The world of Marvel superheroes expanded on September 24th with the premiere of ABC’s new TV show, “Agents of SHIELD”. Created by Joss Whedon (a known feminist), the series focuses on—you guessed it—the agents of the infamous SHIELD organization, a seemingly omnipresent group in the Marvel universe. These guys (and girls!) know about every superhero out there, back them up, and when things go wrong, they are there to do damage control. The stars of the show are six members of a SHIELD team who are sent out to deal with one high-stakes mission after another. Each person has his/her own special skill set and personality, and put together, they make a dynamic bunch. There is certainly never a dull moment on this show.
The thing that excites me about this show, apart from all the great action scenes, is the fact that half of the team members are women! Let’s do a roll call to learn about how great all of these girls are.
1. Melinda May: A fantastic pilot and a weapons expert. She has a very mysterious past, but we know that something big happened during her time fighting under the alias “The Cavalry” which caused her to turn to a more mundane life. Now that she’s back in the field, she seems uncomfortable at times, but she’s always able to majorly kick some butt.
2. Skye: A new recruit, Skye is a computer hacker extraordinaire who originally got on SHIELD’s radar because she was working against them. Now, she’s part of the team and is being trained for combat. She sometimes struggles when in a fight due to her lack of combat experience, but is always able to be resourceful and get herself out of seemingly impossible situations. Her bubbly personality sometimes masks how smart and crafty she really is, and she uses that to her advantage.
3. Jenna Simmons: This lady has not one, but two PhD’s. She is extremely intelligent, though clueless in hand-to-hand combat, and is always able to help out in tricky times. The whole team relies on her knowledge of human and alien life, and without her, they definitely wouldn’t be as successful together as they are with her. Plus, she has an absolutely fantastic personality.
Thank you, Joss Whedon, for not just creating one token “strong female character” to be part of the group, but three women who each have distinct personalities—complete with their own strengths, weaknesses, and quirks. What a relief.
Be sure to check out Agents of SHIELD, which airs on ABC every Tuesday night!