#CoulsonLives, But That's Not Necessarily a Good Thing

Clark Gregg (left) as Phil Coulson in The Avengers

As the excitement builds for Marvel's TV show Agents of SHIELD which premiers this Tuesday, I think it's important to really grasp onto one thing: Coulson Lives.

It's not really news that Agent Coulson survived his apparent death in The Avengers. #CoulsonLives has been the hook and tagline of the new ABC TV series for quite some time now, which has Clark Gregg playing leading man for the super-secret team and serving as the chief character tie-in to the Marvel movies. He's appeared in many of the Marvel films, so using him makes sense; he's very recognizable. With the show's aim to look at the human side of the super-human universe, it makes sense to use one of the film franchises main non-super humans.


So while it is understandable why they would want to bring him back, his return points toward a troubling reality: death may not be so permanent in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Sure, it's a universe where technological advances meet the supernatural and extraterrestrial, so there are all sorts of possibilities, but when Agent Coulson's apparent death occurs in the film, the audience (along with the Avengers) is led to believe that he has actually died. While bringing characters back from the dead is old-hat for comic book story lines, heck even Superman died at one point, carrying that over to the movies takes away some of the peril that we find our heroes in. What good is a dangerous situation if a character can just be written back to life in a sequel? It should be noted that a certain character that was presumed dead will appear in the next Captain America installment, but this shouldn't become a habit.
I do hope that in future Marvel productions death is a clear, present and permanent danger for the heroes that are putting themselves in harms way. Otherwise, sacrificial actions loose a certain potency and dramatic climaxes seem less...dramatic.