Five Things We Want From Whedon’s S.H.I.E.L.D.

So we called it…  A few weeks ago on an episode of Rated NA, we spent some time gushing about how cool it would be to have Whedon helm a S.H.I.E.L.D. television series for ABC.  Apparently some fancy people with big money and  awesome suits were thinking the EXACT same thing.  By now you’ve heard that Mr. Whedon has signed a two year contract with Marvel to direct the Avengers sequel and produce ABC’s new S.H.I.E.L.D. television series.  We’ve also learned that Joss Whedon isn’t reentering the T.V. realm alone, his brother Jed Whedon and sister in-law Maurissa Tancharoen (Dr. Horrible, Dollhouse) will be writing episodes and helping out with production.  (Source Deadline).

What we’d love to see from ABC’s S.H.I.E.L.D.

1) Clark Gregg’s Agent Coulson:  Rule #1 in Marvel Comics is that nobody is EVER really dead.  Jean Grey has been reborn a dozen times. Professor X?  Two dozen.  Heck, even our good buddy M.O.D.O.K. has died and been reborn a bunch, and he’s just a crazy mutant head.  What we REALLY want is the return of Clark Gregg’s Agent Coulson.  How? Have the series open with him on the operating table at the same time the Avengers are struggling to save New York city.  CUT TO: Three Months Later.  Coulson is seen clutching his chest while sitting up in a small operation room.  The sound of the S.H.I.E.L.D. helicarrier can be heard in the background.    BOOM!  You now have a T.V. show with an awesome male lead that everyone loves.

2) Whedonverse Alums: One of my favorite things about Joss is how loyal he is to his former players.  To him, the actors he uses are much more than puppets or pawns, they’re family.  Almost every actor thats worked with the man says they’d love to do so again, so in that case, I’d love to see Alan Tudyk, Jewel Staite, Amy Acker, or even Sarah Michelle Gellar star as bad ass S.H.I.E.L.D. agents.  Do you think Gellar would be up for it?  Probably not huh.

3) The Marvel Universe:  We currently live in a world filled with billions upon billions of people.  A very small percentage of those people are what we call “celebrities.”  We rarely see celebrities in public, but when we do it’s a pleasant surprise.  Living in the Marvel universe would sort of be the same thing, but with super heroes replacing the likes of Kim Kardashian.  Expect smaller more intimate stories that highlight what it’s like for ordinary humans to coexist with walking tanks and Asgardian gods.  Don’t expect to see HULK bounding around the small screen tearing tanks in half.  Something tells me the show will focus on much smaller, but equally cool, stories of intergalactic arms dealers and stolen Stark Technology.  Small and intimate can still be awesome.... wait…

4) A Great “Big Bad” : Joss Whedon was the creator of the term “Big Bad”.  Each season of Buffy boasted a villan more terrifying than the last.  From The Master to The First, we never quite knew how Buffy was going to pull it off.  Most of the villans on Buffy  slowly turned into fan favorites because we got to know them just as well as we got to know the main cast.  Give us some of Marvel’s best villains to make the  S.H.I.E.L.D. agents really work for their victory.  Give us Dr. Doom, Ultron, or even the Mad Thinker! And yes, I chose people with robot armies to give S.H.I.E.L.D. something to blow up.

5) At Least Five Seasons: Is it too early to worry about cancellation?  If any executives stumble across this article while trolling the internet, I have one thing to say, patience! A lot has changed since Firefly went off the air.  If being “nerdy” were a war, we’d be winning it.  Give S.H.I.E.L.D. time to grow and blossom, and for the love of all things good in the universe, play the episodes in the order intended! *Glares angrily at old FOX executives*

NOTE: This blog post was written en route to PAX while sitting on Chicago. I also just ate a family sized bag of pop chips and feel like I have sand in my eyes.