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| 3 | %%No putting tropes in spoiler titles per Administrivia/HandlingSpoilers. If a trope name is too spoilerific, pothole it in another trope or don't list it at all. |
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| 13 | [[center: [- [[Characters/MarvelCinematicUniverse Main Character Index]] > Heroic Organizations > [[Characters/{{MCUSHIELD}} S.H.I.E.L.D.]] > [[Characters/MCUSHIELDLeadership Leadership]] ([[Characters/MCUNickFury Nick Fury]]) | [[Characters/MCUSHIELDTeamCoulson Team Coulson]] ('''Phil Coulson''' | [[Characters/MCUDaisyJohnson Daisy Johnson]] | [[Characters/MCUMelindaMay Melinda May]] | [[Characters/MCULeopoldFitz Leopold Fitz]] | [[Characters/MCUJemmaSimmons Jemma Simmons]]) | [[Characters/MCUSHIELDStrategicScientificReserve S.S.R.]] ([[Characters/MCUPeggyCarter Peggy Carter]] | [[Characters/MCUHowlingCommandos Howling Commandos]]) | [[Characters/MCUSHIELDOtherAgents Other Agents]] -]]] |
| 14 | ---- |
| 15 | !!{{Spoiler}}s for all works set prior to ''Avengers: Endgame'' are unmarked. |
| 16 | !!''Agent/Director Phil Coulson'' |
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| 18 | %% Captain Marvel image removed per Image Pickin' thread: https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/posts.php?discussion=16888121370.98235000 |
| 19 | %% Please don't change or remove image without starting a new thread. |
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| 21 | [[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/9ca8020b_4ced_4a22_a817_9c4e5addae12.jpeg]] |
| 22 | [[caption-width-right:300:''"This isn't my first rodeo, Mr. Stark."'']] |
| 23 | %% |
| 24 | !!!'''Birth Name:''' Phillip J. Coulson |
| 25 | !!!'''Species:''' Enhanced human |
| 26 | !!!'''Citizenship:''' American |
| 27 | !!!'''Affiliation(s):''' S.H.I.E.L.D. (formerly), ATCU (formerly) |
| 28 | !!!'''Portrayed By:''' Creator/ClarkGregg |
| 29 | !!!'''Voiced By:''' Creator/RicardoTejedo [main movies and ''Series/AgentsOfSHIELD'', Disney dub], Creator/MarioCastaneda [''Series/AgentsOfSHIELD'', Sony dub] (Latin-American Spanish dub); Alberto Mieza [main movies], Paco Vaquero [''Series/AgentsOfSHIELD''] (European Spanish), Jean-Pol Brissart (European French dub), François Godin (Canadian French dub), Ronaldo Júlio (Brazilian Portuguese dub), Till Hagen (German Dub) |
| 30 | !!!'''Appearances:''' ''Film/IronMan1'' | ''Film/IronMan2'' | ''Film/CaptainAmericaTheFirstAvenger''[[note]]Archive footage from ''The Avengers'' in TheStinger[[/note]] | ''Film/TheConsultant'' | ''Film/AFunnyThingHappenedOnTheWayToThorsHammer'' | ''Film/{{Thor}}'' | ''Film/{{The Avengers|2012}}'' | ''Series/AgentsOfSHIELD'' | ''WebVideo/AgentsOfSHIELDSlingshot'' | ''Film/{{Captain Marvel|2019}}'' | ''Series/{{Loki|2021}}'' [[note]]Archive footage from ''The Avengers''[[/note]] |
| 31 | |
| 32 | ->''"With everything that's happening, the things that are about to come to light, people might just need a little old-fashioned."'' |
| 33 | |
| 34 | An agent of S.H.I.E.L.D., and Nick Fury's right-hand-man. He was first introduced trying to debrief Stark of his captivity by the Ten Rings, and later assisting him in pursuing the Iron Monger and curing his poisoning. Sometime later, he was assigned with excavating {{Mjolnir}}, and bumped heads with Thor and his new human companions. Those efforts paid off in recruiting the Norse god to the Avengers, and once assembled he remained a major figure in escorting the heroes. |
| 35 | |
| 36 | During the events of Loki's raid on the Helicarrier, Coulson was mortally wounded by Loki in an attempt to attack him. He was reported as dead to the Avengers and most of S.H.I.E.L.D., who promised to honor his memory and stop Loki for him. However, only those Level 7 and above knew what really happened to Coulson, and soon after these events, he was given a new job in assembling a team to investigate strange events and rogue supers around the world. |
