falls for humanity in general and one human in particular, and decides to make a home and a family here. But someone notices, human scientists and military or alien superiors and military.

This partially explains why Coulson's physical reaction to the GH-325 was so violently different from Skye's. I say "partially" cuz—HelLO!—he was frickin dead, everybody, remember? Hrm… I wonder when in the series of surgeries and whatnot was the GH-325 administered to Coulson.

But you know, aside from the resurrection deal, Skye's Kree-Human hybrid genetics accepted the GH-325 whereas Coulson's simply Human flesh tried to reject it.

Hey, what if GH is Skye's father? Wack!

Are the healing effects of GH-325 one-time or forever? It seems like forever, as Simmons seems to believe that Skye's blood may be the key to healing others. Coulson's tests earlier in the season revealed that he was in tip top human shape, but nothing more than that, right? No evidence of a healing factor?

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Artificial Intelligence: JARVIS.

JARVIS is the first we've encountered in the Marvel Movie Universe. Built with personality, but with no indication thus far of true sentience. No independent desires or preferences save what Stark has programmed to exhibit. Back when there was no sign of a Hank Pym in the MMU, I thought that a JARVIS on board one of Stark's remote IM suits might have a comic book moment (cosmic ray exposure, hostile takeover malfunction, interception by a ghost or alien intelligence) and become sentient and ultimately become Ultron.

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Artificial Intelligence: Arnim Zola.

Arnim Zola was a living human being until his mind was backed up onto millions of miles of magnetic tape. He now exists as a disembodied electronic consciousness. Presumably once the transfer was made, his body died, but we do not know that for a fact. Leaves the possibility open for the electronic Zola to be a copy of an original that might be maintained by some kind of stasis or life support, eh?

I think it's safe to assume that as technology progressed, so did his storage media. If SHIELD/Hydra was smart, they'd do everything possible to keep Zola isolated and unconnected to ARPAnet and the present day internet. Perhaps he was contained in such a way on the Lemurian Star? Hrm… But what about his coordination with the SHIELD missile launch on the bunker? I guess that could've been analog, a radio signal or voice line, but not a data line.

Maybe there are limits to what a human consciousness can do digitally, and Zola *does* have access to the internet, but can't be everywhere and see everything and maintain his scheming genius self.

What WAS that Zola that addressed Steve and Natasha in the SSR bunker? Was that a Zola "agent" or drone code that the master Zola (on the Lemurian Star) embedded in the data that Natasha duped? She described the data as protected by an intelligent encryption, right? So, once the drive was plugged into the bunker machines, it unpacked itself into a (nearly) full version of the original and did what it did.

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Loki's Sceptre.

Quite an oversight by Thor and Asgard, taking the Tesseract back to Odin's Vault, but leaving behind the Sceptre, which *somehow* holds a portion of the Tesseract's energy. So far, I believe it's been established by demonstration that the Tesseract generates energy and creates stable wormholes. Regarding the Sceptre, on the energy front, it's a fraction of the "Cosmic Cube's," but a fraction of the infinite is still infinite, right? I imagine it would do a more than decent job of powering up those WW2-era Hydra weapons and any new models based on that tech.

On the wormhole front, well, the Sceptre allowed Loki to be transported thru an unregulated wormhole created in Project Pegasus. It also allowed Loki to communicate and interact with Chitauri across galactic(?) distances, something resembling astral projection.

The Sceptre, in Loki's hands, at least, also demonstrated an ability to corrupt and control those touched by it. Perhaps the effect is dependent on the wielder, tho? If Cap had used the Sceptre on anyone, perhaps their most selfless and all-American qualities and desires would come to the forefront of their personality. It would still be imposed behavior mod, but—hey!—as long as it's for the greater good, right, Cap? Oh, right, forgot about WINTER SOLDIER's that whole freedom vs. security thing. My badd.

Well, in any case, Strucker and Hydra have a fraction of the infinite to play with. What do you suppose the Baron would do with such a resource? SATAN CLAW anyone? Highly impractical, but pretty frickin iconic, right?

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Keep on keepin on~

AGENTS OF SHIELD: The Clairvoyant: Hail Hydra?

Some more rambling on the Clairvoyant, incorporating some events and intel revealed in CAPTAIN AMERICA: WINTER SOLDIER.

]]] WINTER SOLDIER SPOILERS FOLLOW [[[

Let's say Clair Voyant, aka CV, is a SHIELD agent who's been recruited by Hydra. Let's say CV moved up the ranks of both organizations, to a level high enough to gain access to Zola's work, specifically the Insight Algorithm, perhaps an Alpha or Beta, y'know? Not in its ultimate, Hydra-ted form. CV sees a way to exploit the Algorithm for his own personal agenda, copies/steals it, and begins using it to plan and predict. The first thing CV would do would be to hide himself from both sides. How? Modifying his SHIELD file to project a competent, loyal, sufficiently high-level, but not trouble-making operative, basically painting the picture of a successful but forgettable drone.

What agenda?

I like the Clairvoyant as having a personal stake and/or a high ideal as the drive behind his clandestine machinations. On the surface, it seems like CV's operations, aka Centipede, are focused on the development and acquisition of exotic weaponry. I don't think we've seen that weaponry applied in the support of a particular ideology, right? Seems mostly like an arms dealer on the surface, traveling in the same circles as alien tech scavengers and exiled cybercriminals, right?

Not very satisfying to me, but that might be enough. Especially as a til-now-phantom-like third party in the SHIELD-Hydra dynamic. A mercenary villain, building an enhanced mercenary army for hire.

Wow. Can you imagine Hydra getting SHIELD on the ropes at some point in the WINTER SOLDIER struggle and Coulson cutting a deal with the Clairvoyant to *hire* his forces to help SHIELD? And maybe Hydra counters, but CV sticks w Coulson, as he can be trusted while Hydra certainly cannot.

What if CV tweaked Insight to do more than hide himself, but also cripple Hydra, perhaps out of philosophical disagreement? That would be a nice touch. Like when the mob turns its Tommy Guns on the Nazis instead of the cops, cuz, F that—Nazis! Y'know?

So, on the surface, Centipede looks like an exotic arms developer and dealer and super army for hire. But what does the Clairvoyant really want out of this? What end would this be a means to? Well, it's the creation of a force that can stand toe-to-toe with SHIELD and perhaps Avengers. I've gone on quite a bit about my wild hopes that there is time or dimensional travel involved, that the Clairvoyant doesn't just have SHIELD files from the present, but from the future as well. Well, the algorithm renders that unnecessary. So, maybe CV has used the algorithm and discovered an imminent Earthican catastrophe—Insight itself? The rise of a supervillain or superpowered force? The age of Ultron?—and created Centipede as a pre-emptive strike or defense against it. Or as a force against which SHIELD (and Hydra?) can be tempered and strengthened, to better face this coming apocalypse.

