Blessed with spectacular powers and physiques, superheroes have
a firm handle on bad guys, psychologically distressing back-
stories and, above all, the summer movie season. But this fall,
instead of gracefully decamping for their ice castles and
underground lairs and patiently awaiting their season of
cultural omnipresence, they are stubbornly sticking around.
Starting this week, ABC began airing "Marvel's Agents of
SHIELD," a spinoff from last year's "The Avengers," the third-
highest-grossing movie of all time. Due to the movie's success
and the involvement of Joss Whedon, who directed and wrote the
film and the first episode of "SHIELD," the show has already
amassed more than a million fans on Facebook before airing even
once. The series is as dull, small-minded, and mercenary as its
cinematic progenitor was entertaining, attention deficit-proof,
and mercenary, but it has a built-in audience. What's that on
your TV? Not a bird or a plane, but a canny cash grab.  "SHIELD"
begins some months after the climact