The first one of these “Marvel One-Shots” (starring mild-mannered Clark Gregg on side adventures) was pretty lame, but A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to Thor’s Hammer is pretty darn good. It’s a little short (the end credits are almost longer than the short) and the licensing department missed out on a golden Hostess Fruit Pie opportunity, but it works.

The story is slim—Gregg breaks up a hold-up at a desert gas station—but Gregg makes Funny Thing work in his first close-up. Another problem with the previous one was how slight Gregg’s presence was in it; not here. Here, Gregg’s able to sell even bad production ideas (his character listens to big band—at the beginning, it fails, after Gregg takes over, it succeeds).

I’m not sure Gregg could sustain his own movie, but a superhero sitcom series with him might be fun.