A Farewell To Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.
Last night, ABC aired the final episode of Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. after seven season.
The series has been the little show that could, beginning with very different roots than it has now. The show was meant to be a spy show centered around Marvel's most famous espionage organization S.H.I.E.L.D. (Strategic Homeland Intervention, Enforcement, and Logistics Division). S.H.I.E.L.D. is also the organization that started the Avengers Initiative that brought together Earth's mightiest mortals.
At first, audiences were a little taken aback by the direction the show was taken. They were now used to seeing thunder wielding gods and men of iron flying through the skies. So, to take us down to a show centered around people with no super powers was a little hard to follow. And, aside from Phil Coulson (Clark Gregg), nobody knew who the other characters were. Granted, this is what happens during the beginning of any show, but this was a MARVEL show. It was going to have expectations.
So, the series course corrected within that first year and followed the events of Captain America: The Winter Soldier in which we saw the collapse of both S.H.I.E.L.D. and its nemesis organization Hydra.
In the second season, Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. started bringing in the super powers by introducing a new race of beings called the Inhumans. In the comics, they were a group of super powered people ruled by Black Bolt and the Royal family. In the show, the Inhumans lived in a place called Afterlife ruled by Skye's (Chloe Bennett) mother Jiaying. There would later be a spin off show called The Inhumans following Black Bolt and his family, but they had minimal impact on this show. The most important piece of season two was finding out that Skye was an earthquake wielding Inhuman and was actually named Daisy Johnson who fans knew as Quake in the comics. In season three, Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. finally had its own super hero team in the Secret Warriors led by Coulson and Daisy Johnson. And there are Inhuman villains in Lash and Hive.
In the fourth season, we see the introduction of Ghost Rider, a well known hero from Marvel Comics and who had two movies (non-Marvel Studios). Also in this season, the Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. went cyber fighting a LMD (life model decoy) who trapped them in the mainframe. In season five, we are taken into the future in a post-apolcalyptic world ruled by the alien race called the Kree. In season six, the team is divided, one goes into space to search for Fitz while the other half deal with people from an alternate reality.
And, finally in the last season, they seem to be bringing together the greatest hits with the return of Hydra and the Inhumans. The team had been time hopping through several decades in an effort to save its very existence as an organization.
It has been a crazy seven years for sure.
But, I really came to love these characters. I fell in love with Coulson's fatherly advice and his father/daughter relationship with Quake. I fell in love with the romance between Fitz (Iain De Caestecker) and Simmons (Elizabeth Henstridge), the two nerdy scientists; I fell in love with the kick-assedness of Agent Melinda May (Ming-Na Wen); I came to love the leadership of Mack (Henry Simmons), the strength of Yo-Yo (Natalia Cordova-Buckley) and the goofiness of Deke (Jeff Ward). Each of them have brought something special to the show.
I felt the final episode was a fitting ending, albeit sad. But, at least everybody got their happy endings of sorts.
I wish people had given this show a chance because, when it was good, it was GOOD. And this final season has been even better than good. I really hope we'll see some of these characters again whether in the movies or the comics - or both. But, for now, thanks for seven great years of adventures and fun. I will miss you.