Ok, so full disclosure; I’ve seen Captain America: The Winter Soldier. I won’t be discussing plot points or divulging spoilers. But I will say that it’s an awesome movie experience that needs to be seen on a big screen.
Marvel and Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. have been getting a lot of heat for how the show has been handled. Critics of the show love to point out the decline in the ratings from it’s stellar debut. And some fans of the show complain that the “crossovers” with the Marvel movies should be more overt and that doing that would actually help the show.
While I may not be the biggest fan of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., I’ve got no problem with how Marvel and Disney are handling the cross-promotion. They’re doing it subtly and effectively.
Now I’m assuming that if you’re reading this then you’re probably familiar with comic books, so I’m going to use comic books as an example of both how some people want Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. to work and how it actually works.
How some people want it to work is sort of how DC is handling Forever Evil: Blight. For those not in the know Forever Evil: Blight is a crossover that runs between Justice League Dark, Constantine, Trinity of Sin: Pandora and Trinity of Sin: The Phantom Stranger. It’s also an 18 part crossover.
As someone who read Justice League Dark and Constantine, I’d have to buy twice as many comics as I normally did to enjoy that story. That crossover was going to either diminish my enjoyment of two comics that I read or the money in the wallet. So I chose not to participate. I opted out and dropped the two books that I was reading.
And that’s what a “hard” crossover between Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. and a Marvel movie would be like. Say you always go to see a Marvel movie with your best friend and unfortunately this weekend he’s got a wedding to go to so you guys can’t see Captain America: The Winter Soldier until next weekend. But since you watch Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Tuesday nights, you’re a) either going to have the movie spoiled for you or b) are going to be totally out of the loop about what’s going on.
Rather than doing that, Marvel’s continued with the “shared universe” approach they’ve been working with their movies. It’s a shared universe and because of that, there are characters who recur. It’s how Agent Coulson became a (fanboy) household name.
It’s extremely effective. It rewards you if you’ve watching Marvel projects, but doesn’t penalize you if you haven’t seen everything.
Case in point; I saw Captain America: The Winter Soldier on Monday and thoroughly enjoyed it. But when I watched Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. on Tuesday, there was a nice little set up for a sequence in the movie. It’s not pivotal, but it’s a nice little nod that adds value to both the movie and the show and informs you that they exist in the same universe.
Marvel is doing an exceptional job of making sure that their projects share common threads while not being dependent on each other or beholden to a previous or subsequent project. And they do it without breaking a sweat. Kudos to them and keep up the good work.
Anyway it’s Wednesday, go out and buy some fresh new comics from your local comic shop. Also make sure you check out Captain America: The Winter Soldier this weekend, because you don’t want to be left out when everyone’s talking about it on Monday.
