After the world is left completely altered by the rumbles between superhero team the Avengers and their supervillain nemesis, who is left to ease the world into this new era? Thanks to the combined efforts of ABC, Marvel, and Joss Whedon’s genius everyone will be able to find out. ABC’s new hit television series Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D (Strategic Homeland Intervention Enforcement and Logistics Division)  follows the adventures (and misadventures) of a specialized group of S.H.I.E.L.D agents dedicated to investigating, capturing, collecting or confiscating any advanced, otherworldly byproducts/tech/individuals left behind or created by super being encounters.

The team is organized by agent Phil Coulson (Clark Gregg) who has taken part in many of the recent movies based on the individual members of the Avengers, his team consists of Malinda May (Ming-Na Wen) a super-ninja pilot with a dark past, Grant Ward (Brett Dalton) a headstrong field agent with tough-guy complex who prefers to fly solo, Leo Fitz (Iian De Caestecker) the teams designated and somewhat impatient Scotsman in charge of tech (think Scotty from Star Trek), Jemma Simmons (Elizabeth Henstridge) the good natured British biotechnician whose love for dissecting things borders on creepy, and finally Skye (Chloe Bennet) the sassy, fast-talking computer geek who Coulson recruited in the first episode after she tried to turn a mentally deteriorating superhuman on them.  

The show reveals another side of the Marvel universe that, to the best of my stockpile of nerd knowledge, is completely new and sheds light on the unsung non-superheros. The show also will play well to the fans sense of interest seeing as the show correlates with the recent Marvel movies, also directed by Joss Whedon. It reveals what I would like to think of as “the after party”; basically this show is like an ongoing sequel about who is left to pick up after the superheros have had their go. The connection makes my inner nerd jump up and down because it makes the Marvel universe seem that much more tangible.

Another thing I’m pretty sure would keep people watching the show even if it wasn’t that good is the mystery behind how Agent Coulson survived after being, as he puts it: “shanked by the Asgardian Mussolini,” through the chest (for those of you who don’t know he’s talking about Loki, Asgardian “God” of mischief and brother to Thor whom he was stabbed by in the Avengers movie). They reference this frequently in the show and not even Coulson is quite sure how he survived, only that he had been shipped off to a S.H.I.E.L.D rehabilitation center in Tahiti where he’d been recovering for the past several months. Another interesting thing: the Avengers aren’t even aware that Agent Coulson is alive seeing as how their not “clearence level seven”, well if that isn’t some secret agency espionage junk I don’t know what is.   

One of the only downsides to the show that I’ve seen for myself is that it seems a little too “vanilla”, I mean I love a show that is family friendly and can still be cool but compared to the more recent marvel films the overall tone just isn’t the same. I also honestly think that the true, die hard Marvel fans are going to have something to gripe about. Naturally all nerds will have something to complain about when it comes to cinematics made of their books/comic. I mean look at Eragon, blegh! But despite those minor grievances the show is awesome, and I recommend it to all long time Marvel fans and fans of the movies. The show airs on Tuesdays at 8 p.m. on ABC.