Agent Carter continues.

TV Well this is excellent news and demonstrates just how complex and multi-platform MARVEL really want to go with the the cinematic universe. As well as renewing Agents of SHIELD, which is a thing in and of itself given the uptick in quality since it's found something to do with itself, ABC have ordered a series of Agent Carter starring Doctor Who's Hayley Atwell which will apparently be run in the SHIELD slot in the US somehow so that there won't be as many repeats or some such with the two series feeding off one another storywise.

Quite how Channel 4 will deal with this, assuming they bother to purchase the rights, is anyone's guess, unless the two are sold as a package to be transmitted in a block.  Plus you might wonder as someone at Whedonesque does, if in fact we'll get thirteen SHIELDs and thirteen CARTERs, sorry Carters which would seem like a good move.  One of the problems with SHIELD has been that it feels like a thirteen episode type series stretched out to twice its length, perhaps because of the need to play time and weave between the three cinema films.

Since we're on this, I did consider the other day how journalists have tended to think of the various MARVEL phases in terms of The Avengers films and how they'll be sustained once the first wave of heroes reach the end of their trilogies.  What they've not considered is the possibility that The Avengers itself will only have three films and beyond that MARVEL will move on to some other way of sustaining the momentum like a clearer crossover-type event that allows for any number of characters without a particular affiliation to appear.

Imagine perhaps three tentpole Secret Wars, Civil War or Secret Invasion films that feed into and out of films about other newly introduced characters or the "old guard" that haven't yet been given a name in the title like Black Widow, Falcon or Hawkeye.  Or some of The Avengers appear in some capacity, or characters which might not be able sustain a whole film given cameos.  Or from tv, Daredevil or the SHIELD agents.  Instead of a superteam, we're branching out into a hyperlink drama, ensemble film or disaster movies set in the MARVEL universe.