3. Awkward…
As if the snarky, deadpan Coulson wasn’t already fan-bait enough, it turns out he’s also a fan-boy, as evidence in his first hilariously earnest, awkward meeting with Captain America. You see, while Steve was in the ice it seems he became something of a legend. No wonder Phil Coulson made a point of watching him while he was sleeping… unconscious. Damn. No matter which way you cut it, Coulson’s fannish nervousness around the Cap is adorable, if a little stalkerish. It’s one thing to take an interest in the American icon whose trading cards you used to connect, quite another to help redesign his costume. No wonder The Avengers were willing to buy the Coulson had the cards on him when he got stabbed (hence the blood).
2. A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to Thor’s Hammer
Tony Stark might have the Iron Man suit, Thor may have his hammer, and Steve Rogers may be a super soldier, but Phil Coulson is the only hero armed entirely with the power of self-deprecation. In this second Marvel One-Shot, when he’s not bombing it through the desert listening to classic jazz, he’s casually foiling a robbery at a 7/11. From the oh-so polite way he draws attention to the weapon he’s carrying – “Excuse me, I also have this gun” – to the simple and practical way he controls the situation – slide the gun over then lob a bag of flour at one of the thieves’ heads – Coulson handles the situation with zero property damage and loss of life. He takes no credit for it and never even ruffles his suit. Quiet and unpretentious, can you say the same of the bunch of lummoxes he’s forced to corral?
1. Coulson Dies
You know you’ve made it big in the world of mainstream comics when you get your first resurrection. Coulson’s death in The Avengers was one of those things that you could just about predict – who else are they going to kill off? Thor? – but that made it no less shocking when Loki appeared behind him and shoved a spear through it back. Coulson died making a brave but ultimately futile stand against the Norse God of Mischief, a being he could never hope to defeat, even with that threatening-looking gun, but at least he got to blast the smug son-of-a-bitch through a wall, striking the movie’s first real blow against him. As deaths go, it was a doozy. His reappearance in S.H.I.E.L.D. may diminish it somewhat – did he somehow survive or was he, as Clark Gregg’s choice of words in a recent interview suggests, “brought back”? In any case, it’s a mystery we hope the show delves into as it progresses.
And that about does it. There were many more moments we could have chosen, like that time Coulson threatened to taze Tony Stark and leave him drooling while he watched Supernanny, but, nevertheless, Agent Phil Coulson definitely has the bad-ass credentials down. We can’t think of anyone more suited to leading S.H.I.E.L.D. in its eponymous show – what has Nick Fury ever done, in the movie universe at least (sorry again, Mr. Jackson). We’ll have a review of the pilot of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. ready for ASAP. Till then, all we can say is bravo, Agent Coulson. Bravo.
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