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A review by otherwyrld
Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., Vol. 1: The Coulson Protocols by Marc Guggenheim
2.0
So, this is a comic book series based on a TV series that was a spin-off of a movies series that was based on various comics books series.
Except it's not that simple.
S.H.I.E.L.D. has been around a long time in Marvel comics (since 1965 to be precise), and has played a major part in the history of many Marvel story lines. Along came the Marvel Cinematic Universe in 2008 which also introduced us to Phil Coulson, agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. After his death in The Avengers in 2012, he was chosen to be the lead of a new series with mostly original characters (he died? He got better. At least for a while).
So this comic books series features the Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. from the TV series, but here's the problem. They are interacting with numerous other Marvel characters such as Hawkeye, Wolverine and Iron Man, but these aren't film versions. Nope they are the comic book versions and that is a huge issue because they don't look or act in the same way as their movie counterparts. So, we have a version of Hawkeye that looks and acts like in his recent (very good) comic series, not like Jeremy Renner. We even have a version of Mockingbird who is the former wife of Hawkeye (which she was in the comics), but she is not the Mockingbird that actually appeared in the TV series.
Let us remind ourselves here - this is the MCU version of S.H.I.E.L.D. not the comics version of S.H.I.E.L.D., and trying the smush the two together to try and make a coherent whole is never going to work. Especially as most people looking for a comic book version of S.H.I.E.L.D. with the TV characters would be looking for a version with the film characters, not their very different (original) comic book versions.
In other words, it's a mess.
I gave it 2 stars for the mostly pretty artwork, despite the fact it went a bit haywire in the final pages. If you can ignore the massive mental disconnect you need to make when reading this story then you might enjoy it. I couldn't and I didn't.
One final gripe, do you really have to remind readers who someone is every single time they appear? The artwork isn't so bad that I couldn't tell it wasn't Jemma Simmons, PhD. or Daisy Johnson AKA Quake (yes that's what it says every time), and if I can't recognise Wolverine then I need to hand in my nerd badge.
Except it's not that simple.
S.H.I.E.L.D. has been around a long time in Marvel comics (since 1965 to be precise), and has played a major part in the history of many Marvel story lines. Along came the Marvel Cinematic Universe in 2008 which also introduced us to Phil Coulson, agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. After his death in The Avengers in 2012, he was chosen to be the lead of a new series with mostly original characters (he died? He got better. At least for a while).
So this comic books series features the Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. from the TV series, but here's the problem. They are interacting with numerous other Marvel characters such as Hawkeye, Wolverine and Iron Man, but these aren't film versions. Nope they are the comic book versions and that is a huge issue because they don't look or act in the same way as their movie counterparts. So, we have a version of Hawkeye that looks and acts like in his recent (very good) comic series, not like Jeremy Renner. We even have a version of Mockingbird who is the former wife of Hawkeye (which she was in the comics), but she is not the Mockingbird that actually appeared in the TV series.
Let us remind ourselves here - this is the MCU version of S.H.I.E.L.D. not the comics version of S.H.I.E.L.D., and trying the smush the two together to try and make a coherent whole is never going to work. Especially as most people looking for a comic book version of S.H.I.E.L.D. with the TV characters would be looking for a version with the film characters, not their very different (original) comic book versions.
In other words, it's a mess.
I gave it 2 stars for the mostly pretty artwork, despite the fact it went a bit haywire in the final pages. If you can ignore the massive mental disconnect you need to make when reading this story then you might enjoy it. I couldn't and I didn't.
One final gripe, do you really have to remind readers who someone is every single time they appear? The artwork isn't so bad that I couldn't tell it wasn't Jemma Simmons, PhD. or Daisy Johnson AKA Quake (yes that's what it says every time), and if I can't recognise Wolverine then I need to hand in my nerd badge.