The MCU's SHIELD Is Its Own Worst Enemy

SPOILER WARNING: This article contains major spoilers for Ant-Man and the Wasp, in theaters now.

The Marvel Cinematic Universe's S.H.I.E.L.D. may be on the side of the angels, but their tactics aren't necessarily. While Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. presents a highly proficient spy organization, the S.H.I.E.L.D. of the films can range from incompetent to annoying to downright insidious. Ant-Man and the Wasp continues this trend with the introduction of Ghost and former S.H.I.E.L.D. agent Jimmy Woo, who -- due to post-Captain America: Civil War circumstances -- hinders rather than helps our heroes. For the purposes of this article, we'll only be looking at S.H.I.E.L.D. as it appears in the films, but not on television.

S.H.I.E.L.D.'s cinematic tenure began in the first Iron Man film, which also launched the MCU. While later films would reveal the organization's storied history, S.H.I.E.L.D. -- much like Stark himself -- appeared to be finding its feet in this film. In a series of sequences that now appear to be tongue-in-cheek, Agent Phil Coulson himself didn't even have the acronym straight quite yet, as he referred to S.H.I.E.L.D. by its full title: the Strategic Homeland Intervention, Enforcement and Logistics Division. Hapless but insistent, he made several attempts to arrange a meeting with Tony Stark, only to be shut down by Pepper Potts.

Of course, Coulson and his small team of agents got a little piece of the action in the film's climax. When Pepper realized Obadiah Stane's plan, she called Coulson and he turned up at Stane's lab with his team. By that point, though, it was too late; Stane had already suited up as Iron Monger. The agents tried to defend Pepper (and themselves), but Stane tore through them like tissue paper. It is unclear how many survived the quick battle, though Coulson obviously went on to appear in Iron Man 2. This was the last time S.H.I.E.L.D. appeared in the film -- and they were hardly any help at all. Fortunately, Stark went on to stop Iron Monger and save the day.

In Iron Man 2, S.H.I.E.L.D. was a spot more helpful. The organization sent Natasha Romanoff undercover at Stark Industries, and -- fortunately for Tony -- she made a discovery that pulled him back from the brink of death. When she realized his arc reactor was poisoning him, she reported her findings to S.H.I.E.L.D., who developed a cure for his symptoms (but not the poisoning itself). With some help from Coulson and Natasha, Director Nick Fury was able to pin Tony down long enough for the shellhead to come up with a solution for the poisoning. Cured of his ailment, Tony went on to defeat Anton "Whiplash" Vanko and save hundreds of innocent lives. Even after all that, though, Stark didn't exactly get a glowing assessment and the Avengers Initiative seemed to pass over him, despite S.H.I.E.L.D.'s desire to keep him on as a consultant.

S.H.I.E.L.D. was slightly more antagonistic in Thor, where Fury sent Coulson to investigate Mjolnir's crash landing in New Mexico. For one, Coulson pulled a major dick move and confiscated astrophysicist Jane Foster's research from the night Thor was beamed down to Earth. In spite of their good intentions, S.H.I.E.L.D. also attempted to prevent Thor from reaching his hammer and then detained him. Though Coulson ultimately released Thor, he remained suspicious enough to have a few agents follow the God of Thunder around. This led S.H.I.E.L.D. to be present at Thor's grand reveal, which in turn inspired Coulson to give Jane her research back -- as well as access to S.H.I.E.L.D.'s satellites, as a little something for her trouble.

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Strictly speaking, S.H.I.E.L.D. didn't exist during the time of Captain America: The First Avenger, but its precursor certainly did. The Strategic Scientific Reserve -- known as the S.S.R. -- was directly responsible for the creation of Captain America. Unfortunately, they are also somewhat responsible for the death of Dr. Abraham Erskine, who designed Project Rebirth. Despite all of their safety protocols, a Hydra agent managed to slip through their safeguards, and he assassinated Erskine just as Steve Rodgers emerged from the chamber. With Erskine dead and the formula lost, the S.S.R. was unable to recreate the process that resulted in Captain America, failing its goal to create an army of super soldiers.

At first, the S.S.R. wouldn't even send Captain America into battle, using him only as a figurehead to sell bonds to support the troops. However, when several S.S.R. agents -- including Steve's best friend Bucky Barnes -- were captured by Hydra, Cap took matters into his own hands. With some help from Agent Peggy Carter and scientist Howard Stark, Rodgers then launched a military campaign that brought Hydra to its knees. He also singlehandedly wrested the Tesseract (which we now know as the Space Stone) from Red Skull and put an end to the Hydra leader's reign of terror.

Later on, the S.S.R. became S.H.I.E.L.D., the organization that found Rogers trapped in the ice and resuscitated him. Per S.H.I.E.L.D.'s usual M.O., the organization wasn't exactly straight with him when he woke up, opting to pretend as though he was still in the 40s in order to make the transition easier for him. The deception didn't last long and caused quite the scene when he burst out of his confinement, running right into a crowded Times Square. At that, Fury was forced to reveal the truth.

S.H.I.E.L.D. had perhaps its biggest role in The Avengers, which brought the protagonists of Iron Man, Captain America, Thor and The Incredible Hulk together on screen for the first time. When Loki stole the Tesseract from S.H.I.E.L.D., Fury realized what kind of threat that power posed and kickstarted the Avengers Initiative. However, he was less than forthcoming about S.H.I.E.L.D.'s Tesseract research; he told them they were looking for an unlimited power source, while they were actually building weapons for the eventuality that Earth would be invaded by an alien force. As Tony Stark put it, S.H.I.E.L.D. immediately pursued a "nuclear deterrent" -- and then lied to them about it.

