The panel for Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. was the place to be on Friday (October 10th). Out of all the main stage events, the queue line for this hit ABC series filled up faster than most. And who can blame those for getting excited? On the panel description, we were promised a full screening of a future episode, along with some exclusive footage just for us. Let me tell you, we got exactly that and THEN some.
Jeph Loeb, the head of Marvel’s TV operations, opened up the panel by talking about how far the show has come over the year, how the fans are what’s allowed it to thrive, and what an exciting future we all have in store as fans of Marvel properties. Of course, he couldn’t get through this without talking about that insane Hydra uprising we got post-The Winter Soldier. He mentioned how anyone can be Hydra…and then Mr. Loeb opened up his jacket to reveal that sinister organization’s logo on his shirt.
The crowd, fully getting into it, went nuts with “rage.” He’s a traitor! Rest assured, Director Phil Coulson (Clark Gregg) himself ran onto the stage to save us all. Gregg talked about how excited he is to still be involved with the show and how Coulson is alive thanks to the fans. But as a close friend of Loeb, Gregg was hurt by his choice of allegiances. He, and the rest of us, needed something for forgiveness. And boy did we get that with TWO huge videos.
The first was a full screening of this week’s episode “Face My Enemy.” The full review of that is coming later, but I can say the episode is easily one of my favorites. It was quick, witty, smart, beautifully choreographed, and a ton of fun. It was up there in quality with one of the films, which is always good.
Not quite ready for forgiveness, Gregg asked for a little more. He wanted Agent Carter footage. Loeb “fought” a bit, but relented by taking out a DVD with footage that was filmed only four days prior on Monday, October 6th. It just happened to be one of the very first scenes they filmed for this new show premiering January 2015. The clip we saw was brief, but we watched Peggy Carter (Hayley Atwell) saying farewell to Howard Stark (Dominic Cooper), who is leaving on a mission, and then meeting his erstwhile butler Edwin Jarvis (James D’Arcy). It all ended with one crazy action montage of Carter fighting a bad guy. Bottom line, this show is going to be awesome and you should be excited.
It was only then that Loeb was fully forgiven for his transgressions, and we all left that room with massive smiles on our faces. The takeaway from it all? “Face My Enemy” is an episode that cannot be missed. Seriously, it’s incredible. And Agent Carter is shaping up to be one hell of a television show. The clip really was very short, but it was enough to get the excitement flowing. Clearly Marvel knows exactly what the fans want.
http://youtu.be/9V2hPCKfWO4
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Luke Kalamar is Pop-Break.com’s television and every Saturday afternoon you can read his retro video game column, Remembering the Classics. He covers Game of Thrones, Saturday Night Live and The Walking Dead (amongst others) every week. As for as his career and literary standing goes — take the best parts of Spider-man, Captain America and Luke Skywalker and you will fully understand his origin story.
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