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Last week, fellow Beat writer Alex Jones wrote this article about the TV show Arrow and it's treatment of female characters. I don't really follow Arrow, so I can't say whether I agree with his assessment. But the premise got me thinking about whether any of these shows could pass the Bechdel test, i.e. the new standard for fictional female characters.

For those of you who don’t know, my fellow Entertainment Editor, Hannah Lodge and I, along with Beat Contributors Harper Harris and Cal Cleary, host a mostly-weekly podcast together for our site, GeekRex (where we also write-up comic and movie reviews, along with the rare television and game piece). For the latest episode, Heidi has been […]

We’ll have more to say about the big “Marvel Television Presents” Press room that ended just a few moments ago a little later on, but one big detail that we can share right away comes from Agent Carter showrunners Tara Butters and Michelle Fazekas who were able to share just a few tid-bits about the Season 2 antagonists that will be opposing Peggy and Jarvis when they come to L.A.:

Fazekas: The antagonists, I would say, exist in the Marvel comics, a version of them. And there’s even a group called the Secret Empire. And I can also tell you, and this is somewhat of a spoiler, there’s a thing called Darkforce, that comes from the comic book universe, which also created Blackout on Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. and it comes out of the Doctor Strange universe as well. That’s going to show up, causing problems for people.

Fazekas is surely being a bit vague in order to keep things under wraps, but The Secret Empire would indeed be a logical choice of villain for this upcoming season. In the comics, this organization began as a subsidiary of HYDRA and have always been led by a mysterious (and changing) leader, simply known as “Number One”. They later reformed as major antagonists for Captain America, with an implication that their leader was actually the President of the United States. They’ve existed in the background of the Marvel universe ever since, making a recent appearance in Mark Waid‘s seminal Daredevil run.

The fact that Agent Carter will also be potentially tapping into the Doctor Strange mythos most likely underscores the importance of the upcoming Scott Derrickson-directed feature film.

Kelly Sue DeConnick announced she was leaving Captain Marvel only a few days ago, but Marvel is tapping talent new to comics for the upcoming series, Marvel’s Agent Carter showrunners Tara Butters and Michele Fazekas. Artist extraordinaire Kris Anka is providing pencils for the series. This new creative team brings a few more women to mainstream comics — an important new step in diversity for Marvel that will hopefully see the rest of the industry follow suit. Recently, DeConnick brought Captain Marvel into space attempting to serve as a warrior between the outside forces of Earth and the Marvel Universe. Fast Company broke the news and explained that S.W.O.R.D. is no longer in business, giving Captain Marvel an important role in the new Marvel Universe in solving threats to Earth before they touch down to the atmosphere.

The rest of the creative team also explained the new changes in Captain Marvel’s design: “She’s military,” says Fazekas. “She’s not going to have this huge mane of hair. It needs to be practical.” With Captain Marvel’s hairstyle becoming so eclectic over the past year or so within so many different titles — streamlining the concept with a shorter cut is a stroke of brilliance. Anka’s new designs seem to be reflecting the choice.

Finally, Tara Butters chimed in with a quote that should further acclimate fans to the new direction of the title: “We love the fact that she wanted to be a test pilot, someone who tests boundaries,” says Butters. “I feel that’s brought into her superhero character, where she’s pushing herself. Sometimes she takes risks that she shouldn’t take.” Captain Marvel #1 launches this Fall taking place in the eight months after Secret Wars in the All-New, All-Different Marvel Universe.

While we know Marvel Studios proper is skipping out on SDCC this year, creating a trend that also saw Sony and Paramount deciding to skip the show, their television division will indeed be there with a Ballroom 20 appearance covering both Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. and Agent Carter, along with an animation panel the next day.

No sign of the Netflix shows though, mostly likely they will remain saved for NYCC instead.

FRIDAY, JULY 10

Marvel Television Presents — Panel Session

3:00 PM – 4:15 PM in Ballroom 20

Join the casts and producers of “Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.” and “Marvel’s Agent Carter”!

SATURDAY, JULY 11

“Marvel’s Agent Carter” – Cast Signing Event

10:00 AM at the Marvel Booth (#2329)

Cast Attending: Hayley Atwell, James D’Arcy, Tara Butters (EP), Michele Fazekas (EP), Chris Dingess (EP), Louis D’Esposito (EP) and Jeph Loeb (EP)

Marvel Animation Presents – Panel Session

10:30 AM – 11:30 AM in Room 6BCF

Go behind-the-scenes into the world of Marvel Animation!

“Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.” – Cast Signing Event

2:30 PM at the Marvel Booth (#2329)

Cast Attending: Clark Gregg, Ming-Na Wen, Chloe Bennet, Brett Dalton, Iain De Caestecker, Elizabeth Henstridge, Nick Blood, Adrianne Palicki, Henry Simmons, Luke Mitchell, Maurissa Tancharoen (EP), Jed Whedon (EP) and Jeph Loeb (EP).

Please note that both signings are ticketed events and passes will be available on a first-come, first-served lottery basis beginning at 9:30 AM on Saturday, July 11 at the Marvel Booth (#2329).

For us, we get to see Mad Max: Fury Road with the rest of the critics who are getting it screened tonight, for you, it is Tuesday. Did I just nail that Street Fighter reference or what? No? Okay…onto the news…

– Television talk continues to dominate most of the online discussion today, and in a recent conference call with the press, ABC President Paul Lee explained why the proposed Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. spin-off focusing on Adrianne Palicki‘s Bobbi Morse and Nick Blood‘s Lance Hunter didn’t come to fruition:

We absolutely love those characters on ‘S.H.I.E.L.D. We feel S.H.I.E.L.D. hit its creative stride this year, and we love it… We felt the right time now was to leave them on S.H.I.E.L.D., because it’s so strong at the moment.

To be fair, pulling the show’s most intriguing characters from its parent series seemed like a bad bet, there’s also a fairly good possibility that killing off this spin-off is what made room for another season of Agent Carter, which I’d say is the right move. Speaking of which, there’s a new synopsis making the rounds for Peggy Carter’s sophomore season, which finds her in a brand new city:

Marvel’s Agent Carter’ returns for a second season of adventure and intrigue, starring Hayley Atwell in the titular role of the unstoppable secret agent for the SSR (Strategic Scientific Reserve). Dedicated to the fight against new atomic age threats in the wake of World War II, Peggy must now journey from New York City to Los Angeles for her most dangerous assignment yet. But even as she discovers new friends, a new home — and perhaps even a new love — she’s about to find out that the bright lights of the post-war Hollywood mask a more sinister threat to everyone she is sworn to protect.

And for those Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. fans in the crowd, here’s the third season synopsis that was just released:

Director Phil Coulson (Clark Gregg) embarks on a deadly new secret mission to protect the world from new threats in the wake of SHIELD’s wars with Hydra and a rogue faction of Inhumans.

– In their recent Milkfed Criminal Masterminds newsletter, Matt Fraction and Kelly Sue DeConnick revealed that the former will be appearing on “Late Night with Seth Meyers” Thursday May 21st. How many comic book writers (or least writers that are primarily known for writing comics) have appeared as guests on American “late night” television at this point? We’ve had Harvey Pekar, Stan Lee, David Goyer and Brian Michael Bendis. Am I missing someone? Surely I must be. Bottom-line though, it’s a huge deal.

Their newsletter states that some big news regarding their deal with Universal will be dropping soon, so it’s very likely that this appearance will in promotion of that announcement. You can sign up for their newsletter here. I highly recommend it.

– On his Twitter feed, director Luc Besson (The Fifth Element) announced that his newest project will be an adaptation of the French comic series Valerian and Laureline entitled Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets, which Besson will write and direct. The series, which kicked off in 1967, was created by Pierre Christin and Jean-Claude Mezieres and has sold over 10 million copies worldwide and is described thusly per our friends at SuperHeroHype:

Valerian and Laureline are exploring Syrte, capital planet of a system of 1,000 worlds. Their mission is to discover whether the Syrtians could present a danger to Earth. What they find is a decaying empire led by decadent aristocrats, a population ripe for revolution, and a mysterious caste of masked wise men who discreetly pull the strings from hidden fortresses. Swept up by the winds of history, the agents of Earth will have to choose a side.

