NOTE: Some slight spoilers for the second season finale of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., including the true identity of lead character, Skye, are present in this review
The season finale for the recently-wrapped second season of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. laid a particular hint on pretty thick regarding the true identity of Skye, and an idea she kicked around with Coulson. Now, several weeks ahead of San Diego Comic-Con (which Marvel Studios is skipping, though Marvel Television will be attending), Marvel has confirmed that fan speculation of a particular Marvel Comics group joining the show in Season Three this Fall is correct. The Secret Warriors are coming to Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.!
The Secret Warriors, who have headlined their very own comics from Marvel, have been foreshadowed to a degree during Season Two, ever since Skye was outed as being Marvel character, Daisy ‘Quake’ Johnson midway through the season. In Marvel Comics, Quake is a pivotal member of the Secret Warriors, whom she founds alongside regular S.H.I.E.L.D. director, Nick Fury. The team is a way of harnessing super-powered individuals to work for the government through S.H.I.E.L.D., sort of like a heroic antithesis to Marvel rival, DC’s popular Suicide Squad team of government-sponsored super-villains. They are also meant to be a super-powered spiritual successor to the Howling Commandos, the platoon of WWII soldiers that originally fought alongside Nick Fury (who has slowed aging in the comics), and both Captain America and SSR Agent Peggy Carter in the case of the MCU.
After the second season’s climactic battle with the rogue faction of Inhumans that attacked S.H.I.E.L.D. at the behest of Skye’s mother, Jiaying, Skye inadvertently dumped a deposit of Terrigen Crystals into the ocean, which were consumed by sea life that was later caught, frozen, and sold as fish-related sundries to the general public, implying (and with Marvel Television later confirming) that this was signaling a huge increase in super-powered individuals to come for the Marvel Cinematic Universe in Season Three. The Secret Warriors will likely be a byproduct of Terrigen mutation from the dumped crystals, perhaps with Skye and Coulson (who may substitute for Nick Fury, considering recent events with S.H.I.E.L.D. in the MCU) putting the team together as a way to make lemonade with a supposed ‘enhanced individual’ epidemic that is bound to get the government’s attention early next season on the show.
Aside from Quake and Nick Fury in the comics, the Secret Warriors have had several individuals amongst their ranks, including speedster, Slingshot, pyrokinetic, Hellfire, sorcerer, Sebastian Druid, and teleporter, Manifold. Stonewall is also a regular candidate, who also happens to be the son of Absorbing Man, a Marvel villain that already appeared on Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. at the start of Season Two, and was also mentioned several times during the debut season of MCU-set Netflix series, Daredevil.
Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. begins airing its third season on ABC (CTV for us Canadians), on Tuesday, September 29th. It maintains its Season Two timeslot of 9:00-10:00 P.M. from there.
Keep assembling Eggplante for all news and updates on Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., and other developments in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.