Well, that whole last page was really lame, huh, guys?
Let's not do that again.
Okay. Something completely different.
You've heard others, now: Dr Cosmic's SHIELD series pitch!
Main Cast:
Carol Davners - Main Protagonist, Yvonne Strahovski or similar. Bigger name/wider range actress if possible. Capable. About business. Too serious for her own good. Think the female leads from Castle/Bones. You know the connection, not a coincidence.
Clay Quartermain - Carol's usual partner, totally rogueish spy, very much a James Bond with a dark secret. Protective, but deceptive and mysterious. That guy. Josh Holloway or similar, any young dirty blonde guy would be fine. Turns out to be a traitor eventually, but reconciles. Very Gambit-like in attitude, appeal and storyline.
Jasper Sitwell - Same guy reprising the role. Personnel Department head of SHIELD, Carol's commanding officer, a bit of a Napoleon complex, but very good at his job. Total jerk though. Still heart of gold, but a lot harder to find. Very funny guy. Trained by Coulson.
Daisy Johnson - The 'broken' rookie girl. Someone younger. Very much a Summer Glau character, but would prefer someone with some ethnicity. Can't control abilities well, still in training, has nowhere else to go and "Fury wants her there." Lost, angry, likely to lash out, needs a lot of guidance. Trains with inhibitors on to become a great agent. Learns to use her powers effectively in the field by the end of season 1, thanks to Carol.
Jimmy Woo - Carol's 'best friend' type guy, a trainer at SHIELD, occasionally goes on missions. Anybody Asian who's not afraid of being typecast, they're all pretty good actors. The laid back, cool, funny guy. Observational humor, sarcasm, things like that. Has an epic past involving ninjas and samurai and ancient occult organizations that eventually Carol gets dragged into. Very much a "Kung Fu James Bond." Knows it, plays with it.
Phillip Walter Lawson - Taking our Captain Marvel more from the Ultimate Universe, he appears to be a SHIELD all around tech guy/scientist until his Kree storyline comes up and he's revealed to be Mahr Vehl. In the mean time, he's 'the other guy' and almost the lovable geek/nerd type, aloof, almost Clark Kent-ish in the way he comes off. He dies eventually. Very sad. Someone a bit more mature with some cred.
(Edit: Not enough girls for a Whedon show
Jessica Drew - Initially HYDRA's top agent, eventually defects to the good guys, but is always Carol's rival both professionally and personally. Total natural bia with her own sordid HYDRA past. Very sensual seductive 'dark feminine' type, is a lab experiment involving spiders and such so has some low grade pheromones and electromagnetic stuff that makes her pretty deadly and very persuasive. Loves to take Carol down a peg whenever possible.
Abigail Brand - In charge of Extaterrestrial Department head at SHIELD, Sitwell's peer and totally badarse aggressive chick. Very much what Carol wants to be, but has a few problems herself that you wouldn't want. Turns out to be part alien later on, no one's sure if she can be trusted. Ends up going rogue before being brought back as the head of SWORD. Played by Amy Acker, naturally.
Recurring/Guest Cast:
Everyone you can think of from Agent 13 to Calvin Zabo.
Storyline:
"Heroes meets X-Files." or "Alphas meets 24." SHIELD is on full alert after the Avengers Initiative has been actual initiated. There's lots of fallout to take care of and strange new anomalies to take care of. Fury has Sitwell put together a task force to investigate and take care of some of these anomalies. It turns out there's always something crazy going on, and they find out that some organization is collecting it. That organization is called AIM, and it's bad news. Working their way through it's seedy underbelly, with its MODOKs and Taskmasters and Superadaptoids and Spider-Women, with it's backing by HYDRA and its ungodly experiments they find something called the Leader running the show, and he serves as the big bad for season 1. Of course, they've been experimenting on a captured alien life form called the Kree, and that leads into Season 2 where these cloaked ships are orbiting earth and waiting to strike, some strange alien superhero appears, something about a Supreme Intelligence and a Ronan judging the human race, Lawson is suspected as a defector and Carol and SHIELD is in the middle of it all.
