The advent of the Marvel Cinematic Universe is undoubtedly one of the biggest developments in both cinema and comics in the past ten years. Before comic book movies were consolidated into shared universes, their continuities were non-existent, as the movie watchers had to accept the fact that although there was a comic universe with all of the characters acting together, that the rare appearance by heroes on the big screen were separate. All of this changed with the introduction of Iron Man to the big screen.  It was originally seen as a huge gamble, and Marvel was not sure how it would work, but it did pay off.  Laying in the background of the first movie was the key to binding the entire universe together, S.H.I.E.L.D.  But was Iron Man really the first in the sequence of films?  Some would argue no, that in fact it was not, but rather in The Hulk from 2003.

The Hulk was regarded by most as a bit of a misfire in terms of a movie. The story line was unnecessarily convoluted and the editing of the movie to appear comic-like confused some people. It was also completely unrelated to the Marvel Cinematic Universe. When The Incredible Hulk was released in 2008 as the second installment of the MCU it was labeled as a completely separate movie despite people asking “Why was Eric Bana replaced with Ed Norton?” Some of the problems with that were with the format of the movie itself. Despite the fact that it was supposed to be a standalone, it did rely in parts on the recent proximity of the previous movie to avoid repeating itself in terms of storytelling. There was no need to explain how Bruce Banner got his powers, nor was it necessary to describe who the Ross family was, even if they were played by different actors. The story seemed to pick up almost directly for where it had left off, to the point that when Eric Bana was last seen it was in the rainforests of South America, and then when Ed Norton is first seen it is in a favela in Rio de Janeiro.

One of the main criticisms of the first movie was the presence of Nick Nolte playing Bruce Banner’s father. The character was a scientific genius in his own right, and yet there was little sense in the character’s eventual turn into a supervillain. Comic fans were not able to figure out how to identify with him. Was he the madman that controlled Hulk-like dogs? The Absorbing Man? Zzzax? The lack of answers to this was another reason why comic fans turned away from this movie.

Fast forward 11 years and there is finally an answer to the presence of this anomalous movie, and it came in the first episode of the second season of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.  This series has the daunting and maybe unfortunate task of carrying the weight of the Marvel Cinematic Universe in between the released of movies. Guardians of the Galaxy was a huge success, but now fans of the shared universe have to wait until next summer for the next Avengers movie.  In the meantime the fans are left with Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.  Although the series has been at times frustrating to watch, it is definitely improving. Although it is unlikely as an answer to the earlier association with supervillains from The Hulk, what they have done with the first episode of season two is to take back the Absorbing Man. The character has now been thrust into the spotlight as a major player in this second season, perhaps taking the constant presence of Deathlok from the first season. Undoubtedly the series is going to lead into the second installment of the Avengers, if only in a subtle way, and if that is the case then the Absorbing Man is likely to play a prominent enough role in the lead up to the movie as well. This will even more help erase any connections of the new universe to the failed attempt of 2003, and help even more to establish the Marvel Cinematic Universe as a separate entity.