Women of SHIELD

Spoiler Warning: This post will discuss some events from the current season of the ABC's Agents of SHIELD as well as past seasons.  

When Agents of SHIELD first started as an extension of the MCU, I thought that it would mostly serve as a vehicle to bring back the beloved Agent Phil Coulson, so charmingly portrayed by Clark Gregg. However, it proved to be so much more than that. The show struggled in the first season to find its footing. At first, it seemed like it was destined to flounder in a “villain of the week” episodic mess until Captain America: Winter Soldier happened and the game changed for the show. Not only did it find its narrative focus, but the show became about more than Agent Coulson. The women of SHIELD have come to the forefront as time went on.

Coulson’s right hand is Agent Melinda May, portrayed by the incomparable Ming-na Wen. Of all of the members on Agent Coulson’s team, May is probably the most dangerous in terms of combat. There’s a reason that she is called “the Calvary.” Whenever, things seem to be going south May comes in to kick ass and take name, usually saving everyone in the process. However, for all of her abilities, May is haunted by the past incident that garnered her nickname. The tremendous amount of respect that Coulson has for May is unsurpassed. He trusts her with his life, and there is a strong bond there. In some of the most recent episodes, this bond has taken a bit of a romantic turn. I am not sure how I feel about it yet. To be honest, it doesn’t feel forced for the sake of adding a romantic element. To their credit, the romantic element doesn’t undermine the strong woman that Agent May is.

Daisy Johnson was first introduced to the world of SHIELD as Skye, a hacker who was caught trying to break into SHIELD in order to find out the identity of her parents. Coulson saw her almost as a daughter, and May trained her to fight. As the show progressed, she found out not only who her parents were but also that her name was Daisy Johnson, who would eventually undergo terrigenesis and become the Inhuman known as Quake. She is just as capable as May in a bind. As an Inhuman, she is constantly fighting against those who want to kill Inhumans. 

Finally, we come to Jemma Simmons. As a scientist, it might seem like she would be the least kick ass of the bunch, but she is so much more than that. Jemma goes undercover within Hydra itself after the events of Winter Soldier. She is in grave danger during this time, but she is doing so to find out what Hydra is up to as well as locate Grant Ward, the team member who had betrayed them and tried to kill both Jemma and Leopold Fitz. She is a force to be reckoned with. Jemma and Fitz have an interesting relationship. They were the first “will they, won’t they” couple on the show. However, it’s not Jemma that is the one in need of rescue from danger most frequently. In fact, it is often Jemma who saves Fitz with the exception of when Jemma finds herself on another planet after being consumed by an obelisk that was a portal. 

While in the last couple episodes of the back half of this season the team was trying to rescue May once it was discovered that she had been replaced with a Life Model Decoy (LMD), as we head into the final episodes of this 4^th season, it is the men of Agents of SHIELD that require rescue from the Framework, a digital world created by another doctor, Radcliffe, with the help of the Darkhold. The interesting thing about this Matrix-like is that there are vast differences from the MCU that we know. It appears that it may draw on some of the themes that the Marvel comics have been setting up going into their Secret Empire story arc with Hydra replacing SHIELD. Jemma and Daisy will need to rescue Coulson, Mack, May, and Fitz from the Framework as we move into the last episodes of the season.