Strangely enough the status of S.H.I.E.L.D. in the Marvel Cinematic Universe remains something of an open question. The chaos surrounding them, both in-world and out, has left them a bit of a redhead stepchild, and with the MCU busy keeping the various balls of Phase 4 in the air, confirming where the fictional government agency stands has been low on the list of priorities. The premiere of Ms. Marvel, however, took a quiet moment to clarify their status, at least a bit.
That’s of particular importance for the new Disney+ show in part because other fictional government agencies are turning their eye toward Kamala Khan. With Damage Control targeting her as a person of interest, the question of S.H.I.E.L.D.’s disposition – and ability to help or hinder the nascent superhero – is a pertinent one. Ms. Marvel, ever helpful, shed some light on the topic.
S.H.I.E.L.D. was a part of the MCU from the beginning as Agent Coulson showed up at Tony Stark’s door during the events of the original Iron Man. Form there, they played a central role in the franchise’s early development, including their compromise by HYDRA during the events of Captain America: The Winter Soldier and quiet reformation as revealed in Avengers: Age of Ultron. From there, however, events get fuzzy. They’re not mentioned in either Avengers: Infinity War or Avengers: Endgame – though Nick Fury and Maria Hill make an appearance at Stark's funeral -- and their status during and after The Blip remains a little wobbly.
Spider-Man: Far From Home saw them providing a little surreptitious help for the Wall Crawler during his European Trip, and Secret Invasion promises more definitive answers, but the main source of information about the organization is Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., which concluded its seven-year run about a year after Endgame was released in theaters. However, that show avoided direct references to The Blip as much as possible, and its final time-loop plot muddied the waters of its place in the MCU timeline. The show’s canon status was also thrown into question – along with Daredevil, Marvel’s Agent Carter and a number of other ostensible MCU shows – as Hawkeye’s reveal that Laura Barton was actually Mockingbird seemed to contradict a major event from the series.
Whatever the specifics, S.H.I.E.L.D. has stayed more or less clear of the action during Phase 4, leaving a number of questions unanswered. Ms. Marvel took an ever-so-brief moment to answer them, or at least confirm that the agency is still a thing. It can be found at AvengersCon, the in-world superhero appreciation convention in Season 1, Episode 1, “Generation Why.” Among the booths is a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it banner advertising something called I Was There… which is easy to overlook in the scene's avalanche of Easter eggs.
The episode doesn’t go into the details beyond that, but Marvel’s official site has a few more canon tidbits on the book. It covers the events of Endgame from the perspective of a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent who was there. That includes the author’s eyewitness account of Stark using the Infinity Gauntlet to destroy Thanos -- with a dash of controversy, since they were apparently a good distance away at the time -- and a subsequent interview with Clint Barton about the events in question.
That’s in keeping with Ms. Marvel’s dedication to the street-level ramifications of giant franchise events, which cram every corner of AvengersCon. It also combines with similar tidbits such as a more prominent biography of Peter Quill for sale at the convention or Scott Lang’s podcast “Big Me, Little Me” as a way of conveying how the MCU’s citizens on the streets know about events they could not possibly have been present for. In this case, it shed a little more light on S.H.I.E.L.D.’s operations, as well as their post-Blip status. Secret Invasion is the most likely project to answer any lingering questions about S.H.I.E.L.D. Until then, Ms. Marvel used one of the subtlest Easter eggs imaginable to give fans an update.
New episodes of Ms. Marvel stream every Wednesday on Disney+.