I say Earthican because the algorithm operates on recorded personal history and data, and we can assume that CV would only have access to human information…

Or can we? What if CV is an extraterrestrial, or has access to extraterrestrial data? Perhaps the algorithm, applied to an ET-net, revealed that another battle in the higher form of war is going to take place on Earth soon and in his way is helping to arm and prepare the adorable Earthicans.

Would be a nice comic booky "Humans Number One!" to have a mad Earthling scientist develop something like the algorithm that no one's seen applied in the rest of the galaxy. Hari Seldon's psychohistory, anyone?

Or, we go back to one of my old theories that doesn't require ET data or the algorithm, but simply Nick Fury's do-what-has-to-be-done-to-protect-humanity directive. SHIELD as the world knows it is too massive (so massive that it's unwittingly become home to Hydra as well) and transparent (compartmentalized, sure, but everything is logged somewhere) to do the dirty work needed to properly defend the Earth in a higher form of war. So, Nick sets up an independent rogue op, completely disavowed and unconnected to SHIELD, to develop weapons and soldiers in the wild, to fund itself any way it needs to, and then to get big enough that it has to lock horns with SHIELD, and in that conflict, SHIELD gets smarter, stronger, and when it wins, acquires weapons that it would otherwise have been unable (read also as unallowed) to ethically and safely develop on its own.

Keep on keepin on~

WINTER AGENTS: syncing up CAP2 and AOS redux ramble

Then again…

How about we try this without being so impatient? Not as much fun, but we do have most of half a season to go, right? =)

]]] WINTER SOLDIER SPOILERS (and the usual crazy talk) FOLLOW [[[

In AGENTS OF SHIELD: End of the Beginning… Before Victoria Hand returns to The Hub, she relays that Agent Sitwell is to report to the Lemurian Star. This is the SHIELD barge that Cap and the Widow are sent to free from Batroc and his pirate mercs (enlisted by Nick Fury). This doesn't necessarily mean that Batroc strikes immediately on Sitwell's arriving at the Star. He may have been there for days or even weeks before he's taken hostage.

Although… In WINTER SOLDER, we *do* get the apparently superfluous information that the Star has been held by the pirates for 93 hours when Cap and Nat are brought in, right? That's almost four days of time that begins sometime after Sitwell arrives. How much time do we think passes in the course of the events of "End of the Beginning?" Could it have been four days?

*Maybe.* But if AGENTS OF SHIELD needs more time for Agents-vs-Clairvoyant to play out before Fury's apparent death, they can write it in easily enough. Just extend Sitwell's time on the Lemurian Star before Batroc takes the ship. So, if it "helps," everything that happens in last week's episode happens BEFORE Cap, Nat, and the Strike Team board the Lemurian Star. That potentially opens up weeks in the AGENTS timeline before SHIELD has to be dissolved. Coulson may have a chance to speak to Fury before his death, and with Insight and Hydra on his mind, he would definitely clue Coulson into a contingency plan/mission.

Actually, going along with the notion that May is reporting to Fury, let's take her report to Coulson that Fury has returned (from wherever/whatever) as legit. Assuming that Nick hasn't been dodging Coulson specifically (which is what it's seemed like from within AGENTS), that would have happened *before* Cap meets Nick in WINTER SOLDIER, right? That by itself significantly extends the amount of time between the events of "End of the Beginning" and WINTER SOLDIER.

Are we gonna let AGENTS OF SHIELD get away with no mention of Insight's satellites? The three carriers, well, okay. Let's say they're ultra super top secret. Altho launching them from the heart of D.C. seems counter-intelligent, no? Okay, okay, fine. Let's say that despite the fact that everyone in the Triskellion seems to know about Insight, it's been compartmentalized tightly enough that none of our AGENTS would know about it and discuss, refer to, or gossip about it.

Hrm… All of SHIELD's files were released to the interwebs. That means the Index and Skye's history are Out There, right? Hrm…

There's no need to bring Hydra into AGENTS, altho it would certainly be cool and bold. As I keep saying, for me, Clairvoyant ≠ Hydra. Way more interesting for me if they do bring Hydra in as an enemy of the Clairvoyant as well. Hrm… 

What if the multiple choice options for "To whom is Agent May reporting?" are actually…?

1. Nick Fury - SHIELD
2. The Clairvoyant - Centipede
3. Hydra - SHIELD

Answer 3 would be frickin cool. Hell, what if Victoria Hand is Hydra and she wants to quash the Clairvoyant as badly as Coulson and co? Which way would the "enemy of my enemy is my friend" dynamic swing things in that scenario, eh? Agents + Centipede vs. Hydra? Or Agents vs. Hydra vs. Centipede?

Hrm… You know what. For the Clairvoyant's prop gambit to work, Thomas Nash could not be allowed to survive as a prisoner of SHIELD. If Ward truly did fire because of emotional duress or whatever, someone else in the room was ready to do the job. Or Nash would somehow have to appear to provoke an attack. Altho… Frack. I guess the Clairvoyant would be able to push anyone's and everyone's buttons in that room in order to get that desired result. For whatever reason, probably to screw w Coulson's team, Clair chose Ward for the job.

Try to forget about the Clairvoyant. If Hydra does wrap a tentacle head around AGENTS, who would be the most likely target for Hydra recruiting? I kind of like Fitz for that. Agent May, sure. She's been thru hell for SHIELD and as a result might be susceptible to the right pitch from Hydra. But Fitz! C'mon, that would be way more fun! It's played for comic relief, but you see the flashes of resentment and superiority beneath his nerdy Brit surface, don't you? He might be science-nerdy enough to appreciate the Hydra philosophy as something elegant, or perhaps something incredibly naive but convenient. Man, that would be Something. =)

Curious. Hand is quite insistent on having Simmons join her at The Hub, ostensibly to brief her agents as SHIELD's expert on Deathlok. Nah. Simmons couldn't be Hydra w Hand. If Hand wants Simmons at The Hub, it's because she/the Clairvoyant is counting on her bringing Skye's blood sample with her for study.

Compartmentalize the information. Skye's double blind protocol. Could be an illustration of Agent May's situation, believing she's working for Fury, but actually reporting to someone else?

