Comic Book / S.H.I.E.L.D.

There is always something beneath the surface.

Behind it all, behind the heroic, the amazing, the incredible, the fantastic and even the uncanny, there exists dangers and threats that are rarely seen because they hide in the shadows or are too massive for most of the world to comprehend. Yet there is one organization that has taken it upon itself to safeguard the human race against the known and unknown.

They are security, they are shelter…

They are S.H.I.E.L.D.

S.H.I.E.L.D. ^note (Supreme Headquarters, International Espionage, Law-enforcement Division, or more recently the Strategic Homeland Intervention, Enforcement and Logistics Division) is the source of most, if not all, of the Spy Fiction in the Marvel Universe. It is the nebulous espionage organization that for decades was known as the "House that Nick Fury built". It first appeared in Strange Tales #135 (August, 1965). The organization is a United Nations or sometimes United States backed paramilitary and intelligence organization, whose acronym originally stood for Supreme Headquarters, International Espionage, Law-Enforcement Division but was changed in the 1990s to stand for Strategic Hazard Intervention, Espionage and Logistics Directorate. In the Marvel Cinematic Universe, the acronym was defined as the "Strategic Homeland Intervention, Enforcement, and Logistics Division".

There have been numerous series revolving around and featuring S.H.I.E.L.D. throughout the years, including long standing features in multiple Captain America runs. In the 2010s, Jonathan Hickman began delving deeper into the organization's history; first in Secret Warriors and then in two bimonthly mini-series. Another series launched in December 2014, essentially being an in-universe version of the first season of the Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. TV show with Agent Coulson leading a team to investigate whatever weird stuff S.H.I.E.L.D. needs investigating; this was later relaunched under the show's title of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.. However, the entire organization has now been defunct due to Secret Empire incident. Recently, due to the events of Reckoning War, S.H.I.E.L.D. has been rebuilt, this time under the command of Nick Fury, Jr.

S.H.I.E.L.D. has also been a large part of several Marvel adaptations, including Spider-Man: The Animated Series, The Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes and Ultimate Spider-Man (2012). S.H.I.E.L.D. features notably in the Marvel Cinematic Universe as an important part of the series, being a recurring element in several movies and the focus of two TV spinoffs, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. and Agent Carter.

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The S.H.I.E.L.D. organization provides examples of:

• Actually a Doombot: The Life Model Decoys, convincingly human robots made to protect the director in case of assassination, or if they're just feeling prickly. It's also been used to save Nick Fury from the hands of death from time to time.
• The Alcatraz: They've built and maintained a few, such as the Raft, an extension of the real life Ryker's Island, or the Cube, a slightly illegal black site used to detain aliens "indefinitely" (until Marvel Boy took over it).
• Badass Normal: Most agents don't have superpowers but that doesn't stop them from being a force to be reckoned with in a world filled with mutants, gods, aliens, and super soldiers.
• Beethoven Was an Alien Spy: Jonathan Hickman's ancient version of SHIELD is constructed entirely from this trope.
• Breaking the Fellowship: Particularly in modern series, S.H.I.E.L.D. has a habit of getting dissolved whenever they screw up so badly or are corrupted too much to be effective. The first time had Fury dismantle the original gathering when a group of LMDs gained sentience and took over. The second time was caused by the fallout of Secret Invasion and the third due to the fallout of Secret Empire.
• Canon Immigrant:
  • Agent Phil Coulson from the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
  • And, depending on your definition, Samuel L. Jackson lookalike Nick Fury Jr.
  • Many members of the Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. cast made their way to the comics in the 2014 series (except Grant Ward, who had to wait until 2016 for his turn).
• Cloak and Dagger: No matter how many crimes Real Life spy agencies (or S.H.I.E.L.D. itself) commit, S.H.I.E.L.D. will still make it look badass whether the writer likes it or not.
• Cool Car: Bullet-proof, rocket-proof, loaded with gadgets, and just as a little extra, they can fly. The first time we saw one, it was a modified Porsche. SHIELD gots style.
• Depending on the Writer:
  • Their sense of integrity and competence can highly vary between the stories they are in (both comics and adaptations) as they can be a highly effective team against the forces of evil or a Lawful Stupid force that is more of a hindrance to other heroes than help. Sometimes, it simply depends on which agent you're dealing with.
  • Whether the organization is international, UN-funded or entirely American. Amusingly, their original name (Supreme Headquarters, International Espionage, Law-Enforcement Division) suggested that they were a division of the real–world S.H.A.P.E. (Supreme Headquarters, Allied Powers Europe) and were thus NATO–based, an option that seems to never come up in modern comics or adaptations.
• Elaborate Underground Base: They love these. In the earlier comics it was accessible through a special chair in a certain barbershop that would descend into the floor. Nowadays they tend to have a less dramatic base.
• Fun with Acronyms: One of the most notorious examples of it. This extends to related organizations S.T.R.I.K.E.^note Special Tactical Reserve for International Key Emergencies, S.W.O.R.D.^note Sentient Worlds Observation and Response Department, S.T.A.K.E.^note Special Threat Assessment for Known Extranormalities, W.A.N.D.^note Wizardry, Alchemy and Necromancy Department and A.R.M.O.R.^note Alternate Reality Monitoring and Operational Response. Parodied with H.A.M.M.E.R., which never had its meaning defined^note In fact, Norman Osborn came up with the acronym first and left figuring out a meaning to Victoria Hand. and characters in-universe made jokes that nobody knew what it stood for.
  • How about S.H.I.E.L.D. itself, which has gone through a few variatons?
    • Supreme Headquarters, International Espionage, Law-enforcement Division from when it first appeared in 1965 through the end of The '80s.
    • Strategic Hazard Intervention Espionage Logistics Directorate starting in 1991 when the organization was rebooted following the events of Nick Fury vs. S.H.I.E.L.D..
    • Strategic Homeland Intervention, Enforcement and Logistics Division in modern adaptations, including the Marvel Cinematic Universe. (The word "Homeland" having become in vogue since the creation of the Department of Homeland Security after 9/11.)
      Maria Hill: What does S.H.I.E.L.D. stand for?
      Agent Ward: Strategic Homeland Intervention Enforcement and Logistics Division.
      Maria Hill: What does that mean to you?
      Agent Ward: It means someone really wanted our initials to spell S.H.I.E.L.D.
  • Jack Kirby's original artwork had Nick Fury as "The Man Called D.E.A.T.H."^note Director of External Atomic Threat Headquarters. When the artwork was eventually used for the 50th anniversary, The Man Called D.E.A.T.H. was instead the mysterious figure who recruited S.H.I.E.L.D. directors.^note DaVinci Elevating Agents To Helm. And yes, the characters note "da" means "of". Fury likes his acronyms.
• Good is Not Nice: They often like to go by this motto even in their more favorable depictions. Though of course whether the "Good" part has any credibility is Depending on the Writer.
  • For example, references are made in the MCU to SHIELD conducting assassinations, it hires characters such as Black Widow and Hawkeye who are described directly as being killers, and has on occasion sanctioned the murder of civilians such as in the Item 47. All for the greater good, so they say. That said, however, given the revelations in Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. and Captain America: The Winter Soldier that many SHIELD operatives are in fact working for HYDRA, the extent to which the trope actually applies in this continuity is uncertain.
• Gadgeteer Genius: In the 60s SHIELD actually had an armorer named Boothroyd. Later on they got the Sidney "The Gaffe" Levine, who was retconned into being a former member of the WWII team Sky-Wolves. Somehow neither has appeared recently.
• Good Policing, Evil Policing: The titular organization is a complex example of moral opposites in Law Enforcement because it's one of the more visible law enforcement factions in the Marvel Universe (other than the the NYPD) and it stands on both sides of this trope Depending on the Writer. For the most part, they are trying to maintain law and order in a universe full of super-powered crooks and succeeding, but more often than not (big examples being Civil War, Outlawed and Original Sin) they are there to cause the mess that the superheroes need to clean up and/or are jackbooted thugs enforcing the evil law du jour and employing tactics that are plainly illegal because whoever is the agency's leader at the time thinks that being in command and given the responsibility to "make the hard choices" means their choices are always indisputably "good".
• Government Agency of Fiction
• Hero with an F in Good: On paper, S.H.I.E.L.D. is meant to be a force for Good in the Marvelverse and enforce order in the world, but more often than not is the cause of a variety of disasters, calamities, or monsters that end up having to be stopped by Marvel's superheroes in the first place. More than once has S.H.I.E.L.D. been the cause of a Nice Job Breaking It, Hero scenario, hijacked by a villain for monstrous purposes, or committed some grievous attempt at violating These Are Things Man Was Not Meant to Know for power or political leverage, which has led to its dissolution more than once.
• High Turnover Rate: Ever since Nick Fury got ousted after Secret War, they've gone through a lot of replacement directors. (deep breath) Maria Hill, Tony Stark, Norman Osborn^note extremely briefly, before he dismantled the entire organization and built H.A.M.M.E.R. in its place, Steve Rogers, Daisy Johnson, Maria Hill again, Sue Storm, and finally Nick Fury, Jr.
• Hubcap Hovercraft: Their hovercars are often depicted as working this way.
• Jerkass: This appears to actually be a requirement if you want a job with this group. Averted in the movies, though, especially by Agent Coulson (who can be a jerk when he wants to be; he's just polite about it).
• MacGuffin: Has had many of them, one of the latest being the Human Machine in the new series
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: The organization and its secrets have been a source of many problems, metahuman or otherwise, in the Marvel Universe and has more often than not been a direct cause of the Villain of the Week by virtue of being connected to the group in some way. Notable villains like Taskmaster used to be agents of the group.
• The Omniscient Council of Vagueness: S.H.I.E.L.D. usually has one of these in the background pulling their strings, even when Nick Fury was in charge.
• Overly Long Name: The organization's full name in the comics has varied, but the movies present it as the Strategic Homeland Intervention, Enforcement, and Logistics Division. Iron Man used it as a Running Gag and, until the acronym was officially revealed at the end, a Stealth Pun.
• Pocket Rocket Launcher: Nick Fury uses a twin-barreled "rocket pellet" pistol in Strange Tales issue 151. It fires small rockets with enough power to "blow out a battleship."
• Redshirt Army: Despite the fact that they are sometimes shown as Men of Sherwood or even Badass Army, S.H.I.E.L.D. agent usually serve just as victims to be easily killed by any villain. Any commander will not usually really care about the losses. It sometimes seems that they do not even care about casualties when they plan their actions. Many agents or soldiers are killed in large numbers for example on board of the Helicarriers that seem to serve mostly just so they can fall down and kill all their crew, and eventually hire more people later. How S.H.I.E.L.D. HR department manages to recruit anyone is a mystery.
• Retcon:
  • Technically, S.H.I.E.L.D. itself started with a retcon reviving WW2 hero Nick Fury to be both their top agent and partial creator. Secret Warriors and the 2010 series dived into the organization's history, adding a lot more (see below).
  • The first time S.H.I.E.L.D. appeared, Tony Stark was one of the founders, and among those who appointed Nick Fury as Director. The march of Comic-Book Time means this has been removed, and instead it's Howard Stark who helped found the organization's modern version.

