Review: What Happened to Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D?

It’s pretty clear that most of us were very excited for Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Joss Whedon! Avengers! S.H.I.E.L.D! TV! Agent Coulson! So much awesomeness packed into one show, it almost couldn’t be true. After the first episode was screened at Comic-Con this past July, many were calling it the best new show of the whole season. There was so much hype and expectation.

And then it aired. It was nothing like what I imagined. I suppose I expected a masterful Whedon-esque combination of Avengers and Firefly: a team of misfits in a zany, challenging situation, forced to work together to survive and fight the baddies. Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. does technically fit aspects of this concept. They are certainly misfits, their situations are challenging, and they fight some bad guys. So while it fits the Whedon requirements, it does not stand on the same legs. I was unimpressed with the cheesy pilot, but I hoped it would get better week after week. Which brings us to now: five weeks in, and just as disappointing as the pilot. 

I hoped Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. would be as sleek and powerful as Avengers, as engaging and bizarrely comedic as Firefly, as kick-ass and empowering as Buffy, and as offbeat and heartfelt as Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog. Instead, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. is just…goofy. There were moments in the pilot where I honestly thought to myself, “God, I was Robert Downey Jr was here for this re-write.” So the first problem: Agent Coulson (Clark Gregg). Coulson was endearing in the Marvel film franchise because he was the only ordinary guy in the cast. He alone represented the American everyman, the business behind the party, the ringleader. His blandness was sweet and appreciated amongst a Norse God, a egotistical Iron-crazed billionaire, muscles incased in ice for seventy years, two leather-loving, neurotic assassins, and an explosive green monster. But on his own, around men and women just like him, Coulson barely stands out. Whedon and his team attempt to make Coulson a little less ordinary by shrouding his miraculous Jesus-like rising in mystery. Though he continually says that he repaired himself on a beach in Tahiti, the rest of the team allude to something much darker that even Coulson doesn’t know. What starts as an interesting plot point quickly becomes over-referenced and just plain tired. 

It seems that even Whedon and Co. recognized that Coulson is too boring to lead the show, so they bring in Skye (Chloe Bennet). Skye is introduced as the audience-surrogate. She’s a hacker who is essentially plucked from the back of her van/home and brought onto the S.H.I.E.L.D. team for her computer whiz skills. She is chatty, smart, and quick and guess what! She’s so unbelievably annoying that following her becomes grating and exhausting. We are often meant to sympathize with her, and we’re clearly meant to find her endearing, but she’s anything but. 

Like Skye, the rest of the team are one-dimensional and uninteresting. The only interesting character, Melinda May (Ming-Na Wen), the apparently kick-ass pilot with an intriguing S.H.I.E.L.D.-based history, is given little screen time, few lines, and has essentially no personality. These characters are little more than types: the quiet, rule-abiding muscular military man, the interchangeable neurotic scientists who mostly just bicker and spout made-up monster-fighting scientific knowledge (the two have absolutely no chemistry, by the way).

Perhaps Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. could have been redeemed itself if it was as polished and engaging as the Avengers, but instead the show is flat and static. It’s gimmicks are hardly entertaining and instead seem forced and mostly fake. At the end of the pilot, Agent Coulson drives off with Skye in a little red convertible that happens to fly. It was so silly that I actually laughed out loud. The team flies around the world in a clunky airbus that typically looks like it was pasted onto a standard blue sky background. The bad guys are almost always scientists-gone-wrong who’s wrong-doing ways are quickly solvable. The few that actually feature some sort of superpower are hilarious – their powers are not exactly ‘powers’ as they are sloppily-written enhancements. The special effects should never be called “special;” they’re trying and sloppy.

So, clearly there are a lot of problems here. I know I’ve been harsh in this review, but it’s mainly because I was very, very excited about the show’s prospects. I really wish this worked as a television show, I really do, but its ties to the Avengers will always leave me wanting more. The Avengers took two years to complete (and probably plus some). Each Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. episode is completed in a matter of months, maybe even weeks. Now I’m not saying that the superhero genre can’t make it on television (Arrow proves that it can every single week) but I think Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. proves that this sort of ambitious superhero pilot just doesn’t translate onto the small screen as it does on the big screen. Here’s hoping that Whedon is just putting all his creative energy into Avengers: Age of Ultron!

Empowered or Sexy: The Superheroine Costume Complex

I remember when I first saw Wonder Woman. I was probably five or six and I thought to myself, “Wow, I’ve never seen a woman like that.” I wasn’t talking about her superpowers and strength. I was talking about her body. Wonder Woman was ripped, muscles streaming with no wind or movement; despite being an Amazonian, she was still a head shorter than Superman and all other men. Her boobs were enormous, her butt equally as robust and detailed. This was noticeable and meant to gain attention due to her costume, or rather lack thereof. I remember thinking “where’s her clothes?” Even at a young age, I couldn’t understand why she was dressed in such a way to fight crime. 

Even years later, I still ask myself “where’s her clothes?” Let’s break this down:

Wonder Woman, Catwoman, Elektra, etc are all involved in rigorous and dangerous fighting. This outfit is just not sensible for such behavior! Ironman, Batman, Thor, etc are covered from head-to-toe for ultimate body protection The women’s barely-there costumes suggest a level of stupidity, a lack of concern for one’s own safety. It’s like Selina Kyle prefers sexiness to survival. It also suggests that woman cannot and are not meant to fight the way that the Marvel men do. Ms. Marvel’s uniform suggests that she does not fight the same way Captain America does and thus does not need the appropriate costume. 

But, of course, what this boils down to is the men that create these characters. They are MALE comic artists who look to gain more male audiences rather than developing a valued and honest female character. Superman/Clark and Batman/Bruce not only get to save the world in their flashy, fully-covered best, they also get to be incredibly complex people who’s appearance is based on their established, dimensional persona. The Wonder Woman we read on the pages would never wear something so impractical. But that doesn’t matter when she’s meant to be hot and sexy rather than an effective, strong, and empowered fighter. 

This leads to my real point: artist Michael Lee Lunsford recently drew some of the world’s favorite comic heroines in appropriate attire. The results:

Wonder Woman:

Supergirl:

 

Elektra:

These are beautiful costumes fit for any superheroine. Why don’t we see this in comic books and now the film adaptations? Why don’t we press for this? There are so many WOMEN reading comic books – why don’t we demand to see real, incredible women dressed for more than just the male gaze? Ladies, let’s be real: these male artists are going to continue to publish these sexist costumes until we demand otherwise. How do we do this? We don’t purchase their comics, we don’t provide hits on their website, we abandon the universe until they get the message. 

That, or we can be outright about what we want: I want Wonder Woman to be dressed appropriately for the sort of battle she’s going into. I want Elektra and Black Widow and Ms. Marvel and everyone else to look prepared for the strength and fight they’re capable of. Is that really so much to ask?