Tuesday, July 21, 2015

Time to Start Recruiting Secret Warriors! Part 3


Image Courtesy www.twitter.com/AgentsofShield

Thus far I’ve written two articles looking forward to the Secret Warriors on Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.  The first looked at characters who have appeared on the show already.  The second looked at the members of the comic book Secret Warriors team.  This time, I will be looking at some of the “NuHumans”—descendants of the Inhumans who lived among regular humans and discovered their Inhuman ancestry after the Terrigen Bomb was detonated.  Why would I look at these characters in particular?  Because that’s exactly what’s happening on Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. following the season 2 finale.

The first criterion I am looking for—superpowers—is met by all the NuHumans.  So instead of that criterion, I will instead look at the ability to be anonymous, along with the back story and powers:  can they be translated to TV?

The ranking scale I am using is 1-5, with “1” meaning “no way in hell” and “5” meaning “already confirmed to be on the team.”


Daisy Johnson, aka “Quake,” aka Skye – 5

In the comics, Daisy Johnson is the field commander of the Secret Warriors.  In addition, she learned after the Terrigen Bomb that she was half-Inhuman (like the series).  This one is pretty much self-explanatory.  Skye is really the only character that can get a “5” rating, because she’s the only character who is definitively confirmed to be on the Secret Warriors team at this point.

Skye has been one of the main characters for 2 seasons, and the entire second season revolved around learning who and what she is, unlocking her powers, and “meeting the parents.”  Going forward she will only become more important as one of Coulson’s top lieutenants and the leader of his Secret Warriors team.

Sarah Garza – 4

Sarah Garza is a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent who discovered her Inhuman heritage and gained the ability to generate energy explosions.  James Rhodes (War Machine) designed a containment suit to help her control her powers, and she even joined the Secret Avengers for a while.

Based on her abilities and appearance, Sarah would be a good fit for the Secret Warriors.  Her powers should translate fairly well on a TV budget.  Additionally, her back story as a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent assigned to a hero team would work very well with the Secret Warriors team as it is being assembled by Coulson.  In fact, she could even be introduced as a current S.H.I.E.L.D. agent before undergoing Terrigenesis partway through the season.

Image Courtesy marvel.wikia.com
Flint – 4

Flint is an African-American Inhuman with the ability to control rock.  At first parts of his body are covered in rock, but as he gains control of his powers he learns to make the rock on his body disappear.

Controlling rock seems like the kind of ability that would be fairly easy to translate to the screen, and his appearance would be easy to create with a prosthetic until he learns to control his power and return to a “normal” appearance.  For both of these reasons, I think he has a good shot at appearing on the show.

Fiona - 3

Fiona is a teenage girl who grows wings and feathers, enabling her to fly.  She has some difficulty blending in with normal humans as a result of the feathers all over her body.

Her ability should be fairly easy to translate to TV, and her appearance would be fairly simple to replicate with prosthetics and makeup.  For this reason I consider it fairly likely that she can appear on Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. and join the Secret Warriors.  However, I’m putting her as a “3” because she really hasn’t made very many appearances in the comics.

Image Courtesy marvel.wikia.com
Naja – 3

Naja is a teenager whose transformation gave her a very reptilian appearance as well as a tail.  However, she also has wings which enable her to fly.  In addition to flight, she has the ability to make herself invisible depending on her emotional state.

On the one hand, all of Naja’s abilities and her appearance would be easy enough to show on a TV budget.  However, she really does not fit the criterion of blending in with the human crowd (unless she’s invisible; then she blends in pretty well!).  Based on all this, I would say it’s even money either way on whether she could join the Secret Warriors.

Kamala Khan – 2

Kamala Khan, aka Ms. Marvel, has been rumored to be joining the MCU in the near future.  She is a Pakistani-American teenager who has been given shapeshifting abilities.  Her abilities can certainly be translated to TV, and she can look as human as she wishes, so she can easily join the Secret Warriors based on those criteria.

However, I do not think that Kamala Khan is going to be joining the Secret Warriors, or at least not on a regular basis.  She could debut on Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. and even appear alongside the Secret Warriors.  However, I think she has enough potential to headline her own series that they will keep her mostly separate from the Secret Warriors.

Doris – 1

Doris is a widow who went to Matt Murdock for help when her house was foreclosed.  When she went through Terrigenesis, she turned into a squid-like creature with a ton of tentacles in place of her arms.

Her power itself can probably be shown on TV remarkably well using prosthetics and makeup with some CGI.  However, there is really no way for a giant squid creature to blend in with regular humans.  Again, this isn’t an automatic negative, but I just don’t see her joining the team.  If she appears on the series, I think it is more likely that she will be a new Inhuman that Skye’s team needs to rein in and help.

Image Courtesy marvel.wikia.com
Thane – 1

Thane is the son of Thanos (yeah, the purple guy) and an Inhuman woman.  He has absolutely mind-numbing abilities that give him the ability to warp reality within a certain radius of himself.  Among other things, he can encase people in an amber construct that places them in a state called “living death.”  However, his powers are extremely unstable and he does not know how to control them.  In story terms, Thane is kind of important because Thanos’ search for him led to his assault on Attilan and Black Bolt’s subsequent detonation of the Terrigen Bomb.

Thane looks human, so he meets the first criterion.  His “living death” power would probably require some CGI, but nothing about it screams “impossible on TV.”  Portraying his powers isn’t really the issue in my opinion.  However, their extreme nature makes me question if they would make him a regular team member.  Additionally, being Thanos’ son is something of a two-edged sword.  On the one hand, it can create a major tie-in between the looming villain for the Infinity War movies and Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. and the TV corner of the universe.  On the other hand, would Marvel want to introduce such a potentially major player on TV so many years before Infinity War?  If anything, they might save his storyline for The Inhumans as the first movie following Avengers: Infinity War Part 2.

Long story short, I would be surprised if Thane appears on Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., and absolutely shocked if he joins the Secret Warriors.

Conclusion

This is not by any means an exhaustive list of the NuHumans and their abilities.  I’m sure there are some that I did not talk about who could be good fits for the Secret Warriors, but this seemed like a good variety of characters, including at least a few of the more important ones.  One NuHuman that I did not talk about here is Donnie Gill, aka Blizzard, who was revealed to have Inhuman ancestry.  If you want more information about him, check out my article about characters who have already appeared [http://mcureviewer.blogspot.com/2015/06/time-to-start-recruiting-secret-warriors.html] on Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.

Which of these characters interest you the most?  Which would you most like to see join the Secret Warriors?

Next week I will write (another) article looking at all of the possible recruits from the three articles and making my suggestion for a Secret Warriors team.

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