How Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Could Have Changed the MCU Forever

Shield was a lot of moving parts. Guys like you were the heart. Now, you'll be the head

At one point, the filmmakers behind the MCU seemed to be positioning Nick Fury as the beating heart

of the interconnected tapestry of films. And yet, it was Clark Gregg's Agent Coulson that captured

the hearts and minds of Phase 1 fans. So when it came time for Marvel to start rolling out TV

projects, why didn't they pick Nick Fury to be the protagonist of the show focused on the exploits

of S.H.I.E.L.D., especially when Coulson was literally dead? These were in Phil Coulson's

jacket. I guess he never did get you to sign them. In the early days of the MCU, Nick Fury

played effortlessly by Sam Jackson and his S.H.I.E.L.D. organization were the main way the

filmic universe was woven together. Fury seemed to be the linchpin in all of it, seconded only by

his right-hand man, a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent named Coulson. Throughout the first phase of MCU films

Coulson was basically just an expository device, but fans took to him. So when he was dispatched

by Loki in the second act of the initial Avengers film, fans were very upset. And yet, they wouldn't

have to wait that long for Coulson to return. After the roaring success of Joss Whedon's The

Avengers, the Buffy creator was brought on board at Marvel to act as a creative consultant on all

of their projects. On August 7th of 2012, it was announced that Whedon would be involved in the

creation of a TV project based on the highly secretive governmental agency known as SHIELD

Now, for the sake of clarity, SHIELD in the comics and SHIELD in the MCU are slightly different

beasts. Aside from the fact that their acronym stands for literally different things, the show

Incarnation moves decidedly away from the Black Ops governmental agency fairly quickly with it being revealed that the S organization has been secretly puppeted by HYDRA the whole time I thought HYDRA was defeated after World War II HYDRA always comes back

Cut off your head, tomorrow will take its place. At the time of the show's production, Kevin Feige's film division and the television division

were feuding, meaning that continuity could only travel one way, down. Thus, the major changes in the filmic universe could affect the shows, but never the other

way around. And this logic also restricted shows like Agent Carter and S.H.I.E.L.D. in their access to marquee names like Nick Fury

Obviously, in a perfect world, Fury would have been the protagonist. But even in this more restricted scenario, Fury should have been the man in the shadows, constantly working behind the scenes

He should have been the deus ex machina, or at the very least, he should have been the character supervising the team of S.H.I.E.L.D. agents that we follow on a week-to-week basis

And yet, in the show, he's only in two episodes out of seven seasons, both of which happen in the first season

This is the last time you'll be seeing me for a stretch. You're gonna disappear. Nowhere to be found

The Nick Fury in the films and the Nick Fury in the comics are significantly different entities

Nick Fury in the comics is a Caucasian man who rose to fame during World War II

who has been given an experimental serum dubbed the Infinity Formula, and is virtually immortal

while the filmic version of him only retains his duplicitous yet heroic man-behind-the-curtain

attitude. So that begs the question, why wasn't Nick Fury the protagonist of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.

Considering the comic book that this was based on is Nick Fury, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D.? Well

there's a few things here. One, the logistical hurdles of getting Sam Jackson into a network

TV show were high. Two, the previously mentioned film and TV show divisions conflict. Three

Coulson was a fan favorite character. And finally, four, Whedon had just killed Coulson off

in the first Avengers film, so bringing him back in this TV show

allowed him to make a big splash almost immediately You were dead for days That impossible Director Fury moved heaven and earth But none of those reasons deal with the fact that Agents of S

is a big show conceptually that never quite lives up to its potential. The constant end-of-the-world

threats, the deaths and rebirths of characters, and the secret time travel plots all feel unwieldy

and too far-reaching for the narrative canvas that the characters can supply, Agent Coulson

being the prime example of this. In his initial conception, Coulson was just a bureaucrat

a middle management pencil pusher. But Clark Gregg did such a fantastic job with this role

that he charmed audiences and Whedon and wheeled himself into more and more screen time

So when he's brought back and given this insane alien resurrection backstory and multiple heroic

sacrifices, on a subconscious level, it just never sits right. Sacrificing himself to give Daisy

Johnson the serum she needs to defeat a supervillain or making a deal with the devil to become the

Ghost Rider to save his friends, those feel like fury moves. You can't kill me. Maybe not, but I'm

pretty sure he can. And therein lies the true problem with Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.'s patriarch

The show's creators, Whedon, his brother Jed Whedon, and Marissa Tancheron never truly came up

with an idea for how to use Coulson other than just writing him as baby Nick Fury. And Clark Gregg

is a great actor, but he just isn't Sam Jackson. When asked about the character in a 2013 interview

with Entertainment Weekly, Whedon said, The idea of Coulson as the long-suffering bureaucrat

who deals with Tony Stark's insufferability is delightful and hits the core of something I'm almost writing about all the time

The little guy versus the big faceless organization. And that's what Clark Gregg embodies

The everyman. That's exactly the issue. Coulson is an everyman in his MCU film appearances

And then, when he's resurrected for the small screen, they try to pivot him into being the

new Fury without ever really setting up the narrative infrastructure to support that change We are not agents of nothing We are agents of S And that has to carry weight after everything we been through

That carries weight! That lack of forethought and inventiveness extends to the show Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D

as a whole. Anyone who's read the comics knows that the show should have been an adventure of the

week spy show with an overarching Hydra plot running in the background. In fact, longtime Nick Fury agent of S.H.I.E.L.D

writer-artist Jim Steranko, was so frustrated by the early seasons of the show that he wrote an

op-ed for The Hollywood Reporter, calling the show the perfect example of frustration, apathy

and disappointment. This lack of vision for the show can be seen in just how often it rebooted

itself, which was basically every season. Over its seven-season run, it tried to make the Inhumans

a thing, pivoted to Ghost Rider for a season, then went to space, then did time travel, then did more

time travel. I mean, I knew it wasn't really in black and white, but still, now I know how you

felt. It's a blast of the past. So how could Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. have been fixed? Well

the first step really could have been just incorporating Fury into the cast in some way

Even if he was the Skinner to Coulson and Maze Mulder and Scully, that would have helped build

a narrative hierarchy that could have enabled Coulson to grow and develop into a protagonist

as opposed to the bizarre immediate jump that he undergoes from the beginning of the show

Overall, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. is a bland and somewhat disappointing viewing experience

that could have been great if just a few minor tweaks were made. The rift between the two silos of the MCU is the ultimate villain in this story

as many of the creative, character, and visual choices the show made were in direct response to the things the movie side was doing

And tragically, a high concept that is tailor-made for a serialized TV show was squandered

But as we know from Coulson's many deaths and resurrections, nothing stays dead forever

So who knows? Perhaps there's a new Disney Plus streaming show that will feature the S.H.I.E.L.D. cast

just around the corner. And maybe this time, it'll be good