If you've ever found yourself hoping Disney's (DIS +0.56%) new Marvel-inspired show, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., would eventually showcase more scenes involving actual superheroes, you're gonna love this.
To be sure, last week's episode was huge in that it not only beat out CBS' (CBS +0.00%) hit crime drama NCIS in the all-important 18-49 demographic, but ABC also stated the show has dominated all other programs across all key men's demographics for three weeks in a row since its debut.
In short, Disney is delighted Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. is effectively pulling in prime viewers for which advertisers are willing to shell out big bucks to reach.
And that's why Marvel fans were excited earlier this week when the folks at Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. took to their Twitter page to happily announce they had just been picked up by Disney's ABC for their full first season.
A villain is born
But preceding that announcement was another tweet, pictured below, which received significantly less attention:
Image source: Twitter
If you've watched the third episode already, you know what they're talking about. (Caution: Spoilers ahead!)
The episode revolves around the team trying to recover a kidnapped Canadian physicist by the name of Dr. Franklin Hall. Unfortunately, Hall ends up turning on Agent Coulson toward the end of the hour, forcing Coulson to make the difficult decision of hurling him directly into a super-sized, gravity-defying science experiment.
Naturally, everybody assumes Hall is dead until just before the closing credits when, as the experiment was being locked in an unmarked safe, audiences were treated to this gasp-worthy shot:
Image source: ABC.com
Now many Marvel enthusiasts immediately recognized Hall's name. But for those of you who aren't familiar, Franklin Hall is better known in the comic books as Graviton, a supervillain with the ability to mentally control gravity.
Of course, some die-hard fans might be a bit upset that Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.'s Graviton origin story differs in its details from the official storyline described in the Marvel Universe. Keep in mind, though, that to convincingly bring these characters to life in a commercially successful TV show aimed at the masses is an entirely different beast than weaving them together on paper.
In the meantime, here's a shot from Marvel to give you an idea of what Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.'s Graviton could eventually resemble...that is, when he emerges from his horrifying liquid cocoon.
Image source: Marvel.com
In any case, we obviously don't know when or how Graviton will return into the not-so-regular swing of things, but it's pretty clear they intend to bring him back in some capacity.
Maybe he'll be back later this season, or maybe they're simply saving their newly minted villain as one of the show's first big-screen Marvel movie tie-ins.
But if there's one thing we do know, it's that when you combine Marvel's mammoth library of more than 9,000 characters with the financial resources and relative freedom Disney can offer the Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. creative team ... well ... it's safe to say they've got more than enough material to keep us entertained as long as we're willing to watch.