Dane DeHaan (Chronicle) and Cara Delevingne (Suicide Squad) will star in the film which is slated for Summer 2017.

– We’ve talked about it some, and it seemed like only an eventuality, but The CW has officially picked up the Arrow/Flash spin-off and has given it a real title: DC’s Legends of Tomorrow.

The series, which stars Arthur Darvill as Rip Hunter, follows the time-traveler as he is tasked with assembling a group of heroes and villains to confront an unstoppable threat, where both the planet and time itself is at stake.

Also appearing in the new series will be Victor Garber, Brandon Routh, Caity Lotz, Wentworth Miller, Dominic Purcell, Ciara Renee, and Franz Drameh. Each either reprising their roles from Arrow and The Flash, or starring as new characters for the series, such as Renee’s Hawkgirl.

So, at the very least The Atom, the first Black Canary, Captain Cold, Heatwave, Rip Hunter, Hawkgirl and one half of Firestorm are heading up this team. Drameh’s character is the only mystery remaining, here’s how the casting rumors described his part:

“MYSTERY HERO” | An African-American male in his twenties will fill the role of a regular, street smart guy who unexpectedly gains powers, and then, as part of the team, regularly quips about the insanity of the situations.

– In exciting news for anyone that’s a fan of good genre television, ABC opted to renew Agent Carter, despite being a somewhat soft performer ratings-wise (averaging about 5 million viewers an episode). Showrunners Michelle Fazekas and Tara Butters are expected to return. Also, as expected, ABC renewed Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. for another season.

While I’m fairly lukewarm to negative on Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., the potential of Agent Carter is pretty tremendous, given its cast and concept. I rather hope that next season does the “ten year jump forward” bit that Hayley Atwell has mentioned in the past. It’s a series that could afford to shake things up somewhat, and really, who doesn’t want to see Peggy Carter in the “Mad Men era” or better yet, something Jim Steranko-inspired? Plus, I really just want to see John Slattery take over the Howard Stark role at this point.

– With this good news though, it looks like ABC only had so much room for Marvel programming, as according to Deadline, the proposed Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. spin-off focused on Adrianne Palicki‘s Bobbi Morse will not go forward. Truthfully, that might have been a blow that its parent series might not have recovered from.

– Lastly, Hugh Jackman has confirmed that this next Wolverine entry will be his last, per an interview with an Australian talkshow:

This will be my last one. It just felt like it was the right time to do it. And let’s be honest, 17 years! I never thought in a million years it would last, so I’m so grateful to the fans for the opportunity of playing it. I kind of have in my head what we’re going to do in this last one. It just feels like this is the perfect way to go out.

It feels like Jackman says this every few years, but given that he’s starting to creep up in age (he’s currently 46) and the sheer torture he probably puts himself through to get into “Wolverine shape”, it’s surely for the best.

– Avengers: Infinity War, which it’s been revealed will have a grueling nine month production schedule (it is two films after all), will also be shot completely in IMAX using IMAX and ARRI’s next gen 2D digital camera. This marks the first time a Hollywood feature film has ever been shot completely with IMAX cameras and utilizing its larger aspect ratio.

Here’s a statement from the Russo Bros on this announcement:

The intent with the Infinity War films is to bring ten years of accumulative storytelling to an incredible climax. We felt that the best way to exploit the scale and scope required to close out the final chapter of these three phases, was to be the first films shot entirely on the IMAX/ARRI Digital camera.

Some select action scenes of Captain America: Civil War will also utilize the IMAX camera and format.

– This week, the broadcast networks are finalizing their pick-up decisions and what will make it onto the Fall and Spring schedule. Supergirl, for example, was picked up for a full series order yesterday by CBS, while iZombie was also renewed by The CW. The Flash and Arrow have also already been renewed for their second and fourth seasons respectively.

Now, all eyes are on ABC and NBC, as the former will be making its decisions regarding Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (which will surely be renewed) and Agent Carter (where things are far more uncertain), while the latter holds the final fate of Constantine in its hands.

My prediction? Agent Carter gets renewed for another short season, while Constantine finally sees its long-expected axe.

But even Powers got renewed, so I guess anything could still happen.

– 20th Century Fox has revealed the cover art for the upcoming X-Men: Days of Future Past “Rogue Cut”, which will include 17 minutes of additional footage, including all of Anna Paquin‘s sequences that were cut from the theatrical release:

– We’re only a week away from Mad Max: Fury Road hitting theaters across the country. While critics are still embargoed at this point, there’s a lot to be excited about, which I elaborated on a few weeks previous. Here’s a new featurette for the film:

– Here’s the new poster for Ant-Man, which is sadly pretty underwhelming, though that’s kind of par for the course with most blockbuster movie posters these days. Floating heads, so many floating heads!

– And in fun stuff, it looks like Captain America vs. Crossbones has started early:

Don’t underestimate the benefit of awe. Take time to be amazed by things. By anything. By everything.

— Chris Evans (@ChrisEvans) May 7, 2015

@FrankGrillo I’m amazed you can read. Be honest, your kids are helping you sound out the words. — Chris Evans (@ChrisEvans) May 7, 2015

@ChrisEvans I can read the hospital report for you after wake up from that that little snooze your gonna take hero boy.

— frank grillo (@FrankGrillo) May 7, 2015

I’m really looking forward to Civil War.

We’re creeping ever so closer to the end of the week, here’s your round-up of entertainment headlines for this morning!

– While on the press tour for his new film, Chappie; Neill Blomkamp has, to no one’s surprise, been receiving a number of questions about his recently announced Alien sequel. Having Sigourney Weaver on-hand as a part of the Chappie cast likely provided additional temptation in that regard. SkyMovies (via Collider) got some pretty great details out of him in a recent interview, where he discussed the continuity of the new film:

I want this film to feel like it is literally the genetic sibling of Aliens, so it’s Alien, Aliens and then this film.

From the sounds of things, Alien 3 and Alien Resurrection are being wiped from continuity, which I have mixed feelings about if that is indeed how things play out. It didn’t quite work for Superman Returns, and I’d be worried that it might lead to confusion here.

Blomkamp continued:

It’s a Freudian nightmare. That element to me is what is so appealing; to put the audience on the edge of their seat the whole time in a traditional, monster-stalking-you, dark-corridor-way. I love that. And then when you mix in all of the deign elements and the life cycle of the alien, it’s a powder keg of creativity for me.

Weaver also chimed in, basically confirming her involvement and the return of Ripley:

I would love to take Ripley out of sort of orbiting around in space and give a proper finish to what was such an excellent story. So when someone like Neill Blomkamp said, ‘Well, I’m interested in finishing the story,’ my little ears perked up… I think it’s a great series. It deserves a proper ending—I know the fans would love that.

– Empire has some new photos of Miles Teller, Kate Mara, Michael B. Jordan, and Jamie Bell from Fantastic Four:

CBM has also pulled together the interview that features in that issue with director Josh Trank.

– Empire also brings us new Spectre images featuring Dave Bautista as henchman Mr. Hinx:

Bautista had this to say about taking on the role:

When I came over to meet Sam [Mendes], I only asked two questions. I asked him if Mr. Hinx was a badass. He said, ‘Yes, he’s a badass.’ I said, ‘Well, is Mr. Hinx intelligent?’ He said, ‘Very.’ That’s what I like about Mr. Hinx. He’s very well-dressed and very well-mannered. I’m not just here to fight people. He has a sense of humour. He definitely knows what a metaphor is.

Lea Seydoux also spoke to her new character, Dr. Madeleine Swann, seen below:

I don’t consider myself a Bond girl. I think I’m not really the stereotyped Bond girl. I feel quite different. You can’t be like, ‘Oh, James.’ You have to find something else. She’s not a fighter, she’s a doctor. She fights in another way.

The production team has also released another video featuring Sam Mendes elaborating on why he returned for another Bond film:

– Lastly, Steven Markus and Christopher McFeely spoke with Entertainment Weekly (spoilers at the link) about Agent Carter‘s finale, indicating that if a Season 2 were to happen they’d like to focus on Peggy’s background further:

MARKUS: When we were figuring out the show and the backstory of the show, we had a really nice story about who Peggy is and where she came from. We just didn’t have any time. I would love to tell that story.

