TRANS-SCRIBE

Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Season 5 – Top 5 Episodes

Originally published on Set The Tape

The fifth season of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. was easily the boldest in the shows history, embracing the extreme sci-fi side of the Marvel Cinematic Universe for what was almost their final season.

Whilst the series as a whole is one of the best, with a stunning story that spanned the entire 22 episode run, five episodes stood out amongst the rest for their amazing quality…

5. Episode 05 – ‘Rewind’

With almost the entirety of the S.H.I.E.L.D. team transported to a future where the Earth has been ripped to pieces and the remainder of humanity survive in the remnants thanks to brutal Kree overlords ‘Rewind’ jumped backwards in time to the present day to tell us what happened to Fitz (Iain De Caestecker) after he got left behind.

Despite the fact that we’ve already seen Fitz in the future, and know that he will eventually get to his friends, the episode is full of excitement and tension as Fitz is arrested by the government due to the actions of S.H.I.E.L.D. in the previous season.

This isn’t the same old Fitz, however, as he remembers everything that happened in the Framework from season four, making this a combination of the meek and caring scientist we love, and the brutal, ruthless leader of Hydra. We see some of that come through here as Fitz will do whatever it takes to find out what happened to his team, and to rescue them if possible.

The return of Nick Blook as Hunter is a surprising, yet wonderful addition to the season. He might just be here for one episode, but it really reminds the audience of just how much fun he was, and makes you think of how different the last season and a half would have been if he’d stuck around. His chemistry with Fitz is absolutely spot on, and makes for some great light touches in what has has been a particularly dark season.

‘Rewind’ gives a lot of answers to questions that have been playing out over the first few episodes, such as who or what Enoch (Joel Stoffer) is, and why the team were sent to the future, yet manages to keep enough mystery, mainly with the introduction of the murderous General Hale (Catherine Dent).

4. Episode 10 – ‘Past Life’

Episode ten sees the end of the first major arc in the season, with the team returning to their rightful place in the past. As such, this is very much a finale in a lot of ways, and goes all out to build excitement and throw spectacle to the fore.

One of the highlights of the episode, and something that feels great after ten episodes of build-up, is the final fight between Mack (Henry Simmons) and Kasius (Dominic Rains). It might have initially seemed like a strange match up, especially as Kasius had more of a history with Daisy (Chloe Bennett), May (Ming-Na Wen), and Simmons (Elizabeth Henstridge) by this point, but getting to see Mack let lose and have a brutal fight is a great culmination.

The fight might not be one of the best the series has given us in terms of fancy choreography or special effects, but it’s brutal in a way that we’ve not really had before, with a level of intensity that elevates this over some of the more technically proficient ones. The added fact that Mack witnesses the murder of a future version of Yo-Yo (Natalia Cordova-Buckley) makes it all the more harrowing.

The inclusion of the future Yo-Yo makes the episode particularly dark too, not just as Mack has to watch her die horribly, but the past Yo-Yo discovers that her future will be a life of torture and repeated death at the hands of Kasius, as well as the knowledge that the future cannot be changed. Season five has had some very dark points so far, but this is easily amongst the darkest.

3. Episode 14 – ‘The Devil Complex’

There are a few important plot points in this episode that move the main story forward, particularly with Coulson (Clark Gregg) and General Hale facing off against each other, and whilst this is all great stuff, the thing that makes this one of the best episodes is Fitz. I’ve said before in these S.H.I.E.L.D. look-backs that Iain De Caestecker is one of the best actors in the series, and this episode displays that in heartbreaking ways.

The previous episodes have dealt with the breach in reality caused by the destruction of the monoliths, a breach that resulted in people’s worst fears coming to life. Despite apparently closing the breach fears have continued to manifest when The Doctor, the evil Hydra version of Fitz, appears and attacks several members of the team.

