This publish is Filed Under:
Home page Highlights,
Interviews as well as Columns
Wayne Markley
by Wayne Markley
Marvel’s Agents of SHIELD
Marvel’s Agents of shield on ABC television started out extremely slowly as well as practically lost me as the very first half of season was so boring. The second half of the season truly kicked in as well as it ended up being a rockin’ show. The story going around is the show was hampered by having to wait on the Captain America: The winter season Soldier film to find out to truly get the stories moving as the film greatly influenced the goings on in the TV show. So far, season two has been likewise fast-paced as well as action filled as well, however I am not going to be composing a evaluation of the television show, however the source material on which it is based. I am going to look at the original version of shield in addition to a few of the characters that have appeared in the TV show as well as exactly how they compare to their comic book counterparts, such as Deathlok as well as the taking in Man, or “Crusher” Creel as he was called in the TV show.
Complete shield by Steranko
From a broad perspective, the television show Marvel’s Agents of shield has extremely bit to finish with the original Nick Fury, agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. produced by Stan Lee as well as Jack Kirby as well as was printed in the pages of unusual Tales. The later stories as well as the solo S.H.I.E.L.D. book was by Jim Steranko and, at the time, set a new level for comic book art, in terms of style as well as storytelling. The early stories were about former army Sargent Nick Fury (formally of the groaning Commandos) now a very spy battling Hydra (who likewise appear in the show) as well as A.I.M. (who appeared in the very first Captain America movie). The Nick Fury in these stories was a grizzled, graying, war vet, as well as a white man. always chomping on a cigar as well as dressed in a fit (early on), he was surrounded by agents of all types as well as his best hand guy was Dum Dum Dugan. certainly Samuel L. Jackson (Nick Fury in the films as well as the TV show) looks nothing like an old white man. In Marvel’s alternate world of the Ultimates (this is a whole different world than the conventional marvel world as well as it origins are worthy of a blog unto themselves.), the supreme world Nick Fury looks just like Samuel L Jackson. The story is the innovative people at marvel understood Sam was a fan of comic books so they utilized his likeness for this alternating version of Nick Fury as a nod to him. When they later started making their own films as well as television shows, the powers that be cherry chosen from the different marvel Universes, both the conventional as well as the supreme worlds, as well as went with the supreme version of Nick Fury as well as who much better to play the function than the actor the comic character was based upon? all of the early S.H.I.E.L.D. stories have been collected by marvel in both Masterworks as well as trades, the most recent being the total shield by Steranko, which is a excellent collection.
S.H.I.E.L.D. #1
In the original S.H.I.E.L.D. stories there is no agent Colson, agent May, etc. etc. however over time, marvel has subtly added characters to in shape the movies/TV versions. We have discovered that Nick Fury has an African/American child named Nick Fury (in a extremely great miniseries that is offered in a spiffy trade called battle Scars). Phil Colson has been popping up right here as well as there for a number of years now in different marvel titles, mainly the Avengers. marvel is likewise introducing a new comic next month written by the outstanding mark Waid called shield with the characters from the TV show as well as not the original shield crew. I discover it ironic that even the initials S.H.I.E.L.D. do not represent the exact same things as they did in the original comics. To be fair, a great deal of what has been finished with the movie/TV version of shield was to make it much more contemporary as well as suitable for today’s audience. The early material from the mid-sixties to the early seventies was extremely reflective of the time period with the chilly war, Viet Nam, the hippie movement, as well as pop art. I believe what marvel studios have done by reinventing a few of the characters as well as concepts from the comic books for a new audience as well as a new style has been great. Basically, the only similarities between the TV show as well as the original comics are the name Nick Fury, Hydra, as well as a few of the villains (and the flying car)… I see no issue keeping that as, while the TV show is not the comics they are based on, they are similarly as good.