Okay, am I totally arguing w myself now? *sigh* Allright, enough w the crazy talk…

…for now. =)

To address what I originally meant to walk thru…

The next eps of AGENTS OF SHIELD could be playing out before or during the events of WINTER SOLDIER. I *want* it to be during, with Fury's return (announced by May in "End of the Beginning") marking the completion of some off-the-grid counter-intel work (investigating Hydra corruption and setting up Batroc's Starjacking). I want for Centipede to be distinct from Hydra. I'd love for there to be a three-way battle/struggle.

And I'd really like for Nick Fury to be "wearing" Victoria Hand's eye to gain Alpha-level access to SHIELD's files at the end of WINTER SOLDIER. =)

Keep on keepin on~

AGENTS OF SHIELD: GH-325?

Some scattin' on the "GH" in GH-325. Most are tweets from the night the episode aired. Note that when I first saw the episode, I wasn't sure if the specimen's skin/surface color was actually blue or tinted blue by lighting and the cryo tube. Since then, Coulson has described the creature as "blue" on the show.

GH-325 Infinity Formula? Super Soldier Serum? Captain America blood? Wolverine blood? Red Skull blood?
Is GH actually blue-skinned? Tint from cryo tube/suspension? Centaurian (Yondu)? Kree (Ronan)? Frost Giant? G for Giant?
GH… George Harrison? =)
GH… G for Gilgamesh? aka Forgotten One. Eternals, anyone?
GH… Maybe it's where the being was found/recovered? Ghana?
GH… Glenn Hughes? =)
GH… Green Hantern? =)
GH… Gamma Hydra? Heh. A star, but man, look at those words in Marvel light, right? =)
GH… H for hormone? Harvest (as in organs)? Humanoid?
GH… GREY HULK?! A secret history 1960s gamma bomb test survivor who ultimately died or had to be put down?
GH… H for "Hala?"

I really like G for "Giant" and H for "Hala." Unfortunately, those would be mutually exclusive. G for Giant as in Frost Giant would be a great fit as collateral damage from the portals created during THOR 2. H for Hala as in the Kree homeworld would be kind of perfect because Coulson reacted violently to GH-325 treatment while Skye (a "natural" 084) took to it rather easily, indicating that Skye has Kree blood in her. I'm pretty certain that blue and pink cree are NOT different species, so a pink Kree Skye should be able to accept a transfusion of blue Kree chemistry. Hrm… Might be an indicator of Kree genetic manipulation as well, eh? Inhuman Skye?

Would be an interesting way to introduce mutants into the MMU without "mutants." Having the Kree genetically tinkering with human stock over millennia, resulting in something along the lines of the recent Inhumanity phenom in the MCU.

What about T.A.H.I.T.I.?

They're all happier in the ice?

Geep hon geepin hon~

WINTER AGENTS: syncing up CAP2 and AOS…

I made some connections between AGENTS and WINTER SOLDIER when doing my post-movie debrief ramble, but let me try and think it thru in more detail…

]]] WINTER SOLDIER SPOILERS (and the usual crazy talk) FOLLOW [[[

(Note that this is based on the assumption that events of AGENTS and SOLDIER sync up as soon as possible. Here's a ramble that allows for more time.)

In AGENTS OF SHIELD: End of the Beginning… Before Victoria Hand returns to The Hub, she relays that Agent Sitwell is to report to the Lemurian Star. This is the SHIELD barge that Cap and the Widow are sent to free from Batroc and his pirate mercs (enlisted by Nick Fury).

In AGENTS OF SHIELD: End of the Beginning… May relays to Coulson that Fury is back on the grid. He can contact him to discuss his problem/s. Not sure where this falls in relation to WINTER SOLDIER, but there's definitely no news of Fury's death/assassination in the episode, so it must be before Fury's shot.

In AGENTS OF SHIELD: End of the Beginning… Fitz attempts to set up a secure hard line between The Bus and Simmons at The Hub. He succeeds in getting a broken signal, and while he's working on it, Simmons explains that there's a sudden burst of activity, that a group of agents have stormed the situation room. I *thought* this would have lined up with Steve Rogers's outing of the Hydra tendrils in SHIELD, but none of the Agents have heard about Fury's assassination, right? So, this must be early in the course of WINTER SOLDIER. Perhaps it's a reaction to Fury's assassination/death, which happened at 2am or so, D.C. time, I think? When Fitz cuts May's line, perhaps he cut all comms on The Bus? In any case, in the minutes following that, everyone on The Bus is engaged in gunpointing and doubletalking, right? No time to acknowledge a message from the Triskelion about Fury's death.

In AGENTS OF SHIELD: End of the Beginning… Fitz does a wonderfully lame job of talking his way out of the cockpit and mentions their imminent landing at the Triskelion (to deliver Ward). Perhaps the course change that The Bus makes—a flying U-turn—is made remotely, or pre-programmed and triggered, as part a Nicholas Fury contingency plan: if things get messy (i.e. I have to fake my death) get Coulson and his team as far away from Hydra/SHIELD as possible. Perhaps The Bus and Coulson's team is MMU Fury's Secret Warriors, his answer to a Hydra-corrupted SHIELD, outfitted with last generation equipment (which might make them safe from certain modern technological vulnerabilities) and an eclectic mix of operatives and specialties, including two 084s (one natural—Skye, one man made—Coulson) and their highly skilled watcher (Agent May, reporting to Fury).

In AGENTS OF SHIELD: End of the Beginning… Victoria Hand at The Hub issues orders to bring down that plane (The Bus) and kill everyone on board except Agent Coulson. Hrm... No interest in Skye? Perhaps because she already has her blood at The Hub, thanks to Simmons. The latest this could be in the events of WINTER SOLDIER would have to be Fury's death. Hand would not show her hand as a Hydra minion yet, but maybe The Hub has been strategically staffed with Hydra, and Hand doesn't need to take over by force. But—SOMETHING happened that Simmons mentioned over the static-y secure line… Perhaps Hand, directed by Pierce, used the Fury assassination as pretense to apprehend potential troublemakers, which would include all of Coulson's team. Not sure if I remember enough to piece together a decent string of logic to explain that, tho. Is there a way to connect the dots from Wade killing the supposed Clairvoyant (Dourif) to Fury's assassination by an unknown/ghost (Winter Soldier).