The reappearance of The Doctor is incredibly chilling, and Fitz’s reaction in coming face to face with the manifestation of his darkest impulses is terrifying. The worst moments, however, comes when The Doctor has Daisy tied to a table and effectively tortures her in order to remove the power dampening device implanted in her neck. This isn’t the worst because of how awful the scene is, but because of the heartbreaking revelation that there is no Doctor, that it isn’t because of the breach, but part of Fitz’s broken psyche.

It’s not all sadness, however, as we get an incredibly moving and emotional ending when Deke (Jeff Ward) reveals to Simmons that he’s her grandson. It’s a small moment of light in the darkness that shows her that all might not be lost for Fitz, that they still have a future together, and the man she loves so dearly is still inside him.

Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. has done some brilliant twists in the past, but few pack the emotional punch that this carries. De Caestecker sells every moment of this tragedy, and it breaks the heart when he and the audience realise what’s happening. ‘The Devil Complex’ is one of the best acted and written episodes the show has ever given, and the chills it gives will stay around long after the episode ends.

2. Episode 12 – ‘The Real Deal’

The 100th episode of the series manages to exceed expectations. Whenever a show hits this landmark it tries to go big and do something impressive, and Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. does this in more than one way.

The reveal that the destruction of the monoliths has created a crack in reality to a fear dimension capable of bringing peoples worst fears to life makes for a great way to bring back a number of previous villains, including Lash, and Hive, in a way that doesn’t feel forced or contrived. It also means that we get some insight into our characters and how far they’ve progressed over the course of five seasons, and what fears they’ve conquered, and which ones still haunt them.

‘The Real Deal’ also saw the return of J August Richards as both Mike Peterson, in a hallucination that’s trying to convince Coulson that the entire show has been his death dream after being stabbed by Loki in Avengers Assemble, and as arse kicking cyborg Deathlok. It’s always great to have Deathlok turn up on screen, and seeing him and Coulson kicking butt together was brilliant, but he also knocks it out of the park when he’s a hallucination, bringing a very earnest and deep performance into something that could have been very dodgy if done badly.

The 100th episode isn’t just about action and remembering old villains though, as it also saw the long overdue wedding of Fitz and Simmons. An incredibly sweet moment that feels more than earned, and the justification that they need to do it as soon as possible before something drags them apart again is a nice nod at just how much the characters have been through. The reveal to the audience that Deke is also their grandson is brilliantly subtle, so much so that not everyone made the connection straight away.

Without a doubt one of the best episodes of the series, balancing together action, drama, emotion, and character development in beautiful, wonderful ways. The perfect celebration of 100 episodes.

1. Episode 22 – ‘The End’

Written as a potential end for the series as a whole if they didn’t get picked up for a sixth season (spoilers – they have been and the series is back this summer!), ‘The End’ is the highest moment of the fifth season, and possibly Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. as a whole.

With General Talbot (Adrian Pasdar) having gone completely mad with power and taken on the identity of Gravitron, the team have to go into a fight that they know could lead to the destruction of the planet that they saw in the future. Thanks to having saved a great deal of the seasons reduced budget by having a lot of episodes filmed on sets and reusing a lot of locations the show runners are able to splash out on this final episode, having a giant spaceship smash into Chicago, a city under siege, and a full blown super powered battle.

Whilst in the majority of season finales for the show where the fate of the world is on the line we now have a definitive reason as to why they don’t call the Avengers to help, because they’re in Wakanda fighting Thanos. Knowing that the protectors of Earth are facing off against two world ending threats at the same time adds heaps of drama to the proceedings, even though we know the Earth doesn’t get ripped in half at the end of Avengers: Infinity War.

The fight between Daisy and Gravitron showcases their powers brilliantly, with the moment where Daisy uses her tremors to fire herself down the street a great new use of her abilities. Whilst the fight isn’t hugely long, the revelation that Coulson has hidden the Centipede syrum inside her gauntlets makes the final moments heartbreaking, as Daisy has to use it to save the world, condemning Coulson to die.