Procedure:
Some strange anomaly occurs in some place on the planet. Things floating. Glowing men. The same things you might see on Fringe or X-Files. People suddenly turning up dead. Opening Credits. The team arrives on the scene of some anomaly and observes it, or brings the person or thing into custody. From here, the unique condition or device begins to cause problems for the team. They then deal with those problems, and use deduction, trial and error, resourcefulness and brute force in order to fix the problem. They are limited in how they use their clearance and computer tech because they can't draw attention to themselves or the case, it has to be kept under the radar out of the public eye. Eventually someone, usually Carol, gets through to the person involved and either talks them down or exploits their weakness and takes them out. That person is then taken to something called 'The Raft' a floating prison, which forms a major subplot of the show.
Through Story:
The story really is about Carol becoming a superhero. She starts out as a competent intelligence officer and expert pilot, and grows into someone who can take down supers with cleverness. Then the following season she actually gets powers and becomes a full fledged superhero in time for Avengers 2, and continues development from there in the show. There are subplots involving each of the supporting characters' pasts, which, especially in Quake and Lawson's case, play out as superhero stories. There's also subplot with the Raft and it being corrupted or people escaping from it, and a recurring plot with HYDRA and its manifestations via the Nazi Science Division, or AIM or whoever. That should be enough subplots for one season, methinks.
Iron Man 3 Tie In: Fallout from AIM in IM3 comes here
Cap 2 Tie In: SHIELD agents from show cameo in background a lot. Captain America may meet Carol formally, or she may pilot him to a mission.
Thor 2 Tie In: Jane Foster debriefed by Sitwell
Guardians of the Galaxy Tie In: None
Avengers 2 Tie in: Carol (assuming show has more than ten or twelve million viewers, so it's not something obscure and random) is a superhero on TV, so she joins the Avengers just as if she had a solo film, with a short recap, and a stake in the outcome of the film, especially since she works for SHIELD. Maybe she surprises them with having powers, they think she's just a pilot. Other show characters appear in background, small speaking part for Sitwell. Anyone not returning for Season 3 dies here.
Major Cameos
Agent Coulson - Sitwell focus episode, flashback to his training with Coulson, dealing with something cool in a slick, almost effortless way. Make us miss Coulson, hard. Have them briefly meet a fresh rookie agent Danvers and Coulson be encouraging.
Nick Fury - Pilot Episode, and whenever Sam has a free afternoon, shoot a meeting with Fury. Also, if possible, have Sam narrate the thing. Stars are often more easiliy compelled to do voice overs than appearances.
Maria Hill - Bring her on full time as soon as HIMYM is over, but in the meantime, give her an episode a season as well. Let her be friends with Carol, but they never get to hang out. Running gag with the voicemails.
Hawkeye - If he's willing, give him a full focus episode if he's down for it. Flashbacks on why he uses bows instead of guns, a hint at what kind of thing motivated him to spare Black Widow. Teaming up with the SHIELD squad, leading it out, tension with Carol. Make the CW Arrow look like a scrub.
Black Widow - Assuming actress is willing, have her be infiltrating AIM and that be her focus episode as one of the SHIELD regulars tries to extract her and it doesn't work, as usual.
Iron Man - Have the group be pinned down in a hopeless situation for a bottle/flashback/perspectives type episode, be told help is on the way. At the end of the episode, explosions take out the guys who have them pinned, Iron Man lands, and in the robotic Iron Man voice (stuntman in the practical suit) asks what the big problem was, does some snark, and asks Jarvis to order them some Shawarma.
Captain America - If the actor is willing, have him, out of costume, debrief the regulars on HYDRA. A five minute cameo that occurs as a promotion for Captain America 2.
Hulk - For a horror-styled episode, let a Hulk rampage be tearing through a town and the team be sent to stop it. We don't see the Hulk, we just see shadows and debris taking out red shirts and crippling main characters, and hear Hulk roars until the end of the episode when Carol stares him down and he walks away. Basically the bottle factor scene from TIH, but with more dialogue and character moments and desperation.
Thor - Ummm... i'm thinking Not. Eric Svelwig would definitely cameo. Definitely. And Darcy. It can't take the whole week to shoot Two Broke Girls.
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