Oh yeah, that's true. Colleen was blonde. Small but very important detail....

So, anybody kept up with Agent Carter? What do you think about the past couple episodes with Peggy getting caught and all that? Any thoughts on Daniel Sousa?

I haven't had a chance to finish up yet (I think I just have the last two episodes?). But do we know who "Dottie" is for sure? (I had a guess that she's actually Yelena Bolova.)

Agents of SHIELD resumes tomorrow night!

Also, is Agent Carter very good? Should I watch it at all? Recommendations?

Agent Carter is okay, but you're not missing anything (okay... Jarvis is cool). My main beef with it is that Peggy is overly-feministic. Like, "red lipstick is the new black suit" and "btw... girl power", if you get my meaning. I like it more than I did the first season of Agents of Shield, not sure where it stands against season two (pros and cons to both).
No idea if that helps at all. 🙂

It does, actually. Thanks Ariel. I don't think I'm gonna watch it unless I find myself with an insane amount of time on my hands...

Okay, below could be considered SPOILERS, so read at your own risk. Just depends on how much of Natasha's back-story you want to know about.

So I was reading some stuff about Black Widow on the official Marvel website, and I discovered that in the comics, Bucky (as the Winter Soldier at this point) trained Black Widow. Apparently, sometime after that, the Soviet Union arranged for Natasha to marry Alexi Shostakov, a champion test pilot. They had a happy marriage, but then the KGB faked Alexi's death, which really hurt Natasha so she trained super hard and became Black Widow.

At some point Natasha was sent to assassinate a Russian scientist and Tony Stark who were working together. Instead, she ended up stealing Stark's anti-gravity ray and used it for sabotage until Stark deactivated it. Then she went on to romance outlaw Hawkeye and get him to work with her, and together they attacked Stark. They failed, Natasha was injured and Hawkeye saved her. Because of Hawkeye's influence, Natasha rebelled against her communist leaders who forced her to return to action and she and Hawkeye again failed to kill Stark. Before becoming an official member of the Avengers team, Hawkeye proposed to Natasha, but she turned him down.

On and off Natasha's husband, Alexi Shostakov, turns up and then some thing happens and everyone thinks he's dead, but he's not, etc. What is it with Marvel character's being assumed dead or faking their deaths and then turning up a bit later?

SPOILERS FOR CAPTAIN AMERICA: CIVIL WAR!!!

According to the official Marvel website: "More battle-hardened than ever, Natasha sided with Iron Man during the so-called “civil war” prompted by the USA’s Superhuman Registration Act, although Captain America and many other longtime friends were on the issue’s opposite side. Following Cap’s apparent assassination, she was unexpectedly confronted by the Winter Soldier, who blamed Cap’s death on Iron Man."

Interesting. Very interesting.

Regarding the deaths/non-deaths/resurrections of characters... I think Marvel comics like to retire characters and then bring them back to spice the cake again. Sometimes character deaths/non-deaths/resurrections allow for doing different things with said characters as well, maybe even add a whole new element to the universe.

(The following contains comic and potential movie spoilers)

As for Cap... Yeah... I'm seriously wondering if they'll kill (or, ahem, "kill") him in the movie. On the one hand, I don't want that. On the other... it could allow for Bucky to take up the mantle as he does in the comics.

Yes, that would make sense, but *mischievously cues How It Should Have Ended* Superman to CA: "If you keep dying and bringing people back to life, no one will accept it if one of you actually gets killed someday." I mean, he does have a point. And Coulson came back to life because the fandom denied that he ever died. Or so I've heard. 😆

Have you seen the third trailer for Age of Ulton yet? Thoughts?

I haven't seen the third trailer yet, though I just found out that we see Vision for the first time in it.
Also... some info about Hawkeye in MCU's future... (screenrant is not affiliated with TLC; click at your own risk) http://screenrant.com/captain-america-3-civil-war-jeremy-renner-hawkeye/

I really hope that we see more Hawkeye in the MCU. He doesn't get nearly enough screentime.

I finally saw the most recent episode of AoS - and man, I have a lot of feels and questions. I can't wait for the next episode.

I've gotten behind on AoS. Just watch S2 E8. I don't know if I'm going to keep watching or not. It's gotten pretty dark. Maybe I shouldn't be wasting my time watching it. For those of you who are caught up, does it get better than Episode 8? It's that one just unusually dark, or does the whole season just keep getting darker? I'm at the point where I really don't care what happens in the plot, but I want to find out about Skye, and I just want Fitz to be okay. Honestly, I just want a tv show about Fitz and Simmons. 😆

@Shield: he'd better be snarky. Whedon said that he had fun writing him, so I better get my snarky Hawkeye! That's almost the only reason why I loved him in the TV show.
I haven't seen it yet. Not even caught up on AC yet. Been too busy....

@Engee: ... remind me what's in ep 8?