The fact that the episode doesn’t wimp out on the promise of Coulson’s death is a good choice, as it would have felt like a hell of a cheat to undo it at the end. Whilst we don’t get to see him die, it really genuinely feels like his story comes to a close here, with him spending his final days in Tahiti with May, the two of them finally admitting their love for each other.

Despite all of these already great moments, the farewell to Coulson, S.H.I.E.L.D. coming to save the city with a suitably heroic speech, and Daisy beating a world ending bad guy, the moment that makes the episode, and breaks hearts, is the shocking death of Fitz. Crushed under rubble as he tries to save people inside a collapsing building, his death comes completely out of nowhere. His final moments are beautiful, and some of the best acted in the show. Having him die with Mack, a character that he’d butted heads with more than once this season, is a bold choice, having Simmons miss out on the moment. Whilst we do discover at the end of the episode that the team intend to go and find the other Fitz, the one who is frozen in space and hasn’t lived out the events of the season, takes away a little of the tragedy of the moment it still doesn’t stop his death from reducing you to tears (and I genuinely did bawl my eyes out when I watched the episode).

‘The End’ may not actually be the end of the show, but it feels like the perfect final chapter to the series, one that wouldn’t have left fans feeling cheated if there had been no more episodes. Thankfully, as well as wrapping up so many things so perfectly it still leaves enough open that the sixth season looks set to be just as good as season five, though it will be tough for any of those episodes to be able to compete with this one.

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Wednesday, 20 March 2019

Captain Marvel: Starforce On The Rise – Book Review

Originally published on Set The Tape

The Centum books that tie into the new Marvel Studios film releases have been a great way of getting more information on the build-up to these big events, we get to see what Captain America, Thor, and even Thanos were up to before Avengers: Infinity War, for example. Their latest offering, Captain Marvel: Starforce On The Rise, as the name suggests, gives readers an early insight into what to expect from the new Captain Marvel movie, as well as some interesting background on the Kree aliens that Carol Danvers finds herself fighting alongside.

Being a book designed for younger readers Captain Marvel: Starforce On The Rise isn’t too difficult a book to get through, and most adult readers will be able to get through it in a single sitting. For those that need a break, however, the book is nicely split into two parts as it takes the reader through two missions that Carol Danvers finds herself on.

The first part of the book sees Carol and her Starforce teammate Minn-Erva sent to the planet of Aphos Prime to investigate a possible Skrull sighting. With the Skrulls being a hugely anticipated addition to the MCU it’s great that the book jumps straight into their war with the Kree Empire. Whilst there’s not a huge amount about the inner workings of either society on display here, and it’s very much soldiers down in the (literal) mud fighting it out, it tells you all that you really need to know. Both sides have been fighting for decades, and the Kree hate the Skrulls more than any other race in the galaxy.

Whilst the action on Aphos Prime is fairly small there’s a great underlying mystery that is slowly uncovered through these chapters, one that ends up being incredibly creepy, and at times down right disgusting.

The rest of the book sends the whole Starforce team into a covert mission to the planet of Sy’gyl, under the control of Xandar. As people who have already watched Guardians of the Galaxy know, the the Kree and the Xandarians were once at war, but a peace was made between their two empires; this being the driving force for the villain of the film. This mission is set prior to this peace, and has Carol and her team infiltrating a military outpost to steal weapon plans. The mission goes horribly wrong for the team due to Skrull intervention, but thanks to some sneaky backroom dealings inside of Nova Corps, and the help of John C. Reilly’s Roman Day, Carol is able to complete her mission.

Despite showing some of the inner workings of the Kree Empire, it’s history of conflict with other galactic powers, and how Starforce operates, the main drive of the book is about focusing on Carol and how she interacts with the team. Whilst it’s clear to those who know a little about the character that she’s a human that has gained fantastic powers she very much believes herself to be a Kree in the book, as does everyone else. It’s only through very human idioms that it’s obvious that she has a past on Earth, even if she doesn’t know that. How it came to be that she ended up as a super-powered being in space with false memories is sure to be explored in the film, but the small teases here just makes me more eager to find out what’s happened and to get those answers. If the book is designed to garner interest for the film it’s certainly working.