MCFEELY: That’s one of our strongest ideas for the second season: What makes Peggy, Peggy? We like what Peggy is, but if you ask some hard questions, you might wonder: but why is she that way? We have some thoughts on that.

Sadly, the future of the series is in doubt given its ratings struggle. This week’s finale only pulled a 1.3 in the 18-49 demo, which on ABC is not a good sign.

Alas, our eight weeks of Agent Carter are up, and the short series tied up most of its ends with a neat bow. The finale was satisfying enough, though fairly unsurprising – my biggest qualm was that the suspense relied heavily on the danger facing Howard Stark (and anyone who has seen Iron Man, which is basically everyone watching, knows Howard has to make it out just fine).

What surprised me most, though, was what the series didn’t do. From episode one, a huge part of the buzz and speculation around Agent Carter focused on a single idea:

Who does Peggy Carter marry?

Part of me gets the speculation; we know Carter eventually gets married based on her brief appearance in Captain America: The Winter Soldier. But it’s also a huge disservice to the character. Post-war, Carter struggles in her professional life, seen by her peers as little more than Steve Rogers’ love interest. Carter was competent in the film and fulfilled a role beyond the archetypal love interest or damsel in distress, but she’s still Captain America’s girlfriend. And now that Cap is gone, what everyone looks for next is not what she’ll do or who she’ll fight, but who she’ll kiss.

I’m not sure if it was intentional, but it almost feels like the men in Carter’s office were a proxy for audience and media reaction.

It would have not only been an easy trap to fall in, but a common one. Women in films have it pretty rough, and it’s hard to imagine it’s much better on television. Only 12% of identifiable movie protagonists in 2014 were female, according to research from the Center for the Study of Women in Television & Film. The few females that do show up in speaking roles are more likely to be identified by personal life-related roles, such as wife or mother, than males, who tend to be identified by work-related titles, such as doctor or executive.

Rather than moving Carter from Cap’s love interest to someone else’s love interest, the show runners and writers decided to let her be he an agent. Not a girlfriend. Not a wife. Sure, there were a few potential future suitors, but they were so minor, they could easily fall away and be completely removed if the series comes back for another season. In fact, the only male relationship that feels like it would require a mandatory wrap up or return in a second season is Carter’s relationship with Jarvis, which is rooted in professional respect rather than infatuation.

So basically, Agent Carter was entirely about Agent Carter. How crazy is that?

It’s not something we see in TV often, but by refusing to become a show about love triangles or Peggy Carter’s happily ever after, Agent Carter made its intentions remarkably clear.  As Carter says to Sousa at the episode’s close: “I know my value. Anyone else’s opinion doesn’t matter.”

As I was drying my tears following the dramatic conclusion of this week’s episode of Agent Carter, ‘Snafu’, all I could think about was that I wanted more. More Hayley Atwell as Peggy Carter, whose range and presence eats up every frame of this small-screen show that plays like a big-screen adventure. More of the fabulous, smart dialogue and fantastic supporting cast; more of the beautiful costumes and period lighting — just more! More than just next week’s season finale. If you haven’t been watching Agent Carter yet, in the name of good comic-based television I implore you: read the recaps at ABC.com, binge watch episodes 3-7 and set your DVR to ABC next Tuesday at 9pm/8c.

When we last left Agent Carter she was handcuffed to a desk at SSR, on the receiving end of what was sure to be an impassioned interrogation at the hands of Agent Sousa (Enver Gjokaj). So it was a surprise when ‘Snafu’ opened instead on the show’s second flashback to Russia. While the last flashback showed us a young Dottie (Bridget Regan) snapping necks in 1937, this one takes place in 1943 and concerns the whereabouts of that other Russian mole: Dr. Ivchenko (Ralph Brown). It seems during WWII, Ivchenko was already in full command of the Professor X-like mind control powers he used to push Agent Yauch to commit suicide in last week’s episode. Here he uses them as mental anesthesia on wounded soldier undergoing an amputation.It’s an odd bit of exposition that serves only to define the mechanism of Ivchenko’s powers, which are pretty clearly articulated in later scenes.

Thankfully, the episode quickly plugs us back into the Carter vs. the SSR interrogation scene we’ve all been waiting for and it does not disappoint. Agent Sousa seeks to pin nearly all of the SSR’s unsolved mysteries on Carter’s double-agent machinations: the Raymond/Brannis/Krzeminski murders, theft of the Nitramene bombs and connection to Stark’s weapons cache.

Chief Dooley (Shea Wigham) looks on from behind a one-way mirror with Ivchenko by his side, pulling Dooley’s strings with every twist of his gold hypno-ring. Agent Thompson (Chad Michael Murray) comments on Dooley’s “unorthodox” choice to allow the Doctor to view the proceedings; thank goodness someone is looking on with a critical eye. Sousa, blinded by his heartbreak over Carter’s perceived betrayal, lays into Carter in the most brutal way possible: crediting her defection from SSR to Howard Stark’s ability to “get in deep” with her.

Incredibly, the temperature is turned up still higher on the proceedings as the interrogation drags on. There’s some smart direction in cross-cutting the scenes of Sousa, Thompson and Dooley all taking their turns grilling Carter. It builds the tension so that when Carter unleashes her thus-far concealed opinions on their opinions of her it feels like a revelation. Rather than take umbrage at being seen as a “stray kitten” left at Dooley’s doorstep, a “secretary turned damsel-in-distress” to Thompson or Sousa’s “girl on a pedestal transformed into some daft whore,” Carter remains calm and stands firm. “You’re behaving like children,” she tells them, “what’s worse, what’s far worse, is that this is just shoddy police work!”

And this is the appeal of Agent Carter in a nutshell: using the rampant sexism of the 1940s as a cloak of invisibility for women who serve as double agents on both sides of the emerging Cold War conflict. This being a Captain America spin-off, Agent Carter is clearly the white hat: empowered by the integration of women into the war effort, now struggling to maintain her position. Dottie shows us the other side of the same coin: empowered by integration as a child into a super-spy program, she relishes in her amoral, powerful position post-war.

Jarvis (James D’Arcy) arrives with a half-baked plan to spring Carter from her interrogation with a faked Stark-confession, but only succeeds in throwing suspicion off of Carter long enough to buy them some time to try and figure out Leviathan’s endgame. Ivchenko continues his campaign of brainwashing the Chief. By acting as a mental marriage counselor to Dooley, whose marriage seems to have suffered from to his devotion to SSR, he hopes to gain his trust — and access to Stark’s weapons store. Carter soon realizes the only way out is through, and finally divulges the truth of her double-life to the SSR team. Sousa and Thompson both believe her confession, and that’s enough for Dooley to send the boys off on Dottie’s trail.

What follows is one of the best action sequences to date. Dottie smiles as each SSR Agent underestimates her: hesitating to attack as she disarms or kills them, one after the other. Her prowess leaves even Sousa speechless: as she escapes he watches her execute a controlled fall through the center of a ten-story staircase as effortlessly as if it were a jungle-gym. Meanwhile, Dooley clears the SSR lab of it’s staff with Ivchenko by his side, shopping for Stark technology. Ivchenko makes off with “Item 17″ in just in time for Dottie to appear driving the getaway car. But before they can truly get away, says Ivchenko, they must test item 17 to ensure it “still works.”

Unfortunately, before he left, the bad doctor talked the Chief into strapping on a glowing prototype vest of Stark design. Jarvis, apparently the wikipedia of bad baby technologies, explains it was intended as a heat source for troops in cold conditions. Like nearly all of the Stark bad babies, though, there’s a dangerous flaw: the self-sustaining battery invariably overheats when activated, eventually becoming an explosive device. Warning the team that Ivchenko got inside his head, the vest nears it’s boiling point and Dooley says goodbye to SSR. Wigham, Murray and Atwell play the scene for all it’s worth: wringing every bit of heartbreak from Dooley’s parting lines to both Thompson; “Tell my wife I’m sorry I missed dinner” and Carter: “Promise me you’ll get the son of a bitch that did this!” It’s a nice touch that he leaves the avenging in the hands of Carter, who knows a thing or two about Avengers. Dooley spares Carter a parting: “atta-girl!” before bravely taking a swan-dive through the office windows just in time, exploding in mid-air.