| 37 | |
| 38 | After the events of ''Film/CaptainAmericaTheWinterSoldier'' and ''Series/AgentsOfSHIELD'''s first season he steps up to become the new Director of S.H.I.E.L.D., tasked with rebuilding the agency after the internal HYDRA threat tore it apart. |
| 39 | ---- |
| 40 | [[foldercontrol]] |
| 41 | |
| 42 | [[folder:A-C]] |
| 43 | * AccidentalMisnaming: In season 3, Skye starts going by her birth name, Daisy, but he keeps forgetting. |
| 44 | -->'''Coulson:''' Hard to get used to, huh?\ |
| 45 | '''Hunter:''' No.\ |
| 46 | '''Mack:''' No, just you. |
| 47 | * ActionSurvivor: Agent Coulson seems like an average government agent with no outstanding abilities shown so far beyond basic {{Badass Normal}}cy, yet he's managed to survive attacks from both [[Film/IronMan1 Iron Monger]] and [[Film/{{Thor}} The Destroyer]] practically unscathed. Also, [[IKnowKarate he knows kung fu]]. |
| 48 | * AffectionateNickname: |
| 49 | ** Fury calls him "my one good eye" when lamenting his death. |
| 50 | ** Thor and other Asgardians also call him "Son of Coul". |
| 51 | * AlmightyJanitor: By Season 4, he's somewhere between this and an unofficial TheConsigliere to Director Jeffrey Mace. Having stepped down from the Directorship back to field agent work, he is far more capable than his chosen rank. At the same time, he is automatically the new Director's go-to guy for advice and under-the-table operations. |
| 52 | * AlternateSelf: Coulson has four other versions of himself within his own universe and two outside of it. |
| 53 | * AmbiguouslyBi: Coulson mentions having a cellist girlfriend in ''Film/TheAvengers2012'' and has several female romantic interests in ''Series/AgentsOfSHIELD'', including Melinda May. However, Coulson's fanboying for Steve, which had undertones of a CelebCrush in ''The Avengers'' to begin with, goes beyond undertones when ''WesternAnimation/WhatIf2021'' reveals that his password is [[spoiler:[=#SteveSteveSteveIHeartSteve0704=]]]. He also describes [[EvenTheGuysWantHim Thor]] as "gorgeous" and engages in some PervertedSniffing around [[spoiler:Thor's corpse after he is killed]]. |
| 54 | * AmputationStopsSpread: In the season 2 finale, he makes what he presumes will be a HeroicSacrifice, grabbing a tainted Terrigen Crystal before it can shatter and disperse its deadly mist across the ship. Mack promptly hacks off his petrified hand before the corruption can spread further and leave Coulson TakenForGranite. |
| 55 | * ArcWords: Whenever his recovery in Tahiti comes up he says, "It's a magical place." This was implied to be connected to the DarkSecret related to his resurrection. After finding out the truth behind "Tahiti", when Agent Sitwell asks how Tahiti was, he simply says, "It sucked." Afterwards, he doesn't say anything about Tahiti when it's brought up. At the end of Season 5, he retires to the real Tahiti, and upon seeing it he admits that it's actually a pretty magical place after all. |
| 56 | * ArtificialLimbs: After losing his left hand, he gets a cybernetic replacement, which continues to receive upgrades as the show keeps going. |
| 57 | * ArtisticLicensePhysics: His mechanical hand is used in impossible ways throughout Season 3. Attached where it is (below the elbow), the most it should be able to do is give him a strong grip, but it has been shown to allow him to lift a full-grown man by the neck with just the one hand, punch chunks out a brick wall, and effortlessly crush Ward's chest. All of these feats would require additional mechanical strength from the elbow and/or shoulder, which the hand does not provide. |
| 58 | * AscendedExtra: Originally an MCU-only side character, possibly for comic relief. Creator/ClarkGregg took the role mostly as a favor to Jon Favreau, but the character proved to be popular[[note]]and Gregg found that he enjoyed playing Coulson so much that he is the only actor to portray the character in all media bar the comics and ''VideoGame/SuperHeroSquadOnline''[[/note]] that Coulson became an [[CanonImmigrant official part]] of [[Franchise/MarvelUniverse the comics]], [[WesternAnimation/UltimateSpiderMan2012 Peter Parker's principal]], and the lead character in a TV serial in the MCU, to Fury's successor as Director of S.H.I.E.L.D., and in Fury's opinion, one of the Avengers in his own right. |
| 59 | * AscendedFanboy: From a devoted S.H.I.E.L.D. agent and a fan of Fury and Rogers to Fury's successor! |
| 60 | * AscendedMeme: "Coulson Lives" is sometimes seen hidden in episodes of the Creator/StanLee-sponsored ''WebAnimation/BadDays'' cartoon, then Coulson himself does in Episode 12. Then when ''Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.'''s teaser was revealed, Marvel announced by tweeting said slogan would unlock a longer trailer. |
| 61 | * BadassAdorable: There's a huge contrast between how much of a badass Coulson is and how NICE and lovable his personality is. |
| 62 | * BadassBoast: |
| 63 | ** When meeting [[SoftSpokenSadist Raina]], she, [[BitchInSheepsClothing rather deceivingly politely]], states that she hasn't had the pleasure of meeting him. His response? "Lucky for you." |
| 64 | ** Later, his response when Malick tells him that Hive is a god: |
| 65 | --->'''Coulson:''' I've met gods. Gods bleed. |
| 66 | * BadassInANiceSuit: The man can dress as well as he can kick ass when needed. His closet on the bus is nothing but dark suits and dress shirts. |
| 67 | * BackFromTheDead: In "The Magical Place" it's revealed he wasn't dead for eight seconds, he was dead for ''days'', but Director Nick Fury did everything possible, no matter how ethically abhorrent, to bring him back. |
| 68 | * BattleCouple: He and Melinda May fell in love while protecting the world from terrorists, aliens, robots, and interdimensional beings. |
| 69 | * BecameTheirOwnAntithesis: He is initially ''very'' opposed to how Fury runs things, but after becoming the director, he ends up on the same road, even outright saying that he will cross lines his predecessor was ''not'' willing to cross after Ward shoots Rosalind. |
| 70 | * BerserkButton: |
| 71 | ** Don't ever betray Coulson's trust. ''Ever''. Whereas Skye, who had simply hidden something from him, got off with a scolding and having to wear an electronic bracelet for the next six episodes, he points a gun at May and breaks off their friendship after finding out she was reporting on him to someone (who turned out to be [[BigGood Director Fury]], but he was still hurt by the revelation that May would report on him to anyone). They later make up and Coulson forgives her for spying on him. |
| 72 | ** When Ward is finally in custody, after receiving a well deserved beat down from May, Coulson seems pleased that Melinda may have broken his larynx and flat out tells him that he's going to '''invent''' new ways of ruining the young man's life. |
| 73 | ** Don't jeopardize your own well-being. He explodes at Ward and Simmons in "FZZT" for jumping out of the cargo bay in midair. He considers especially Simmons to be irreplaceable. |
| 74 | ** "Don't touch Lola!" (his flying car) |
| 75 | * BewareTheNiceOnes: |
| 76 | ** On the surface, he's a pleasant man overall, but he's not called Fury's "one good eye" for no reason. Heaven help you if you betray him. |
| 77 | --->'''Coulson:''' You have a secret, Skye, and one chance to come out with it--that's now!--or I'm done with you. |
| 78 | ** Coulson's confrontation with Skye is ''nothing'' compared to when he finds out May is acting as a mole for Fury, to keep tabs on him if he CameBackWrong. He's angry enough to point a gun, not an [=ICER=], at her (although at the time he thought she was working for the Clairvoyant). Afterwards, he breaks off their friendship (though they make up not long after). |