So, the next chunk of this season of AGENTS OF SHIELD plays out in the course of the second two-thirds or so of WINTER SOLDIER, after Fury's assassination. In the epilogue of the season finale, I hope to see Coulson speaking loudly and clearly, knowingly at Fury's grave (the place that Cap is supposed to send anyone who wants to see Nick), as we pop thru the headstone's surveillance camera and monitor to see Nick watching, listening, and grinning at Coulson's report from some unlikely safe house. Maybe across the street from Cap? An office in Stark Tower? Working a food truck? Renting a room at Aunt May's? Heh.

Oh—I know! Coulson shows up at Fury's grave to drop off the objective of his final mission as a SHIELD agent: the eyeball of Victoria Hand. For Nick to have inserted into his socket before returning to the Triskelion near the end of WINTER SOLDIER. =)

I know it looks like Victoria could be Clair Voyant, but I'd really like for her to be yet another link in the chain.

And, I'd still like for Centipede and the Clairvoyant to be something separate from cut-off-one-head-two-more-shall-take-its-place Hydra. Perhaps the Clairvoyant went double-rogue, lifted Zola's algorithm for a specific, not as high-minded as forcing freedom on the thankless masses purpose, but what? Making lots of money via exotic weaponry? Seems kind of lame and base to me. Gotta be something bigger and better. Maybe the exotic weaponry is means to a more personal end.

I want it to be personal somehow. Involvement of time or dimensional travel a bonus. =)

Maybe it's to take down SHIELD and Hydra for something they did to the Clairvoyant? Or *will* do?

I want the Agents vs. Clair + Centipede to outlast the mothballing of SHIELD.

Hrm… AIM, anyone? =)

Oh, and cuz I haven't said enough crazy but totally likely stuff yet this post… Is Skye Spider-Woman? Or Ms. Marvel? Kree flesh wouldn't reject Kree chemistry the way human chemistry would, right? We've been told that her parents died, but we were never told they were human, right?

RE: Dourif as the Clairvoyant prop. Man! That was some lovely wonderful brilliant casting and yarn spinning! Casting Bard Dourif and not hiding it (having his name, plain as can be, in the opening credits) was a stroke of simple genius.

Brad Dourif? O man, he's *totally* the Clairvoyant! Why else would you get Brad Dourif? I'll bet I'm the 167th to tweet it, too! Duh, Internet!

But hey, not only is this the Marvel Universe, but a chunk of the Whedonverse, so think about it, people! Who's gonna take sweet, sugary convention, like casting Brad Dourif as your vile evildoer, and then punch you in the stomach while you're lapping it up?

But, y'know, in the supercoolest way possible? In the way to which you can only respond: thank you, sir, may I have another?

I'll tell you who: a Whedon. Or TWO, even! Nicely frickin done, MoJed. =)

Keep on keepin on~

AGENTS OF SHIELD: "The Magical Place"

A *SPOILER*ful ramble on events and theories inspired by the events of this episode. If you have not watched, turn back now!

First off, a great episode and such a great performance by Gregg of Coulson in a wide spectrum of distress, anger, and determination, all the while maintaining his Coulsonity. Coulsonitude. Coulsonicity? Did I miss or forget Fitz's transformation into Dark Fitz/Ward, Jr.? An interesting development, tho, seeing Fitz imprinting on Ward and Skye upon May, wardrobe-wise, at least. Would've liked to have seen more from this "thing we've never done before" with the seven drones/dwarfs in the opening bit.

The series of surgeries IS a bit of a let-down, but the visual was so spectacularly creepy that I do NOT mind. I'm also hoping that the tech involved will lead to some dark places—Zola? Hydra? Skull/Soviet Winter Soldier techniques?

Speaking of which… I think this notion of secrets kept for our own safety/security, aka "Trust the system," is going to continue to develop/unravel and lead into the world and story of WINTER SOLDIER. What would the logical fallout of a "who watches the watchmen" storyline be in the Marvel Universe now? Hrm… An objective artificial intelligence set up as an overseer of all covert and superhuman ops, perhaps?

Regarding the series of surgeries revelation. On one level, I think it's a smart solution/response to all the fan guessing/theorizing Out There. Deliver an explanation that can go to completely new places—perhaps a doctor Octavius or Pym or Connors or Strange was involved with those surgeries.  On another level, we're still dealing with cover stories and implanted memories. Who knows how many layers of those there may be? Perhaps Doc Book's own memories were edited to match what Coulson recalled via the machine, eh? This idea opens up the possibility of circling back to fan faves—LMD, Infinity Formula, TimeLord regeneration, or a Valhallan spirit returned to its resuscitated human body.

Had some more crazy flashes of insight regarding the Clairvoyant…

He sees DREAMS? If that's not just flowery prose from Raina, then we may be talking mystic. A mystic who doesn't like physical contact. Hrm… Would be interesting to bring Dr. Strange in as a consultant in AGENTS, but that's probably out of sync w some Marvel master plan, right?

Still, maybe it IS just flowery prose. I'd kind of prefer it, because I *really* want the Clairvoyant to be someone (preferably someone we've already met and know) who got zapped back to the past from a possible future. Either he was Level 8+ or he pocketed a SHIELD sports almanac and is taking advantage of every scrap of info to set up an anti-SHIELD force ("Trust the system"). Maybe he jumped back intentionally, to prevent some catastrophic event/mission gone wrong. Or maybe he fell back sometime during the events of DARK WORLD, sucked into a convergence portal.

I'm still waiting to see some significant follow-thru on DARK WORLD portal jumping and weird physics. Who's curbing that Jotunheim pooch?

He knows personal things about our man Coulson, but can't see into his mind/read his fate like he apparently can other people. Perhaps he's a Coulson from the future.

The revealed insistence by Nick Fury that Coulson be saved, even against his own spoken "Let me die!" wishes, got me thinking that Fury brought Coulson back out of more than sentimentality and friendship (altho those are bonus factors, no doubt), but because he either knows that Coulson lives to see some event or events in the future, or knows that the scientifically resurrected Coulson will prove the perfect soldier against this Clairvoyant. In either case, how would Fury know? Because HE is responsible for the Clairvoyant. And MAYbe, the Clairvoyant is a future Fury, zapped back in time via manipulation of Asgardian superscience (portal fun).

How much do we know about Coul (as in Coulson's dad)? Was he in intel? Military? And his mother? I was really hoping that he'd be revealed to be Skye's father (or mother, Agent Philomena? =). Now I'm worried and kind of dreading the possibility that Raina is her mother. She talked about using the machine and I know it's her M.O., but seemed to be very sympathetic to Coulson's situation, as if she could actually relate. Having had secrets kept from her by someone. Perhaps she was a SHIELD agent, had her daughter, but for some reason or other couldn't be allowed to keep/raise her, so she was retconned. The Clairvoyant at some point helped her regain that memory, which of course would easily turn her against all things SHIELD.

