8 Great Characters Marvel And DC's TV Shows Have Completely Screwed Up

7. Agent Coulson

The resurrection of Agent Coulson was a mistake, but Marvel wanted a familiar face to launch Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. with and the popular character (who had been killed off a year earlier in The Avengers) obviously made sense to them. However, following a convoluted explanation about how he was brought back to life, the ABC series has stripped away nearly everything which made fans fall in love with him in the first place. Placing him in charge of S.H.I.E.L.D.-lite has made Coulson just another bureaucrat, and he's become the least interesting character in a show which doesn't exactly have the most exciting leads to begin with. Whereas Coulson's death could have been a memorable way to wrap up Marvel's Phase 1, it's now meaningless, and a long forgotten plot point for a series that feels like it's running on fumes after less than three years.