| 79 | ** May got off easy compared to Ward; spying for Director Fury is ''nothing'' compared to being a mole for HYDRA. |
| 80 | ** His plan to take down HYDRA in Season Two is both ingenious and ruthless: use a high-ranking HYDRA agent that they captured as a pawn by convincing him that there's a faction of the organization that is plotting against each the rest. This convinces HYDRA leadership to kill each other to prevent a coup, so S.H.I.E.L.D. and the Army can take down the leaderless grunts with ease. |
| 81 | * BigBand: Of course the man who idolizes Captain America loves the music of his era, at least if the music playing in ''A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to Thor's Hammer'' is anything to go by. |
| 82 | * {{BFG}}: |
| 83 | ** He loves these. He uses one (a prototype reverse engineered from [[Film/{{Thor}} the Destroyer]]) in ''The Avengers'' and several times in ''Ultimate Spider-Man''. |
| 84 | --->'''Coulson:''' ''[points a prototype gun at Loki]'' Even I don't know what it does. ''[activates it]'' Do you wanna find out? |
| 85 | ** The Destroyer gun makes a return in "Beginning of the End". |
| 86 | --->'''Coulson:''' ''[activates gun]'' I know what it does. |
| 87 | * BigGood: His position as Director of S.H.I.E.L.D. marks him as this through seasons 2 and 3. |
| 88 | * BreakoutCharacter: He started out as a random suit, but around ''Iron Man 2'' and ''Thor'', his current characterization began to emerge. Once his popularity reached its peak in ''The Avengers'', he then received his own show. To top it all off, he has been promoted to the position of BigGood in that show as S.H.I.E.L.D.'s director. Coulson far and away has the greatest amount of screentime of any character in the setting due to being the focus of ''Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.'' and for having some significant roles in the films themselves. |
| 89 | * BreakTheCutie: Coulson's faith in S.H.I.E.L.D. is tested '''repeatedly''' throughout the series: the truth and circumstances about his resurrection are kept hidden from him by both his superiors and his close friend. S.H.I.E.L.D. itself no longer exists due to HYDRA's infiltration. However that faith is ultimately rewarded as Fury picks him to be the new Director of S.H.I.E.L.D. and to rebuild it. |
| 90 | * ButForMeItWasTuesday: A rare heroic example from Coulson towards Anton Ivanov. |
| 91 | -->'''Coulson:''' All of these things you've done, all of the energy spent, the hatred, and you know what the funny thing about it is? I have no idea who the hell you are. I've been on hundreds of missions in my time. This one you're so upset about... I was sent to retrieve an object. If I'm being honest, I don't even remember what it was! As far as I'm concerned, you're just another redshirt like so many others who tried unsuccessfully to stop me from saving the world. 'Cause that's what I do. So... cool origin story, bro, but this means nothing to me. |
| 92 | * CameBackWrong: His revival is implied to have missed or changed some things, such as finding his muscle memory doesn't quite work the same when he can't field-strip a pistol. May assures him it's just ResurrectionSickness. "The Magical Place" reveals that he was dead for days and required extensive surgery and memory manipulation to get him back to normal, which apparently missed a few spots. Furthermore, the GH serum used to bring him back, distilled from an alien's blood, had severe psychological side-effects which Coulson seems to have mostly avoided, though the stinger to "Beginning of the End" shows him writing out alien script on a wall, something that envelops into a full-blown story arc during the first third of the next season to the point where there are reminders from time to time that Coulson made May promise to terminate him if it turns out he came back wronger than he thought. Thankfully, it stops when he catches sight of a 3D model, in the form of a model railroad, resembling the alien script he'd been writing out on what Skye had taken to calling the "crazy wall". |