Who's this Van Chat guy? How many other guys are in his line of work?

Those raids on Centipede facilities/stations cannot be surprise to the Clairvoyant. They are at least acceptable losses or disposable. At best, they are part of a plan, perhaps to get Centipede agents held as prisoners in SHIELD facilities.

Does anyone think that Raina actually minds being taken to "SHIELD headquarters" (Hand's words, I believe)?

Allright, I could go on and on, and probably will, but not just now. =)

Keep on keepin on~

The Marvel Universe after THOR: THE DARK WORLD…

Saw THOR: THE DARK WORLD yesterday and enjoyed it mucho. A good story, a new/original (as far as my Marvel comics memory can recall) threat, and some great interaction between Thor and Loki. A very cool-looking and interesting movie-realization of the dark elves, particularly Malekith (a clever way to re-create the comic's version's harlequin appearance) and Kurse/Algrim, whom I first met under Simonson's watch. Better, funner writing than the first movie, and some great fun with wormholes. =)

That's as much as I'm gonna jot right now in the way of a "review." What I really want to get to before I forget anything are the epilogues…

Beware. What follows is a SPOILER-ful rambling on the epilogues of the second THOR film…

I was *really* hoping to get a tease of Coulson sucking down some mead and exchanging headbutts with Viking heroes in Valhalla, or haunting the wastes of Niffelheim, perhaps trying to get a message to one of the Asgardian warriors. Alas, no. But then, any Asgardian time of Coulson's should've been spent in the past compared to the timeline of this movie anyway. O well.

EPILOGUE 1.

We see Volstagg and Sif meet The Collector, played by Benicio Del Toro (! =), to deliver to him one of the Infinity Gems. Apparently Odin has decided that it is too dangerous to keep the gems of the Infinity Gauntlet in the same vault as the Tesseract. On the surface, good thinking, as Asgard and Odin's weapons vault have been compromised or nearly so twice within two years.

The Collector is an Elder of the Universe, one of the I-can't-remember-how-many longest lived beings in the cosmos, each of whom in their old age has become unofficial patron alien of some aspect of existence or another. The Collector collects. He prizes endangered and one-of-a-kind items or beings of the cosmos. In the comic book universe he maintains a world of various artificial environments that are homes to samples or the last of thousands of species. In the comic book universe, the Elders for a time were the keepers of the Infinity Gems and the Collector possessed the yellow Reality gem.

In the THOR epilogue, the case that contains the gem glows red from the inside. The red stone was identified in the comics as the Power gem. The Collector accepts the gem and remarks on the wise decision to separate the gems, from each other and the Tesseract, apparently. Once his guests have gone, the Collector says to himself, "One down… Five to go."

The container for the gem is a little confusing to me. If I didn't know about the Infinity Gems and Gauntlet, the case for the gem would appear to be a miniature version of the containment device that once held the Aether (two black stones/boxes, with the red glowing Aether permitted to radiate from a tight space between them). In the movie universe, is the an Infinity Gem meant to be made of Aether? Since we've already seen the Gauntlet in the vault in the first THOR movie, that really doesn't work for me. I'm pretty certain that Sif or Volstagg called it an "Infinity Gem" ("Infinity Stone?"), too, and referred to there being more than one. So, I think the visual, for the un-Marvel-initiated, might be confusing.

It *would* be kind of interesting to have the gems created or materialize over the course of several Marvel movies, tho, but that would require making them separate and distinct from the Infinity Gauntlet that cameo'd in the first THOR. Why bother, right?

And… The Collector knows there are five more. So yeah. Screw the Aether-as-gem notion. Just a not-very-well-thought-out (or maybe too-overthought on my part) visual design coincidence, right?

Kind of a reach, tacking this on to the end of this movie. I mean, there's no real plot connection between what happens in the film and the events of this epilogue. That's kinda disappointing, but maybe I guess it's just practical, and good use of a now-established channel for tipping fans off about activities that happen behind the scenes, y'know?

Bringing the Collector in sets off my GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY alarm. And for me, it also puts some more movie-time/distance between the present and an ultimate confrontation with Thanos and that is a Good Thing as far as I'm concerned. Thanos is one of The Biggest Bads, and throwing the Avengers and Guardians at him will be awesome, but best done after they've gone a few rounds with other bads (Ultron and the Elders).

EPILOGUE 2.

Thor beams in from Asgard to Jane Foster's apartment in London and they immediately smooch it up. Sorry, Sif.

Then, a cut to the abandoned shipping warehouse where the first Nine-Worlds-Conjunction wormholes appeared, shipping containers now stacked normally. A small flock of pigeons zips across the scene, followed by a bounding Asgardian beastie (I thought it came from Loki's homeland, the realm of the frost giants, Jotunheim, but not certain) chasing after them and trying to snap a few up in its jaw.

I suspect that the AGENTS OF SHIELD will end up being assigned clean-up on this little fella. Might be an opportunity to get more of the Coulson backstory if it is in fact entangled with an afterlife stay in Asgard.

Hrm… Another way to get the AGENTS more tightly woven to movie events would be to have them stumble upon one of the other Gems. Ohhh… The Soul Gem! That might be a final piece to a Coulson puzzle… OR a VISION puzzle! Wack!

How would they end up working a Gem case? An Asgardian delegation to one of the other Elders/Gem trustee might be intercepted or randomly attacked by enemies of Asgard, or perhaps the Centipede guys, or AIM or HYDRA. If they're capable of hacking SHIELD they might get some up-to-date intel that with some ESPer and Extremis help could give them the advantage of surprise in an attack on a couple of Asgardians in Midgard airspace, right? Anyhow, the Asgardians would smite them, but perhaps not without losing their package.

But to whom on Earth would Odin entrust such an object of power?

How about Doctor Strange? =)

Keep on keepin on~

* November 10, 2013. After a second screening, I found that I missed or misunderstood some of the dialogue in the first epilogue. For updated crazy talk based on a better understanding check out this post. The main of the error is that Volstagg (and the Marvel movie universe) take both the Aether and the Tesseract to be Infinity Stones. Note that it does not undo a lot of my more fun speculation here. =)

Son of Coul

Just want to get my meandering thoughts on a Coulson-Asgard connection down in one place before I see THOR 2 sometime this weekend, especially in light of the latest AGENTS OF SHIELD episode. And now… some crazy talk =)

In THE AVENGERS Coulson was speared by Loki, an Asgardian god. He died heroically. In Norse tradition, what happens to a hero when he dies? He is taken to Valhalla! Otherwise, if a Norseman dies an unremarkable death, he might end up in Niflheim (I'm not certain if that's the same as Hel?) he becomes the subject of Hela, Norse goddess of the dead and daughter, somehow, of Loki.

