S.H.I.E.L.D.: First thoughts, without (many) spoilers.

I've just watched S.H.I.E.L.D. for the second time. I know a lot of people are worried about spoilers still, so I'll try to keep my commentary suitably vague.

Unlike with Dollhouse, I found myself comparing this first episode to the first episode of Buffy from, jeez, so many years ago now. Does that make me old? If so, can't imagine any better reason than being nostalgic over the original Buffy release. But for people going in and expecting something A. Kitsch, B. Cheap looking or C. Mildly setting up what is to come, they are going to find their expectations... outdone.

When Joss first made Buffy the Vampire Slayer, they were running out of one corridor for the entire set of a school, actual graveyards that the vampires were rising out of. He had not just made more than a million dollars on a hit movie in the same basic franchise. And, of course, while Buffy did have a message to share, largely it didn't take itself all that seriously, and that silliness was part of what made especially season one so great.

S.H.I.E.L.D. has a budget. Boy, does S.H.I.E.L.D. ave a budget! From the opening scene, you feel like you are watching a movie on a TV screen. This series is also not your mild mannered anything. It has a pacing that will knock you flat on your ass if you aren't watching. Like the forty minute fight sequence in The Avengers, it doesn't seem to drag. Joss' expected witticisms drive the story and the character interactions, from Agent Coulson's miraculous return all the way to the end credits.

Highlights for me:

- J. August Richards reprised his place as a recurring Joss actor and was fantastic.
- Cobie Smulders made a guest appearance at the same time as juggling her new season of How I Met Your Mother.
- Lola.
- Some people complained about the cop out that was Coulson's death in The Avengers only for him to be pulled back out for this series. I think they will find a competent explanation in this episode. I also don't think it will be the last we hear of it.
- The members of the new team are all striking and individual, though I will admit a certain bias to Sky already.

In conclusion, S.H.I.E.L.D. was well worth the wait. Now, in addition to each weeks' new episodes, we only have Thor: 2 to look forward to!

Flash Fiction: The Avengers (part 3)

The Avengers Headcanons: Submission #211

None of the Avengers sleep very soundly. Natasha has nightmares about her past, Clint dreams of what he did while under Loki’s influence, and Steve suffers through vivid nightmares about his time in the war. Captain America often relives the final moments before he crashed into the arctic.

Dr. Bruce Banner almost always has dreams about losing control and smashing everything in his path, Thor has nightmares about his brother, Loki, and their tattered relationship, and Tony Stark is constantly haunted by the shards of sharpnal creeping towards his heart, as well as the destruction Stark Industries’ weapons wrought on the world….

It’s night. It’s always night when the nightmares come. They’ve been coming now for so long that Natasha isn’t sure anymore she remembers a time without them.

Since she can’t just not sleep, it is her habit to sleep up till the nightmares wake her. So far, since staying at Stark Tower, she has managed to wake up before the screams start.

Half sleepy, she’s not so stealthy as she usually prides herself, or maybe Clint is just more conscious of her than he usually lets on. He shifts then jolts away as soon as Natasha starts to get up from the bed they’re sharing.

"Wha…?" He blinks, then runs a hand across his eyes. Squints, swallows. Manages to say, "What time it is?"

"3am. Go back to sleep."

Clint shakes his head, waking up more as Natasha’s body language indicates she will be moving further away from the bed, not closer. “No, now’s as good a time for breakfast as any.” Clint knows himself well enough to recognise he’s awake enough now that lying back in bed will only lead to him thinking of memories of his time as Loki’s puppet rather than anything resembling rest or sleep.

Natasha shoots an apologetic expression his way, knowing that she will just need to be more stealthy the next time she leaves the bed.

"So what are we going to do for dinner?"

"We’re in Stark Tower," Clint returned. "Pretty much anything we like."

Tony is already standing in the kitchen when Clint and Natasha arrive there. The animosity between Tony and Natasha has faded since they saved the world together. Natasha has spoken to Pepper enough to know that her influence plays a part also.

"What brings you two down here?" Tony asks, as if he doesn’t know perfectly well. His own nightmares of the shrapnel creeping its way to his heart have found a second place spot to nightmares of a scenario where he doesn’t come back through the portal before Natasha sealed it off. He doesn’t wait for an answer really, before extending a drumstick out towards someone appearing behind Natasha and Clint.

Bruce stands there, his brown hair tussled from sleep in a way that’s not too different to the way his hair sits on a daily basis. “I see I wasn’t the first to have this idea.” He shakes his head, then makes his way further into the kitchen. “We really need to stop making a habit of this.”