| 93 | * CanonImmigrant: |
| 94 | ** Finally made his debut to the main Franchise/MarvelUniverse on the miniseries ''Battle Scars''. He isn't revealed as Coulson until issue #6. He later shows up in the ComicBook/{{Deadpool}} ongoing series and his TV team is now going to get their own title within the main Franchise/MarvelUniverse. |
| 95 | ** He's also Peter Parker's school principal in ''[[WesternAnimation/UltimateSpiderMan2012 Ultimate Spider-Man]]'', voiced by Gregg. |
| 96 | ** He's a full-fledged NPC in ''VideoGame/MarvelAvengersAlliance'' as of Season 2. |
| 97 | ** In addition to being Fury's go-to guy, he's the voice of MissionControl (read: hints on how to not die) in ''VideoGame/LegoMarvelSuperHeroes'' (again voiced by Gregg), and is an unlockable character. |
| 98 | ** He's an unlockable team-up and a interactable NPC in Hell's Kitchen in VideoGame/MarvelHeroes, once again voiced by Clark Gregg. He's ''very'' protective of the character. |
| 99 | * TheChainsOfCommanding: When he becomes the new director of S.H.I.E.L.D. he's the one to make the tough decisions regarding saving the importance of the mission of the safety of his people. Because he's TheSpyMaster he has to keep people LockedOutOfTheLoop since there is some stuff they don't need to know for security reasons. |
| 100 | * CharacterCatchphrase: Sometimes reminds others that S.H.I.E.L.D. is "the good guys" when they're called out on their questionable tactics, or similar methods to the bad guys. |
| 101 | * CharacterDeath: Twice! |
| 102 | ** The first was in ''The Avengers'' where Loki, stabbed him. Fury brought him back though. |
| 103 | ** The second is near the end of ''Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.'' Season 5. Coulson's deal with the Ghost Rider cost him the Kree blood in his system which was keeping him alive, meaning his days are numbered. The team is aghast at this, and tries to come up with ways to save him; Coulson however is perfectly content with his fate, believing he was living on borrowed time anyway. Coulson leaves the team to spend his remaining time with May in Tahiti. |
| 104 | * CharacterTics: |
| 105 | ** Whenever Coulson is talking, he has a tendency to keep his [[BadassArmfold arms folded]]. Sometimes even when he isn't talking. |
| 106 | ** When anyone mentions "Tahiti", he automatically responds, "It's a magical place." As of "Yes Men", he's broken that compulsion. |
| 107 | * TheChessmaster: |
| 108 | ** Rewatch ''Iron Man 2'', ''Thor'', and the shorts starring him. It becomes apparent that he knows exactly how people are going to react, but feigns ignorance to confirm it and make them think they had a choice. Nick Fury is the same, but Coulson augments it by managing to seem remarkably inoffensive to those who don't know any better. |
| 109 | ** In "0-8-4", he was able to pin down that Reyes was gonna turn on them and used that to motivate the team into working together. He also may know about Skye being TheMole for the Rising Tide, when Fury asked him whether Skye could be trusted in TheStinger. |
| 110 | ** He reaches entire new heights in "Aftershocks", killing ''the entire remaining leadership of HYDRA'' in just a few hours, thanks to playing Bakshi like a champ. |
| 111 | * CloudcuckoolandersMinder: Though he was joking when he said it, "Super Nanny" is an apt description of his relationship with the Avengers, or at least with Tony Stark. |
| 112 | * CollectorOfTheStrange: Coulson has acquired a vast collection of Captain America memorabilia and classic spy gear. The trading cards are the most well known. |
| 113 | * TheComicallySerious: He's quite snarky and sarcastic, but you'd ''never'' pick up on that from his demeanor. |