The book also spends a great deal of time establishing the relationships between the members of Starforce, showing how some members like her but sometimes don’t understand her, whilst others such as Minn-Erva absolutely hate her. It’s not clear from the small pieces of information we’ve received about the plot of the film is Carol is going to have to end up in conflict with her former team, but if she does knowing how these characters think and feel about each other before going into the film will make any confrontation more exciting.

Captain Marvel: Starforce On The Rise isn’t a long or complicated book, and is written in an incredibly accessible way, yet is more than just a simple adventure story. It helps to build a new and exciting part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, it gives readers important character information, and gives tiny clues to one of the films central mysteries. It might not be vital to read the book before going to see the film, but it will certainly add to the experience.

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Thursday, 14 March 2019

Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Season 4 – Top 5 Episodes

Originally published on Set The Tape

Season four of Agents of SHIELD is possibly one of the most interesting in the show’s history so far. Previous seasons have split their stories into some very clear arcs before, with each season becoming more and more distinct, but season four took the bold move of squeezing three very different, yet interconnected arcs into the show. With so many different episodes to choose from, it’s proven harder than previous seasons to pick out the five best.

5. Episode 1 – ‘The Ghost’

The big draw for the fourth season was the introduction of Ghost Rider to the MCU. A character that has always had something of a niche following, yet has become iconic over the years – in some part thanks to the recent Nicholas Cage films – and he makes for an interesting addition to the MCU.

With the films embracing the more mystical aspects of comics, thanks to Doctor Strange, it was only a matter of time until Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. did the same. Rather than the bright and colourful visuals that Doctor Strange employed, the series took on a much darker tone; darker than anything it had done before. The slow build-up to Ghost Rider and his vicious pursuit of street criminals is, at times, downright frightening. This characterisation is coupled with frankly brilliant visual effects when Robbie Reyes (Gabriel Luna) transforms.

Despite having had super-powered people in the show since the very beginning, there’s something extra special about having a full blown superhero and a lead in their own comic on the same screen as these heroes.

The episode also adds some other new characters into the trimmed down main cast, with Yo-Yo (Natalia Cordova-Buckley) and Radcliffe (John Hannah) taking on regular roles, as well as the introduction of the Life Model Decoy Aida (Mallory Jansen). With plenty going on, a brilliant introduction to an iconic character and mystery for what is yet to come, ‘The Ghost’ proves to be an incredibly effective season opener.

4. Episode 18 – ‘No Regrets’

The ‘Agents of Hydra’ arc of season four would have been easy to make into a throwaway thing with the events inside the framework having little impact upon the real world. Yes, there is the question of how the changes in the characters’ personalities within the simulated world would effect them once they get out, especially a character like Fitz (Iain De Caestecker), who has become a coldblooded killer, but so far nothing seems to have any real consequences.

All of that changes in ‘No Regrets’ when Director Mace (Jason O’Mara) sacrifices himself inside the framework, dying in the real world as a consequence. Mace and his team infiltrate a Hydra facility to rescue one of his agents, the surprise return of B.J. Britt as Triplett, only to discover children being held for ‘reeducation’.

Throughout the season the audience were made to distrust Mace, suspecting him of being up to no good, then we liked him for being an InHuman willing to put himself in the limelight to protect S.H.I.E.L.D., to hating him for being a fraud. So here, where he doesn’t even remember his old life and the mistakes that he has made, he becomes the hero that he always wanted to be. He gives his life in order to save innocents. The saddest part, as well as the loss of Mace as a character, is that the people he saved don’t even really exist.

It’s hard to believe from his first introduction that you’d be sad to see the character go, but the loss of Mace is an incredibly touching moment, one that shocks and hammers home just how much danger the rest of the team is in.