• Ridiculously Human Robots: Life Model Decoys
• State Sec: A (usually) good guy version of one: A spy / law enforcement agency with a Airborne Aircraft Carrier and other quasi-military elements.
• Spy Catsuit: Form fitting black-blue catsuits, with white belts, boots and gloves. And they're standard requirement for all agents, even the fat ugly schlubs, though Agent 13 has an all-white one, and some agents, like Phil Coulson prefer to dress in a suit and tie.
• Spy Versus Spy
• Too Dumb to Live: They have had their moments, especially in Spider-Man: Shattered Dimensions when they tried to use Carnage as a weapon and give it a lot more power and it worked as well as one would think it would.
• Tyrant Takes the Helm: After Secret War, Nick Fury was ousted and Maria Hill took his place. Not that Nick has ever been what you'd call nice on a good day, but Hill immediately turns out to be far more confrontational and obstructive than him (though exact levels of tyranny, again, depend on who's writing her).
• Unified Naming System: S.H.I.E.L.D. (Strategic Homeland Intervention, Enforcement, and Logistics Division) vs. A.I.M. (Advanced Idea Mechanics) and HYDRA (as in the mythological creature). SHIELD's spinoff organizations also qualify, having names such as STRIKE, SWORD, ARMOR, and HAMMER.
• United Nations Is a Superpower: Inconsistent between this and being a United States force.
• The Worf Effect: A recurring sign of how dangerous a threat is that is takes down one of SHIELD's helicarriers. In Secret Invasion, Maria Hill gets fed up with this.
  Hill: I've had the exact same car since I was sixteen. The exact same car, never had a problem with it, but this thing falls out of the sky every other Thursday!

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