I (want to) believe the Coulson did in fact die from Loki's attack, but because he was killed by an Asgardian, Asgardian death/afterlife protocols rule, and he—or perhaps his soul—is sent to Valhalla or Hel. As Asgardians are not meant to be worshipped as gods anymore by humans, this is something of an unnatural happening, an automatic exploitation of a kind of death loophole, an error that needs to be corrected. And it wouldn't be just Coulson, but any human whose life was taken by Loki (collateral damage in Germany and NYC, along w some SHIELD and Project Pegasus agents).

On Asgard, Odin would be the first to detect this. Actually, he might not need to notice a disturbance in the Asgardian force to know that this has occurred. Remember, Odin's ravens were on Midgard watching everything during THE AVENGERS.

Of course, Hela would no doubt hide/not mention it to any of the other Asgardians, as Coulson would be the first new humans she's welcomed in a long time. On their natural deaths, these humans should be consigned to the afterlives of their belief systems, and not pressed into Hela's service by circumstance beyond their control.

On Earth, Coulson might appear to those he was closest to, as a waking vision *ominous music*, or in dreams. Who that would be that we've already met… Fury? Hill? Pepper? The cellist? May from AGENTS? Or maybe Thor, as the Asgardian with the most quality time w the man.

Perhaps Odin has a way by which these human souls can be returned to Earth, alive (meaning that when they're back on earth, they'd be able to visit their own graves with their actual dead bodies). So, Odin would dispatch Thor to confront Hela and seek their return.

If she is not cooperative, Thor would storm Hel—I'd love to see Cap and Iron Man join him, maybe Loki would be pressed into service as well—and rescue Coulson, along with all of the other humans wrongly killed by Loki in his attacks upon Midgard. Odin should probably wave his hands and close the loophole that allowed for this misfiling of deceased humans, too.

An adjustment to my original thinking, which had Coulson trapped in Hel, providing us with a reason/excuse to have Avengers and SHIELD storm Hela's domain and battle all manner of undead beasties… Now, I think that Odin detects humans in Hel and Thor and the Avengers assume that Coulson must be among them. Once they kick Hel's ass and collect all the human souls there, they find that he's not among them. It's then that Odin talks them thru the rules of the Norse afterlife, specifically, the death of a hero. And then Odin summons a valkyrie (What's Valkyrie's name?) to bring Coulson to them. He offers him the choice of staying or returning to Earth. Coulson explains, "I'm no hero. I'm just a man with a job to do. I'd like to get back to it."

And so, Thor and company and the rescued humans return to Midgard. The humans' memory of their time in Asgard quickly fades, perhaps as a result of Odin's magicks, perhaps in obedience to Asgardian law or the self-preservation of human sanity. Y'know, the usual convenient reasons. Coulson remembers his time as "magical" and is hypnotically or psychically made to believe that it was spent in Tahiti. To shore that up with actual memory, perhaps part of his recuperation time was actually spent there.

I think that the first season of AGENTS OF SHIELD is going to revisit Coulson's post-death time in Asgard. Maybe someone/something hitched a ride back with him—maybe something bad, the Red Skull, maybe something good, Captain Marvel? Perhaps he unwittingly did something that ties him to Asgard, a la Persephone and the pomegranate seeds, requiring him to return so many days each year. Or maybe it was part of the spell or bargain that had to be struck to allow him to return to Midgard as a human, putting him in service of Odin, or Karnilla, or even Hela herself.

Anyhow, they'll encounter some Asgard-related threat that will bring Coulson's after-life misadventure in "Tahiti" to the forefront.

What does Coulson know? He knows that he's different. He's had a medical workup done to see if he's physiologically different. However, nothing seems inconsistent with his expectations. But what would those expectations be? Proper diagnostics for an enhanced LMD (based on Phineas Horton's Human Torch android tech), or the healthy test results of a human being? 

What does everyone else think? May, Fury, and the SHIELD doc all seem to believe that Coulson is somehow not-Coulson. Little jokey remarks from Coulson himself seem to worry May that he may be aware that he's not fully human. The thing is (and the great thing for writing it is) that we don't know if Coulson is consciously teasing his colleagues (and us) or not.

The Coulson-in-Valhalla/Hel scenario can allow for him to return to Earth in his body, cuz hey! Asgardian superscience! However, I'd really really like for that to have been impossible, and that his soul could only return to Earth in a vessel of some sort. I'm thinking an LMD modified with Coulson's DNA for the organic bits. How much would Coulson love taking up residence in the original Human Torch's body, right? =)

Oh, wait. Okay.

Coulson is speared on the helicarrier. He dies.

Fury has his body taken to a secret lab on the carrier where his brain/memories/engrams/whatnot are recorded and saved and saved.

SHIELD docs then use his DNA to create an LMD clone of Coulson at the age of his death (reproducing all of his scars along the way). They then program the LMD's brain with Coulson's recording, adding the magical Tahiti placeholder after his spearing and death.

This is who's running the Agents of SHIELD team. A copy of Coulson. Which is kind of amazing, considering how human, humanely, and compassionately he's been behaving. It is NOT Coulson.

However, a trip to Asgard might allow for this LMD to become the *complete* Coulson, by superscientifically adding the fallen Coulson's ghost to the machinery.

And this artificial LMD body could be capable of harnessing tech and powers and abilities that a normal human body could not, like, let's say, producing and storing energy from solar radiation, the control of the density of its molecules, which would allow for flight, enhanced strength, and intangibility. Doubt it? Hey, did you see this week's ep of AGENTS? Hel-LO! The Chitauri virus does exactly that! Sure in a HUMAN body it ends up killing the host, but how about an LMD and/or the Torch's body? They're giving us the pieces to this puzzle. Coulson would then be The Vision.

Or, wait. No.

Coulson does make it back from Asgard/Valhalla/Hel, in an Odin Force-restored human body. LMD Coulson becomes The Vision. LMD Coulson joins the Avengers roster and human Coulson takes his place as leader of the Agents.

Kinda weird for the Agents, I know, but I like that we get to have both Coulson and Vision at the end of this. Which probably means it's too good to be true/happen.