3. Episode 21 – ‘The Return’

Our heroes are finally out of the simulated prison of the framework, but are far from out of danger. The episode manages to pack a lot of action and developments into its run time. Coulson (Clark Gregg) and May (Ming-Na Wen) are trapped inside the oil platform at the mercy of an army of Ivanov (Zach McGowan) LMD’s, Yo-Yo discovers the devastating truth about Mack’s (Henry Simmons) past and the loss of his daughter, Aida tries to be a hero before becoming a crazed villain, and Fitz and Simmons (Elizabeth Henstridge) must examine the damage to their relationship.

With the season so close to the end it’s amazing that the show is still pulling twists and turns at such a late stage, with the team having to come back together, capture the villain, face off against the military, and having to make a daring escape all in a 45 minute run time.

Aida continues to prove herself to be one of the more interesting villains the show has had, presenting the audience with unseen qualities as she discovers what it’s like to be a living, breathing being for the first time. Her journey since her introduction at the start of the season has been a shocking one, full of twists and turns that were almost unpredictable, and she’s all the better for it.

The episode ends with a set-up for the finale as the broken remnants of S.H.I.E.L.D. desperately try to stay alive long enough to end a threat they themselves made. The most exciting moment in the episode, however, might just be the sudden return of Ghost Rider, ready to go into battle against Aida and Ivanov.

2. Episode 15 – ‘Self Control’

Since the introductions of the LMD’s it was only a matter of time until the series played ‘who’s the robot?’. It might be a sci-fi trope for characters to get switched out for evil replicants, but boy does Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. do it well.

While the episode tells the audience up front that Daisy (Chloe Bennett) isn’t an LMD, the fact that they keep you guessing over Fitz and Simmons is a great touch, and one that leads to an incredibly tense and chilling scene as the two of them turn on each other. This is what makes the episode great, seeing our heroes as villains, taking down their team from the inside whilst those who haven’t been replaced have no idea who to trust.

The action in the episode is really good too, with the fight between Daisy and the fake Mack and Coulson being one of the the more brutal fights the season has given us so far. We’ve become used to Daisy being the tough, almost unbeatable agent, so seeing her struggle against robots makes for a refreshing change, plus the destruction of the Mack LMD is a moment of stunning effects work that shows off just how far the show has come.

LMD May might just be the standout of the episode, though, with her arc coming to a very satisfactory conclusion as she goes against her machine programming, remaining true to the person she believed she was. It might be a little sad to realise that we haven’t really had May in the series since the first few episodes, the emotional confrontation between her double and the fake Coulson more than make up for it. An incredibly well made conclusion to the LMD arc as the season moves into their ‘Agents of Hydra’ story.

1. Episode 22 – ‘World’s End’

As good as the penultimate episode of the season, ‘The Return’, is, and how much it managed to pack into the episode, ‘World’s End’ easily has it beat.

The return of Robbie Reyes helps to tie the final episode in with the beginning of the season, and brings together the supernatural and technology in fun and interesting ways. Whilst Aida might have started off as a machine, she used magic to help bring herself to life, and magic has consequences.

Ghost Rider coming back to balance out the universe for Aida’s manipulations is a really clever concept, and the added bonus of a Ghost Rider Coulson makes this the best episode to feature the character. Despite how far they have come since the beginning of the season it’s great to see Daisy and Robbie working together again, and raises the hope that he might one day return for further team-ups.

As well loads of action, the episode manages to cover a lot of emotional ground, bringing the team back together following the events of the framework and reinforcing how much of a family they have become, and how much they need each other. This is most obvious in the scenes with Yo-Yo and Mack in the framework as she tries desperately to save him from a world that’s falling apart.

The revelations that Mack loves his lost daughter so much that he is willing to give his life for just a few more moments with a fake avatar of what she could have been is heartbreaking, and the final tear soaked moments they have together is one of the most gut-wrenching the show has had. It shows a side of Mack that we’ve never been shown before, and sets up an incredibly strong relationship between him and Yo-Yo going forward into the fifth season.