"Says who?" Tony asks. "No rule saying heroes have to be daytime people. A lot of evidence to suggest otherwise, in fact." He takes a big bit of his drumstick with relish. Frankly, Tony was just glad to be a here on Earth type person. Even his relationship with Pepper had been influenced by this most recent near death experience.

Bruce just offers a small smile and shakes his head. Truthfully, for all his words, he’s glad that the Avengers have created this habit, rather than going their own separate ways as it looked like they were going to do. This has been the closest he has been to not being angry all of the time since his experiment had gone so horribly wrong. He thinks that even the other guy might agree. Or maybe it’s the other guy’s disagreement that sees him through largely sleepless nights, caught between memories and dreams of losing control and smashing everything in his path. Thor he knows can handle it. The others…

At first, Bruce had been happy when it looked like it was just going to be he and Tony—with Pepper, of course—sharing Stark Tower. Then, one day, Clint rocked up at the door with Natasha in tow. Steve had not been many days behind, but he at least had offered an explanation.

"Where else do I have to go?"

It brought a very sad and poignant point to the fore. Where did any of them have to go? The closest they had to acceptance was each other. No, he had anything to do with it, the other guy would never make an appearance again.

--

Other Avengers flash fiction posts can be found here:
http://nicole-d-fergusson.blogspot.com.au/search/label/avengers

Flash fiction: The Avengers (part 2)

There’s a part of Thor which truly hates being an Avenger. Hates it because he forges these friendships, creates a new home on Earth, only to have it ripped away when he has to return to Asgard. For despite his love for Earth and the Midgardian people, Asgard must always come first.

Submitted by anon

After the Avengers saved Manhattan, Jane Foster was brought back and debriefed by Erik Selvig. Not that a lot of debriefing was required. Jane had been taken somewhere that still did have the news, after all.

The whole time Erik was talking to her, Jane was none too subtle about trying get a glimpse of Thor somewhere in the facility. So it was that several moments passed before Jane properly realised that Erik had stopped talking to her. She had the grace to look sheepish after that.

Very indulgently, Erik said in his deep and gentle voice, “Thor is with the others at Stark Towers." He knew very well that these were perhaps the first words Jane had heard him take in.

Jane didn’t need to know the street address of Stark Towers to get the first cab that pulled over to take her there. As it was, one of S.H.I.E.L.D.’s cars was made available to her. Jane didn’t much care, just so long as she got there quickly.

The pale haired man who opened the door wasn’t someone Jane had ever met, but he seemed to know who she was, for he opened the door wider for her and informed her respectfully where she could find Thor.

When Thor first saw her standing there in the living room, close enough to touch, everything else in the room may as well have disappeared. He stood up from the couch, and in five firm steps Jane was enclosed in his arms.

At the front door, Steve might have been respectful of their need for time alone, but Tony coming out for his afternoon snack was nothing of the sort.

"What’s going on in there?" he asked, starting to move in the direction of the lounge room. 

Steve put up a token resistance, knowing that anything more would stoke Tony’s stubbornness to see for himself. Knowing that anything less would probably have the same effect.

So it was that Thor and Jane had less than fifteen minutes of a reunion to themselves before Tony was standing in the doorway. “Aww, isn’t this sweet?" he said, while Steve stood sheepish and apologetic behind him. “You must be Jane Foster."

The woman in question looked from Steve to Tony and back up to Thor. “Does everyone know?" she asked.

"Oh no," Tony reassured, his eyebrows drawing down over his nose. “Your secret’s quite safe with us." Then he turned his head and called out behind him, “Pepper! We have another person for dinner!"

Pepper’s voice could be heard calling back from some other area of the house. “On it!"

"I’d call Natasha to let her know you girls have an extra number to try to equal this battle of the sexes," Tony continued, attention on Jane once again.

Steve shook his head and muttered in an undertone that Jane heard quit clearly, “There is no battle of the sexes."

Tony gave no indication that he’d heard Steve’s words. “She and Barton have been at it like 16 year olds ever since we saved the world. Well, you know how it is," he said, as though he was sharing some confidence.

Jane raised her eyebrows. Well, she might know how it is, if a certain person left them alone to their reunion. So this was the famous Tony Stark, then. She would have guessed it from the attitude alone, she thought, even had it not been for the glowing device in the middle of his chest.

With a heaved sigh, Steve walked away from them. Moments later, he came back, having called in Pepper for reinforcement.

