Starting with the Blu-Ray and DVD release of Thor, Marvel Studios began to produce a series of lower-budgeted short films featuring the supporting characters of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Inspired by the stand alone one-shot stories within the comics, these shorts were designed to explore areas of the universe the movies simply didn't have time for, and also tested the waters for projects that Marvel had been developing for their incoming move to television. Between 2011 and 2013, Marvel Studios produced five short films set within the continuity of the MCU. I know they have since produced the Team Thor shorts and commercials starring Spider-Man and Captain America, but those are not set within the MCU canon and were made mostly for fun or to sell stuff (though I might find time in my Thor: Ragnarok review to mention the Team Thor shorts).
This installment will explore this interesting experiment Marvel carried out for a few years by diving into each one individually. As we go along, you'll see the ambition of these one-shots reach higher, from bigger budgets to laying out hints for potential future MCU stories.
The Consultant
This extremely simple short stars Clark Gregg and Maximiliano Hernandez reprising their roles as Agents Coulson and Sitwell. The whole story, set within a diner, is a simple back and forth between the two agents as they find a way to sabotage the U.S. government's wish to recruit Emil Blonsky/the Abomination for the Avengers Initiative. This short, not even five minutes long, ties up a couple of loose ends from The Incredible Hulk and explores Tony Stark's role he was appointed in Iron Man 2. Gregg and Hernandez nail the almost entirely expository dialogue with quick-fire, deadpan delivery that adds a level of almost comedic levels of self-seriousness to the piece.
The simplicity of this little story adds so much to the often large-scale MCU. Not only does it characterize what SHIELD is capable of, it adds a level of realism to a universe where things often go boom. There's no grand climax here, it's just two agents working out a situation with words. That's pretty cool.
A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to Thor's Hammer
Once again starring Clark Gregg, this slightly more ambitious short piece chronicles a small event that transpired when Coulson drove all the way down to New Mexico. Once again set all in one place, a gas station, this short film shows us another side to Coulson: he kicks ass. If The Consultant showcased his ability to solve a situation with words, A Funny Thing showcases his ability to solve a situation with action.
Once again, Gregg plays the role with such calm yet serious charm that is no wonder at all that he got his own television series. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if these shorts were designed specifically to test if Clark Gregg could carry a narrative on his own (and he absolutely could). Once again, there's no big explosion or malevolent bad guy. Just a couple of small-time robbers, an agent who is always in control of the crisis, and a satisfying takedown. Nothing grand, just simple satisfaction.
Item 47
After two pretty simple stories, Marvel Studios went balls to the wall for their next one-shot. Starring Lizzy Caplan, Jessie Bradford, Hernandez as Agent Sitwell once again, and Titus Welliver, this one-shot explores the aftermath of The Avengers after a wannabe Bonnie and Clyde steals one of the Chitauri's weapons and uses it to become serial bank robbers, with SHIELD right on their tail. Right away, this one-shot feels different from the last two; from its multiple locations to its more elaborate visual effects, this is a huge jump upwards in terms of ambition.
Truth be told, Item 47 is my favorite of the one-shots. It's an inventive follow-up to The Avengers, filled with likable characters and some cute dialogue. There's also some small hints for the future of the MCU (keep a close eye on the end credits), and it's a cool taste of things to come with the tone and structure of Agents of SHIELD. Though I hope Caplan and Bradford return some day in some form.
Agent Carter
Hayley Atwell gets a chance to take control in this entertaining one-shot. Set one year after the events of Captain America: The First Avenger, Peggy Carter is stuck doing menial tasks for the SSR in a more patriarchal America. She decides to take on a mission by herself in one of the most convincing sequences of badassery in the MCU where she literally handles everything all by herself.
Even more ambitious than Item 47, this period piece clearly had way more money pumped into it. The production design and effects are stellar, and the action is far more intricate in its execution. There are fun cameos here from other The First Avenger characters, and it gives us a solid taste of things to come in the tragically short-lived Agent Carter TV series. NOTE: The placement of the events of this short seems to contradict the TV show, but it was never directly proven non-canon.
All Hail the King
Ben Kingsley returns as Trevor Slattery, the washed-up actor arrested for posing as the Mandarin. This one-shot details his life in prison, framed by an interview with a documentary filmmaker with an agenda of his own. This is honestly my least-favorite of the one-shots because it serves no purpose except to apologize for the awesome twist in Iron Man 3 (hoo boy, more on that next time). Sure, it's cool to get a tease of the real Mandarin, but until this is actually paid off in the MCU, it only exists to appease angry fans.
That being said, Kingsley is a delight as usual. The major highlight is the title card sequence for Caged Heat, the failed pilot Slattery starred in set to rocking music from '80s theme song legend Mike Post. There's a cool grindhouse aesthetic to the title cards of All Hail the King itself, even if the visual style doesn't carry over into the short itself.
After All Hail the King, Marvel Studios for one reason or another stopped producing the one-shots. Feige cites the increasing number of movies and TV shows produced as diverting attention away from the increasingly ambitious short films. Whether or not we'll ever get more is doubtful, but these short films as they are provided a nice way for Marvel Studios to make their cinematic universe feel more alive. They demonstrated that not every story set within the universe needed to be large scale, that there are smaller scale stories with ordinary people who just happen to live in a strange universe. If anything else, these were the stories that made the Marvel Cinematic Universe feel like an actual, lived-in universe.
For the next installment, we will properly begin phase 2 with the return of the MCU's biggest star in perhaps the most polarizing MCU film yet, and we'll dive into which side of the fence I sit on.
Next time: Iron Man 3
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