One year in the past, we get a look at what Theta Protocol truly is with Coulson and the Koenigs. Turns out it’s Fury’s new helicarrier!  Probably built from the remains of the helicarriers of Winter Soldier or even retrofitting the original from The Avengers. That’s kinda cool.

And in the present, the events of Age of Ultron are being discussed and the full extent of Coulson’s involvement is laid bare. Team Gonzales is looking rather sheepish but Coulson’s a gracious winner and makes them an offer. Coulson with still be Director but the Gonzales Council will still have a say in matters and he’ll defer to their judgement. Everybody wins!

Speaking of Team Gonzales, we get a look at what they’ve got hidden on their ship, a bizarre alien monolith that transforms into a sloshing liquid and back into solid matter. Raina sees it in one of her visions and it’s clearly bad news for the Inhumans, some manner of weapon the Kree intended to use against their own creations. It might be something from the comics but I’m not super familiar with the Inhuman lore so I’ll be interested to see what it is down the road. Raina’s visions are proving an invaluable tool to the Inhumans right now but who knows how long that will last when Raina is up to shenanigans, or so we think. We’ve been conditioned to distrust her and everything she says but as we go through the episode, it’s pretty clear that she’s on the level especially when it comes to Jiaying and SHIELD…

As the team prepares to make first contact with the Inhumans, May and Bobbi scout ahead when SWERVE, it’s Agent 33 in disguise! She’s taking revenge on Bobbi for some mission in their shared past where Bobbi betrayed 33. She leads Bobbi into a trap and Ward tags her with an icer. Thought we’d seen the last of Ward for now but I guess not!

One of the interesting themes of the episode is the difference in loyalty between two groups of family. While SHIELD (especially Coulson and May) has been like a family to Skye, she’s obviously conflicted between them and her flesh and blood family.

Gonzales arrives at Afterlife with a contingent of SHIELD agents, ready to have a pow-wow and index some Inhumans. Meeting with Jiaying, Gonazales comes across as the most reasonable he’s been all season, trying to emphasize with her and even bringing a gift; a traditional Chinese luck charm that they found amongst Whitehall’s effects and believed to be Jiaying’s. Things seem to be going well until Jiaying turns heel and kills Gonzales with a Terrigen crystal, shooting herself in the shoulder to make it appear as if she was attacked! She’s stumbles out of her hut, declaring war is upon them.

Shit’s on now! Everything’s popping off and I can’t wait to see how this all plays out in next week’s two-hour finale so join us then for S.O.S.

This is it, boys and girls, the moment we’ve been waiting for; the Agents of SHIELD tie-in to Age of Ultron and it does a cracking job of establishing the playing field ahead of the May 1st US opening and even from my perspective, having seen the movie, it answers a major question I had and even does some clever nods to whet your appetite.

How does the episode hold up on it’s own merits? Pretty damn well! After all the infighting and set up for Coulson’s return as the head of SHIELD, this episode goes a long way in showing why Coulson was chosen and why his team is beloved while Gonzales and his team are mistrusted.

So hey, Coulson’s got the band back together, including Skye! Raina’s premonitions prove useful as she gives Skye the motivation and incentive to rescue Lincoln, reuniting her with the team just as they’re setting off. I love that the episode takes the time to address the fact that Ward betrayed EVERYONE and is a monster but, fair play to Brett Dalton, Ward comes off as quite repentant but there really is no forgiving him, as Ward himself admits later.

During the rescue mission, Skye has an awesome single shot fight scene that brings to mind the awesome hallway sequence in Daredevil. Chloe Bennet appears to be doing all the stunt work too which is astounding.

Another cool moment is Simmons trying to kill Ward with a Splinter Bomb. Fully deserved but Ward’s response is just PERFECT. Simmons has changed, we’ve seen it and certainly not for the better. It’s just so satisfying to having the psychopathic Judas say it to her and be disappointed. Loved it!

The mission is a success, Lincoln and Mike are rescued, Ward is in the wind and Gonzales finally gets his grubby mitts on the unlocked Toolbox, only for Coulson to sandbag his accomplishment and strut off triumphantly to chat with Maria Hill about the location of Loki’s staff! This was an awesome little detail that answered my question from Age of Ultron. We also get an idea of what the Theta Protocol is because it involves The Avengers. I think I know what it is but I’ll wait ‘til next week to see if I’m right and to avoid spoilers.

Overall, a fantastic episode in it’s own right that is made better by it’s connection to the larger MCU.

I’m going to skip the usual foreplay because if you’re reading this, then you already know who The Avengers are and what this movie means, not only in terms of comics and the larger Marvel Cinematic Universe but also what this movie means in terms of box office. This movie will make bank and that’s because you will go watch it.

Of course you will, it’s the god damn AVENGERS. So where do I even begin with my review of this 141 minute goliath? How best to express my experience of this cinematic colossus? Simple.

This was probably the most fun I’ve had at a movie in my 27 years of living on this Earth. That isn’t hyperbole, that’s how I feel right now. I’m still not done comprehending what I just watched but it is the culmination of 7 years and 11 movies worth of build-up and it lives up to every bit of hype you might imagine for that.

I’m going to avoid MAJOR spoilers for my American friends, since we in the UK had the good fortune to receive this movie a full week before them so here goes:

You know all those cool snow battle scenes in the trailers? The ones you’d assume are from the climax or, at the very least, the second act. Nope, that’s your first ten minutes. Yeah, let that sink in. It came as a real surprise to me and my friend when right off the bat, we get to see what the Avengers do best and it’s amazing to see. This is a team that hasn’t spent the last three years sitting on their hands, they’ve been busy going on raids against HYDRA and the team’s banter and cohesion as a unit is just glorious to behold.

