Joss Whedon's "Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D." has its first trailer: http://youtu.be/0yg_jaOPV_E

Agent Coulson is back!

Quoted from Diddly

Agent Coulson is back!

Of course Coulson is back.  He was never dead to begin with.  Fury falsified his death to bring the avengers together because he knew that every one of the avengers liked Coulson, that they all wanted to please Coulson sexually... that they had this incredible familial bond with Coulson... That they all wanted to Avenge Coulson because Coulson meant the world to each and every one of them... Especially the hulk because Coulson would read to him and massage his aching muscles after a hard Hulk Smash day filled with smashing and hulking up.

He did die in the original, but Fury put the blood on the cards to over dramatize his death and make the avengers vengeful.  Apparently in the European DVD release Loki's spear (or whatever his weapon was) didn't pierce out of Coulson's chest like it did by a foot or so in the North American release.  The reason for this was the desire to bring him back because his death was so poorly received in theatres.  I read this on some car-site online (it was likely from an article off msn.ca back when the DVDs were being released...)

http://youtu.be/T3T-evQZiQo

This video suggests you're wrong Shabadu.

Yah I've seen a different one, but that one was much better... I'm not saying I'm right (or wrong), I'm just saying supposedly the "original" idea was that Agent Coulson did die... since that time, other considerations came about that proved better (more marketable) having him survive... however his lackof death recognition (no funeral for the Avengers to mourn him) does certainly suggest maybe this was the intent all along... but if you watch in the original movie (and presumably that would include the North American DVD release) the depth Loki's spear protruded from his chest would have mangled his lungs, heart and other important features contained in the human chest beyond repair... but maybe that is why they toned it back in the Euro-release was because they already had an idea for expanding his charcter elsewhere.
I just know Joss tends to kill off one or two important characters in nearly senseless ways, and certainly that seemed to be the case with Agent Coulson.

Joss Whedon promises that Agent Coulson's resurrection won't be glossed over and the answer will be neither simple nor "a fanwank."

Source: http://ca.ign.com/articles/201.....e-not-the-fancy-ones

We've now gotten past the mid-season break for Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (I'm gonna use AoS from now on) and indeed the show has now settled the debate on Coulson's death (in-so-far as this thread argues).  I can't say anything more about it, or I'll spoil the story for anyone watching.

Instead I'm going to change gears and talk about the show in general.  Is anyone else actually watching it?  After half a season, I can't say I recommend it except to die-hard Marvel fans.  I mean it's okay...  but not great.  Just like Gilligan's Island can be boiled down to "The castaways almost get off the island, but Gilligan screws it up", AoS can equally be summarized as "Skye complains about protocol, causes agents to mistrust her, then saves the day by breaking the rules."

Well, that's not exactly true.  Just most of the episodes.  The ones I've enjoyed most focused on one or more of the other characters and let them save the day.

I guess my biggest complaint is that with the exception of Coulson, any character who isn't the "spotlight" character for the episode, is completely 1 dimensional.  That, and far too often Skye is the spotlight character.  Sorry, she's a hacker who lived in a van.  I REALLY can't believe she consistently can outsmart the entire S.H.I.E.L.D. technology organization.