The remaining SSR team mourns the loss of Dooley before discovering that Ivchenko stole item 17 — one of the few bad babies Jarvis can’t identify. Dottie, however, knows exactly what item 17 can do as she wheels it into a movie theater concealed in a baby carriage. A twist of the knob and the device begins to emit gas. She abandons the carriage and locks the theater doors behind her as the gas begins to take effect on the unsuspecting theatergoers. They cough, then get angry and begin to fighting each other like wild animals. They scream and tear at each other, sparing no one and leaving behind a pile of bloody corpses. It seems we finally have our answer to the mystery of Finow! Ernst Mueller (Jack Conley) may have been a creepy Nazi but he wasn’t lying when he claimed the Russian soldiers had “already been torn apart” before he and his soldiers arrived on the scene. Whatever item 17 contains, it made those unlucky Russians and movie patrons tear each other apart.

More favorite moments (there were so many!):

• I won’t pat myself on the back too hard that my earlier suspicions of the Doctor proved correct; he was so shady I rewound episode 5 to make sure I hadn’t missed him hypnotizing Carter into bringing him back to the US.
• Funny that the episode opened on Ivchenko playing mental chess with a wounded soldier; wonder how he’d fair against Magneto
• “Howard Stark has never scrambled my mind or any other part of me!” Oh Peggy, you slay me!
• Bravo to Bridget Regan, who can even make buying a baby carriage effectively sinister
• All the switchboard ladies of the SSR telephone center giving a collective “ooh” at Jarvis’ claim to have a signed confession from Stark
• Hayley Atwell breaking my heart with: “just wanted a second chance at keeping him safe.”
• The moral of the story is: always look for street parking!

Peggy kisses a girl. Dottie kills the dentist. Ivchenko has a hypnotic ring.

Oh yeah, spoilers to follow.

With only two episodes left to go, Agent Carter is building toward a fairly serious implosion at SSR headquarters. The momentum of episode 6, A Sin to Err, was primarily pushing towards Carter’s ass-kicking escape from her fellow SSR agents, who have identified her as the girl in the blonde wig. After her cover was blown, things were still mostly going well for Carter – she and Jarvis took down a diner full of SSR agents in a rather jaunty fight scene, complete with punchy music. Carter used her magical combination of violence and goodwill with her co-workers to escape, headed back to her own apartment – where everyone was looking for her – and still managed to evade the authorities, thanks to some theatrics and lies from her neighbor Angie, who kept her safe.

The theme of the week seemed to be women being underestimated, unsuspected vehicles for espionage.

So, fittingly, after Carter’s multiple escapes, Dottie managed to use Carter’s knock-out lipstick formula to incapacitate her with a kiss in the hallway. I’m not sure why she first had to kiss Carter, and then try to stab her with a pointy object, except oh right I am sure because it’s television and Hayley Atwell is gorgeous. I  can’t even blame them for falling into that trope. The SSR agents show back up right as Carter falls and take her into custody, and the episode closes with Carter in cuffs.

Though this was still a solid episode, and the action and plot movements were there, I couldn’t help feel like there was a lot of mustachio-twirling silliness this week that held it back from being a stellar one.  Aside from the they-couldn’t-help-themselves-if-we-have-a-hot-spy-woman-she’ll-kiss-another-hot-spy-woman, we had:

• Pretty much every scene with Ivchenko. SSR thought they’d captured a valuable asset in Ivchenko, but it turns out he’s basically a double agent. He’s also a psychological mastermind with level 20 persuasion and a weird ring that makes people do whatever he tells them to do. So they put him in a room with a low-level redshirt for supervision. Basically, I hated all of these parts.
• Dottie killing a dentist in an office opposite of SSR so that she can point a sniper rifle at Ivchenko. But – gotcha! Instead of using the rifle, she uses its reflective light to communicate with him.
• Ivchenko uses hand signals to communicate back to her, and she goes to the trouble of writing down everything he says for the camera, in English. It says kill Peggy Carter. Dun-dun-dun.

The above is where the episode just felt a little too silly for me. Without Hayley Atwell and James D’Arcy, Agent Carter wouldn’t be half the caliber that it is, and it’s never clearer than it is in this thread.

Meanwhile, in a plot thread that could have been equally silly but ended up being my favorite of the episode, prior to her capture, Carter teams back up with Jarvis to review a full list of the women Stark has been sleeping with over the last six months, presuming at least one of them will have been a Leviathan agent bred out of the Black Widow program they discovered overseas. Because what better way to get information from Howard Stark than an attractive woman?  Jarvis is uncomfortable, Carter is disgusted – these are what these characters do best, and it’s great.

Nitpicking aside, a middling episode of Agent Carter is still a pretty damn good episode relative to its competition. Tracking tweets this week, it appears that a small campaign has emerged to drum up more interest in keeping the show around for a second season, in spite of its declining ratings.

#RenewAgentCarter. I’m still on board.

by Edie Nugent

The events of “The Blitzkrieg Button” fresh on her mind, Agent Carter distances herself from Howard Stark and reinvests herself with SSR just in time to prove her worth and lead a rollicking mission to Russia.

When Agent Carter show runners Butters and Fazekas revealed last week that newcomer Dottie Underwood (Bridget Regan) was a product of the Black Widow program, we suspected the next episode might delve into some of that back story. “The Iron Ceiling” wasted no time in doing so: opening on a flashback to Russia in 1937 that finds pre-teen Dottie among a group of young girls handcuffed to their beds in an unnamed location. We watch the future Soviet spy as she goes about her day: sharing bread with another recruit, being brainwashed by a film reel of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, then snapping the neck of her bread-buddy on command during a fighting exercise.

When 1946 Dottie’s eyes snap open it’s impossible to tell if this memory haunts or emboldens her. This makes her budding friendship with Peggy Carter (Hayley Atwell) an intriguing mystery, will she always be working against Carter or might there be a collaboration in their future? For now, Dottie plays dumb with the best of them at her lunch date with Peggy — easily swiping Carter’s room key. Was it Peggy’s brooding over her recent betrayal, or Dottie’s comment that Carter sounds “just like Captain America” that distracted her? Either way, it seems a good sign that Carter refused Dottie’s offer of half her bread roll. Carter also refuses to hear Jarvis (James D’Arcy) out when tracks her down, attempting to plead Stark’s case. He contends that Stark may be devious, but he at least appreciates her value unlike the SSR. It’s the wrong tack to take with Carter, who refuses to stake her future on a man without honor. She leaves determined to make her own luck.

Back at SSR she does just that, handily deciphering the message the Leviathan typewriter spat out at the close of last week’s episode into coordinates for a rendezvous in Belarus. The meeting concerns the purchase of something called the havok reactor for 100k: payable to Howard Stark, now officially enemy number one for all the SRR Agents, Carter now included. Emboldened, Carter doesn’t ask Chief Dooley (Shea Wigham) to go to Russia, she tells him so relating her many qualifications. This being 1946, however, her extensive European CV won’t suffice so she uses her war-time affiliation with the Howling Commandos to seal the deal.

The Commandos meet up with the SSR agents just outside Russia’s border. Among them are Dum Dum Dugan (Neal McDonough) and Jim Morita (Kenneth Choi) reprising their roles from Captain America: The First Avenger. Agent Thompson (Chad Michael Murray) is suitably impressed, but Dugan saves his awe for Carter. Finally able to speak to an officer who values her opinion, Carter divulges to Dugan that she’s pretty sure they’re walking into a trap, but is unsure what the endgame is. The coordinates put our heroes right back where the episode started: the creepy Soviet-spy school for girls that is Dottie’s alma mater. The place seems deserted, but they stumble upon one remaining little girl who Dugan mistakes as harmless just before she stabs him. Stealing Dugan’s gun, the girl kills SSR Agent Li (Eddie Shin) and escapes.

The group warily proceed through the building, finding two prisoners in a cell. One is chatty, the other quiet & seemingly insane. The chatty one claims to be a psychiatrist tasked with treating his crazy cellmate, Nikola, who is a genius with light waves. Leviathan wants him to help build a weapon from stolen Stark blueprints. The team frees them as Leviathan soldiers close in. Carter leads the escape, but not before Nikola takes a hostage and tries to negotiate with the enemy. The Doctor shoots him and a magnificent shoot-out ensues where Carter comes alive in the heat of battle which is convenient, as Agent Thompson freezes completely. This was a pretty surprising twist.

