Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Delivers Marvel-ous Easter Eggs in a Hale of a Backstory

martin

8 years ago

This week on Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., we learned exactly what makes United States Air Force General Hale tick, via a backstory chockablock with Marvel-verse references.

During one of Hale’s classes, Daniel Whitehall touts a new program to create a super soldier that will put Steve Rogers to shame, by infusing human cells with the properties of raw materials.

Polling the class for application ideas, Baron Von Strucker suggests tapping into the Tesseract once wielded by Red Skull, while Hale one-ups her rival by proposing we look forward — into outer space — for new materials. Embarrassed, Von Strucker picks a fight with Hale during gym class, only to get his ass handed to him. After beating on the boss’ kid, Hale is given her assignment, to… conceive/serve as a vessel for the child that will one day be transformed into Hydra’s super soldier. Hale balks and pleads for a fate better suited to her skills, but she is rebuffed.

Jumping ahead to “Two Years Ago,” we see that Ruby was in fact that very special child, bred to be the perfect subject for the Particle Infusion Chamber — although, her professor reminds Hale, Whitehall is now dead, as also may be his wishes. We then learn that Hale’s Hydra colleague General Fischer has been found out, but before General Talbot and his men close in on him, he hands off to Hale the key to a room hiding a communications device of some sort. After Fischer takes his life before Talbot can grab him, Hale ends up gunning down the problematic professor standing in the way of Ruby’s destiny.