Confessions of a Comic Book Guy is a weekly column by Steve Bennett of Super-Fly Comics and Games in Yellow Springs, Ohio.  This week, Bennett shares some thoughts on Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. and on characters that look like us.
 
Note:  This column contains info on both of the first two S.H.I.E.L.D. episodes, so if you don't want to know, stop reading.
 
I went to Super-Fly Comics last Saturday and finally got to see those fancy 3D covers I've been reading about and can't deny the obvious.  First they're as pretty as they are an effective sales tool; giving both the rack and file reader and the hardcore collector something they can't get online.  Me, I'm all for added content so I'll accept the occasional fancy cover, even if they do play hob with our store's optical scanners.  (Anyone else having the same problem?)
 
Network television isn't above such gimmicks because things are getting pretty desperate for them.  Once competition came just from cable but now both are facing the prospect of a generational time bomb which could render both as relevant as AM radio.  I speak of course of The Millennials, a.k.a. the cord nevers, the "selfies" generation, or (my favorite) "generation mooch," a group that has never paid for cable and never plan to.  How do you draw them to something as antiquated as "live television?"
 
Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. does it by stressing the "watch it live" aspect in ads for the show and rewarding faithful viewers by adding the kind of "after credit scenes" that appear in  their superhero movies.  ABC used their Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Facebook page to post a video letting fans know to watch episodes until the credits finish rolling via a voiceover that says "Don't risk the spoilers.  Stay until the very end."  And if you did watch "until the end" of last night's episode, as prophesied by the Internet there was (spoiler alert) a cameo by Samuel L. Jackson as Col. Fury.  Which was cool and everything, but couldn't top the final act of last week's show which featured a flying car; but then I've been waiting to see that since I was eight.
 
And while on the subject of S.H.I.E.L.D., as previously established (see "Confessions of a Comic Book Guy--Jupiter's Legacy Revisited"), to me the most remarkable thing about the show is not its initial success as much as the fact it features the merely human looking Clark Gregg as Agent Phil Coulson.  Which is not to denigrate his appearance in any way.  While researching this week's column I came across half a dozen Websites promising shirtless and even nude photos of him.  He unquestionably has his appeal for women, gay men and fangirls.
 
But leave us face it, the writer, director and actor just doesn't have what is known as conventional leading man looks.  He's probably best known for his supporting role in a sitcom, the ex-husband of the title character in the sitcom New Adventures of Old Christine, though he did have a small but meaty role as a very Coulson-like character, FBI Special Agent Michael Casper, in a half dozen episodes of The West Wing.
 
Unfortunately we live in a world where it certainly seems, to me anyway, that both the men and women in entertainment keep getting better and better looking all the time.  I've complained about this trend happening in superhero comics as well and what with me admittedly being a bit potato shaped, you might suspect I have an axe to grind with the aesthetically pleasing.  But it's not just me.  I place into evidence this Emmy night quote from actress Diahann Carroll in last week's issue of Entertainment Weekly, "The men are much more beautiful than when I was doing television."  And she should know, she was the star of the groundbreaking sitcom Julia.
 

In particular it seems like Fox and The CW are in a battle to the death to see who can cobble together the youngest, fittest, best looking cast of actors for their shows--I mean, the actors in their version of The Tomorrow People look like they escaped from an Esquire fashion shoot.  Not that Fox is any better.  I enjoy the sitcom New Girl* but it's hard to ignore the fact someone clearly decided Zooey Deschanel wasn't quite attractive enough so hired the unbelievably beautiful Hannah Simone to play her model best friend.  And it's not just the women.  Actor Jake Johnson, who plays character Nick Miller, said on an episode of The Tonight Show that to get the role he had to lose fifteen pounds.  He, a perfect normal-sized man, was, in his own words "too fat for Fox."
 
What's wrong with that, you ask?  After all, as a well-known comic book artist once responded to a Facebook post I wrote on this subject, "people like looking at attractive people."  And I don't dispute that it's always been that way.  Fictional characters are avatars we’re supposed to inhabit, so it’s only human nature to make them idealized versions of ourselves.  It's only natural to admire and try to emulate the attractive (it's not like the heroes from Greek mythology were exactly schlubby).  We deeply identify with them and they're especially powerful when they're moving images, and thanks to modern science we even know why--mirror neurons.  Watching someone perform a task triggers the same neurons in our heads as when we perform the task.
 
So while I'll admit people like seeing pretty people they also like to see themselves represented in the media, which you could see as pure egotism but runs much deeper than that.  When groups complain about being under-represented in the media, it's not just about high sounding ideals like social diversity, diversity and inclusiveness.  In that same issue of Entertainment Weekly there's an interview with actress Michelle Rodriguez which had a couple of interesting quotes.  "People don't understand how important symbolism is," she said.  "Seeing an image up on that screen can make a difference to somebody.  It can make a difference."  The piece also said that she’s interested in creating a Latina superhero.  "She could be a South American princess.  I just need to figure out what her super power is."  IDW Publishing or Dynamite Entertainment should really get to work on that, although if you ask me "just" being Michelle Rodriguez is super power enough.
 
So like women, gays, blacks and the disabled (I mean, did NBC even consider for a second a black actor actually in a wheelchair, like Daryl "Chill" Mitchell, for the lead in their remake of Ironside?), I’d like to see regular looking humans better represented in the media.  Of course the argument is nobody would want to see an action/adventure hero who looks like a regular guy.  But 22 million people (see "'S.H.I.E.L.D.' Blows through 22 Million") didn't seem to have a problem with it.
 
* For the record I found this super cool comic book cover mashup at a blog by someone who goes by Bully.  It probably says too much about me that I sincerely wish there really were still comics like this.
 
The opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the writer, and do not necessarily reflect the views of the editorial staff of ICv2.com.