Before returning home, Carter decides to bring the Doctor with them back to SSR, which seems an odd choice. She knew the encoded message was a trap and was proved correct, so it stands to reason Leviathan planted the prisoners there to be found. The Doctor himself seems somewhat suspect in his eager affect and was all too ready to shoot Nikola. Only time will tell. Back at SSR, Carter has clearly won the respect of her fellow Agents and joins them for a long overdue post-work drink.

Meanwhile: Dottie snoops around Carter’s room, Agent Sousa (Enver Gjokaj) finally connects Carter to the Blond woman the photograph taken in the season premiere but keeps quiet and Chief Dooley does some old fashioned police work and turns up a connection between Stark, a Russian massacre and a recently dead General.

Favorite moments:

• Carter’s speech to Jarvis in the rain recalled Steve Rogers chastising Natasha Romanoff for her secret agenda in the opening scenes of Captain America: The Winter Soldier. 
• Carter blew off Jarvis, stood up to Dooley and saved Thompson’s bacon but invading the boys’ locker room in 1940’s America may have been her most impressive feat this week.
• Dottie finds Carter’s picture of Steve and it’s pre-super solider Steve! What a gal, that Peggy. Dottie also may have stolen her knockout lipstick. Can’t wait to see how she uses it.
• “Yeah, I miss him too.” Dugan, you’re all heart.
• 50 shades of Dottie? Handcuff security blanket?

NOTE: Spoilers for Agent Carter to follow

It’s not often show runners confirm fan speculation before a plot point is revealed on-screen, but that’s exactly what happened when Tara Butters and Michele Fazekas — the team behind Agent Carter — talked with Eric Goldman of IGN. In an interview posted yesterday, the dynamic duo who helm the Peggy Carter vehicle revealed that Carter’s recently introduced girl-next-door Dottie “is a product of the Black Widow Program.” While Dottie showed off some moves that recall Scarlett Johansson‘s action-spy Natasha Romanoff in last Tuesday’s fourth episode of Agent Carter, her identity had not yet been confirmed in-story.

Butters also said that Marvel Studios and Marvel TV have been pretty open to large, impactful ideas: “It is a big idea to go and say, ‘What if it’s the last remaining sample of [Captain America’s] blood and can we put that in the show? They’ve been so excited about these ideas and so supportive. Us showing Dottie as a precursor to the Black Widow Program, Captain America’s blood, these are big things in this universe that they’re willing to let us play with.”

It’s certainly possible the Black Widow connection was publicized in hopes of peaking the interest of more MCU fans by revealing the show’s intentions to connect to the films.  Despite considerable critical success, the pastiche prequel to Captain America: The Winter Solider has seen it’s ratings drop consistently since it’s two-hour premiere on January 6: from a 1.9 to a 1.3, which represents a loss of several million viewers. While Agent Carter‘s ratings are currently comparable to those of companion show Agent’s of S.H.I.E.L.D., should Carter’s numbers continue to decline, it could put hopes of a second season on ice.

NOTE: Spoilers for Agent Carter to follow

It’s not often show runners confirm fan speculation before a plot point is revealed on-screen, but that’s exactly what happened when Tara Butters and Michele Fazekas — the team behind Agent Carter — talked with Eric Goldman of IGN. In an interview posted yesterday, the dynamic duo who helm the Peggy Carter vehicle revealed that Carter’s recently introduced girl-next-door Dottie “is a product of the Black Widow Program.” While Dottie showed off some moves that recall Scarlett Johansson‘s action-spy Natasha Romanoff in last Tuesday’s fourth episode of Agent Carter, her identity had not yet been confirmed in-story.

Butters also said that Marvel Studios and Marvel TV have been pretty open to large, impactful ideas: “It is a big idea to go and say, ‘What if it’s the last remaining sample of [Captain America’s] blood and can we put that in the show? They’ve been so excited about these ideas and so supportive. Us showing Dottie as a precursor to the Black Widow Program, Captain America’s blood, these are big things in this universe that they’re willing to let us play with.”

It’s certainly possible the Black Widow connection was publicized in hopes of peaking the interest of more MCU fans by revealing the show’s intentions to connect to the films.  Despite considerable critical success, the pastiche prequel to Captain America: The Winter Solider has seen it’s ratings drop consistently since it’s two-hour premiere on January 6: from a 1.9 to a 1.3, which represents a loss of several million viewers. While Agent Carter‘s ratings are currently comparable to those of companion show Agent’s of S.H.I.E.L.D., should Carter’s numbers continue to decline, it could put hopes of a second season on ice.

“The Blitzkrieg Button,” Agent Carter‘s fourth episode and mid-way point, may have actually been the beginning of the series’ true arc and end game.

After a fairly eventful season premiere, the show has been stuck in a combination of logistical battles and character development. Between episodes two and three, Carter and Jarvis go on a series of fetch-quests and authority ducking missions to track down the “bad babies,” dangerous weapons and inventions that Howard Stark says were stolen from him, and learn vague information about a Russian big-bad known as Leviathan. By the start of episode four, Stark is still suspected of treason against the United States for selling dangerous weapons on the black market; the only difference is that these inventions have been recovered.

This brings us to “The Blitzkrieg Button,” and kicks off what feels like the first glimpse at the show’s most important thread.

Now that Stark’s weapons are back, so is he. Popping in on Carter unexpectedly, he explains that he needs her to retrieve a device from SSR that he refers to as the Blitzkrieg Button, which he says will wipe out an entire city’s power. Though she is frequently underestimated, Carter’s no idiot – she can tell Stark is hiding something and wouldn’t have returned for a light switch. After pumping Jarvis for information (more on this in a minute…) she learns there is more to the device than Stark explained, and activates it herself, finding a vial of Captain America’s blood inside.

Though Agent Carter has shown us all along that our hero will not find respect in her line of work or era, it’s never been clearer than it is here. Agent Thompson tells it to her straight: Carter will never be considered an equal in their office. But outside of the office, she’s trusted Stark up to this point to give her more purpose, only to find out that she’s been used. Carter lashes out at him for lying, leading to the show’s best scene to date. Stark brushes off the lying as a bad habit and claims he’s using the blood to research its medicinal value, like vaccines and cures. Carter’s response buries him: “I think you are a man out for his own gain no matter who you are charging. You are constantly finding holes to slither your way into in the hope of finding loose change, only to cry when you are bitten by another snake.”

And although Stark is unlikely to end up completely in the villain corner, it seems like he’s complicit in a much larger issue. Chief Dooley follows a trail of clues to Nuremburg to speak to a Nazi named Mueller who has information on the Russians working for Leviathan. Dooley learns that the “Battle at Finow,” where the Russian Leviathan agents supposedly died, never took place – the Nazis only found piles of ripped and mauled bodies, already massacred in some other way. The SSR also learns Stark flew into Finow the day after this alleged battle.

OK, so if you’re keeping score – everything important in this episode revolves around one vial of blood. In the Marvel Cinematic Universe, though it was implied that HYDRA was responsible for turning Bucky Barnes into the Winter Soldier, it’s never been explicit. We’re still in theory-only territory here, but I’m hedging my bets on all of these events leading up to either the revelation of the Winter Soldier’s creation or the beginning of it via Leviathan. It would be a nice tie-in to present-day events, and with the involvement of Captain America writers Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely, it would also make sense. We’ll see how that theory pans out over the remaining four episodes.

Some other items to chew on:

– Dottie, Carter’s friendly next-door-neighbor, is apparently an agent of some kind. Not a completely shocking turn, but an interesting one. That reminds me of someone else who had a next-door-neighbor who he thought was just a regular gal, but then it turned out she was an agent…

– Carter tries to get information on the Blitzkrieg Button from Jarvis, and notices that he tugs at his ear every time he states a fact that is untrue. Carter chalks this up to a poker tell, but my initial take on this was that Jarvis was intentionally hinting to her.  The tugging was just so… obvious? Then again, Jarvis isn’t super smooth.

– Agent Thompson is starting to get a little more personality. Some of Carter’s co-workers feel like caricatures, but I think his character might be one of the most realistic. He behaves like a man of the times but also seems to understand and have a bit of empathy for his co-workers, helping them in small and private moments.

