Papa Vinyard here, now here's a little somethin' for ya...

After getting mixed reviews for the first half of its premiere season, there was a noticeable effort in last week's mid-season premiere of MARVEL'S AGENTS OF S.H.I.E.L.D. to show that things were getting a little beefed up from now on. From the intro on, there was more of an emphasis on action, the team seemed at once more comfortable with one another and more naturally strained, the secrets behind Coulson's death and resurrection are beginning to be revealed, and even something as small as Brett Dalton maybe being too pretty for the show got dealt with by uglying him up in a fight scene. Now, according to T.V. Guide, Coulson's plane is going to bring aboard, according to Jed Whedon, "a rough-and-tumble former cohort of Agent Coulson with a little bit of attitude and cigar-smoking swagger." Set to play say said former cohort? The one man who's gone against an ALIEN, a TERMINATOR, and a PREDATOR (and totally failed to live to tell about it), Bill motherfreakin' Paxton.

Paxton will join AGENTS OF S.H.I.E.L.D. for at least four episodes as Agent John Garrett, who, in the comics, eventually becomes a cyborg with cybernetic implants in his brain and a mechanical hand. No word on how far they're going to be adapting his character for the show, but the idea of Paxton playing a semi-regular role as a grizzled, cigar-chomping cyborg badass instantly makes the show a little bit cooler. Hell, maybe they'll throw Paxton in one of the actual movies. Couldn't hurt.

What you guys think? Does this news get you excited, or is AGENTS OF S.H.I.E.L.D. irredeemably dead in the water?

Paxton's first appearance on MARVEL'S AGENTS OF S.H.I.E.L.D. will go down in late February or early March.

-Vincent Zahedi

”Papa Vinyard”

vincentzahedi@gmail.com

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