*sigh*

I hope you enjoyed my crazy talk. =)

If you're interested, check out some earlier, related crazy talk…

Post-AVENGERS crazy talk

Post-AVENGERS crazy talk 2

Setting up for the next AVENGERS…

Keep on keepin on~

Setting up for the next AVENGERS...

Holy crap! Okay, can we say that Coulson died heroically?

Can we say that he died at Loki's hands?

Where do heroes go when they die, in Asgardian lore?

Valhalla!

It seems a stretch given that we don't see a lot of development in the relationship between Thor and Coulson, but there's definitely camaraderie and respect, right? Perhaps even something of a debt, as Coulson pulled strings to keep Jane Foster out of harm's way during AVENGERS...

It really seems that it's Iron Man/Stark who has the strongest relationship with Coulson, but maybe it's at his behest that Thor journeys in search of Coulson in the Asgardian afterlife. His death, while heroic, was brought about by his half-brother's machinations and meddling in Midgardian affairs. A Wrongful death. In order to right that, he would recover Coulson...

This could be part of the next IRON MAN and maybe all of the next THOR, in whichever order. Would be nice to have Stark get to tinker with some Asgardian magic/tech at the source, no? Or maybe get a look at Odin's vault, maybe be there when they discover that Loki has scarpered away with the Gauntlet, leaving behind some cheeky note... "Avenge this, pretty boys!"

Actually, I've got to rework this a bit. Maybe it's double wrong because instead of Valhalla, Coulson has been consigned to Hel. Why this would have happened...? Loki's magicks? The corruption of the spear? Bleah. I don't know, but I really want this to be the case because we need to have Hela introduced as a Big Bad in the solo movie/s before we reveal that SHE is the manipulating Death that Thanos courts!

=)

Keep on keepin on~

post-AVENGERS crazy talk

I'm just gonna unload about what I loved, was thinking, think now, about the movie (which I wish would never end) and generally scat and ramble about whatever comes to mind in the process, so *SPOILER ALERT!!!*

I *love* Coulson's fate. Everything about it. Not that it *should* be all he's known for, but it *is* Joss, so everyone's game, right? But, it's Marvel, so everyone's gotta make it to the next sequel or cross-over. But, it's Joss, so...

I *knew* that something like that, a horrible/wonderful death, a sacrifice, would happen, but I just didn't see it being Coulson. The math is perfect, of course, but I got swept up in all the awesome and was totally disarmed (which is really not a bad thing - I sometimes wish I could shut off my anticipating movie mind and watch like a 7 year-old (which is the age at which I first saw ALIEN - yeah, my mom's awesome =)) And done so well! Loki, doing his trickster thing and striking in his weaselly way, just when Coulson is at his most courageous and as-always-steadfast-and-subdued. And then, "So, *that's* what it does..."

Brought a tear to my eye.

I *like* the way Fury plays the Captain America trading cards. A hint of the Fury you see in Ultimate Marvel.

I *love* that Stark threw "Life Model Decoy" out there.

I *love* the banter. Each superguy sizing up the other. Setting them up one-against-all, and then in dyads, and in a melee, having the snarky remarks and put downs layer one on top of the other in different combinations... It was kind of musical.

And it only gets better once they've sized each other up and we see the mutual respect. The meeting of the minds in the lab - Tony, Bruce, and Steve - and the follow-up - Tony and Bruce getting the gamma detector up, but also hacking into SHIELD's encrypted whatnot, and Steve busting into the secure storage area on his own - played out wonderfully. Of course, it helped that they had a mutual enemy/challenge - Nick and "Phase 2" development of the Tesseract.

OH! I *love love* Coulson's final words. Or rather, what's left, sadly, unspoken. "They need something to..."

Sadness at the moment. Joy at the storytelling. *sigh*

A flash now - what if Coulson was an LMD? All the time? Or maybe just when he challenges Loki? Nah. I wouldn't put it past Nick, but it detracts from the power of his facing up to Loki and his passing.

I *love* the helicarrier. I honestly just didn't think of it ever sitting in the ocean and then taking off. Just didn't cross my mind. I don't remember if I've seen that in a comic book or not, but seeing it on the big screen was just FUN! And I already knew it was coming of course. There's a lot of goofy fuzzy memories associated w that hunk of junk that just can't stop getting knocked out of the sky. I mean, sure, it's frickin cool, but is a helicarrier PRACTICAL? Eh. Guess you focus on the cool, right?

What goofy fuzzy memories? Well, goofy fuzzy comic book memories. You know what I thought of when that was happening on screen? Godzilla. Yeah, Gozilla, King Of All Monsters. The GODZILLA comic book was where I first encountered S.H.I.E.L.D. and the helicarrier. Might've been my introduction to many of the Marvel superheroes, actually. Thor vs. the big G with the Empire State Building between them! =)

When they cut to the interior of the bridge right after take-off, when we see the giant curved glass windowframe, I thought of Romita, Jr.'s helicarrier from X-MEN, when Rogue takes a silver dollar (or is it a quarter? a Susan B.?) and chucks it, ballistically, thru the carrier's sensors. That was an eye-opening little trick for me when I read it.

Oh, one other goofy fuzzy memory, a reminder of a reminder of one. Seeing the helicarrier in the sky gave me a momentary flash to DOCTOR WHO and U.N.I.T.'s Valiant, which, when I saw it caused me to flash to S.H.I.E.L.D.'s helicarrier. Heh. That's the first time I've noticed that the two acronymtastic organizations have similar tastes in airborne command platforms.

I *love* the first epilogue. I would *never* have guessed that the next Big Bad for the Avengers would be the big T! Perfectly written (if a bit forced) dialogue for it, too. The Chitauri guy is like, "To challenge the humans is to court death." "Court death." That was the gimme, all of three seconds before the actual reveal, heh. Cuz who do we know who looooooooves Death, right? But hey, so... I *sort of* guessed that, tho, right? By the transitive property? Cuz if you've got Captain Marvel, you're gonna have Thanos! Right? Right? =)

But MAN, that is boxing above your weight class, isn't it? I was kind of amazed that this first Avengers movie went with the Chitauri (aka Ultimate Skrulls). Maybe I'm too conservative and cautious in my story-brewing. I mean, we've already been given magic and gods, right? If the audiences buy into that, let's hit them w the aliens right away, right?

But damn. Thanos. That's more like... AVENGERS 4, maybe? I mean, even if they build up to it in bits in IRON MANs and THORs, it'll be a leap to make it happen in A2. MAYbe A3. The Tesseract would be a worthy prize for Thanos if it could be shown to be Cosmic Cubey and reality-altering. But I suppose as "just" a portal-creating tesseract (assuming that teleportation is otherwise highly risky and nigh-impossible), it WOULD be valuable to cross interstellar gulfs and sacrifice billions of souls at a time to Death, right?