On the acting front, all the actors are on their toppest of top forms. I could not think of a single line or performance that let me down or held up to (and sometimes surpassed) my expectations. Some stuff bears mentioning specifically though:

James Spader takes on the momentous task of taking Ultron and making him… Real. And I was very surprised by his portrayal. I’ve never had a definitive voice or speech mannerism for Ultron but Spader makes the character glow with charm, wit, intelligence and, most of all, menace. He does a fantastic job of portraying what is, essentially, a gestalt entity but also give it a unique voice all its own.

The Maximoff twins are pretty likeable, even as the antagonists for the early part of the movie. The elephant in the room is obviously whether or not this Quicksilver is better than X-Men: Days of Future Past’s version. Short answer; no. Long answer; Aaron Taylor-Johnson plays a far more mature and damaged Pietro and is not predisposed towards shenanigans but he can be a joker, balancing both attitudes pretty well but he’s not the impish trickster that Evan Peters portrayed and actually comes off better for it in some scenes. Scarlet Witch is perfectly fine, Elizabeth Olsen puts in a pitch-perfect portrayal of the hex-wielding Avenger. She really earns her stripes.

And finally, Paul Bettany as The Vision. Our JARVIS turned Synthezoid Avenger makes for a nice counterpoint to Spader’s Ultron, which is obviously the intention but it’s so much better than I thought. I also adore the way Vision proves his intentions to the team. It’s a fantastic little moment.

There’s also a TON of other performances that are great but SPOILERS so I’ll just leave them for you to see for yourself…

The Hulk vs. Hulkbuster scene is just as awe-inspiring as you’d expect and even finds time to throw in some witty one-liners (from Stark, natch). It’s a knockout brawl through a city and I had a smile through the entire thing.

There’s plenty of surprises to be seen, and some fantastic foreshadowing to future movies. I caught references to at least three, not counting the mid-credits scene. I’ve had it confirmed that there’s no post-credits so there’s nothing to stop you leaving after the mid-credits scene.

If there’s anything negative thing to say, there’s one thing that NEEDED to happen in this movie and Whedon knew that, only to purposely leave you blue-balled; but it’s masterfully done so I can’t stay mad because it made me laugh.

Overall, my opinion doesn’t matter because you’re going to go see the movie. Of course you are, it’s The Avengers but more-so and I can guarantee that you will leave the theatre thoroughly satisfied.

We’re at the point now where I’d be insulting your intelligence if I tried to explain what Avengers is and how this movie came about like I normally would in this section. So lets just watch the trailer, yes?

– Ultron Von Doom

Is anyone else getting a bit of a Doctor Doom vibe off the Ultron character and surrounding sets? Not that I’d complain about that, mind.

He also confirms a lot of what we suspected about the plot. He was created by Tony to take over from Iron Man (a logical expansion of Iron Man 3) but it all goes very wrong.

– We Go On 3. Not 1 2 3 Then Go

I kinda hate really staged and posed action shots but when it looks this pretty…

– Et Tu, Pietro?

Like I said before, this trailer reveals much more plot than previous ones. For example, we kinda figure that Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch would fight against the Avengers before fighting with them and we see plenty of that in these two minutes but I found this shot interesting. It shows the team fighting with Wanda but Pietro is (seemingly) missing.

Does he possibly not join them? Is he slower to see the error of his ways? I’m fascinated to find out.

– I Can See Clearly Now…

Fiiiiiiiinally, we get a view of The Vision. Looking good!

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Overall: The only worry Marvel has at this point is giving us too much so that they ruin it on us. This is the closest I think they should get now with revealing plot. We can even see in this trailer the crumbs that will lead us to their Civil War movies. We just need to watch the film now!

Too damn long.

Let’s watch this first proper taste of Avengers 2: Evil Android Boogaloo

– “It is… ALIVE!”

It’s hard to tell if this is Ultron’s first appearance in the film (everyone seems pretty shocked about it) or if it’s a return from being smashed up. Either way, it’s in bad shape.

By the way, did you see Rhodey in the background? Nice to see him hanging out with the big boys!

– No More Mu… I mean, Ultrons. No More Ultrons

Wanda Maximoff has a sordid history in the Marvel Universe. A lot of writers have been very cruel to her. It seems that her luck hasn’t changed much.

Having said that, this is Whedon. He knows how to write women (I recognise that’s a dumb phrase to say, but lord knows there are too many people out there who can’t write women properly). I’m sure The Scarlet Witch is going to have a great role to play in this story.

– Awwwwwww Yeeeeaaaaaaah

Lets face it. We were all dying to see this. The Hulkbuster suit.

People have been hinting at this thing happening since Iron Man 2. There are going to be a lot of nerdgasms.

– Fashion Tips From Comic Strips

Ok, so I know this is a tiny thing, and I recognise I’m a bit of a loser for spotting it but…

You may have seen an alteration to Hawkeye’s costume. No? His coat is longer and flaps about. Yeah, you see they gave him is old design:

Alright, alright. It’s not exactly the same but still, it’s little touches and references like this that makes this Marvel fanboy happy.

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Overall: While the trailer doesn’t give away an awful lot (still no Vision and who the hell is Andy Serkis?) but it still has lots of little details to digest (Cap’s broken shield and hey, look, it’s Andy Serkis!).

This movie is not a hard sell, we’re all dying to see it. As long as the trailers don’t damage that status, and this one certainly doesn’t, then Marvel are due to break records all over again.