Commentary, Review, and Wild Speculation of Agents of Shield Episode 'Eye Spy' and Your Old School Super Hero Campaign

The trailer for this episode completely threw me. These guys turned out to be completely different then I thought from last Monday.

Its about 2:00 am and I'm putting my thoughts together for tonight's 'Agents of Shield'
Tonight's episode of 'Agents of Shield' finally, sorta hit its stride. We can sum up the entire episode in two words - Eye Horror.
We have a former rogue shield agent moving silently across the face of the Earth on missions  but all is not as it seems at all. 

The girl with the cybenetic  X-ray eyes, Akela Amadour (Pascale Armand) was tragic, dangerous, and utterly interesting. The plotting was fast, smart and surprising. Skye (Chloe Bennet) had an actual reason to be involved in the drama.

This was a really well done episode and if you haven't caught it then go over to Agents of Shield.com and give a watch right

HERE 

 So who is actually the big bad? Hydra is a possibility but A.I.M. might actually be the 'Rising Tide'.

There are lots of hints in tonight's episode and it continues its dance of a changing world and the weird cybernetic/alien technology fu that we saw in the first episode. 

I have a feeling that the super soldier program's technology is actually behind the 'I spies' in tonight's adventure. The cybernetics were  cute and kinda of James Bond gadget cool but their ahead of the curve of Shield. Given the direction of the cybernetics project and the handler bit in tonight's episode as well as the release of the new movie happening my vote is for A.I.M. which btw is another incarnation of Hydra. 

Abomination was another dead end of the super soldier serum just as the Manthing was. Ross knew exactly what the effects were. These folks knew what they were doing and they were organized. Don't forget that at the end of Captain America some elements of Hydra had escaped into the world already.

What we've seen in the Agents of Shield series so far is technology, super powers, and a world not ready for any of the weirdness that came after the appearance of the Avengers.

The one thing that always seems to come up is the technology that floats around this version of the Marvel universe and how it all began with Captain America and not the Fantastic Four as it did in the regular Marvel universe.
In which case it always seems to come back into the 'Super Soldier program'.
From the relaunch of the Hulk to the X men that program is always in the background lurking like some sort of weird story element.
Agent Coulson has been walking in the background of all of this like some sort of polite 'smoking man' character. There is something vaguely creepy about our head Shield agent.
We know that the movies follow the 'Ultimates' comic book story line sorta. And there's been one guy whose walked among the halls of power and been in the background of the creation of Shield itself. This bastard also has ties to the Hulk, Iron Man, the Xmen, and lots of other dirty deeds in the movie Marvel universe. 
You can read up on him
HERE

This guy has been there and done that.
He's also had some dealings with Coulson and Shield through a bit of trickery.

So Who Is Phil Coulson Really?
 

 Coulson has that 'Smoking Man' creepy X-Files thing going on. He's been weaving behind the scenes of the movies for quite a while. Read up and you'll see what I mean. Seriously this is too important a character to simply be an LMD. 

HERE

I've heard speculation about Coulson being the Vision. And there's even a mock up sculpt of the actor as the character which is very cool.

Curtisy of Geek Tyrant. More right over
HERE

Tonight I heard this rumor from my friend Peter Amthor:

 "Coulson was originally a soldier from WWII and has died more than a few times over the years. Only to be reloaded into the latest generation of LMD they have. Says his actual memories are altered for the time difference but his fascination for all the old relics is because his real memories are all still there buried." 

 I think he' isn't simply some life model decoy at all. I personally think that he's the 'Human Torch' that appeared in Captain America The First Avenger. 

You can find out more about Alex Hammond's appearance in Captain America the First Avenger right over HERE 

Here's the connection between the original Human Torch and The Vision according to Wiki:

The Human Torch  existed since WWII as one of the original Invaders as the Human Torch but there is a hard core connection to the Vision unit.

 From Wiki: 

" The Vision is convinced by the Avengers to turn against Ultron.[2] After learning how Ultron created him, using the brain patterns of then-deceased Simon Williams (Wonder Man), the Vision becomes a member of the team.[3] The team initially believes the Vision's body was created from that of the android original Human Torch.[4] The Avengers later are told that the time lord Immortus used the power of the Forever Crystal to split the original Human Torch into two entities - one body remained the original Torch while Ultron rebuilt the other as the Vision. This was part of his plan to nurture a relationship for the Scarlet Witch that would prevent her from having any children, as her power level meant that any offspring she might have could threaten the cosmic beings of the Marvel Universe."

Vision_(Marvel_Comics)

So is Coulson the Vision? I honestly don't know but with all of the weird hybrid technology showing up on Agents of Shield there might well be a connection to the big bad we keep seeing hints going all the way back to the first episode.

 These elements may be resolved in Age Of Ultron. 

 Using these elements in your
 Old School Super Hero campaign


Much of the information on the original Human Torch can be found
HERE
Much of the elements that I've discussed tonight can be found right over
in the All This and WWII Marvel Super Heroes adventure.

Right over HERE
 Avengers Coast to Coast contains very solid write ups of the Human Torch, the Vision, and some of the classic villain groups including AIM.  Available through the same link as above.
The Compiled Marvel File has all of the Marvel Super Heroes material from Dragon Magazine including a very well done WWII adventure featuring the Invaders along with the Torch and so much more right over
HERE