But, hey, the Tesseract isn't the only toy in Odin's chest, remember? I do believe the Infinity Gauntlet/Gems were in an Asgardian safety deposit box adjacent to the Casket Of Ancient Winters, or whatever they called it in THOR. But, damn! That is a *LOT* to introduce... I hope they don't rush it. Maybe they could throw a time traveler at the Avengers in a second movie and wait til the third for the Mad Titan. What time traveler, you ask? How about the Maestro? Or maybe Iron Man 2020? Or maybe Kang, who is trying to prevent the Avengers from ever forming, but in a J.J.Abrams-style-STAR TREK story, they *always* form. They are *FATED* to in timeline after timeline...

I *love love love love* the second epilogue! Shwarma! Maybe more than any other scene in the film, this feels like a Joss signature scene. Something that doesn't only develop characters, but brings you closer to them in an unexpected way. A joyful follow-thru. I'm guessing this is the scene that Robert Downey, Jr. boasted they were going to shoot after a press conference or convention panel. I heard today that the second epilogue was not part of the UK cut/release, so wow - they shot it and edited it in for this cut. Sweet and soooo worth it! =)

I *love* the Avengers prime battle in the Black Forest or wherever it was in Germany. Iron Man takes on Thor and Loki watches, amused, from afar. Then Cap steps in and, thanks to the vibranium-adamantium allow that Tony's father developed, and his augmented strength to some degree, he takes a blow from Thor's hammer. The impact of the irresistible force meeting the immovable object creats a shockwave that levels the forest around them. I was sure, in a superhero/action movie cliche model way, that we would see that move again in a crucial moment later in the film. However, I was disappointed and gratified that we did not. Disappointed because I would've been really happy to see it, but gratified because Joss and the film chose to buck the cliche and -I hope!- save the maneuver for the next AVENGERS, or maybe a Cap or Thor flick. Needs a name, a la "Fastball Special," but alas, the only one that springs to mind is "The Gong." Not very cool, but maybe its thuddishness will have an appeal delivered by one of the superheroes in the midst of battle? Hrmm... "Liberty Bell?" Of course, Iron Man could deliver the line/name snarkily and sell it.

I *missed* the significance of the gamma-rad detector alarm going off just when Hawkeye and co. blow Engine Number Three. From Banner's reaction to the readout, he seems to see that there must be a gamma radiation source right on top of the helicarrier, right? Something like, "Oh sh---!" And then Hawkeye's boom arrow blows. I was thinking that maybe Hawkeye had a device that might emit gamma as a way to induce the Hulk transformation against Banner's will. That would fit right in with Loki's strategy to use the Hulk, right? Loki's amusement at seeing Banner in his lab was a perfect setup for that. Just seeing his smile as he's escorted down that corridor says it all, really.

Loki's spear *seemed* to be responsible for relaying or emitting some Psycho-Man style emotional screw wave, causing all of the Avengers to bump egos and butt heads in its proximity, but that was never spelled out. Is there a logic to that, tho? The spear seems to channel a portion of the Tesseract's power, typically in destructive blasts, and presumably some limited sympathetic teleportation energy, in sync w the Tesseract proper. How does something like that mess with human/demi-god behavior?

Hrmm... Loki does use the spear to "possess" his minions, a la Hawkeye and Solweig. Is the emotional tweaking an extension of that? Was the spear Loki's to begin with (gotta re-watch THOR I guess)? As God of Mischief I'd be willing to grant him the ability to mess with human thoughts and emotions, but we never see him use such an ability in a direct way when it would benefit him.

So, there's no great logic to the spear messing with the Avengers' minds, even tho it certainly looks like that's what's happening.

I kind of like my gamma emitter theory better. Would also help explain how Hulk's first appearance was all about unfocused rage, but his second, Banner-willful one, is more directed.

I *rolled with* the Hulk being able to reign in his chaotic nature to focus on an actual battle. It totally works with the momentum of the film, and offers so many rewards in its execution, but I would have liked more of a set-up for it. An admission from Bruce that when he *chooses* to transform, it makes a difference. Or that Tony's pep talk about how each of their burdens is actually something that saved or saves them, and for something more and greater. A *truly* great comparison in the context of the Marvel movie universe. It reminded me of how I dug ULTIMATE HUMAN (Ultimate Hulk + Ultimate Iron Man) because it demonstrated how Hulk and Iron Man are manifestations of the same or similar pursuits - improving human beings. I honestly can't remember the details of the story now, but I liked that idea.

I *filled in* some stuff on my own in regards to Black Widow, post-Hulk attack. I think in contrast to every other situation she finds herself in, she has the least control of the scenario when facing the Hulk. The wallop he gives her that bounces her off some helicarrier machinery is a true shock to her system. The Hulk is raging at that point, and ready to vaporize her with his next blow, when Thor hits him and sends them both into another sector of the ship. Several minutes later, Fury radios that Hawkeye is heading for some part of the carrier, looking for agents to respond and intercept. We see Widow still in the same place the Hulk left her, closer to catatonic than her usual hyper-aware self. For me, her apparent state tells me that she's dealing with this brutal, horribly mismatched, defeat in a very bad and personal way. I think a lot of it is about control (compare to her intro scene with the three Russian arms dealers) but some may about guilt and what punishment she might think she deserves (the red in her book). In any case, I feel like I had to do some of the lifting to make that work for me. Did anyone else? Or am I reading more than is meant to be there? To really sell it, a couple of cuts to Natasha after Thor tackles Hulk and before she responds to Fury's radio message would've been good.

I still would've liked to have seen some SHIELD dossiers on other potential Avengers recruits. A "Peter Parker," a "Logan," a "Henry Pym."

Did they retcon the creation of the Hulk to make it a failed attempt at recreating the super soldier serum? Is that what the first two movies suggested? Frack. Really can't remember. Blerg.

Didn't love Miss HOW I MET YOUR MOTHER as Maria Hill, but then again, didn't hate her. Made a decent enough foil for Fury. Before she was addressed as Hill, I thought she might've been an Agent 13, Sharon Carter, but that's probably too soon for Cap, right? Maybe she'll get written into that role as Maria Hill, tho. She did seem to take eyebrows-raised notice of Rogers on the bridge, eh?

Allright, enough (otherwise known as way too much) for now. I'm gonna see it again tomorrow. =)

Keep on keepin on~