We ’re less than two months away from engender to see the young Captain America flick which is another major turning point for the unrecorded - action Marvel Universe . But one thing is already certain : If Civil War does n’t recognise Agents of SHIELD , this movie ’s bedevil away an chance . [ Update : It turns out they ’re definitely confound away an opportunity . See below . ]
Minor spoilers ahead …
Two years ago , Agents of SHIELD was all about playing around with the events of Captain America : The Winter Soldier which in turn throw in a couple of Agents of SHIELD easter eggs . In fact , the whole plot line of Agents of SHIELD time of year one was gear toward the event of the 2d Captain America movie . Because the plot of The Winter Soldier included the reveal that SHIELD had been taken over by the evil Nazi superscience organization Hydra , Agents of SHIELD was ineffective to move forward with its plot line until Winter Soldier came out and various shoes were allowed to drop . This lead to months of hold up tactics .
But now , the shoe is on the other foot . ( The carapace is on the other arm ? ) Now it ’s Agents of SHIELD that has put the next Captain America movie in a bit of box . And unless Captain America 3 give some energy to picking up the plot line from Agents of SHIELD , then the new Captain America moving-picture show is squander a huge chance to do something direction more cool .
I was conceive about this when I was watching the midseason of Agents of SHIELD which air tonight . It ’s pretty right , by the elbow room . Like a lot of the premieres on this show , it ’s not my favorite episode by any means , because it ’s mostly setup . But there are plenty of reminder why this show has become essential viewing since it finally broke out of the box that Winter Soldier had shove it in .
And one of the main plot of land on Agents of SHIELD right now involves the Inhumans — who are sort of mutation , except that their mutant powers are activated via Terrigen crystals . At the end of season two , a clump of Terrigen crystallization were dump in the ocean , and now humans who eat fish or take Pisces - oil colour pill have a non - trivial chance of undergo a transformation and becoming an cold-blooded , over with great power and stuff and nonsense . As a result , the universe of superpowered people is increasing dramatically , and Inhumans will presently be a square nonage of the population .
A stack of the activeness on Agents of SHIELD has to do with seek to contain or assure this trade name Modern superhuman universe . And of course , Hydra has its own plan for these Inhumans .
Meanwhile , the plot of Captain America : Civil War , as virtually as we can tell , is about theSokovia Accords , in which the Avengers ( Earth ’s best super - team ) is put under the ascendancy of some variety of governing authority . Because you ca n’t have people with so much baron run around unregulated . Civil War is very in spades not lifting the secret plan from the comedian crossing of the same name , in which Congress passes the Superhuman Registration Act , requiring everyone with world power to file with the government . And yet , the basic idea is the same — with with child power should get along large oversight .
We already be intimate that when Civil War strike theatre of operations , Agents of SHIELD will have an installment that shows how the events of the movie move SHIELD . ( It ’ll be another shakeup , accord to Clark Gregg . ) But this time , the crossing over should definitely go both agency , or Civil War will risk looking kind of unaccented .
Because once you make out that there are hundreds , maybe G of people with power run around unaccounted for , that raises the stakes for Civil War tremendously , in an constitutive style . Civil War can be about Thaddeus “ Thunderbolt ” Ross worrying only about a tiny handful of people , who are mostly ex - soldiers and x - secret agent , or it can be about Ross and his people have a concern about superpowered people in worldwide . And in that scenario , the Avengers are just the most seeable and highly skilled tip of the iceberg . Which one voice more interesting to you ?
In tonight ’s Agents of SHIELD time of year premiere , we ’re told that the proliferation of Inhumans has reached the percentage point where Fox News is babble about it non - stop . So this is a known problem in the resilient - action Marvel Universe at this point , and it actually seems uncanny for Ross to devote so much time and attention to half a 12 former soldier .
And sure , you could reason that Captain America , Hawkeye , Black Widow , the Falcon and War Machine could do more damage precisely because they ’re all either ex - military or X - SHIELD , and they have training and field experience in addition to their force . But those five Avengers also have dossier as thick as a Dagwood sandwich , and you’re able to predict their action . Unlike the Inhumans , who are mostly not bang quantities .
So like I say — the more Civil War talks about the growing problem of Inhumans run rearing everywhere , and the menace of random superpowered people in every community , the stronger the administration ’s motivation becomes to get the Avengers on a leash . And it seems kind of eldritch when you have a flood of superhumans , to vex about a few stray droplet .
So will Civil War acknowledge the much prominent trouble of massive numbers of Inhumans , many of them with power that rival the Avengers ? in all probability not . Either there will be a throwaway line of work of dialogue at some point , where somebody say “ we already have our hands full with this Inhuman plague , fer criminy ’s sake , ” or — more likely — it’ll just be ignored outright .
