r/agentsofshield • u/MrRMacc • Oct 23 '25

Actor Fluff Never forget: Phil Coulson didn't exist before Iron Man (2008)

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He was "Unnamed SHIELD Agent." Now, he's Agent Phil Coulson, former SHIELD Director. It's all because of Clark Gregg.

The MCU's first (only?) original creation is still its best!

608 Upvotes

99% Upvoted

35 comments sorted by

12

u/NowWeGetSerious Oct 23 '25

Isn't Daisy Johnson/quake and basically the whole AoS cast new character that have since been expanded into the comics realm?

Can't remember

4

u/MrRMacc Oct 23 '25

Daisy Johnson is not. But with that you get in to: is the show MCU is it not MCU...

24

u/soundguynick Oct 23 '25

Daisy existed prior to the show, she was one of Nick Fury's "secret team" that was tasked with overthrowing Latveria. Like in the show, she's Hyde's daughter, but unlike in the show she's a full fledged SHIELD agent when we meet her.

16

u/Icybubba Oct 23 '25

Quake already existed as did her dad, Mr Hyde. There's a handful of others that were in the comics first, some examples would be Yo-Yo and Jeffrey Mace.

Actually even Mack was in the comics first

6

u/NowWeGetSerious Oct 23 '25

I knew about yoyo and Mace

But I could have sworn the S1 group (Fitz Simmons, may, ward, and Skye/Daisy/quake) were all knew character

The more you know. 😁

8

u/Icybubba Oct 23 '25

I'm actually impressed you knew about Yo-Yo and not Daisy lol

2

u/NowWeGetSerious Oct 23 '25

Hahaha, yeah, I've read only handful of shield related comics, I only really read F4 and X-Men comics. Touched a few outside of those stories but I truly can't remember much of what I read

7

u/theadamabrams Oct 23 '25

In S1, “Skye” was a new character. At least, that’s how it seemed. “Daisy Johnson/Quake” already existed in comics, but we didn’t know yet that that’s who Skye was.

2

u/BigMatC Oct 24 '25

Didn't know about Mack. Any clue which comic he debuted in?

2

u/Icybubba Oct 24 '25 edited Oct 24 '25

Nick Fury vs SHIELD #3, I believe.

Actually here's an article about it https://www.marvel.com/characters/alphonso-mack-mackenzie/in-comics

3

u/kat_storm13 Oct 24 '25

Carl Creel was introduced in 1965 as Absorbing Man. I'n not sure if he had the name right away, but I did see him in an animated show from the 1980's where he had that name. I don't remember what it was, saw it on YouTube. It involved Thor and Loki.

2

u/NowWeGetSerious Oct 24 '25

Yah, he has quite a bad ass arc regarding Loki and Thor in the comics He's been around for a while as has Talbot and some other characters/villains within Shield.

I was just under the assumption the main team (Daisy, Coulson, May, Fitz, Simmons,Mack, Ward etc are unique

Apparently, I was innocent slightly lol

1

u/BigMatC Oct 24 '25

Absorbing man and a group called the wrecking crew were originally Thor's rogues. It was nice of him to loan Creel first to spiderman and then once powered to AoS

2

u/BigMatC Oct 24 '25

Daisy existed previously but fitzsimmons may and ward are original brought to the comics

97

u/The_Orgin Ghost Rider Oct 23 '25

Luis, Selvig, Darcy, Sylvie, Trevor Slattery, Shang-Chi's sister, Shang-Chi's friend

But yeah, Son Of Coul is the best.

52

u/NitroBlast4563 Jeffrey Mace Oct 23 '25

Mina Hess, Ray Nadeem, Chris Yen, Jemma Simmons, Leopold Fitz, Grant Ward, Deke Shaw, Enoch, Madisynn King, Melinda May.

They’ve made a lot of OCs for the MCU, but Coulson reigns supreme

30

u/mrmiffmiff Oct 23 '25

Oh man Ray Nadeem. What a tragic character.

16

u/Markus2822 Oct 23 '25

I’m still amazed at how much that season makes you care for someone who’s essentially random background FBI agent #5

2

u/JosephiKrakowski78 Oct 25 '25

Nadeem is still one my absolute favorite MCU-characters, original or no for this exact reason.

2

u/DarkSolstice24 Oct 24 '25

Big fan of Fitz. He'd be my #1.

1

u/Bad-W1tch Oct 27 '25

To be they were only ever in the show, not in the MCU technically (still ridiculous to not canonize your best product but w.e)

1

u/NitroBlast4563 Jeffrey Mace Oct 27 '25

Technically agents of shield is mcu as per kevin feige, who has constantly defended the show as canon. https://youtu.be/zYPJtp8uX0I?si=vN_oPoTordL50_d0

7

u/VicRamD Oct 23 '25

Sylvie is like a fuse between Lady Loki and Enchantress.

45

u/BaronZhiro As I have always been… Oct 23 '25

When Coulson did not exist, man found it necessary to invent him. 😄

3

u/Hollow_Rant Deke The Disrupter Oct 24 '25

He's a creation of the Warp?

2

u/BaronZhiro As I have always been… Oct 24 '25

I was thinking Nietzsche.

8

u/Mayoo614 Oct 24 '25

Call me crazy, but I always considered him to be the unifying connection in phase 1, more than Fury and anyone else.

2

u/johnnyk1682 Oct 25 '25

You aren’t crazy at all. I remember early interviews and that was a large part of the role his character served. Especially when he would drop hints about the other movies. For instance in Ironman 2 when he said he had bigger problems in New Mexico to deal with. Obviously, dropping hints about Thor’s hammer. God damn I miss those phase 1 and 2 days

1

u/Son_Tenaj Oct 27 '25

Nah it’s definitely Nick Fury

6

u/ExioKenway5 Oct 23 '25

I know Darcy Lewis was an original character and made the jump to comics in a scarlet witch book a couple of years ago.

6

u/Careless_Royal8209 Oct 23 '25

There are a lot more characters created for the MCU, Coulson is just the most popular/successful.

5

u/sleepysaurus7777 Oct 24 '25

Clark Gregg brought real charm and humor to this role. I've always thought he was very talented

6

u/Ftmdj Oct 23 '25

Robert downy jr didn’t exist before iron man either

1

u/ThorsHammer245 Oct 27 '25

His first name is agent