Marvel brought everything they had to their Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. panel at New York Comic-Con — and then some.
Just know right up front, on pain of death, we can’t tell you everything we saw. They had true-to-life Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. prowling the aisles with night vision goggles to make sure no one was recording the footage we saw at this year’s panel. And for good reason. This isn’t something you want to be spoiled on, folks — trust us!
So what can we tell you? Well, first things first: Jeph Loeb is Hydra!
Kind of. Loeb went through his normal speech of thanking everyone involved with the show, especially the fans, who kept sending Marvel execs messages about how Coulson couldn’t possibly be dead following the events of The Avengers. When he was done with that, he stood behind the podium and said, “Season 1 taught us that anyone can be Hydra.” Then he opened his coat and revealed his Hydra t-shirt.
The crowd erupted into booing (as you do), but were saved by Clark Gregg, who ran up on stage and confronted the head of Marvel television. And that’s when the room truly exploded.
Gregg immediately got a standing ovation, and you could tell the cheering and shouting gave him a supernatural boost of energy — especially when he vaulted the barrier between the stage and the crowd and started high-fiving fans. Once he got back on stage, the crowd started chanting, “Coulson! Coulson! Coulson!” and Gregg simply said, “It’s good to be alive.”
To make up for the fact that he revealed he was Hydra, Gregg convinced Loeb to show us Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. season 2, episode 4, “Face My Enemy.” You’ll have to wait for the episode to air on television to get more than just a few teasers from us, but we can tell you this one is for those of you out there that love Agent May. She’s prominently featured, and Ming-Na Wen shows us exactly how formidable she can be.
And if you think that’s all Gregg talked Loeb into sharing, you’d be dead wrong. Loeb apologized for his stunt with the shirt, assuring us he wasn’t really Hydra, and asked what he could do to make it up to Gregg and the audience once and for all.
“You could show us some Agent Carter,” Gregg stated, simply.
And show us, he did. Agent Carter just began shooting last week, but Coulson is the director of S.H.I.E.L.D. after all. He pulled some strings and got us a sneak peek of the new show starring Hayley Atwell as Peggy Carter. And while it was a short and simple scene that featured both Howard Stark and Jarvis, the highlight was, of course, Atwell as Agent Carter. Oh, and we should mention that in the pilot episode Carter does get into a brawl, and no, they’re definitely not pulling their punches.
The panel did exactly what it was meant to do — it made us even more excited for a pair of television shows we already can’t live without.
Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. airs Tuesdays at 9:00 p.m. on ABC. Agent Carter will premiere in 2015.