S.H.I.E.L.D.

As popular as Hasbro's S.H.I.E.L.D. Helicarrier and SDCC exclusive Super S.H.I.E.L.D. Helicarrier toys have been, the action figure playsets lack one important feature: the power of flight. Fans can't really fault the toymaker too much - a working playset isn't exactly practical to manufacture and many a ceiling could be damaged by young or generally unskilled pilots...

Hasbro has released some pretty huge San Diego Comic-Con exclusives over the years, including Marvel Universe Galactus and Sentinel figures that tower at 19" and 16" respectively. This year's Super S.H.I.E.L.D. Helicarrier exclusive has achieved size supremacy, however, measuring about 46" inches long, 17...

Agent Phil Coulson has been an unlikely -- or perhaps super likely? -- breakout star among the master-assassins and glamorous demigods of the Marvel movie universe. The unflappable S.H.I.E.L.D. agent played by Clark Gregg made his first appearance in 2008's Iron Man movie and became one of the threads tying the movie universe together with appearances in Iron Man 2, Thor, and of course this summer

Reading Comics author Douglas Wolk runs down the hottest comics and graphic novels coming out this week. KEY: * Arithmetic ^ Geometry % Music @ Astronomy * ^ % @ ABSOLUTE PROMETHEA VOL. 3 Collecting #24-32 of Alan Moore and J.H. Williams III's "did I say I was doing a Wonder Woman knockoff...

Iron Man, Thor and Captain America are fine and all, but for a lot of Marvel movie fans, Clark Gregg's Agent Coulson is the real star of The Avengers franchise. The persistent S.H.I.E.L.D. agent is pretty much a lone voice of reason in films fueled by raging egos, which made him fun to watch in the subtle one-shot short "The Consultant" which debuted as an extra in the recently released

Reading Comics author Douglas Wolk runs down the hottest comics and graphic novels coming out this week. KEY: * History ^ Violence % Psychedelic rock bands * % 15 LOVE #3 The long-delayed, enormously enjoyable Andi Watson/Tommy Ohtsuka miniseries about Millie the Pre-Model Tennis Prodigy concludes...

Of all the Marvel books currently on the stands, there's only one packed with enough papa drama to be (ridiculously) compared to NBC's late '80s sitcom My Two Dads: Jonathan Hickman and Dustin Weaver's S.H.I.E.L.D. Unlike Paul Reiser and Greg Evigan's characters, however, Michelangelo and Nikola Tesla may totally murder each other as they battle for the destiny of their "son" Leonid, who

Reading Comics author Douglas Wolk runs down the hottest comics and graphic novels coming out this week. KEY: * Congress ^ Justice Dept. % Bureau of the Interior ¢ Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms * CELLULOID It's been a while since we've heard from Dave McKean in comics, and his new book is a not-very-plot-heavy thing involving a lot of large images and a lot of very stylized nudity and sex. Not...

The confederacy of imbeciles struck another blow in its war against the world's viral marketers last week when discarded press materials were mistaken for a bomb. Designed to promote Marvel Studios' Thor, a briefcase adorned with the film's iconography and that of the fictional spy organization S...

S.H.I.E.L.D., which releases its first six-issue hardcover collection this week, is a captivating tale of the secret history of the Marvel Universe, centered around a battle between believers in fate, believers in free will, and bystanders caught in between...