Update : seemingly on the set of Civil War , someone asked about the Inhumans storyline in Agents of SHIELD , and Civil War ’s writers had no idea what they were even sing about , harmonise to HitFix . ( Thanks , Craig ! ) So there definitely wo n’t be any reference to this in the picture show .
And that ’s too bad . Because not only is Civil War a lot more interesting if it send for back to all the hooey that ’s been happening on Agents of SHIELD — but this would also help to fix the much larger problem with Marvel ’s Cinematic Universe .
When you have a multi - media shared universe ( moving-picture show , TV , etc . ) , all that continuity can be a drag as well as a bread and butter structure . Over metre , unless the crossover voter veer both mode , you actually weaken the cornerstone of the movie . Because the movies start to finger disconnected from the rest of the macrocosm , and this could in reality make the motion picture more claustrophobic . Smaller , even .
This can happen in two room . First of all , the more film we have where Tony Stark obsesses about Steve Rogers and Steve Rogers obsesses about Tony Stark , the more curt - sight both heroes start to seem . Oh no , Tony built a killer golem , and Steve has to deal with it ! Oh no , Tony cut a deal with the government to throttle the Avengers , and Steve has to fight against it ! Etc . etc . All these guys ever do is worry about each other . Other Heron have material problems to get by with , but whatever . Tony and Steve .
And then there ’s the phenomenon which scientists * call the Stakenflatening . That ’s where every bad Marvel picture show has to keep increasing its stakes over time , so that every film is a huge crossover among the same seven or eight mass , and there are bigger and bigger explosions . But meanwhile , there are all these story happening in other media , which are in reality more interesting because they ’re not just monolithic explosions involving the Hulk meeting Thor or whatever . And peradventure , hoi polloi take up to wonder why the Hulk and Thor ca n’t have such fascinating escapade .
And here ’s the thing — maybe mass who go to see Civil War have n’t attend Agents of SHIELD since the start of season one , when it was more popular . ( So they wo n’t even marvel why nobody ’s name the Inhumans . ) But maybe those people have seen Daredevil , or Jessica Jones , or Agent Carter . When they see Iron Man zooming over New York , they eff one path or another that the really mind - blow tinker’s dam is happening down there , at street level , and Iron Man is missing out on it . The most interesting villains , and the scariest plots , are come about under Iron Man ’s nose .
The larger point I ’m making is this : I ’m mindful there ’s a hierarchy with media prop . And moving-picture show star Robert Downey Jr. are more “ important ” than TV display starring Clark Gregg and Ming - Na Wen . So if there ’s go to be any acknowledgement or shared gene linkage , it ’s work to flow upwards , not downwards . But Marvel chose to have a shared world , in which everything on boob tube theoretically “ happened ” for the pic character — and over time , that ’s going to be a bigger and bigger problem , as the TV clobber proliferates and gets more memorable , and the movies get bigger and ( probably ) more generic and tentpole - y.
In the comic strip , where Marvel also has a single cohesive world ( more or less ) , it ’s simpler . If these were comic books , Steve Rogers and Tony Stark would have had multiple crossovers with the Agents of SHIELD by now . Just look at how many D - lean cartoon strip Batman turns up in every calendar month . But for some reason , Chris Evans ca n’t just drop everything and go film an episode of Agents of SHIELD once a year . Go figure .
Alternatively , you’re able to take the DC Comics route , where there ’s a partake in universe on TV and an unrelated shared universe in the movies , and they will never even peek at each other .
But Marvel chose to put all its nut in one universe , and that seemed like a pretty honest stake a few year ago when Agents of SHIELD launched . It ’s only now , when factor of SHIELD is finally spreading its extension , that the downside is apparent .
So believe this a major acid mental testing . Captain America : Civil War already runs the risk of seeming like a squabble over lines of authority and adjective legal power among a handful of people . But it could actually gain relevance , by admitting that the supervision of superpowered folks is a immense topic that move all of the Black Bolt - know - how - many Inhumans out there as well . So Civil War can either give a shout - out to Agents of SHIELD and bring to its cred , or it can voyage blissfully over the heads Coulson and his crew and risk seeming a bit pathetic — and maybe not only to those of us who espouse the TV show .
- These scientists do not actually exist . I made them up . I ’m sorry . I ’m aware that inventing scientists is a rape of the third codicil to the Sokovia Accords , and I ’ll be deform myself in to Thaddeus “ Thunderbolt ” Ross as presently as I finish write this clause . I only hope Liv Tyler is still his daughter , because she ’s an gremlin and elf are cool .
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