Happy Easter! Sort of. After what I can only describe as a drought of comic-book references, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. comes back strong in the most recent episode, diving into S.H.I.E.L.D.’s recent and distant past. To be fair, some of the references were really more movie references, in turn comics hat-tips themselves. But we take what we get. Dutiful passes at corporate synergy, or heavy wading into an ocean of comics obscurity? You decide.
Triskelion
The classified Hub, a headquarters for S.H.I.E.L.D., seems nifty, but even Fitz acknowledges that it’s nothing compared to the Triskelion. That’s not only a comic book reference but also, it seems, a look-ahead to the next Captain America movie, if early scenes are accurate. In the mainline Marvel universe, the 616, S.H.I.E.L.D. has multiple headquarters around the world, including the massive, flying Helicarrier and (my favorite) a place hidden underneath a barber shop in New York City, accessible via elevators disguised as the barber shop chairs. But in the revamped Ultimate comics universe, basis for much of the Marvel cinematic continuity, S.H.I.E.L.D. also works from the Triskelion, a huge building apparently on Governor’s Island near Manhattan. It also included a prison for super-powered badguys (who often escaped, causing all sorts of problems).
Level 8
I'd forgotten until reading up about this episode that the idea of eight levels of S.H.I.E.L.D. agents was in comic continuity. On the show, only people at Level 7 and up are allowed to know that Phil Coulson survived the battle of New York — at least that’s what they implied in the pilot. Back in the old days each level came with a color-coded uniform, and executive director Nick Fury was the only occupant of Level 8. Or Level 1, depending on how you look at it, I guess.
H.A.M.M.E.R.
How sad is it that now I'm trained to freeze-frame past signage? As our heroes walk past a directory-type sign in the Hub one of the sections listed is H.A.M.M.E.R. — or, well, more precisely, a fragment reading "HAMM," so I guess it could be the "HAMMOCKS" division. But I’m guessing probably not.
H.A.M.M.E.R. was the agency that, briefly, replaced S.H.I.E.L.D. when it turned out that the latter was infiltrated top-to-bottom with shape-shifting aliens called Skrulls. (In the Ultimate universe, and in the cinematic one, the name gets changed to the Chitauri.) After the invasion, the president of the United States reorganizes S.H.I.E.L.D. under the leadership of millionaire industrialist Norman Osborn. This turns out to be a terrible idea, since Osborn is not only completely nuts but also a supervillain, the Green Goblin. Since the Goblin is primarily an enemy of Spider-Man, we’re not likely to see him show up on the TV show — Spider-Man is off limits to the Disney-Marvel continuity.
Jasper Sitwell
Many of the early S.H.I.E.L.D. agents in the comics were old war buddies of Nick Fury. In World War II, Fury led the Howling Commandos, an improbably multi-ethnic unit of unstoppable soldiers Fury often called, lovingly, "yahoos." Fury’s second in command, the bowler-wearing Dum-Dum Dugan, eventually became his number-two at S.H.I.E.L.D. — and you can see these guys show up, unnamed, in the first Captain America movie, too.
Sitwell, though, wasn’t forged in the same comic-book crucible. He was a young, by-the-book S.H.I.E.L.D. agent, supercilious and less improvisational than Fury and his guys. So they made fun of him a lot.
Victoria Hand
In the comics, Hand is another one of those multiply-allied S.H.I.E.L.D. agents. She bounces back and forth between working for Osborn's H.A.M.M.E.R., Nick Fury's S.H.I.E.L.D., and S.H.I.E.L.D. when Captain America had abandoned his superhero identity and taken over running the agency. The red streak in her hair is comic-book authentic.
Overkill Device
Ah, obscurity, how I love thee. S.H.I.E.L.D.'s arch-nemesis agency, H.Y.D.R.A., is always building world-destroying technologies (and, unlike the Russians in Dr. Strangelove, H.Y.D.R.A. always remembers to tell people it has a doomsday device). The Overkill Horn was one of these gadgets, able to use sonic vibrations to simultaneously set off every nuclear weapon on Earth. Plus, what a great name, right?
Previous Comic Book Easter Egg recaps:
