To Erik: With there finally being a program devoted to exploring around the cinematic Marvel Universe, who do you want to show up? Who do you not want to show up?
Well, as we all know, the Marvel Universe is a pretty huge place. It has decades of history to fall back on, and little pieces of treasure hidden in the darkest corners that could be mined. As for who I'd want to see, well, is there any better way to handle it than a top eleven? I didn't think so.
11) Unlimited Class Wrestling
Picture the WWE franchise in a world with actual heroes.
I mean- okay, let me rephrase that. Picture the WWE/WWF franchise from back in the 80s with all of the goofy costumes and ridiculous names, and then bombard them all with radiation so they all get actual super powers. That's the Unlimited Class Wrestling group in the Marvel Universe.
Members have included characters such as Ben Grimm (a.k.a "The Thing"), Demolition Man (not Stallone), the Armadillo, and a bunch of minor characters who never really amounted to anything. However, the Unlimited Class Wrestling is where one of my favorite, most obscure groups of all time comes from (at least, it's the only time I ever saw them), the Power Tools. Each of them has various power tool implements on their gauntlets (or in at least one case, I think, replacing their hand entirely). You had spinning saw blades, a jackhammer, hammers, a pick-axe, a sledgehammer and...um...
Um, yeah. The guy on the left has screwdrivers on his gauntlets. His codename actually is "Screwdriver."
Look, they can't all be winners, okay?
Anyway, an underground arena exploiting people who get powers would be a great storyline, one that could be in the background of a few episodes before coming out and being a huge two-parter. This is especially true because, if you're having the Unlimited Class Wrestling, you have to include...
10) The Power Broker
Hey, man, looking for a bit of a boost? Some extra "zip" to your day? You want to be able to get a high like you wouldn't believe? Well, man, you just gotta talk to the Power Broker, and he'll hook you up with the goods.
That is, he distributes super powers in drug form. Criminals, heroes, and people just looking to get to fly for a short time or beat up the guy picking on him at work all come to him to get what they need to get the job done. I mean, sure, the drugs might kill you, either directly or because they'll wear off when you're flying over the city or holding up that crumbling building, but that's the risk you take, man!
9) Nova
Imagine, if you will, an ordinary person here on Earth who gets picked to become part of an intergalactic peacekeeping force. Granted fantastic powers through advanced technology, he gains the ability to fly, project energy blasts and force fields, and still manages to try to deal with the every day issues of normal life around his hidden identity.
And he isn't played by Ryan Reynolds.
We already know aliens exist in the cinematic Marvel universe, in fact we have an upcoming Guardians of the Galaxy movie on the way to enforce it. So why not have S.H.I.E.L.D. be present when the "good guys" of the universe start picking human representatives instead of it always just being "the bad guys" who come to the planet to mess around?
8) Count Nefaria
Count Nefaria is one of those villains who has links to the Avengers as a whole but has a more personal link to Iron Man in the fact that his daughter, Madam Masque, is both trying to kill him and sleep with him at the same time depending on which writer remembers what part of her history.
Having enough power to take on the Avengers single-handedly, Count Nefaria (which is, let's face it, and awesome name) used technology to grant himself "ionic powers" or something that I never worried about the science of because, hey, it's comics. It'd be great to have the Agents track down stolen technology that could be used to grant someone those powers and be present at the "birth" of such a major villain, which would probably turn into a "use the same technology to stop him" plot, but at this point I just want to see the character on screen.
7) The Molecule Man
Owen Reese has, arguably, the most powerful "super power" that ever existed. He can turn anything into anything else. He alters them at the (as the name suggests) molecular level so that they simply stop being what it was and becomes, say, a block of solid gold. Or a ball of twine. Or a penguin. He can affect things on a microscopic level or alter entire landscapes around him...
But he has the self-confidence of Woody Allen before Woody Allen was famous. Instead of shooting, punching, or blowing up a threat that faces them, it'd be great to see Agent Coulson or someone else on the team have to simply talk down a guy with the power to simply make them dissolve just by thinking about it.
6) The Psycho Man
Nick Fury established in the very first Iron Man movie that there was more to the world than Tony Stark knew. This means they've already had encounters with things that would boggle the human mind. Suppose one of those was an invader from a microscopic universe who had control over everybody's emotions? A guy who could make an entire city riot in anger or hide away in fear? He's not quite as powerful in a fight as, say, Count Nefaria, but seeing a more psychological episode of the show would be quite entertaining, and we know that Joss Whedon has done a pretty great job in the past when it comes to messing with the heads of his characters.
5) Arcade
In a world where people get super powers, where the Avengers are now action figures, and where technology steadily advances, I expect at some point you'd get a guy who takes all of that and turns it into a twisted means of killing people. Enter Arcade, one of my favorite villains to ever exist, even if his character has taken a disappointing turn in Avengers Arena.
I'd love to see Arcade in a recurring role, hired by other villains through the series to try to lure S.H.I.E.L.D. agents or "pesky gifted people" to their dooms.
4) Taskmaster
And yes, he'd have to be in that costume.
A guy with the innate (more about that wording tomorrow) ability to physically mimic the moves of anybody he sees, Taskmaster (Tony Masters, former S.H.I.E.L.D. agent and now trainer of mooks for bad guys as well as the best mercenary ever) is a guy who can throw Cap's shield almost as well as he can, fight almost as well as Iron Fist, and move almost as acrobatically as Daredevil.
In fact, that's his only problem in that when you get right down to it, he's always almost as good as the source material, because the source material he observes can always try new things, he's limited to what he's already seen. Granted, it means that a martial artist suddenly has to deal with Hawkeye's arrows or Cap's shield being thrown at him or Iron Man is left fighting a guy who ducks and dodges on a level shy of Elektra, but to fight a guy who can never really beat with the same combat maneuver twice is a great villain for this series.
3) Joystick/The Great Game
This character was just fun. Originally a villain for the "replacement" Spider-man, Joystick was part of a group taking part in "The Great Game," a series of events where big prizes were given to whoever could get a mission done first. It might be simply stealing an object from a secure location or attempting to murder a super-hero (major points to her that she once tried to kill Mr. Fantastic and Namor the Sub-Mariner at the same time despite only being as powerful as a "lesser" Spider-Man), but it's all about the fun and adventure for them.
Joystick herself was great, because she somehow managed to break most conventions. She was the "team slut" of the Thunderbolts, but didn't wear a revealing costume. She was smart enough to tell when she was being manipulated, but went along away just to see what happened. A total hedonist, she was always "looking out for number one" and seemed surprised when anybody called her out on her actions.
2) Black Panther
We already know that Wakanda must exist, we've seen Cap's shield. I can't remember if vibranium itself has been mentioned, but it only stands to lead that the agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. might be called out to help T'Challa, the Black Panther, defend his kingdom from some kind of threat. Of course, this could lead to the first appearance of Klaw, but I'd silently be hoping for the first appearance of Man-Ape.
No, seriously, Man-Ape.
...okay, maybe not Man-Ape. Klaw'd still be pretty cool.
I'm trying to skip all of the obvious ones, since we can pretty much figure there will be Hydra at some point, maybe Paladin, maybe Luke Cage and Iron Fist, probably a good chance of Misty Knight. I want something not everybody would think of.
So, here goes.
1) Kang the Conqueror
Yes, I know that time travel is a beast to deal with in story telling.
Yes, I know that future technology is a beast to do CGI on.
Yes, I know that Kang is an Avengers-Level threat, but if you need a great manipulator to be behind events that the agents re trying to investigate, it's hard to do better than Kang. Well, I mean, I suppose they could do The Wizard or The Leader but those are more specific to other teams or individual heroes. Kang is just great to have show up when you want everyone to know things just got really serious.
Now, there are some obvious choices I didn't pick, and in fact one or two of my choices might be disqualified, but I'll address those in tomorrow's top eleven: characters I don't expect to ever show up on the show.
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