‘Agents of SHIELD’ The Secret Of Agent Coulson’s ‘Resurrection’ Is Fishy; Pilot Episode Gets Satisfactory Reviews

The biggest question is about Phil Coulson's resurrection (his death was a centerpiece in "The Avengers") so his presence here raises countless questions. The Pilot Episode looks promising, though, and reviews give it a passing grade despite the high standards.

The challenge of "Agents of SHIELD" is to strike a balance between the Marvel Universe and the limitations of TV. Most Marvel fanboys expect it to be an extension of the hero movies, but it has been extensively explained that this is an independent series.

Reviews from various sites, like IGN observe the following: "Whedon's cleverness and wit run strong through Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. and while there are a couple of moments that don't quite work, in terms of humor, for the most part, this is an incredibly crowd-pleasing pilot. Those looking for the scale of the Marvel movies will be disappointed - this is a high budget TV series, but it is a TV series - but S.H.I.E.L.D. quickly hits the right notes to firmly show how it exists on the ground level of the Marvel universe, as the characters try to process the iron men, super soldiers, green monsters and thunder gods now among them."

Now, to the mystery of Coulson's resurrection. The only guest star from the movie is Maria Hill (Cobie Smulders). She is the only link that would probably have a clue on the details, and she does provide a clue. Read between the lines on this one:

"They do some walking and talking and Coulson reveals that he had "only stopped breathing for 40 seconds" after his run in with the "Asgardian Mussolini" aka Loki in THE AVENGERS and that he had recovered for a few weeks in Tahiti. He's aloof about the incident and plays it with the same Coulson humor we've all come to know and love. There's also an underlying, almost romantic link between Coulson and Hill, which I'm not sure was intentional or not. Their "moment" is broken when a medical S.H.I.E.L.D. agent enters the scene and Coulson exits. The medical agent turns to Hill and says something to the effect of "He still doesn't know, does he?" to which Hill responds that he "never can know."

Is Coulson a robot/cyborg? Only future episodes will reveal. Well played, Whedon.