– Agent Sousa, on the other hand, is just a little too good to be true. Too good, as in, I feel like he’s probably a double agent kind of too good?

by Edie Nugent

If Marvel was hoping Agent Carter would improve on its ratings from last week’s 2-episode season premiere, they must be somewhat disappointed this morning. While Agent Carter still snagged second place behind NBC’s Parks and Recreation, it’s ratings are still down 21 percent from last week.  Marvel should be interested in more than just ratings, as the show has received considerable critical acclaim.

Agent Carter opens with a summary of last week’s events and the show’s premise: Peggy Carter (Hayley Atwell)  lost “the love of her life” when Captain America’s plane went down in the Arctic. It also mentions how Carter fought side by side with Cap during WWII only to be demoted to answering phones when the war ended. It’s a nice callback to the displacement many women who joined the workforce during WWII suffered in postwar America.

“Time and Tide” builds off of last weeks’ two part premiere and finds Agent Carter confronting the beau of her neighbor Molly (Laura Coover) as he attempts to pull a Montague by climbing to her windowsill. He finds the end of Carter’s gun instead, and shakily apologizes for choosing the wrong window. These antics get Molly kicked out of the women-only Griffith housing block the following day, making way for Dottie Underwood (Bridget Regan) who Carter ignores but seems as if she may come to be important to the series.

The attempted break-in reminds Carter of another, more successful break-in: the heist that saw Howard Stark’s “bad babies” taken from his vault. Here this episode subverted my expectations: I assumed the pursuit of Stark’s dangerous inventions would lead to a bad baby of-the-week style plot. It was a pleasant surprise when Carter doubled back to Stark mansion to do some good old detective work, exploring how the tech was stolen in hopes of revealing more about who took it and why.

Before she can fully explore the sewers beneath the vault, however, the SSR’s Agent Thompson (Chad Michael Murray) appears at the door & questions Jarvis about the license plate to Stark’s car found at the implosion site of the Roxxon plant. Carter hides herself while Jarvis claims the car was stolen and that he filed a police report. Thompson drags Jarvis to SSR headquarters for questioning where he threatens to reveal Jarvis’ dishonorable discharge for treason. Now back at SSR, Carter plays dumb: telling Thompson she’s found the police report the SSR pretended to “lose” on Stark’s stolen car within earshot of Jarvis – forcing them to release him. This serves to confirm the SSR’s suspicions of her incompetence, and she receives a public dressing-down from Chief Dooley (Shea Wigham).

It was a nice touch to see Carter shaken by this experience, which reflects well on her character: SSR may be a cover job that condescends to her regularly, but it’s still something she takes pride in. It doesn’t slow her down, though, and on her return to Stark mansion she deduces that the sewer floodgates beneath it’s vault provided the smuggler’s route. Sure enough they discover a tug boat moored right outside of the sewer floodgate flying a flag bearing the symbol we saw scrawled in the dirt by Leet Brannis (James Frain) before he died last week.

Upon inspection of the boat, they discover a large cache of Stark’s bad babies. While Jarvis calls it in to SSR, Carter is set upon by a thug presumably garding the boat and engages in a fabulous fight scene where she takes as many punches as she throws before Jarvis hits the thug in the arm with a muscle-contracting invention of Stark’s. Sirens wail in the background and Carter & Jarvis flee the scene. The SSR team arrive and Agent Krezminski (Kyle Bornheimer) is tasked to bring the thug back to headquarters. On that drive, the thug reveals to Krezminski that an “English broad” is responsible for his beating. This seems to seal the Agent’s fate; only moments later an unidentified hitman kills both the thug and the Agent.

A somber workplace greets Carter the following day, with the SSR now pledged to pin both the Roxxon destruction and the killing of Kresminski on Howard Stark. “Time and Tide” is a tightly written and compelling episode of Agent Carter. A great deal of the show’s appeal is how it continues to function on three levels. You have the hardboiled cop-style narrative of the SSR Agents, contrasted with the spy-thriller of Carter and Jarvis’ adventures, set against the lives of Peggy and her roommate Angie: women empowered during WWII searching for their place post-war. I find myself wishing we had more than just 5 episodes left. We can only hope that Marvel and ABC see Agent Carter’s value in more than Nielsen’s ratings and grant it a second season.

Favorite moments:

• “Mr. Stark would trust a shark not to bite him if it was wearing a short enough skirt”
• Jarvis’ house husband by-day, Agent by-night routine is a lovely play against gender expectations
• The back-story on Jarvis’ treason to save his Jewish wife following the war was lovely

What do you think of this week’s Agent Carter? Let us know in the comments!

§

Coming soon! The next edition of @SpEditionNYC… #StayTuned #SENYC #comicbooks #NYC #comics pic.twitter.com/A7dTN4lYMQ

— Special Edition: NYC (@SpEditionNYC) January 8, 2015

Just a reminder coming on yesterday announcement of ECCC being acquired by ReedPOP, that Special Edition is coming back, the smaller artist focused NYC show. Date is TK.

§ Retailer Brian Hibbs wrote in the other day to chide me and another prominent comics writer for not linking to his latest column for CBR, entitled Too Much Competition. The column features dark warnings as well as a lot of charts. Hibbs’ central thesis is that there are just too many comics books, and the sheer volume is what is driving down sales.

We’ve at very least doubled, and maybe as much as quadrupled, the number of titles produced each month, so it shouldn’t be any major surprise that circulations have dropped by 50-75%. The real answer, most of the time, to “Why didn’t the market support [your favorite comic]?!?” is “There is too much competition!” I’ve been struggling with a way to really drive this message home, because this title growth has kind of been incremental over the life of the Direct Market and so is maybe less obvious than it could be. So, perhaps, the way to discuss it is in terms of consumer behavior, and the ordering mechanism.

Hibbs does the math, offering charts for all publishers that shows how many of their books in November had no order, which had a moderate number of copies ordered, which had a lot, and how subs do or don’t fit in. Hibbs makes a good case that there is too much dross out there—and despite this being a Golden Age of Comics, few would argue that we need a little trim. He also offers a clear explanation of something that every comics creator or publisher I have hung out with for more than 15 minutes has complained about for the last 25 years: that not ordering shelf copies of books means that no one will ever discover them on the shelf. The world of pre-ordering has been criticized here and elsewhere ad nauseum but it’s how things are done.  The economics don’t support a shelf copy, Hibbs says.

You’re going to see a lot of crazy low numbers, so I want to reiterate what I said earlier — retailers are committed to selling as many comics to as many people as possible. I know I am! There are, at least, fifteen publishers of which I try to stock one hundred percent of their new launches until the market shows me that it is futile. We have hundreds of customers coming in each and every month, and more than half the comics coming into my store can not sell three rack copies. That’s pretty sobering. Three copies is an important line because that’s the point where the math against having any unsold copies starts to work against you. Order four, don’t sell one, well, at 75% sell-through you, at least, haven’t lost money. Order three and only sell two? Then you’re probably, after costs, losing a few pennies. You don’t want to lose money on products in retail; that’s not your winning formula.

My little alarm bell went off a bit on this piece when Hibbs referenced Comico, which stopped publishing 25 years ago—NOTHING has the exact same business model as it did 25 years ago!—but it’s a sobering reminder for publishers that a lot of books aren’t ever going to cut it in Brian Hibbs stores, and looking at the numbers, they probably don’t make much money.

In the comments, people ask “Then why to these books get published?” and Hibbs suggest many reasons including market share. I’d also allow that other shops may have oddball customers who happen to like some of the books Hibbs can’t give way.  As long as we’re using the long ago past to reference the present, those who read Krause’s Comics & Games Retailer may recall the monthly retailer surveys that ran in every issue, and how one comic sold here another there. Sure there are Sagas and Harley Quinns that sell everywhere, but marginal titles depend on marginal audiences.

§ A new Teen Boat book is coming from John Green And Dave Roman! Teen Boat! The Race for Boatlantis! Huzzah!

§ Josie Campbell has a fine historical piece here looking at how “Agent Carter”  deals with real world history and the role of women: 

“Agent Carter” is a superhero show about the postwar erasure of women from American culture — which is incredibly fitting, as after World War II the comics industry erased women on the page and behind the scenes. As a comics community, we need to address the fact that women in comics is not a new occurrence. Women have been here since day one, a fact that is often ignored because this postwar erasure of women from our culture worked so well.

