Late Night Musing on Agent Coulson’s Return…
(Reblogged from my Tumblr)
I am still totally giddy after Marvel’s New York Comic Con announcement that Clark Gregg will be reprising his role as Agent Coulson for Joss Whedon’s S.H.I.E.L.D. series, so I’ve been reading all the articles regarding the news. Most of them say something that boils down to “we don’t know how they’re going to bring Coulson back, if he survived or if the show takes place pre-Avengers, or what”, but at least one site (Boomtron) says:
“The announcement came when Gregg was speaking about doing his work on the Marvel Cinematic Universe, when a video featuring Avengers director Joss Whedon and Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige broke the news that Gregg would be “headlining” the S.H.I.E.L.D. series, and it would take place before Coulson’s death, thus enabling it to still be a part of the same continuity as the movies without making his sacrifice meaningless.”
Did the writer here see something in the Whedon/Feige video clip that none of the other reporters saw? (I haven’t seen the clip myself… could somebody please help a fangirl out with a link to it?) Literally no other article I’ve read comes to the definite conclusion that the series is set pre-Avengers.
But I digress… What I really wanted to ask was, why do so many people just assume that Agent Coulson died in the first place? There is ample ambiguity built into The Avengers to allow the writers to bring Coulson back without retconning or “making his sacrifice meaningless” (which is a phrase I hate, incidentally, implying as it does that an act of bravery has no meaning unless it kills you - it’s just not good enough to be wounded or maimed, no sirree! Nothing but your heroic death will do!) I leave Life Model Decoy speculations to others, and address here only what I think is the most likely scenario - that Nick Fury lied about Coulson’s death.
The seeds of doubt were planted throughout the film, with Tony Stark’s constant references to Fury’s secrets and lies, and especially with Fury’s manipulation of the Avengers using the blood-soaked Captain America trading cards. You can see that even Maria Hill has her doubts - if Fury is coldly calculating enough to get those cards from the locker, drench them in blood, and and lie about them to give the Avengers a “push”, what else might he be lying about in order to get the outcome he wants? It’s the rapid-fire unfolding of events after that that keeps her - or any of the Avengers - from further questioning Fury’s account (the film has a very compressed timeline - I reckon the whole thing covers just three or four days).
If Fury lied and Coulson was only badly wounded but not dead, this in no way undercuts the power of the scene for me - Coulson still went in to face Loki knowing the risks. While he does give Fury the idea to use his death as an incentive for the Avengers to finally work together, Coulson clearly believes he’s actually dying - there’s no deceit intended on his part. But seconds after Coulson becomes unresponsive, Fury makes way for the medical team and he’s obviously already calculating what he’s going to do next.
Think of the possibilities for dramatic tension if Fury lied about Coulson’s death. How does Fury walk back from that and come clean to the Avengers? How would he ever get them to trust him again? And how would Agent Coulson feel about Fury lying to the Avengers - to Cap?! - about his death, and about the destruction of his trading cards? Aside from my natural inclination to want Agent Coulson to have survived - I’d really love to see him in more of the Avengers films - I think it could lead to much more interesting situations if the “Fury Lied” scenario is the one Joss Whedon and Marvel decide to go with.
I guess we won’t know for quite a while what tack Whedon will take, or whether Coulson will even be in more than the pilot episode, let alone more of the movies. But a fangirl can dream, and petition the Powers That Be (Joss and Marvel) in hopes that Agent Coulson’s return will be a real and long-term one.