Unreality Companion: The Meta-Fictional Necessity for Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. in the MCU

In which I develop on the content of my weekly Unrealitymag.com article.

In my Unreality this week, I addressed the most important reason for Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. - a show that seemed a popular lightning rod for ridicule and complaint last year - existing: it's good.  Not just good, but just short of the best series currently on television (just behind Game of Thrones and Attack on Titan).  Here, I will address the second most important reason: it's necessary.

Not too long ago, Moviebob asked whether Marvel was "big enough to go small," referring to the upcoming Netflix series as being proof that Marvel has the ability and desire to make use of their entire canon: that they are willing to do justice to unproven characters like Iron Fist or breath life into failed ventures like Daredevil when all they really need for a successful business model is to sit back and let Iron Man, Thor and the rest of The Avengers rake in money hand over fist.  And while I agree completely with his enthusiasm at the projects, he fails to address the obvious fact that Marvel has already done this with Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.

Think about it: before The Avengers, how many people really, honestly cared about S.H.I.E.L.D. enough to tune in every Tuesday to see what superpowered shenanigans they're thwarting this week.  Now remove Nick Fury from the equation - whose post-credit cameos have been a marvel mainstay since Iron Man.  Instead of the badass, cylopic super spy that everybody loves behind a gun, replace him with a middle-aged, balding, bit-player from Phase 1 played by a forgettable, television actor who's largest non-Marvel success is a low-budget, black-and-white Shakespeare adaptation that nobody really cared enough about to see in theaters.  Need something to sweeten the deal further?  He died during The Avengers.  Sounds like an awesome show, right?

Despite never getting behind this method of thinking, I'd be an idiot to claim that Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. wasn't a hard sell and didn't have an uphill battle for finding a proper audience.  It began as a gamble to see if Marvel's Cinematic Universe was indeed "big enough to go small" - if it could take characters and properties that lacked a hard-and-fast mainstream audience and make them a mainstream success.  Would the same audience that made The Avengers top-dog at the box office make Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. top dog with the ratings?

The answer is yes and no.  While it was far from the financial powerhouse for ABC that its predecessor was for Disney, it didn't wash out after one season.  Season 1 was a masterpiece of Whedon's executive oversight, a pitch-perfect cast and consistently high-quality writing, and Season 2 (which premieres on September 23rd) is looking to hold just as much promise.  While public sentiment seemed to be decidedly against it from the beginning, that largely seemed to turn following the events of Captain America: The Winter Soldier, which brought S.H.I.E.L.D. - and, subsequently, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. - out of the shadows and into the light (Hail Hydra).

Hail Hydra.

And if you think for a second that Disney would gamble good money on 4 series and a mini-series cross-over without Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. paving the way for it first - proving that it could not just be done, but done both well and profitably - then you're missing the point.  While Marvel's basically willing to gamble on anything - need I mention Guardians of the Galaxy - Disney's a bit stingier than that.  They wouldn't risk Mickey-earned profits on a failed film franchise like Daredevil, blaxploitation like Luke Cage, asiansploitation like Iron Fist and an Alias reboot like Jessica Jones if Marvel couldn't prove that there was a profitable audience for its lesser-known properties.

Beyond being the sole reason for Marvel's further expansion into television through Netflix, the show proves that it holds an even deeper necessity within the MCU.  It meaningfully ties into and expands upon the events of the MCU's film canon.  Through it, we see a more comprehensive view of the fallout from the Battle of New York than any Phase 2 film has been able to give us.  We see the clandestine demand for Chitauri technology: a mad scramble to get as much as you can before either S.H.I.E.L.D. or the competition beats you to it.  We see Chitauri viruses ravage unprepared human populations due to simple exposure in New York.  We see their technology fused with Extremis, gamma radiation and Erskine's SSR formula into a new breed of cybernetic super soldiers.

Project Deathlock

Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. is a staging ground to test and develop new ideas that can be potentially introduced to the films in Phase 3 and beyond.  We were introduced to Jasper Sitwell before his big screen introduction, watched him develop over several episodes as a high-ranking agent and key player within S.H.I.E.L.D. and then watched him depart for his duties aboard the Lemurian Star (the same ship that Cap' rescued him from in The Winter Soldier).  We were introduced to the Asgardian ex-patriot Elliot Randalph and the escaped Asgardian convict Lorelei in the wake of Malaketh's attack on Greenwich and assault on Asgard.  Scorch, Blizzard, Graviton, Deathlock - all villains introduced in the series that could potentially migrate to the big screen.

Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. is the connective tissue that binds the MCU together.  Through it, we see a much more complete timeline of the events of the films: the broader scope of Hydra's insurrection, Director Fury's immediate destination after his supposed death in The Winter Soldier, the aftermath of New York and Greenwich and the results of projects Deathlock and Centipede.  It ties up the loose ends leftover from the films in the exact same way that Marvel's One-Shots do - expanding and exploring the cinematic universe with increasing rapidity, fleshing it out in the ways that only "going small" allows.