EDIT: I've seen the new Avengers 2 trailer. I seem to remember Blimey Cow saying something about excessive explosions being an indication of not-so-great-ness? Anyway. Ultron is still way too fluid for my liking. The shot of the six Avengers leaping into action from the left side of the screen is cool. For some reason, Hawkeye's shots look cool, even though his shots are limited to, like, putting on his quiver). lol at Widow's "I'm always picking up after you boys." Um... Banner and Widow? That's weird. Quicksilver had better have a good reason for uppercutting Cap (which I bet he doesn't, so...). I've got two theories on Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch's association with Ultron. Vision looks a little too human (*suddenly wonders if they're changing his origin story too*) and his eyes are weird (I prefer the eyes he had in Earth's Mightiest Heroes). I'm seriously questioning the number of villains in this movie (Ultron, Vision (?), multiple ultrons, Ulysses Klaw, Quicksilver (I assume part-time at least), Scarlet Witch (I assume part-time at least), Baron von Strucker (the dude in the mid-credit scene in Cap 2)....) And then there's...
Thor: "Is that the best you can do?!"
me: *facepalm* Thor, you dummy.
Ultron: *laughs*
me: Creepy robot is laughing creepily.
multiple ultrons: *emerge and fill the screen like ants at a picnic*
me: And that's why you don't ask stuff like that, Thor.
Cap: "You had to ask."
me: *sigh* Unfortunately, yeah.
😛

Aaaaand I'm back. (If you missed it, my thoughts on the new Avengers 2 trailer is above.)

So. I just found out. That there's an Ant-Man trailer. ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IEVE3KSKQ0o Youtube is not affiliated with TLC; click at thine own risk.)
The old guy is Hank Pym (the original Ant-Man) while the younger guy is Scott... Williams? I forget his last name. Anyway. Scott is the second Ant-Man and the one this movie will be about (primarily, at any rate). I don't know how true-to-source-material Hank will be portrayed, though I do see that they've retained his desire to rehabilitate prisoners (in Earth's Mightiest Heroes, he was very big on that and pacifism (which may be why they're going with Scott as Ant-Man)). I know very little about Scott except that he's protective of his daughter Cathy (if I remember her name right).
So what are Ant-Man's superpowers? Well, Hank had developed what he calls the "Pym Particle" which can, more or less, grow and shrink items and people. (So that bit of the trailer in which Scott presses a button and falls out of the camera's view? That's him shrinking.) When he's small, though, he retains his normal-size strength, speed, and momentum (ie: just because you can't see him without a powerful magnifying glass doesn't mean that it won't hurt big time when he uppercuts you.) Ant-Man also has the ability to communicate with insects (via his mask) (hence the parts in which he rides a flying ant).
I don't yet know what to make of the decision to make this movie about the second Ant-Man as opposed to the first. On the one hand, it would have been interesting to see another science-geek suit up as well as a semi-pacifist's way of handling things. On the other, I guess Marvel knew that that probably wouldn't sell as well. Anyway.

POTENTIAL MAJOR AVENGERS 2 SPOILER!!

I was watching a review video and the reviewer happened to mention Vision (aka "red-faced robot at the end of the third trailer"). He said that he heard that maybe...

(last chance to not look)

Vision is Jarvis.
It sounds like a big maybe, but I'm thinking that with the changes that have been made in the MCU, I won't be super-surprised if this is the case. So far as I know, Vision was made by Ultron in the comics. However, he becomes a good guy and part of the Avengers later. So... if they're just putting Jarvis into a bot body (or developing a whole new artificial intelligence on the good guys' side), they may be both skipping the step in which Vision is a baddie as well as adding another good guy, not a villain, to the movie.

@Engee: I finally caught up on Agent Carter. I knew Sousa was going to catch her. Angie's acting! I was cracking up on the inside over that. And Sousa and Thompson's reactions to her "sobbing". 😆 Dottie = 😯 Oh, hullo, the Russian doc is... yeah, didn't see that coming. Let's see, what else.... Oh, haha, Peggy and Jarvis cuffed to the table.
"What if there are people on the other side of that glass?"
"They'll get hurt: there'll be a spray of glass."
"Ah. What if these hypothetical people behind the glass have guns?"
"Then we'll get hurt: there'll be a spray of bullet."
"Ah. Ha, no people! Everybody wins."
Dooley... *sigh* his poor family. 🙁 What a horrible way to go. And the theater scene was just.... 😐 Stark is an idiot. Gotta say, tensest part of the show was seeing him flying off. And Jarvis! Officially the best character in the show, volunteering himself for that despite his many (good) reservations. How did Peggy not at least show the effects of her fight with Dottie afterward? That blow to the back looked particularly painful. Also... yeah, I knew Dottie wasn't gonna stick around long. And Sousa! So smart! I suspected he had something up his sleeve, and then I expected Thompson to strike, and then, whammo! Officially my second-favourite character in the show (mm, also... potential hubby that was mentioned in Cap 2?). Peggy at the radio... deja vu, much? And I was expecting to see Dottie (who I still think may be Yelena Belova, but anyway) in the post-closing-title scene, but 😯 hullo Zola! (Um, also... what's Leviathan? 'cause if it was the Russian doc, it wasn't cut that clear.)

Overall, this show has too much violence and, while the story and characters are decent, it fails to offset the violence levels and depends too heavily on that than on "police work" (seriously, I'd be happier if Peggy pulled a Nancy Drew 90% of the time and then Hardy Boys / Black Widow for the other 10%). Some of it is unbelievable (like the fight on top of the car early on). Some of it is just way too intense (especially considering that this is Peggy, not Cap or even Widow). And then some of it... three words: Finneau and theater. *shudders*