Fortunately for Fury, the proto-Avengers didn't have very long to argue the point, because Loki launched an attack on the helicarrier shortly thereafter. Taken unawares, S.H.I.E.L.D. didn't exactly provide much of a countermeasure. While Fury and his right-hand woman Maria Hill were able to hold their own, the end result left the Avengers scattered -- and Phil Coulson dead. In a rather manipulative move, Fury then used Coulson's death as a tool to unite the team, even going so far as to invent a circumstance to make it seem even more tragic.

For what it's worth, Fury did rail against the World Council when they attempted to nuke New York City. In fact, he did everything in his power to prevent it from happening, even though he couldn't do much with the helicarrier -- and subsequently S.H.I.E.L.D. -- hobbled by Loki's earlier attack.

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While S.H.I.E.L.D. was virtually absent from Iron Man 3 and Thor: The Dark World, the organization took center stage in Captain America: The Winter Solider -- and not in a good way. The Winter Soldier unearthed the fact that Hydra was not only alive and well, but deeply embedded in S.H.I.E.L.D. As Arnim Zola revealed to Rodgers and Romanoff, Hydra scientists were recruited to S.H.I.E.L.D. as a part of Project Paperclip. Zola helped Hydra grow "like a beautiful parasite" within S.H.I.E.L.D. Under S.H.I.E.L.D.'s nose, Hydra incited crises and encouraged wars, aiming to cause enough chaos that humanity would willingly surrender to a new world order.

In order to end Hydra, Captain America also had to destroy S.H.I.E.L.D. Though he successfully stopped Hydra and Project Insight, S.H.I.E.L.D. still had to reckon with the damage it caused over the decades. As unwitting as it may have been, S.H.I.E.L.D. allowed Hydra to operate for years; worse, this may not have been a problem if Project Paperclip had never been enacted. As such, S.H.I.E.L.D. was dissolved.

Ant-Man also revealed another side of S.H.I.E.L.D. In a flashback to 1989, Hank Pym confronted S.H.I.E.L.D. leaders like Peggy Carter, Howard Stark and Mitchell Carson. Carson, of course, was later revealed as a Hydra agent in the film. Prior to that, though, he attempted to steal the Pym particle formula. While Carter and Stark seemed surprised at the news, Stark didn't seem to disagree with the idea that the formula should be accessible to S.H.I.E.L.D. Both circumstances prompted Pym to quit S.H.I.E.L.D. in a rage, despite his years of work for them and the sacrifices he made on his missions.

Although S.H.I.E.L.D. disbanded in The Winter Soldier, pieces of it lived on. For instance, Fury had a spare helicarrier in case of emergency and used it to save the day in Avengers: Age of Ultron; this may even be one of S.H.I.E.L.D.'s finer moments, as it only stepped in to save civilians, not participate in the battle against Ultron. Sharon Carter -- who joined the C.I.A. after S.H.I.E.L.D.'s fall -- also turned up in Captain America: Civil War to help Steve find Bucky. In this capacity, S.H.I.E.L.D. was infinitely more helpful than when it was an official organization.

Finally, Ant-Man and the Wasp showed two very different aspects of S.H.I.E.L.D. For one, it introduced Jimmy Woo, who is a key member of S.H.I.E.L.D. in the comics. In the movie, though, Woo -- now an F.B.I. agent -- was a bit more bumbling and provided comic relief rather than support for Scott Lang. Despite some valiant efforts, Woo just never could catch Scott in the act of violating the terms of his home arrest. Nevertheless, Woo's dedication to his job provided some serious obstacles for Scott, Pym and Hope van Dyne as they desperately tried to free Janet van Dyne from the Quantum Zone. Despite his good intentions, he is positioned as an antagonist, only by virtue of the fact that he had good reason to believe Scott was breaking the law.

On the flip side, Ghost is a direct product of S.H.I.E.L.D.'s actions. Her powers are a result of her father Elihas Starr's attempts to recreate Pym's experiments. Though he died in the resulting explosion, she was given the power to phase through solid objects. However, the process of ripping her molecules apart and stitching them back together caused her great pain and would eventually lead to her death unless a cure was found. Bill Foster promised to heal her and did his best to do so, but to no avail. In the meantime, S.H.I.E.L.D. found a use for her. The organization trained her as an assassin, wielding her painful powers as a weapon. In other words, S.H.I.E.L.D. took advantage of her condition and never found a cure for her before its collapse.

Overall, S.H.I.E.L.D. may have done a bit more harm than good, at least so far as the MCU's films are concerned. In fact, the organization has played an almost antagonistic role in several of the MCU's 20 films. Hopefully, S.H.I.E.L.D. will get shown in a better light during the events of Captain Marvel, which takes place in the 90s and stars characters like Phil Coulson and Nick Fury. As it stands, though, S.H.I.E.L.D. has a lot to atone for.

In theaters now, Ant-Man and The Wasp stars Paul Rudd, Evangeline Lilly, Bobby Cannavale, Michael Peña, Tip “T.I.” Harris, Judy Greer, David Dastmalchian, Michael Douglas, Michelle Pfeiffer, Laurence Fishburne, Hannah John-Kamen, Randall Park and Walton Goggins.