AGENTS OF S.H.I.E.L.D. #1

Capsule Review

I don’t much care for the S.H.I.E.L.D. TV show, but I still found something to like here. This newest S.H.I.E.L.D. lacks the pizazz of the beloved Jack Kirby and Steranko versions, but it does have a certain charm of its own, with its hyper-competent human-scaled heroes going toe-to-toe with Marvel’s superheroes. Plus we get flying cars and the Helicarrier. Agent Coulson is still back from the dead and still in charge, and he is growing into his role as not-Nick Fury — if he isn’t yet Sean Connery, he is at least George Lazenby, wooing the ladies and soaking up a beat-down from some nefarious thugs as part of his clever masterplan to legally take apart an enemy base. The team consists of back-bench superheroes like Mockingbird and Deathlok (looking more like DC’s Cyborg than the original death machine for-hire), along with characters from the TV show that I don’t know at all, but which I liked well enough. The dialogue had some snap and there were the requisite twists and turns, with a nice reveal at the end. Not an essential book but it falls just this side of entertaining.

Approachability For New Readers

It seems to closely follow the TV show, so that’s a plus. And the dynamics of secret agent stories are kind of baked into our pop culture DNA at this point, so you can’t go far wrong with this type of thing. It works.

Read #2?

I suppose.

Sales Rank

(#50 January)

Read more about S.H.I.E.L.D. at Longbox Graveyard

• Howling Commandos of S.H.I.E.L.D. #1
• Beneath The Longbox Shortbox
• The Man For The Job
• Nick Fury by Steranko
• Jack Kirby’s Gadgets of S.H.I.E.L.D. (And Hydra, Too!)

Read more capsule reviews of Marvel’s All-New All-Different rolling reboot.