I’d agree this aspect of the show is a pleasant surprise.

§ At ScreenCrush, Matt Singer offers The Complete History of Comic-Book Movies, which sounds like a lifetime project, but starts off with the Captain Marvel movie serial. More actual history! Nice.

This Bizarro World is a long way from the 1940s, when comic-book superheroes first transitioned to the big-screen as the subjects of serials. These series of episodic shorts were often cheaply made and sometimes shockingly unfaithful to their source material. Comics were ahead of their time, at least at the movie theater; too adventurous and imaginative to be accurately reproduced with the tools of the day. As technology improved, so did the comic-book movies, leading to a series of watershed films—‘Superman,’ ‘Batman,’ ‘X-Men’—that reshaped the entire industry. How did we get there? All superheroes have an origin story. So do comic-book movies. This column will attempt to find it, one film at a time.

It is popular now to say that Guardians of the Galaxy was a risky movie and everyone thought it would suck until it turned out to be the biggest movie of the year but…from the first time they showed the footage at San Diego, it looked like EXACTLY what it was. A big SF actioner with heart, a quirky sensibility and actual humor. It was still risky because no one know who Starlord was, but the movie always looked like a fun ride.

And now we have the distant drumming of Ant-Man’s july debut coming from over the hill, with all sorts of promo pieces landing yesterday. The pig with the apple in its mouth of this particular banquet was the trailer.  If you’ve been following the Ant-Man saga at all you know this is probably the most troubled MCU movie, with the project starting under director Edgar Wright, who developed it for eight years or so before parting ways with Marvel a few months into production over creative difficulties. It seemed that for eight years, no one had noticed that Wright wanted to make an Edgar Wright movie, while Kevin Feige wanted to make a Marvel movie. Even with new director Peyton Reed, some vestiges of the Wright version remain—funny man Paul Rudd is in the title role, and the movie is still about a guy who gets very tiny, which is funny.

But the trailer delivered was…well, I thought it was awful.  All the generic trappings that are the worst part of the MCU—gotta be a hero talk from an older white man, in this case Michael Douglas, a winsome child to motivate the hero, and the hero himself looking anxiously into a darkening sky. And then, to show that it is silly after all, Rudd delivering what is sort of a funny line but with a listless demeanor.

This was no GotG trailer, sorry. And a lot of people have been saying the first trailer is always dark and brooding, and that’s so. I’m sure the humor will be saved for later trailers, because, as Guardians showed, no one wants to see a humorous Marvel movie starring a hilarious actor as a hero with weird powers.

Like I said, I’m sure I’ll be proven wrong, and I retain an open mind.

Luckily, even if the trailer lacked the humor I required, people on twitter were there to supply what I craved!

“He’s the tiny dude riding an ant we deserve, but not the one we need right now. So we’ll hunt him. With some glue traps maybe.”

— Glen Weldon (@ghweldon) January 7, 2015

“Oh no! Yellowjacket’s put the kettle on! We’ve only got two minutes to escape!” — Steve Morris (@stevewmorris) January 6, 2015

“Oh Ant-Man, we’re stuck! Ultron’s laid a line of talcum powder across the entrance to his base!”

— Steve Morris (@stevewmorris) January 6, 2015

Plus it seems Paul Rudd got mad fit for the role.

Speaking of mad fit…Agent Carter. I forgot to DVR his so only saw the last hour and only paid half attention while I tried to knock off a few levels of Bubble Witch Saga 2. But Hayley Atwell is both super fit and super can do, and it was nice to see a heroine who is just as dedicated and driven as a Marvel guy hero. I liked her banter with Jarvis. I did not like it when occasional beat contributor James Urbaniak, assaying his usual “creepy doctor guy in a lab coat” role, was smacked repeatedly in the face, but I guess he’s a bad guy and that’s what happens. Anyway, Hannah Lodge will be around with more pertinent thoughts in a bit.

Marvel’s 8-episode run of Agent Carter kicked off last night with a 2-hour premiere, unveiling a tight cast of characters, punch in its dialogue, and a dash of panache peppered in each step.

Though the first episode had to address the elephant in the room for any Captain America fan – Steve Rogers’ assumed death – the note is far less somber and grim that might be expected. Carter grieves, but she’s also doing her best to keep a stiff upper lip and move on, which seems nearly impossible given the constant reminders of her fallen soldier from her colleagues and the radio airwaves.

Relegated to answering phones and filing paperwork, Carter’s importance in the war and her role going forward is marginalized by the men who are returning from war. She shares a tiny studio apartment with a friend. A close acquaintance of hers, Howard Stark, is also being accused of selling dangerous weapons on the black market to foes of the United States.

Basically, things aren’t going well.

When Stark and his butler, Jarvis, approach Carter and ask her to help locate the person responsible for stealing the weapons and selling them, Carter agrees. Cue: blonde wig, fabulous party, Bond-like gadgets, and general espionage as Carter locates the newest weapon to hit the black market and attempts to destroy it.

The show’s primary strength is, of course, Agent Carter herself – Hayley Atwell. Atwell’s acting skills are leagues beyond the majority of her counterparts in sibling show Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. and can carry the series with a much smaller, tighter ensemble as a result. Her physical strength and fight scenes are coordinated in a way that feels completely believable, and Atwell pulls off Carter’s sassy and snappy dialogue in a way that still manages to make the character likable. James D’Arcy as Edwin Jarvis was also a refreshing surprise. Rather than an Alfred-style, all-knowing guru, Jarvis is eager but green in his attempts to assist Carter, often putting him in the position of Carter’s likable protege.

The secondary strength of Agent Carter’s premiere is that it is largely exploring new ground with Peggy Carter. Absent are the visual cues crammed into a show like Gotham, which spent an inordinate portion of its premiere hitting viewers over the head with connections to existing material. It’s a show that feels vastly more like a period piece than a comic book property, which is to the show’s benefit; after Gotham, Arrow, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., and The Flash, this approach helps to differentiate the show from its predecessors. In a word: Agent Carter is stylish, both in the way it’s shot and costumed and how it quietly steps around common tropes.

At this point in the game it may be too early to judge the show’s villain, but things on that end feel a bit murky. Carter hunts down several men who tell her that “Leviathan” is behind the recent thefts (from the Jonathan Hickman-written Secret Warriors). At first glance, it feels like Leviathan will play out as the identical twin of Hydra, just dressed a bit differently. So far the Leviathan agents Carter encounters have all had their voice boxes removed, which is an interesting trademark, but after following the events of Hydra so closely on Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., it’s hard not to worry that this villain will feel a bit redundant.

On the whole, this is the most promising series premiere of the current crop of comic shows on air. Trimming down the cast to rely on a few really solid, high-quality actors and reducing the number of episodes for the season to cut out the filler and stand-alone stories keeps the show taut, suspenseful and interesting.

Favorite moments:

• Carter takes the stairs and gracefully bashes James Urbaniak with a briefcase
• “Crikey O’Riley”
• Bubbles from The Wire (!)
• Jarvis runs to open Carter’s door; “Too late!”

Are we alone in our love for this new show? Let’s hear what you think!

The time has come: After fans watched Hayley Atwell tweet for months about accidentally punching her co-stars in production, Agent Carter‘s 8-episode run kicks off tonight with a 2 hour premiere on ABC, starting at 8 p.m. Eastern time.

Picking up where Captain America: The First Avenger left off, Agent Carter centers on Peggy Carter’s work for the Strategic Scientific Reserve and her attempt to help friend Howard Stark (Dominic Cooper), who is being framed for dealing weapons to U.S. enemies. More than that, the show will also focus on the difficulty of Carter working in a male-dominated field, particularly in the 1940s when men are returning home from the war. It’s a timely a premise as ever in the comics industry and for Marvel, given the recent flack Kevin Feige caught for the lack of a solo Black Widow movie and the studio’s decision to release a Captain Marvel movie in 2018.

Early reviews of the two-hour premiere are mostly positive, with a broad consensus that Atwell is the jewel in the show’s crown and some slight concerns about the plot’s direction. With only an 8-episode order to start with, however, the show is already on a firmer footing than its sibling, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D, which arguably suffers from the challenge of fulfilling a 22-episode season and hurts the show’s overall arc.