Deathlok the Demolisher as he was originally called in the comics is understood as Deathlok in the TV show. While both the television as well as the comic version of Deathlok are cyborgs, that is about where the similarity ends. In Marvel’s Agents of SHIELD, Deathlok is an African-American guy named Mike Peterson. In the comics, there have been various versions of Deathlok, at least eight so far, however for the function of this articles we are going to only look at the very first Deathlok, Luther Manning (who was a white guy married to an Africa American woman.)
The total Collection: Deathlok the Demolisher
Deathlok very first appeared in the pages of Astonishing Tales #25 as well as then in different other comics thereafter, including marvel Team-Up, marvel Two-In-One, as well as marvel Spotlight, with a story that was expected to be an problem of Astonishing Tales however the book was cancelled so the Deathlok story was transferred to the last problem of marvel Spotlight. then the whole story was wrapped up in Captain America #286-288. marvel has been kind sufficient to gather the whole saga in one big (over 350 pages) trade called The total Collection: Deathlok the Demolisher. The title is deceptive as it does include all of the earliest appearances of Deathlok as well as wraps up the Luther Manning story in a good neat way; it is far from the end of Deathlok as a character. There is so much much more material yet to be collected, there are at least two much more trades arranged reprinting much more Deathlok material in the coming months.
In the comic Deathlok was a soldier named Luther Manning who was blown up by a bomb in a dystopian future where a handful of people run the country. He is re-built with half of his body being robotic. His eye as well as half of his deal with are gone as well as are replaced with cybernetics. It is not remove exactly how much of the rest of him is robotic, outside of it is made apparent he has a computer in his breast as well as robotic arms as well as legs. This makes for an fascinating dialogue method where you have both Luther Manning speaking to the computer as well as the computer responding to him as well as Luther speaking to other characters. This result in some fascinating and, at times, confusing word balloons in the early stories. In the very first few problems there was likewise a third personality, which went away soon after as well as it was not genuine remove who the third voice was. Deathlok was developed to be an assassin for the Simon Ryker, who it turns out, is likewise a cyborg. many of the early stories include Luther trying to discover the cyborg physician who he believes can revert him to human. This is complied with up by a story with Godwulf, who is leading a rebellion against the people in power. exactly how this associates with the Agents of shield version? Not at all. about the only similarities are they both have cyborg elements as well as both have the name Deathlok. In the TV show he has a cyber-eye, arm, as well as leg, however they look nothing like the comic. The very first collection of the Deathlok comic is a quick paced, action filled stories with good art by rich Buckler (who likewise produced the character as well as composed a few of the single issues) as well as mainly written by Doug Moench. These early stories are certainly a work of like for Butler, however they are at times a bit difficult to follow. later on in the collection you get Deathlok drawn by John Byrne as well as Mike Zeck as well as he looks fantastic. Plus, I have always believed Deathlok was one of the most fascinating looking characters marvel has ever done. (The comic version, not the TV version, which is type of lame.)
Thor faces “Crusher” Creel in journey into secret #114.
Season two of Agents of shield opened with a two-part episode with the villain being “Crusher” Creel. His special power was the capability to touch anything as well as ended up being that material, so it he touched a park bench made from iron he would turn into iron, etc. Unlike Deathlok, the similarities right here between the comic as well as the TV version were extremely close. Both the comic character as well as the television character were called “Crusher” Creel. Both were able to take in materials that they touched. Both were muscle mass bound with shaved heads. It was a extremely good tribute to the comic character. The taking in guy very first appeared in journey into secret #114, in a Thor story where he got his powers though a magic potion Loki had created. In the television show they did not discuss exactly how he got his powers however there is a extremely good scene where Crusher grabs a sphere as well as chain, which is the taking in Man’s trademark in the comics. This was one of the closest utilizes of a character from the comics in the TV show. It was a great deal of fun to view the episode and, if you are a fan of the comic, it was a genuine thrill.
As always, whatever written in this blog is my viewpoint as well as in now methods shows the thoughts or opinions of Westfield Comics or their employees. I welcome comments, tips or corrections or evaluation copies at MFBWAY@AOL.COM.
Thank you.
Journey into secret cover from the Grand Comics Database.