Fans who attended the Marvel’s Agents of SHIELD panel at New York Comic Con were in for a huge treat. Marvel TV executive Jeph Loeb hit play on the first 20 minutes of the Season 5 premiere... and it was amazing.
The episode starts from the point of view of the bald man who kidnapped Coulson and the team (minus Fitz) in the Season 4 finale. We learn he’s an alien, though we don’t see what kind exactly. The alien wore a layer of skin to disguise himself, and appears to be part of an organization based on Earth. “We haven’t done this in awhile,” one of the mysterious agents tells his boss (the bald guy who put everyone in a statis). It’s unclear what their agenda is at this point, but their mission is very spooky.
Coulson and the team were in stasis, but eventually wake to some sort of alien object that disintegrates and transports them into outer space. They all end up in various areas of a space ship and we pick up with Coulson first, who meets a distraught man that knows his identity and is familiar with SHIELD’s missions, hinting the team was transported to some point in the future. The man, named Virgil, says the Agents of SHIELD are here to save humanity.
Virgil knows every agent by name, and claims to be a member of a group of “true believers,” who worship Coulson in particular. Everyone on the ship is in danger, and there are corpses with all the liquids sucked out of them scattered throughout the ship. Unfortunately, that’s all the information we get from Virgil (the only one alive who actually knows anything about why SHIELD is there) before he’s stabbed in the back of the head by mysterious alien creatures called “roaches.”
But that’s not even the biggest mystery introduced in the 20 minutes. A man, whose costume looked a whole lot like Star-Lord (maroon jacket, just flying through open space and all), cuts a high-tech black object out of a dead man’s wrist. May is injured with a rod through her leg and she hides in the room where this guy is lurking around. Just when she thought she got away, he pins her up against the wall and says, “I've been looking for you.”
That’s where the episode ends. As you now know, there are more questions than answers. It is also worth noting we now know this cosmic organization is not SWORD from the comics. Coulson even jokes about that when the team asks him if there was anything about a SHIELD space station or moon hideout in Nick Fury’s Black Box. Coulson just shakes his head and goes, “Phfff.”
This footage was absolutely invigorating. The dialogue was sharp and funny. The action was fast paced. The mystery has depth and Agents of SHIELD’s identity is stronger than ever as there are clearly many more surprises to come.
Agents of SHIELD Season 5 premieres Dec. 1.
