Wednesday, September 24, 2014

Absorbing Man, Agent Carter, and Lucy Lawless all battle it out for screen time in the season two premiere of Agents of SHIELD

Agents of Shield's second season took off with a blast last night. It was fun to see Lucy Lawless; the last time I saw her she was playing a human-looking cylon in the very good reboot of Battlestar Galactica (that was many years ago). Now she's got a role on Agents, although from what I can tell by the end of the episode, she must have only landed a one-time gig. That's too bad. However, Marvel has a history of retconning and resurrecting so much that one can say this of the following movies:

X-Men 2: Jean dies, but not really
X-Men: TLS: Charles dies, but not really
Thor: Loki dies, but not really
Captain America: Bucky dies, but not really
Avengers: Phil dies, but not really
Iron Man 3: Pepper dies, but not really
Thor 2: Loki dies (again), but not really
Captain America 2: Nick dies, but not really
X-Men: DOFP: Everyone dies, but not really

So I'm hopeful that Lucy isn't dead, but it may be too late to start a "Save Lucy" campaign. Additionally, we got treated to a taste of Agent Carter. Set to star in her own series soon, if you don't recall who Agent Carter is, she's the broad that Captain America fell in love with in the 1930's. We got a little more of her history in Captain America 2, and apparently she was quite influential in S.H.I.E.L.D.'s early days. Alas, a Captain America / Agent Carter hookup was just not meant to be /sniffle.
But most surprising (for me at least) was seeing Absorbing Man. This guy's a supervillain that's battled both Hulk and Thor (he was also one of my favorite HeroClix when I used to play HeroClix). This isn't the first time you've seen Absorbing Man either (if you call yourself a Marvel fan). Ang Lee treated us to his take on absorbing man in the very bad "Hulk" film with Eric Bana. But in case you didn't see that movie then you might be asking: who is Absorbing Man? That's a good question.

I just want to say that I think his history is pretty creative. Absorbing Man's real name is Carl Creel. He was a boxer and jailed criminal who becomes Absorbing Man when he drinks a liquid he got from Loki. It allows him to absorb the properties of anything he touches, so usually he carries around a ball and chain or a diamond. Most of the time, he's defeated by being tricked into changing his atomic structure to other things. At one point he helped Loki take over Asgard and they both ended up getting banished to outer space. Absorbing Man returned to Earth on a comet and ended up battling the Hulk (who was sent to divert the comet).

So in last night's episode of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. we met up with Carl Creel who was on Shield's termination list because he's part of Hydra. And now he's got a "0-8-4" which is essentially S.H.I.E.L.D. speak for something incredibly badass.

8 comments:

  1. Yeah, I was surprised Lawless bit it so quickly last night. Bummer.

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  2. I'm looking forward to more of Agent Carter. I never thought about all the people who didn't really die but now that you point it out...it's kind of funny.

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  3. Hey, Micheal - love the funky and colourful site. I have been a way long.

    I don't know how it's even possible to keep up with all the stuff on TV. In fact I can't, so I mostly watch sports :o) Oh, did I tell you that I'm going indie with my books? :o)

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  4. I don't know enough to leave an intelligent comment but it's fun to read about.

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  5. Okay, I read more than I should have.
    I only just started watching season 1.

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  6. Is that what Nick Nolte was supposed to be in that movie? Lucy Lawless was on the last couple seasons of Parks & Recreation periodically as Ron Swansons girlfriend.

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  7. The don't watch Shield but I do like Sleepy Hollow (the actor who plays Crane is insanely gorgeous and has a bedroom voice, which is a big draw for me), and it has the same not-really-dead habits, or more accurately the characters are dead but you'll still see them in flashbacks, Purgatory, or hallucinations.

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  8. I'm kind of annoyed that they spent so much time plugging Lucy Lawless "joining the cast" and then... There's one new show this season that I will not continue watching because they pulled a similar stunt in the pilot. (Well, there were other reasons, but that didn't help matters.)

    Of course, SHIELD is good...

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