Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. - Netflix Tuesday

In eager anticipation of Marvel’s Avengers Age of Ultron (coming this May!), we’re revisiting the Marvel universe via our favorite armchair tour guide: Netflix.

From time to time, we’ll share some of the top subscriber rated Marvel shows available for streaming, add our spoiler-peppered two cents, and invite your input in the ready and waiting “Comments” section. It’s gonna be Marvel-ous!

Okay, okay - we’ll try to keep the corny puns to a minimum.

We kicked off our Marvel-by-way-of-Netflix adventure with Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D: Season 1. The premier season of this big-show-that-could garnered 5 stars from streaming subscribers.

While we initially felt that the show didn’t quite live up to its hype, or to our own sky-high hopes, what gradually won us over were its moments of crackling, Whedon-esque humor and — another Whedon staple -- the earnest, yet realistically developing sense of familial camaraderie that the disparate agents build over the course of the season.

Those strong points, coupled with the fact that we unconditionally love Agent Coulson, want to know exactly why Director Fury went to such extreme lengths to save him, and whether or not what was done to him will keep on messing with his little balding head, will be enough to make us quickly click “Add to My List” and start binge watching Season 2 as soon as it becomes available for streaming.

Honestly though, there are other winning characters on the show that we’ve come to root for, and about whose secrets and mysteries we’d like to learn more; Skye’s 0-8-4 origins, May’s ambiguous feelings for Coulson, and (spoiler alert!, but c’mon, it’s already Season Two in real-time!), can Agent Ward ever be trusted again?! We’re not so secretly hoping he can. We’re also eager to see Fitz alive, well and awkwardly nerding his way around with the team again.

What do you think?

What did you think of Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D, Season 1? Did you watch it in real-time or catch up with it on Netlflix? Is it a meaningful addition to the Marvel Universe? Or just a shameless exploitation of the Avengers movie popularity?  Are you watching Season 2 now?  How’s it compare with Season 1? Don’t shield (!) us from your thoughts, give them a share below in the comments section.

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Ben's Top Marvel and DC Titles from 2014

Are you ready for my favorite Marvel and DC titles for 2014?

Harley Quinn

My first pick for the Marvel and DC is Harley Quinn. If you’re not reading this, it is probably the funnest book on the shelf! Palmiotti and Conner just knock it out the park with the writing and Hardin is a fantastic artist. But one of the beautiful things about it is that you always get an Amanda Connor cover, so you can’t go wrong there.

Justice League 3000

Justice League 3000 is one of the books I’m afraid is going to land on the
butcher’s block. This book is set — obviously — in the year 3000. The Justice League has been cloned, they’re sent to fight five uber powerful beings that have set out to take over the galaxy. And Giffen has his typical humor, great storytelling, super heroics and you get some Booster Gold and some Blue Beetle, written by the man who knows how to do it.

Batman

We’ve also got Batman. I don’t think much needs to be said about this. Snyder and Capullo have taken the character that grew kind of stale and given it a fresh spin — they don’t just go to the well. Well, he sort of does, we’ve got Joker, we’ve seen Clayface, but he’s created villains that I believe are going to stand the test of time and become one of the rogues' gallery and prominent ones at that.


Trillium. Although this looks like an indy, this is a Vertigo title. Jeff Lemire
is someone to watch. If you haven’t seen some of his other stuff, you’ve got Lost Dogs, you’ve got Underwater Welder and Essex County. Trillium is a time-crossed love story about a woman at the end of time, where the human race is almost extinct, and a man who’s an explorer from the 30s. They come head to head. They switch places. The book makes you flip back and forth. You feel just as lost and disoriented as them. It’s a really emotional, really powerful story and it’s well worth reading.

Avengers

On to Marvel. I said “Top Five” and four of them were DC – imagine that, I’m a Marvel kid! But, Avengers and New Avengers go hand-in-hand. I count these both as one because they’re both written by Hickman; they’re both the core of the Avengers Universe and, quite honestly, the core of the
Marvel Universe. You know, you’ve got your X-men section, you’ve got your Spiderman section, you’ve got your space section, but this is everything that’s been happening, everything that’s bled into Infinity. You’ve got the Illuminati trying to stop the builders who are destroying earth after earth after earth. Making choices like destroying earth to save ours, and then you’ve got the Avengers who are good guys, who ultimately find out about it and have to do something. This is stuff that’s going to spin into the big event here in 2015 and Hickman’s doing a fantastic job!