Early buzz:

“A lot of Agent Carter’s kick come from its setting, with its automats and Captain America Adventure Program radio shows. The series takes advantage of the period on the technical side, going all in with the shadowy lighting and softened color-tones. But its greatest asset is Atwell, who takes a character that Marvel Comics has never really done much with before and makes it her own.” – AV Club, Noel Murray

“Who knew the solution to Marvel’s problem was to turn the clock back rather than forward — and turn the spotlight over to a British woman? By setting the story in 1946, this new short-run series immediately gets a snappy, well-tailored, Hollywood-glamour look that separates it from most of TV’s offerings.” – USA Today, Robert Bianco

“The first hour suffers from a few Marvel Inc. tropes. Somebody named Stark invented something dangerous; everyone wants an All-Important Glowing Thing; there’s an implicit promise that nothing will be solved for weeks/years to come.” – Entertainment Weekly, Darren Franich

Along with Atwell and Cooper, Agent Carter features James D’Arcy as Edwin Jarvis, Chad Michael Murray as Jack Thompson, and Lyndsy Fonesca as Angie Martinelli.

Check back tomorrow for our review of the show’s premiere episode, which was penned by Captain America: The First Avenger writers Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely.

A peaceful fun-filled night of friends relaxing with a few drinks and playing with Thor’s hammer turns to TERROR in extra Avengers: Age of Ultron footage shown after Agents of SHIELD last night. Just watch.

BTW, it now has been confirmed that despite some 30 superhero movies on the docket, not one of them is a Hulk stand-a-lone. As shown thus far, Mark Ruffalo’s rather humorous Hulk seems more like a soupçon, a spicy garnish, and not the center of a whole film. Do we really need to see a whole movie about Bruce Banner looking sad after he’s accidentally smashed someone he loves to bits? No.

Meanwhile, the first ad for Agent Carter, an 8-episode winter event has been released:

#AgentCarter is coming to ABC Tuesdays this January. https://t.co/SjrLrVABgM

— Agent Carter (@AgentCarterTV) October 29, 2014

Silk Stalkings? The show stars Hayley Atwell as a WWII era super spy. She pals around with Howard Stark (Dominic Cooper) and has a BFF played by Lyndsy Fonseca.

It should be noted that Agent Carter is actually the first female-led comic book spin-off to appear in the “modern” (post MCU) Era, and as such it will be highly scrutinized.

By Edie Nugent

The cast of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Photo Credit: ABC.Marvel Studios

If the response from the fans at NYCC is anything to go by, Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. should delight viewers with “Face My Enemy,” the fourth episode of season two. Nearly 3,000 people lined up in advance of the Friday night screening to obtain bracelets allowing them to get an early look at the episode which airs tonight at 9pm on ABC. Once the doors closed to the exhibition hall, it wasn’t long before Jeff Loeb-Marvel’s Head of Television-stepped onto the stage. The fan response to the Eisner-award winning writer was warm, with extended applause from the crowd.

Loeb seemed genuinely excited to introduce the NYCC exclusive premiere of the episode, explaining that around the Marvel offices the Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. franchise is referred to as “The Mothership.” When he expressed how proud he was that the show made it to a second season-something the show’s lackluster first season ratings in no way guaranteed-the cheering reached its’ zenith.

Loeb took full advantage of the atmosphere, saying “one of the things I hope that you learn about season one is, let’s put it this way: anyone can be Hydra.” Loeb opened his button-down shirt to reveal a Hydra logo-tee underneath. The audience booed and moaned, but their disapproval was short-lived. Actor Clark Gregg quickly jumped on stage and began yanking at Loeb’s shirt in disgust. The booing quickly turned to cheering as fans jumped to their feet to give the man who portrays fan-favorite Agent Coulson a standing ovation. Some even stood on their chairs and began a sweeping chant of “Coulson! Coulson!”

Gregg appeared to be humbled by the adulation. Loeb agreed with the response, saying: “the reason why we are here, the reason why there is an Agents of S.H.E.I.L.D. is because of the extraordinary talent of our friend Clark Gregg.” The actor shouted: “It’s good to be alive!” Whether he was speaking of his resurrection in Agents of S.H.E.I.L.D., his adoring fan base, or both was unclear. Gregg went on to thank his fans for sending emails and messages in support of his character following Agent Coulson’s death in Marvel’s The Avengers (2012).

Gregg revealed that when Loeb announced he’d be attending NYCC, Gregg begged to tag along. He explained that the announcement from “Jeff and Joss” that Coulson “wasn’t quite dead” was made at NYCC two years earlier, giving him a special feeling about the con. Gregg continued: “I love New York, I love this con…and my feelings have only gotten warmer because this is where I was resurrected.”

Gregg playfully teased Loeb for his Hydra t-shirt, prompting Loeb to offer to “make it up” to Gregg by showing “Face My Enemy” in its entirety to the crowd. As the episode played, the eager audience seemed to embrace the story at every turn, applauding when Agents May (Ming-Na Wen) and Coulson appeared on-screen. The episode continues SHEILD’s efforts to understand the strange carvings that both deceased Agent Garrett (Bill Paxton) and Agent Coulson created following their exposure to GH-325-the mysterious drug that brought Coulson back to life.

The audience reaction was one of deep emotional investment, by turns exuberant, amused, and-near the end of the episode-shocked. When Gregg and Loeb returned to the stage following the end credits, Loeb noted the crowd’s reaction and said: “I have to thank you, Clark and I were sitting back stage and your response to that was just extraordinary.” He also gave a shout-out to veteran television writer Drew Greenberg, of Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Smallville fame, who penned the episode.

Gregg pestered Loeb further, asking “can we show them something from Agent Carter?” The resounding cheers spurred Loeb to comment that the series, had only begun shooting earlier that week. Agent Carter follows the life of Peggy Carter (Hayley Atwell), founder of S.H.E.I.L.D, last seen in Marvel’s Captain America: The Winter Solider (2014). Gregg then produced a CD allegedly containing some of the shows early footage. Moments later a short clip appeared on screen, which found Carter partnering with Howard Stark (Dominic Cooper), inventor, father of Iron Man Tony Stark & founder of Stark Industries. The teaser also saw Carter’s introduction to Edwin Jarvis (James D’Arcy), butler to the Stark family and inspiration for Tony’s Starks’ invention of J.A.R.V.I.S. Artificial Intelligence.

“Face My Enemy” premieres tonight, but fans will have to wait until January 2015 to see the premiere of Agent Carter. While the audience reaction to the early footage was overwhelmingly positive, whether Marvel Television can keep fans engaged and tuning into both of their S.H.E.I.L.D-based shows remains to be seen.

The Month of the Women continues as an Agent Carter mini series has been announced by Kathryn Immonen and Rich Ellis. OPERATION S.I.N. spins out of Original Sin with an untold story in the origin of Peggy Carter, Howard Stark and Woodrow McCord.

One of Immonen’s first works was the fine graphic novel Moving Pictures, which was set suring World War II and involved one woman’s attempts to save art from the war, so she’s well versed in the time frame.

With a trailer for the Agent Carter TV series debuting to a good reception, obviously the timing if good for this. Plus, amazing Michael Komark cover with always cool Gabriel Hardman variant cover add to “all good” vibe.

A new terrorist splinter group named Hydra is on the hunt, seeking the alien technology for their own sinister purposes. It’s only when a mysterious operative named Woodrow McCord enters the picture that Peggy and Howard will see just how far some people will go to keep Earth safe from harm. But is he there to aid Peggy and Howard? Or to stop them?

“To me, there was no one else that could handle this story with as much finesse and style as Kathryn and Rich,” says series editor Jon Moisan, in an interview with Marvel.com. “There was no one else in my mind that would write it as well as Kathryn.”

Explore Marvel history like you’ve never seen it before as Peggy Carter, Howard Stark and Woodrow McCord do battle against the rising forces of Hydra. The Cold War spy espionage adventure kicks off this when OPERATION S.I.N. #1 explodes into comic shops and digital devices this January! 

OPERATION S.I.N. #1 (of 5)
Written by KATHRYN IMMONEN

Art by RICH ELLIS
Cover by MICHAEL KOMARK
Variant Cover by GABRIEL HARDMAN
On Sale in January!

OPERATION S.I.N.