Despite all of its fanfare, Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. had a rocky first season, but most viewers agree that it's gotten much better since the events of Captain America: The Winter Soldier turned the show on its head. With the reveal that H.Y.D.R.A. has been dormant inside S.H.I.E.L.D. all along, the show has opened up into a whole new realm of possibilities... just in time for the season to end. But now that the groundwork has been laid — and blown to hell — what should the show tackle next? Here are some of the best S.H.I.E.L.D. comics that the writers should seriously consider pulling from during Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Season 2, from the most plausible to the most absurd.
Secret Warriors
The show has already been pulling a lot from this series (which bears many similarities to the earlier Nick Fury Vs. S.H.I.E.L.D. issues), which sees S.H.I.E.L.D. infiltrated by H.Y.D.R.A. and Fury going rogue with a small group of trusted agents. In fact, it was largely the inspiration for Captain America 2 , and S.H.I.E.L.D. has been doing a good job of following through on that plot — but there is so much more it could still do. The main villain of Secret Warriors is Baron Von Strucker, who is already confirmed to appear in The Avengers: Age Of Ultron (played by Thomas Kretschmann). Could Strucker make a couple of surprise appearances on S.H.I.E.L.D. to help pave the way to his big screen debut?
Secret Warriors also introduces us to the evil organization H.A.M.M.E.R., which is what S.H.I.E.L.D. becomes after being overthrown. In the comics, H.A.M.M.E.R. is led by Spider-Man baddie Norman Osborn. Obviously this particular development would be impossible for the show (since Sony owns the rights to all things webslinger), but the character could easily be replaced or conflated with Von Strucker.
Who Is Scorpio?
Scorpio was a chameleon-like genius superspy who plagued S.H.I.E.L.D. by setting traps, impersonating agents, and generally being a pain in the ass while nobody even knew who he was or why he seemed to have a vendetta against the agency. While Scorpio's actual identity would change over time (he's had at least five different incarnations), the first and most popular version turned out to be Luke Fury, resentful of his brother Nick. The show could either stick with this version, change him to Coulson's brother, or rewrite his identity completely, but in any case, the Scorpio storyline would make for some epic spy vs. spy action next season. It would certainly give Fitz and Simmons plenty to do: the Scorpio series is rife with strange science-fiction gadgets like invisibility pills and hallucination-causing cubes.
S.W.O.R.D.
The Sentient World Observation and Response Department was introduced in the pages of The Astonishing X-Men — it was created by none other than Joss Whedon himself, so it's a good bet that we'll see it in some form or another in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. The purpose of S.W.O.R.D. is to guard Earth against extraterrestrial threats, led by Special Agent Abigail Brand. Female characters written by Whedon are always strong and dynamic (see: Buffy, River), so we'd love to see the no-nonsense Brand and the implacable Coulson play off of each other. Generally, S.W.O.R.D. is okay with much harsher tactics than S.H.I.E.L.D. employs, which would create some juice ethical drama. And the introduction of S.W.O.R.D. and its otherworldly focus would help S.H.I.E.L.D. expand its scope beyond the limits of our planet.
Operation Brain Blast!
The Clairvoyant may not have turned out to have any real telepathic abilities, but that doesn't mean that S.H.I.E.L.D. never encounters beings with psychic abilities. After teasing us for a whole season with a mind-reading agent who turned out not to have any superpowers at all, it would be nice to see this storyline make the jump to the small screen. One of the earliest S.H.I.E.L.D. stories, written by Stan Lee, Brain Blast features the organization's ESP Squad — agents with mind-control powers. These super-psys have to fight against villains named Mentallo and The Fixer who turn Nick Fury into their "brain slave."
Nick Fury's Howling Commandos
A collision of S.H.I.E.L.D. and The League Of Extraordinary Gentlemen, this riff on the WWII unit featured in the first Captain America film has Fury leading a troop of supernatural creatures. They're assembled as a sort of second-string Avengers, and since the TV show will never be able to recruit the likes of Iron Man/Thor/Captain America full-time, this would be a great way to give S.H.I.E.L.D. its own superhero team. Of course, the members verge on the ridiculous: Gorilla-Man, The Living Mummy, Vampire By Night, Warwolf, etc. And their main conflict (attempting to stop the Merlin from turning the entirety of the United Kingdom into a fantasy realm), borders on the absurd. But who wouldn't want to see a vampire/werewolf hybrid headquartered in Area 13 battling a magician and his Faerie henchman?
Godzilla Squad
This series, featuring S.H.I.E.L.D. agents using various methods to battle the famous kaiju (including fighting it with a giant robot, shrinking it with Pym Particles, and using a time machine to banish it to an extra-dimensional Dinosaur World) would be the perfect way to tie in the TV show with this summer's hotly-anticipated Godzilla reboot. Okay, so this one's pretty unlikely. But how awesome would it be to see a hilariously random one-off episode where Coulson & Co. have to figure out a way to bring down the giant lizard?
Images: ABC; Marvel (6)
