With the show centering on its agents currently on hiatus, S.H.I.E.L.D.’s other recruitment efforts have been stymied by unknown factors as the Marvel Experience—that traveling interactive theme park of many domes—has called it quits only halfway through its tour. This summer, people with heroic tendencies in Chicago, New York, or St. Louis will have to stick to warning folks away from overused portable toilets.
The Associated Press shared the news that the tour’s final stop would be in Philadelphia, noting that its cancellation was another disappointment for Michael Cohl and Jeremiah J. Harris (of Spider-Man: Turn Off The Dark infamy), who co-produced the interactive attraction with entertainment company Hero Ventures and Marvel Entertainment. The parties have yet to release any official statements; the website remains free of any explanations or updates, but ticket sales are closed.
The Marvel-based attraction, which touted itself as the “first hyper-reality tour,” offered fans a chance to become agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. by completing missions, checking out a life-size Quinjet, and overpaying for refreshments. The tour had fairly positive advance buzz, with everyone from known comic enthusiast Kevin Smith (who provided one of the villains’ voices) lauding it over on Nerdist to known Cohl pal Glenn Beck gushing about it on Facebook.
But it seems the tour was plagued with issues from the start: Last year, Bleeding Cool published multiple round-ups of scathing Yelp reviews to help temper expectations after the traveling theme park debuted in Phoenix and Scottsdale. While it’s entirely possible that Arizonans are among the more exacting Marvel fans, their complaints of technical glitches and near-interminable lines were echoed by Yelpers in Dallas, including one guy who suggested unmanning himself might make for a more pleasant time. Philadelphians have yet to really weigh in on the matter, but so far it seems that the only thing the management has executed well is the refund policy.