Avengers: Infinity War spoilers coming. It’s been weeks people, get with the programme. With Thanos in the midst of his attack (which we know about through background news reports – it’s all very meta), Glenn Talbot, in his new guise of Graviton, wants a power-up in order to defend the world from Thanos. Of course, with Talbot, it’s all about ego which is very evident with his over the top puffed-out chest costume and his Just For Men Doctor Strange goatee, but whether it’s heroism or ego, Talbot needs more Gravitonium to become Earth’s saviour. That Gravitonium is located within Carl Creel, the Absorbing Man, which brings us to a super-villain team up. Or super-villain tear down really, as after some pretty words, Talbot essentially absorbs the Absorbing Man and now has doubled down on the Gravitonium. So, Carl Creel is no more as Graviton is now the most powerful human villain currently walking the Earth in the MCU. Damn man, I was dreaming of a Thor versus Absorbing Man confrontation just like in the funny books. We are over 350 words here, and I haven’t even mentioned the agents yet. This week’s Agents Of SHIELD is all about Coulson and May with a generous dash Of Quake and a wee bit of Deke added in for good measure. The shout sheets appearing in this week’s Marvel comics feature an image of Qovas and May, with the caption something along the lines of “Only One Will Survive.” Spoiler, it’s Qovas who doesn’t make it, which isn’t really a super surprise but how May takes down the badass Qovas is pretty darn cool. But it’s what happens before the May versus Qovas brawl that should really resonate with longtime SHIELD fans. Because after five years, after countless ‘will they or won’t they’ moments, Coulson and May finally share a very passionate kiss. Yeah, they’ve swapped spit before, but this was a Han and Leia kiss, a swashbuckling heroic kiss with Coulson protecting May behind his holographic SHIELD shield as aliens open fire on the two while Quake kicks some extraterrestrial behind. But you guys, Coulson and May totally kiss! And then nothing horrible happens. And the good guys kind of won. Okay, I’m lying because as soon as May and Deke join Fitz and Simmons on Earth, Coulson passes out from a slight wound and is haemorrhaging like the elevator doors in The Shining. All this is due to Coulson’s mysterious ailment… Marvel! You killed Groot; can we have a moment of happiness? Jeez! But there are other moving parts happening here as well. The Kree Kassius (the evil poppa of future arch villain Kassius from earlier in the season) is totally interested in Daisy’s power and is still a power player while Graviton is still rampaging. The question remains: is Daisy the destroyer of worlds, or is it Talbot? Fitz and Simmons have the means to cure Coulson via the DNA of Daisy’s dead Inhuman mother combined with the season one centipede tech, but they also discover that the same centipede tech can be used to take down Talbot. So will it be a cure for Coulson or a weapon against Talbot? And does any of this matter anyway because we are like hours away from Thanos wiping out half the population? And oh yeah, we get a stinger that reveals that Graviton has now abducted the Inhuman precog Robin which is all sorts of messed up and scary because how can Talbot be stopped if he knows the future? We still don’t know if Agents Of SHIELD will be returning for a sixth season, but it feels like there’s an endgame coming that could involve Graviton, the Kree, and Thanos, and that’s a MCU crossover to look forward to. So as we wait for the word of the future of SHIELD on ABC, we also wait to see which of our beloved agents will survive Graviton and Thanos. Will Marvel just keep hurting us? Read Marc’s review of the previous episode, The One Who Will Save Us All, here.
