Saturday, 23 July 2016

S.H.I.E.L.D. is coming back - July 23

AoS came to the Comic-Con with the rest of the Marvel™ and threw its’ weight around. Marvel™, that is, not just AoS, but it still worked. Yay.

The big stuff. The Ghost Rider – (Robbie from Earth 616 for those who care about this sort of thig), is coming to AoS. Basically, he is the Ghost Rider take II, the heir of the original GR, Johnny Blaze. The latter has a couple of his own movies, but they are not exactly a part of MCU, so it is unlikely that we’ll have the original GR giving Robbie the one-two; ‘with great powers comes great responsibility’, etc. After all, the original Robbie did not want to be a vigilante, but rather a street racer, until Mr. Hyde and his people came across him.

Now, Mr. Hyde has already appeared in AoS S2 – he is Daisy’s father and a former ally to Raina. ‘Former’ because Raina died at the end of AoS S2, (and got promptly reincarnated as ‘Tulip’ on ‘Preacher’ these days). ‘Preacher’ is a wonderful show; though it differs from the original comic that has spawned it a lot. Then again, if we are to talk about differences in shows and comics in regards to AoS proper…just no. The point is that at the end of AoS S2 Mr. Hyde, or Cal Zabo, got redeemed, sort of, via T.A.H.I.T.I., and did not appear at all throughout S3, so now, apparently, he will return – and back as a villain.

Now, throughout S2, Cal was a more sympathetic, ‘redeemable’ character, rather than outright evildoer (that was Hydra’s job: Whitehall, Bakshi, in S2 – Malick), so if he is to appear as an S4 villain, then he will have to go through some major character reworking…AoS should have plenty of practice after Grant Ward in the first half of S3 especially, so no problem there.

The problem is the ‘recycling’: starting in S3, especially in the second half, AoS began to recycle ideas, primarily from S2, (though S1 was there too), complete with such characters as Carl ‘the Absorbing Man’ Creel. The result was that the viewers’ ratings dropped, and for now, the second half of AoS S3 had some of the lowest ratings in the entire series. Period.

Now, AoS is a good show still; when it works, it really works; however, it does not work all the time and sometimes, it outright does not. The entire agent 33 plotline in S2, for example, really did not work, to the point where Kara was largely ignored by the entire S3, except when it was unavoidable, the elephant in the room, you might say. Now, on the Comic-Con, the cast of AoS largely ignored Lincoln Campbell, (played by Luke Mitchell), as well as the entire Static Quake relationship; instead, they focused on Grant Ward (Brett Dalton), and his non-relationship with Skye. Yes, it did make some people happy, but because Dalton is gone from the show for good, (just look at the new poster), alongside Blood, Palicki and Mitchell himself, it was way too late and pointless (SkyeWard fans are not interested in this sort of bones anymore; they will continue to watch AoS or stop altogether regardless of audition videos and the such), and it pissed the Static Quake fans too. It is unknown why Mitchell hadn’t worked out on AoS, (there were hints, for a while, that Lincoln would be the one working alongside Mack in S.H.I.E.L.D. and tracking down Daisy in the conclusion), but he didn’t, so now Bennet (Daisy) got either to work out with Henry Simmons (Mack), or maybe she’ll just stay solo for a while. Or, of course, one of her ex-boyfriends could always come back from the dead. Cough.

However, regardless of any behind-the-scenes-problems, AoS will still be going strong, at least for a while. ‘Carter’, who became a much more compact and collected show by S2, is finished. ‘Most Wanted’, a spinoff of AoS, never came to be. AoS still keeps on going. Good luck to them. Mind you, given how the TV-land works, S4 just might be the season to break them, but in general? They are suffering because MCU has its own problems – the InHumans movie got scrapped, Dr. Strange film is coming out in 2017, etc. AoS is here to stay. Live with it.


PS: And as for J.T. James, aka Hellfire? Since we do not have Blaze as GR, it is anyone’s guess how he is going to fit into the entire dynamic, which, apparently, is now supernatural/occult than extraterrestrial. How will the FitzSimmons deal with it? Or is it why they will be going to Seychelles? Who knows!

No comments:

Post a Comment