Captain Marvel: Agent Coulson Even More Important Than We Realized

WARNING: The following article contains spoilers for Captain Marvel, in theaters now.

While he may not be one of Earth's Mightiest Heroes in terms of superpowers, S.H.I.E.L.D. agent Phil Coulson (Clark Gregg) has certainly been an important cog in the machine that got Avengers Initiative rolling in 2008's Iron Man.

Coulson helped assemble the team starting in the first Iron Man film. When he sacrificed himself to Loki in 2012's The Avengers, his death motivated the heroes to re-team and stop the God of Mischief, during which time they also realized the planet needed them on a more permanent basis. However, it wasn't until Captain Marvel that we found out Agent Coulson was more important to the formative years of the Marvel Cinematic Universe than initially thought.

When director Joss Whedon had Loki stab Coulson and "kill" him (he would later be resurrected for Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.), Nick Fury used Coulson's death to rally the Avengers. They saw Coulson as a loyal hero, and they put aside personal differences to save the world from the Chitauri. That was the catalyst that led to their adventures in Avengers: Age of Ultron and so on. But as it turns out, Coulson wasn't just Fury's right-hand man, a soldier with a gun and badge or a Captain America fanboy. He was actually the person who inspired the MCU's first modern Avenger: Brie Larson's Carol Danvers.

This comes to light in a very crucial scene where Fury and Carol infiltrate Project P.E.G.A.S.U.S. to try and track down the Kree scientist Mar-Vell (Annette Bening), who disguised herself as the program's Dr. Wendy Lawson and acted as Carol's mentor. Fury, still suspicious of Carol's intentions, breaks her trust and calls his S.H.I.E.L.D. teammates in, but they've been infiltrated as well by Skrull leader Talos (Ben Mendelsohn). Worse, the Skrull general had transformed himself into Fury's boss and instructed the team to not only abduct Carol, but to kill Fury for going rogue.

As the duo navigate the compound and are on the verge of escaping, they end up held at gunpoint by Coulson, who decides to trust his instincts and let them go. Later on, Fury would wax poetic about Coulson, who had only been on the job for a few months at the time of the incident. Fury talked up the rookie as someone who trusts his gut and breaks the rules when he believes it's the right thing, even when the rest of the world says the opposite (clearly, he and Cap have the same mindset).

NEXT PAGE: The Ramifications of Coulson's Choice

Fury later admitted that Coulson's choice inspired him to not conform to S.H.I.E.L.D.'s modus operandi, and Fury goes on to adopt this philosophy even more when he's promoted to Director. Between his tough decision and Fury's praise, Coulson impresses Carol deeply, so much so she expresses admiration for him and his rebellious nature. It's the antithesis of what the Kree inculcated in her, but she is inspired to do what's right for the greater good, no matter what.

That moment where Coulson went against orders, willing to sacrifice himself for a brother-in-arms and a total stranger, is what sparks Carol to dig deeper. She had been conditioned by the Kree to follow orders as a soldier of the Empire. It is only when she decides to break out of this that she unearths the truth: that the Kree are terrorists exterminating innocent Skrull refugees. And so, she turns on her former comrades, understanding that sometimes you have to push back against your orders and your own people.

This brings Coulson's journey full circle, right back to that moment we saw his blood-spattered Captain America trading cards in The Avengers. It united the Avengers when they fell apart back then, inspiring them to greatness, but clearly, he ignited a fire inside Captain Marvel years before. This allowed her and Fury to embark on an integral partnership and planted the first seeds for the Avengers Initiative.

Directed by Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck from a script they wrote with Liz Flahive, Carly Mensch, Meg LeFauve, Nicole Perlman and Geneva Robertson-Dworet, Captain Marvel stars Brie Larson as Carol Danvers, Samuel L. Jackson as Nick Fury, Jude Law as the commander of Starforce, Clark Gregg as Phil Coulson, Lee Pace as Ronan the Accuser, Djimon Hounsou as Korath the Pursuer, Gemma Chan as Minn-Erva, Ben Mendelsohn as Talos, Lashana Lynch as Maria Rambeau, Algenis Perez Soto as Att-Lass, McKenna Grace as a young Carol Danvers and Annette Bening as the Supreme Intelligence.

CBR

Captain Marvel Makes Agent Coulson Even More Important to the MCU