Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Season 4, American tv series (2016/2017)

When I was a teenager I loved to read comic books. That hasn’t changed yet honestly as seeing now that I am an adult, my love for them still hasn’t changed. There is one big and slightly important difference though: I now have money. Back in my early teens I only had my allowance, and while I certainly had nothing to complain about, it was hard just to decide what to spent it on. In my early days of comic book collecting I used to buy most of my comics on the second hand market, because hey that was cheap right? There was one noteworthy exception though, and that was the comic of Ghost Rider. I ran across the flame headed anti hero purely by chance in a local bookstore in the early 90’s. I knew very little about this comic, but when I flipped through a few of it’s pages I really liked what I saw, and decided to buy an issue. Ghostrider quickly became my favorite Marvel hero because he was completely different from the normal superheroes. For one thing he looked like a leather clad blazing skeleton. For another he rode a seriously cool bike that had flaming wheels. And lastly he punished the bad guys with his so called penance stare, letting them feel the pain that they inflicted on their victims. If that isn’t a cool power I don’t know what is.

Sometimes you just need to blow off some steam.

The series that was released in the 90’s was becoming more and more popular, and what usually happens with things like that is that they start finding ways to make more money out of it. Marvel very cleverly began to expand the storylines, having it run through different kinds of comics, the so called cross-over events. In order to sometimes be able to complete a particular story you would not have to buy just an issue of Ghostrider, but a lot of other comic books as well. Sadly I had to drop the comic eventually as I just wasn’t able to buy all of the other issues that I needed to complete some of the (admittedly very epic) tales. Doesn’t mean I forgot about Ghostrider though. He is to date still my favorite comic book hero and I even enjoyed the two Nicolas Cage movies that introduced him to the movie going audience. While I certainly would not classify those films as being on the same level as the current Marvel movies, they still weren’t bad. Although most people would not agree with me on that. But let’s talk about that another time, as this post is not about movies. Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. has always been a highly underrated and extremely well made superhero series. But in season 4 the creators seemed to have been possessed by hell itself. Yeah….I just went there, another bad pun. Deal with it.

Hmm, I don’t know but I think his engine is overheating.

Season 4 picks up the pieces that were left in the aftermath of last season. Agent Daisy Johnson is still out on her own with the rest of the team desperately trying to find her and bring her back. Daisy is now known as the vigilante Quake, and is trying to atone for her sins by hunting gang members that are part of the terrorist group The Watchdogs. But there is another mysterious player that has entered the field. Known only as The Ghostrider, he leaves a fiery path of destruction with bodies appearing left and right. Whether or not he is a friend or foe has yet to be determined. Meanwhile back at S.H.I.E.L.D. a new director now runs the agency, with Coulson having been put back in the field together with his team. But the search for Daisy is not the only problem they are facing. An ancient and supernatural book called the Darkhold has appeared that might spell doom for the entire world as we know it. Not only that but Fitz has discovered that Dr. Radcliffe has been secretly working on a new invention: an android called Aida. The question is though if Aida might just be the thing that S.H.I.E.L.D. needs, or if it’s the final nail in their coffin. With so many threats coming from every side, this time agent Coulson could be in way over his head…..

If looks could kill…..

I’m not going to sugercoat this in any way, nor will I even attempt it. Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Season 4 just simply rocked. It was so incredibly good, that I wonder if they are ever going to be able to surpass this. It almost seemed like this was an entirely different show as it felt fresher, darker and edgier than any of the previous seasons. (And make no mistake they were good as well). This though was on an entirely different level. The introduction of Ghostrider was of course (not really surprising) the best thing here. It’s a different form of the Spirit of Vengeance than the one from the movies. This time the human host is Robbie Reyes portrayed by actor Gabriel Luna, who also starred in the last Terminator movie. I really liked him as he brought a very human, while at the same time dark edge to his character. He tries to do the right things as best he can, which is at times hard when a flame headed demon possesses your very soul. The special effects of his Ghostrider form are absolutely stunning, and simply cutting edge stuff. They did an amazing job here, and it’s great that agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. for the first time really has one of the heavy hitters of the Marvel Universe make an appearance.

Some people just have a weird way of cooking their food.

But that’s not all there was to enjoy. Aida played by actress Mallory Jansen is pretty much the main character that the storyline of this season revolves around. She is an obviously stunning and very beautiful woman, and her acting just brought this robotic character to life, which is a weird thing to say about a robot. It’s hard to contain my enthusiasm and not spoil things for you, as with the Darkhold, Ghostrider, Aida and so much more cool stuff there is just so much to talk about. Which, I’m not going to do. The regular cast was great as ever, although this most certainly was the season of Fitz. He really took centre stage in a few pivotal episodes, and for those who have already seen this season, you probably know what I am talking about. If you have never seen this show, I would say season 4 is the one to step on board. While I ofcourse certainly recommend watching the other seasons as well, when the show first started they had a tough time finding their rythm. It’s Season 2 where things really started going into gear, so bear that in mind if you decide to give this a go. Now I guess I’m off to read some comics. A particular Spirit of Vengeance seems to be calling my name…..

I give Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Season 4 a 10 out of 10 score.