Despite all of the emotional ups and downs of the episode, the return of Ghost Rider, the loss of Radcliffe, and all of the action, the episode manages one final mind-blowing twist in its final moments as Coulson and his team are captured by some unknown group, before Coulson wakes up on a ship in space. Season four might have included supernatural heroes, robot impostors, and their own version of the Matrix, but it already looks like season five will go in bigger, bolder new directions as the series continues to go from strength to strength.

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Wednesday, 13 March 2019

Shades of Magic: The Steel Prince – Book Review

Originally published on Set The Tape

The Shades of Magic series is a three-part fantasy epic that spans multiple dimensions that helped to secure V.E. Schwab’s as a fantastic writer. Despite filling three huge books and hundreds of pages it always felt like the series was just the beginning of something so much bigger thanks to how real the worlds felt, how ancient and lived in their cultures were. Shades of Magic: The Steel Prince explores the history of one of these worlds in greater detail, giving readers a chance to know one of the novels main characters, King Maxim.

Set decades before the events of the books, the comic follows a younger Maxim, when he was still just the prince of Arnes. Chided by his father for his obsession with finding people with the skills and magic required to open doorways between the four worlds Maxim is sent away from Red London to port city of Verose, a place teeming with violence and lawlessness.

Already something of a skilled fighter and soldier, though somewhat untested, Maxim and Isra, one of the city’s royal guard, are forced to become a team as they work together to combat one of the greatest threats to the city, the evil Pirate Queen Arisa.

The worlds of Shades of Magic were well established in the books, with a very clear sense of how the worlds differed from each other, and what made each one unique. Despite this, readers rarely saw beyond the borders of the four Londons, as such the setting of Shades of Magic: The Steel Prince feels new and exciting, with Verose a character itself.

The city feels dark and dirty, with small streets and looming buildings. In only a short time there it’s easy to get a sense of how dangerous a place it is, with Maxim being attacked almost immediately upon arriving. The city is filled with dark alleys, crime filled taverns, and spired buildings, creating a patchwork of locations that lend themselves well to almost any kind of action or intrigue V.E. Schwab would want to include. It’s never visually dull, and adds a variety to the setting that some books often lack.

Over the course of the book we get to see Prince Maxim journey from a prideful young man, one confident in his abilities, to one that realises that just because he is a royal, and has been trained by some of the best, he’s not always going to win in every situation he’s in. He learns to change the way he acts, to fight dirty, and to bend the rules in order to win. It’s an interesting contrast to the older Maxim that we see in the novels, yet it’s still clearly the same man, with the same sense of morals and drive to do what’s best.

He’s joined in his adventure by Isra, a woman that’s been toughened by her time serving in Verose, becoming somewhat cold and jaded. Despite this, she proves to be a perfect partner for Maxim, picking out his faults and failings and helping him to see where he needs to improve in order to survive. They both clearly want to do the right thing, her past with the Pirate Queen and their complex relationship proves that, and despite her somewhat jaded views, she’s clearly an incredibly loyal and dedicated soldier.

The artwork in the book, by the talented Andrea Olimpieri, fits the universe of Arnes well. She captures the look and feel created in the books, and translates so many of those images to the page perfectly. Whilst the designs in the book aren’t quite 100% what I imagined when I read the novels, they’re so close that I never once felt that things weren’t right. She took a world that was already so well crafted and brought it to the visual medium of comics.

With more comics set within the universe, following Prince Maxim, to come this is a brilliant introduction to the series. Whether you have read the novels or not, Shades of Magic: The Steel Prince creates a well realised and perfectly crafted world that will immediately draw readers in, with interesting and layered characters. The smaller character moments and the intense magical combat pair together to tell a story that will please readers no matter what they came to the series for. A series definitely worth keeping an eye on.

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