Saturday 25 October 2014

Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. season two

And we’re off! 2.01 Shadows gives us a new status quo, establishes the new base and parameters of the team and series, plays a classic Marvel villain pretty much straight complete with gimmick as well as power, delivers an old-school Whedony emotional gutpunch, and on top of all that it starts with Agent Carter and the Howling Commandos stopping some Nazi Hydra officers in 1945.

So let’s see. What can we take from it for a S.H.I.E.L.D. style game?

A gap of a few months in and out of character, existing characters have shifted around and new ones have come in.

Massive political power and ability to call for backup and equipment gone, scaling S.H.I.E.L.D. back to pretty much just the team and what they can scrounge - they’re still world-class secret agents with various super-tech gadgets to hand, but have to rely on what they have a bit more. Oh, and they’re wanted by the government, specifically Talbot, a guy known for chasing the Hulk for a living. And Hydra has a roster of Marvel supervillains they can call up. So the balance of power has shifted just a tad...

And it looks like they can go to the Marvel back catalogue a lot more readily now. The Absorbing Man is shown having powers, no origin offered, no big deal. And they find a way to work in his classic wrecking-ball trick just as a nod to fans.

And, hey, parallel flashback adventures in Weird War Two leading to Agent Carter getting her own series! Who ends up with which bit of tech or alien artefact can affect the present-day adventure if that becomes a recurring thing.

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