Quint from Ain't It Cool News' theory on Coulson, Clark Gregg responds (SPOILER)

[Metal Head]

http://www.aintitcool.com/node/55655

and

http://www.aintitcool.com/node/55764

heath

[Billium3]

I want Agent Coulson to come back very much, but I also do not want to see him as the Vision. There's numerous ways they could go about doing so without having to go the android route.

1) Thor finds him in Hel.
2) Fury lied, and he did survive his wound.
3) Somehow comes back thanks to the machinations of Thanos, Death, the Tesseract and/or Infinity Gauntlet in a future movie.
4) Loki destroyed a Life Model Decoy Coulson.
etc.

[Metal Head]

Bringing him back would be a cop-out. I think they could have him appear in flashbacks. I would almost think we'd see Stane in flashbacks at some point in an Iron Man film.

heath

[Typhon]

Who's to say that Coulson was human to begin with.  Maybe he was an android all along, and only Fury knew. 

[Metal Head]

That's an even bigger cop-out. These may be comic book movies, but they're mostly movies. The audience would feel cheated if they bring him back the wrong way.

[Billium3]

I wouldn't see it as a cop-out. Especially if it's revealed Fury lied, it just shows that he's not above tugging on heart strings to get people to do what he wants.

And if Thor finds him in Hel, it doesn't invalidate his death; he died, but gets to come back in a way that ties into the Marvel Universe, in this case "Thor 2". Basically having your cake and eating it, too.

[Metal Head]

As a long-time comic book fan, it works. As a longer-time film fan and filmmaker (very low budget, haha), it's a cop-out, trust me.

[IMJ]

I've wondered if the short cut during the scene Tony and Cap are talking about Loki's plan had anything to do with it. They cut and Tony looks at the blood stain left on the wall where Coulson was lying.  I thought maybe they'd later reveal that it was LMD blood grease or something. LOL!