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Assuming Direct Control

The Pentagon Snubbed The Avengers Because They Didn’t Know Who Was in Charge — Them or S.H.I.E.L.D.

by Jamie Frevele | 4:24 pm, May 7th, 2012


The American military is generally pretty cool with cooperating with Hollywood on making military stories look as authentic as possible (while still making the military look honorable). And while they have lent their expertise and image to many fantastical kinds of movies — including Marvel‘s Iron Man — there was just something bugging them about where they fell in the food chain in The Avengers. Namely, were they going to have to answer to the director of S.H.I.E.L.D., Nick Fury? Because apparently, this was unclear, and the military brass were not cool with that. And that’s why the highest level of “official” crimefighting came from the New York National Guard.

In its most recent cinematic incarnation, S.H.I.E.L.D. stands for Strategic Homeland Intervention, Enforcement and Logistics Division. In the Marvel universe, it serves as “an international peacekeeping/global surveillance/crisis response/quasi-military organization,” as described by Wired, and that puts it in a very high position on Planet Earth, let alone in the United States of America. Even higher is The Council, alo international, and with which we Fury consulting throughout the movie (and ignoring). But that lack of clarity about where the U.S. military would fall was enough to make the Pentagon sit out The Avengers.

“We couldn’t reconcile the unreality of this international organization and our place in it,” Phil Strub, the Defense Department’s Hollywood liaison, tells Danger Room. “To whom did S.H.I.E.L.D. answer? Did we work for S.H.I.E.L.D.? We hit that roadblock and decided we couldn’t do anything” with the film.

They did, however, allow humvees to appear onscreen. Other fighter jets resembling U.S. military jets were digitally inserted and not actual loans or replicas.

This kind of conundrum raises all kinds of questions about domestic and international law in not just the Marvel universe, but other comic book/science fiction/fantasy universes. The excellent site, Law and the Multiverse, covers issues exactly like this, and they just happened to cover what kind of authority S.H.I.E.L.D. would have and where they’d have the most power.

Turns out, if it was just a domestic organization in the United States, things would be a lot easier to figure out. Instead, it seems like this blanket, international (maybe interplanetary) agency could throw its weight around pretty much anywhere. For example, how can an international organization draft all these Americans (okay, Black Widow’s citizenry is slightly questionable) work together to save the planet from intergalactic war? One answer could have been Congress, which has broad draft authority over U.S. citizens. The fact that none of them were forced or threatened if they didn’t volunteer, plus they were all allowed to quit at the end after SPOILER TEXT enjoying shawarma in silence also might mean that S.H.I.E.L.D.’s powers are somewhat limited to one country. Imagine if the United Nations tried drafting Americans for something. Yeah, that would never fly.

Then again, how would a domestic organization get away with pulling Bruce Banner out of India or attacking Loki in Germany without telling the countries that they needed to pop in for a sec?

This is to say nothing about interfacing with air traffic control, but nations are usually kind of prickly about foreign military aircraft just sort of jetting around in their airspace, much less special forces groups conducting operations in their territory. If S.H.I.E.L.D. is an American entity, not an international one, this is starting to look a lot like an act of war.

Law and the Multiverse concludes that the best way for S.H.I.E.L.D. to conduct itself would be as a domestic military organization that “in a spirit of international cooperation, permit[s] representatives from select foreign nations to participate in its operations” and is focused on intergalactic threats rather than homeland security. That would probably be something the Pentagon could get behind.

(via Law and the Multiverse, Wired)

Previously in The Avengers

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  • http://twitter.com/Ashatha Myranda Sarro

    So, basically, the Pentagon *completely overthought the logic of a comic book movie.*

    I’m trying to decide if that’s stupid or awesome. Also: I’d have thought that SHIELD being explicitly armed with tactical nuclear devices might be *slightly* more objectionable than the air traffic control issues…

  • http://twitter.com/LJo83 Lindsay Beaton

    I’m intrigued and amused by the thought that the Pentagon has a three-ring binder (or five) filled with protocols re: The U.S. Government’s Cooperation and Participation in Movies. There was probably a meeting, in the Pentagon, about Avengers, where actual government officials very seriously discussed the implications of SHIELD and its standing in the real-world global defense hierarchy. Oh, to be a fly…

  • http://www.facebook.com/1shewolf JoAnna Luffman

    I see it as protecting their “brand”. Even a comic movie could give a slight precedent that the Pentagon bows to international groups – like the UN. Yes it’s fake, but there have been dumber things pointed to as typical for $_Nation. 

  • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1208921 Nikki Lincoln

    Best use of spoiler covered text EVER

  • Anonymous

    Couldn’t they try reading the history of SHIELD in the comics?

  • Adam R. Charpentier

    Like fans don’t do that all the goddamn time?

  • Anonymous

     Honestly, they’d probably just get more confused. SHIELD practically runs on handwaving.

  • Pauline Mulkerrins

    This brings up a point that makes me VERY uncomfortable with comic book movies these days versus Rambo, Predator, etc. in the days of old. I get the itchies when I see the commercials for the Marines before the movies start, as the audience is primarially people coming of age or of age to sign up, and also the heavy influence of the positive imagry of the military in the movies. Yes, the military service people ARE the REAL heroes, but I don’t like it being glorified commercially. For every Marine commercial I wish they would also show a commercial to donate to the VA, or show a PSA on Traumatic Brain Injury. Sorry, I worked with vets and have family members in the military. It’s not all Dress Blues and Swords. 

  • http://twitter.com/Ashatha Myranda Sarro

     *Fans* do it all the time. I expect slightly better from, y’know, *our national security apparatus.*

  • Julianne McCartney

    I’m gonna just imagine that the meeting with the Pentagon took place with all the actors, in full costume, sitting around a huge table in a war room, not breaking character while Joss Wheadon and The Avengers argued with Pentagon officials. 

  • Adam R. Charpentier

    Better than being thorough or than befuddling bureaucracy?

  • Anonymous

    OMG that would be epic!!!

  • Julianne McCartney

    Right? Nick Fury berating Pentagon officials would be awesome.

  • Frodo Baggins

    I wonder if the Pentagon mandated that non-military government liaisons be held responsible for the numerous military cock-ups in Transformers, in order to earn their contribution to the films. In which case wow… extra douchey.

  • http://taste-is-sweet.livejournal.com/ Taste_is_Sweet

    Fascinating. I can definitely see the U.S. Military’s point, but it is just a fantasy movie after all…

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  • http://twitter.com/FrankenFran Franken Fran

    *Black Widow’s* citizenship is slightly questionable? What about Thor’s? Last time I checked, I’m fairly certain I didn’t see Asgard listed as one of the 50 states (or even on planet Earth for that matter).

  • http://www.facebook.com/NukaCola.Quantum Wesley Breard

    Obviously the US government already does these things (namely, “extractions” in India and pull raids in Germany, our nation has trouble sticking to the rules half the time…. Ms. Frevele, I find myself perplexed that you don’t consider the idea of such things, haha.

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