"Alright, big guy," she said, offering a smile at both her own man and Jane standing there next to Thor. His arm was still protective around her. “How about we let these two have a little private reunion time?" She began tugging on his arm at the same time as shooting an apologetic look towards Jane.

"But…" Tony looked so affronted it was all Jane could do not to laugh. Within moments, Steve, Tony and Pepper had all cleared away and she turned to Thor.

"So, you saved our world again, did you?" Jane leaned into her beloved. “You seem to be making a bit of a habit of that.

Thor gave her a small smile, but no words. What could he say? Saving Earth once had been enough. That had been time enough to forge ties with Erik Selvig and Jane’s friend Darcy, not to mention the love that had formed between himself and Jane Foster. Coming to Earth a second time had ended in branding him one of Earth’s Avengers, had created a home for him on Earth even separate to the one he had fought against forming with Jane. Nothing had changed between this and last time. He still had to return to Asgard once it was assured that no further alien attacks would be committed against Earth.

Asgard still came first to his honour, even if Midgard came first in his heart.

~~

Flash fiction supplied in excitement of the lead up towards S.H.I.E.L.D on ABC!

Flash fiction: The Avengers (part 1)

In the countdown to S.H.I.E.L.D. premiering on ABC, I'm going to post one piece of flash fiction a month inspired by The Avengers Headcanons submissions that went around on Tumblr about a year ago. This is because I really enjoyed them at the time and want an excuse to pull them out again.

So!

**

Flash fiction: Part 1.

Steve's often the last person to end up in the kitchen during these night time meets. He offers a quick nod to Tony, who immediately quips, "Alright, movie night. Star Wars. Who's in?"

"Or..." Steve interjects, "we could watch the Wizard of Oz?"

Clint starts walking in the direction of Tony's admittedly extensive entertainment centre. It's one of his jokes that this entertainment centre is the main reason for Thor's delay in going back to Asgard.

That, and popcorn, which is what Thor's eating right now as the rest of the Avengers make their way into the large living room. There are a number of DVDs in Tony's collection. Possibly the entirety of English speaking movies. Somehow, Thor always manages to find movies that either remind him of the relationship he shared with Loki growing up, or the tattered relationship that remains. Either way, he's more than happy to turn it off in favour of whatever movie the others decide is to be put on.

Natasha sits in the next best spot in the room after the place on the couch that Thor's. She doesn't look at Steve as she replies to his earlier statement. "Steve we're not watching that again. Or ever."

Having finished his latest stash of popcorn, Thor decides it's time for a change in diet. "We will need poptarts," he calls to the kitchen, then lifts his hand when Tony throws a packet towards him upon entering the room.

Bruce leans against the arm of the couch. "I'm in... if Cupid's in," he offers, shooting a glance across at Clint.

"I'm in," he says, with a game smile. "There's beer, right?"

With beer and poptarts for all, the Avengers share each others company, marathoning and heckling the light sabre scenes in the Star Wars trilogy until the early morning sun starts to peek its way around the blinds.

The Avengers, S.H.I.E.L.D. and Joss Whedon.

Okay, a little bit about S.H.I.E.L.D.

When I first heard about it, I was a little ho-hum. When I first heard that Joss Whedon had been roped into putting together a television series based on the Oh-So-Popular Avengers Movie, I thought, 'Okay, I'm in.'

Still pretty lukewarm, I had yet to read about anything on when this series was supposed to be set, whether there would be guest appearances by anyone I liked, and of course there is the ever present fact that Joss Whedon's shows have been threatened or cancelled with increasing regularity ever since Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

When I heard that ABC--not Fox--were going to be the ones running this show, I started feeling the first rays of hope.

Then there was this.

Punchy, startling, and a little under-whelming coming in at about 30 seconds. A teaser, in the truest sense of the word: It left me wanting more.

One day later, I'm wandering around my house with my eyes only half open as I haven't yet had breakfast and waking up is quite a bit to ask during a full week of holidays, and BAM.

Tuesdays this Fall! And also a two minute longer trailer!!

I said a couple of smart-ass things on Twitter, namely the fact that Coulson lives is the worst kept secret in a series that hasn't already started, and that isn't taking into consideration Joss' love affair with the particular trope, and something about wanting a Level 7 clearance, but all that's left to be said now is that for an hour each Tuesday starting as soon as this series does, I am busy.

I haven't been as excited about anything since the Neverwhere radio play.

Watch this space. I'm unlikely to be quiet as the countdown to S.H.I.E.L.D continues.