Since episode 4 of ‘Scarlet Witch and Vision’ (‘WandaVision’) there has been a kind of interest among Marvel fans to see more of the protagonists of that episode in action. especially the agent Jimmy Woo (Randall Park) and astrophysicist Darcy Lewis (Kat Dennings) whose return to the Marvel Cinematic Universe has been received with great enthusiasm.
And, specifically, they want a kind of ‘X-Files’ set in the Marvel Universe. It is the idea, at least, by screenwriter Stephen Ford who claims to have spent the weekend writing a proposal (the pitch) to present it to the studios led by Kevin Feige.
uh. wow. So. We might have actually opened some doors on my Jimmy Woo X-Files idea.
I’m spending the weekend writing the pitch.
Can’t express how much of an underdog I am in this scenario so get too excited but cross your fingers and thanks to everyone who made it possible. pic.twitter.com/cEEIz7WSlY
— Stephen Ford (@StephenSeanFord) February 6, 2021
Jimmy Woo, ATLAS agent?
Something that Randall Park seems willing to do, in statements to Screen Rant, who assures that he would love this kind of ‘Agents of ATLAS’ —as the fandom is calling this possibility—come true, especially with Jennings:
“I’d love to. I get a lot of feedback about our camaraderie and the way we work together. That camaraderie is real. I love Kat; I think she’s so amazing and fun to work with and play with in these scenes. If that happened again, I would do it in a heartbeat.”
Let us remember that in the comics his character, Woo, was the one who founded ATLAS, a group that collects “retroactively” the heroes published by Marvel’s predecessor in the 50s. Forgotten heroes who were promptly rescued by continuity geeks like Kurt Busiek in ‘Always Avengers’.
It was not until the mid-2000s that Jeff Parker recovered Jimmy Woo with all the law, Gorilla-Man, M-11, Marvel Boy, Namora and Venus in a first series of ‘Agents of ATLAS’, drawn by Leonard Kirk in which they explored the unknown world of these heroes. A relatively recent saga but quite recommendable, at least this first Parker series.
‘Agents of SHIELD’, Marvel’s ‘X-Files’
Of course, in all this conversation it seems that we are forgetting the detail that There was already a kind of “x file” of the Marvel Universe. Or, at least, everything that could be in the avenging world. It was called ‘Agents of SHIELD’ (or ‘Agents of SHIELD’, depending on the network/platform), it was created by Joss Whedon, Jed Whedon and Maurisa Tancharoen (These last two took over from the first) and led a resurrected Agent Coulson (Clark Gregg, whose character died in ‘The Avengers’) and his team to investigate paranormal events, strange artifacts and monsters.
A series that, in case there were doubts, part of the Cinematic Universe canon. This clarification is also due to a certain unknown about the situation of the series made by the extinct Marvel Television (led by Jeph Loeb) and the misconception that being the first series of Marvel Studios (led by Kevin Feige) means being the first in the MCU.
Precisely because of its status as a UCM series, ‘Agents of SHIELD’ was a bit burdened for having to go a bit to the slipstream of the movies. That made me not know how to find his identity until the turn of ‘Captain America: The Winter Soldier’ turned the agency upside down and, from there, it could start to grow. They continued to investigate the strange as they battled HYDRA.
Back then, I’m afraid many people had already got out of the car. Some because the series was slow to find its way; others because it was not plausible to them that SHIELD would be needed in an Avengers world and others for many reasons… from Skye to such or even that she was quite episodic with her “case of the week”.
Something more than a series of seconds
The series takes not only the tradition of ‘The X-Files’ with the paranormal and the conspiracies around it, but also gradually explores the different elements that populate Marvel comics. Although the references, and the character cameos were appreciated, the more independent from the narrative of the movies, the better their stories were.
There is more to see how the plot of the inhumans – which, remember, was going to be a movie before the deplorable series – was full of ups and downs while others more separate from Feige’s plans worked perfectly.
I have already defended once or twice that ‘Agents of SHIELD’ has a great comic spirit eager to explore different terrains in each year. So much so that in season 5 we jumped into space and the future and, in its seventh and final season, we traveled to the past. This freedom from the ties, from being aware of what happens in the movies (there are things that are half mentioned and little else), makes the Marvel Cinematic Universe expand without the need to see how it fits into a great design.
But it fits. And, in fact, the final episode of her leaves leads Quake/Daisy (Chloe Bennett) to an agency that is supposedly SWORD. A reference that, according to its executive producer Jeffrey Bell, Marvel Studios did not let them use the ABC series to be able to present it, formally in ‘Scarlet Witch and Vision’. Something ugly considering that the agency was created by Joss Whedon in ‘The incredible X-Men’ (‘Astonishing X-Men’).
Just because there aren’t ongoing connections doesn’t mean something isn’t part of the Marvel Universe.
One of the things that Stan Lee was clear about when developing the Marvel Universe is that everything happened in a shared world and, what’s more, in New York. That’s why the villains jumped from series to series, Spiderman was looking for work in the Baxter building of The Fantastic 4 and The Avengers were nourished by different heroes that appeared in various magazines (‘Tales of Suspense’, ‘Astonishing Tales’, ‘Journey into Mystery’ and ‘The Incredible Hulk’).
But every comic collection had to grow by itself, develop your own sub-universe and go “your way”. Something that was achieved as more and more authors were incorporated. Successively Lee, Roy Thomas, Gerry Conway or Steve Englehart inherited a good handful of collections that, inevitably, resorted to each other.
Returning to television and cinema, if we look closely each UCM saga seeks its identity and no matter how different ‘Captain Marvel’ is from ‘Guardians of the Galaxy’, we do not doubt that they are part of the same universe. The same goes for television series prior to this 2021.
To give an example from real life: you and I, reader, will never cross paths in the street. My wanderings have nothing to do with yours and, even so, we are in the same Universe. On the same Earth. If someone chronicled everything that happens on the planet, my story and yours would be part of the same continuity in the eyes of the reader or viewer.
Obviously, when it comes to fiction there are rules beyond “we live on the same planet”, but in the case of Marvel, and unlike DC who have played with the multiverse, they have worked hard to give cohesion to dozens of movies and series. SHIELD is MCU canon; ‘Daredevil’, ‘Jessica Jones’ and the rest of ‘Defenders’ are canon but more “in their world” and even the most distant/independent ones like ‘Runaways’ are part of this rich Universe.
Another thing is that they are named or referenced. It is impossible, in fact, be putting winks, tributes and referencing facts all the time if what you want is to have your own identity, especially in something so extensive. It is the law of life that, sooner or later, the details of the more than twenty Marvel Studios movies blur. But let us not forget what has been done so far.