Marvels Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.

First off, yes... it has been a long time since my last post. Ok, a very long time. I really don't have a very good excuse, other than...well... life, it happens.

So, here are my thoughts on "Marvels Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D." after the second episode. I have to say I am loving this series so far.

In the premier episode, They did a great job of introducing all the character that will make up this new team, as well as created a plausible reason for the return of Agent Phil Coulson (Clark Gregg), while still creating just enough mystery. There is obviously more to the story. It was just nice to see the character back. He was and still is a nice bit of comic relief in this comic book universe.

All the other members of the team look interesting and I am looking forward to watching them all grow, as we learn more about them. Brett Dalton as Agent Grant Ward, the team's Black Op's guy is great at getting the job done, but doesn't play well with others. Specialists Leo Fitz (Iain De Caetecker) and Jemma Simmons (Elizabeth Henstridge) are fantastic as the teams tech experts and Ming-Na Wen as Agent Melinda May was just the right touch of cool, bad ass and mysterious. I am not sure where the character of Skye, played by Chloe Bennet is going. She is this Hacker obsessed with "superheroes" that they hunt down to find a super powered mystery man. She is invited to join the team at the end of the first episode. I guess every series needs an "every person" to represent the audience.

There were many nice tips of the hat to events in the Marvel Universe, as well as cool cameo's from Ron Glass (Firefly & Serenity) as Dr. Streiten and Cobie Smulders as Agent Maria Hill. The best part was the end of the episode with Agent Coulson's Car "Lola". What would a show about S.H.I.E.L.D. be without the very coolest spy gadget they have, a flying car! Comic book geeks the world around were giggling like school girls.

The second episode was a nice fast paced episode. The team is responding to to a 0-8-4 (Object of Unknown Origin, I think.) and on their way to Peru. They recover the device, a piece of tech left over by a HYDRA scientist who fled there after World War II,  powered by Tesseract Energy. The team comes under fire and with the assistance of an old friend and former ally of Agent Coulson, Camilla Reyes (played by Leonor Varela) they escape on their mobile base of operations, the cool specially outfitted cargo jet introduced in the first episode nicknamed "The Bus". Once airborne the team is arguing about what happened, meanwhile they get double crossed and their aircraft gets taken over. The team has to come together to re-take the plane and save the day. The episode ends with a great cameo from Samuel L. Jackson as Nick Fury, and a little teaser that there is more to Skye and her recruitment to the team than meets the eye.

All in all I am really enjoying the series so far. It seems to be just the right amount of cool spy stuff and comic book stuff, with a healthy pinch of the Marvel Universe thrown in to keep the continuity. I look forward to the rest of the season.