| 114 | * CoolCar: He gets one [[ICallItVera named "Lola"]] in ''Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.'' Don't touch her. It's revealed to be capable of flight by the end of the first episode and later on it's revealed to have a pair of machine guns hidden behind the headlights. |
| 115 | * CoolShades: Wears sunglasses while on ops. According to "The Man Behind the Shield", May suggested it because his eyes tend to dart when he lies. |
| 116 | [[/folder]] |
| 117 | |
| 118 | [[folder:D-K]] |
| 119 | * DealWithTheDevil: Did one with Ghost Rider in the ''Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.'' Season 4 finale in order to kill Aida. Turns out it cost him the Kree blood that kept him alive... |
| 120 | * DeathFakedForYou: According to Coulson, Fury faked his death on board the Helicarrier to help motivate the Avengers. Coulson claims that he "died" for forty seconds; Hill corrects him to eight, but mentions that he keeps extending the time each time he re-tells it. The truth is that he really was dead and it was for ''days'' but Director Fury "moved heaven and earth" to revive him. |
| 121 | * DecoyProtagonist: Going by promos, synopsis, and posters for the show, not to mention the way it was advertised, it would appear he's the lead character of ''Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.'' However, once the show starts we're introduced to Skye/Daisy, and the two share about as much importance to the plot, until Coulson's character arc is resolved and he's no longer tied to the show's myth arc. Though still important to the show, Coulson is more a mentor to the cast, while most of the plot focus is on Daisy. |
| 122 | * DefiantToTheEnd: |
| 123 | ** Even when mortally wounded by Loki, [[LastBreathBullet Coulson refuses to let the son of a Frost Giant talk him down]]. |
| 124 | --->'''Coulson:''' ''[BOOM]'' ...so that's what it does. |
| 125 | ** He still has this in the series, as shown when The Clairvoyant has him facing down a firing squad and is trying to recruit him. |
| 126 | --->'''Coulson:''' I would die before serving HYDRA, you sick son of a bitch. |
| 127 | * DespairEventHorizon: What had really happened to him after he died; he lost the will to live. It took that memory of Tahiti to pull him back. |
| 128 | * DiesWideOpen: In ''The Avengers'', he succumbs to his wounds with his eyes still open. |
| 129 | * DisneyDeath: Twice! |
| 130 | ** While seemingly killed by Loki, the knowledge that he survived was kept secret to all but Level 7 and higher agents. |
| 131 | ** In “Inside Voices”, his heart seems to stop following a single gunshot, but Creel manages to apply an electric solution to that. |
| 132 | * DontExplainTheJoke: It seems Coulson likes hanging lampshades on his jokes. In the pilot, he makes a dramatic statement while stepping out of the shadows, then apologizes for it and says he thinks a bulb's burned out (which ended up making up for his surviving his fateful encounter with Loki being spoiled before the series was even broadcast). In episode 8, he puns on the fact that they have to dig for an artifact, then ''immediately'' points it out. |
| 133 | -->'''Coulson:''' See what I did there? |
| 134 | * DonutMessWithACop: In ''A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to Thor's Hammer'', when he stops for gas, he heads inside for some donuts. He can't choose between powdered or chocolate frosted, so he ends up buying both. |
| 135 | * DorkKnight: He's what happens if your stuffy and uptight math teacher decides to go out and become a secret agent. "[[Recap/AgentsOfSHIELDS1E18Providence Providence]]" establishes that he's a gamer, and according to Hunter, he hogs the mic on karaoke night. |
| 136 | * EmpoweredBadassNormal: Coulson, already a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent, briefly becomes the Ghost Rider by making a deal with the Spirit of Vengeance and manages to absolutely obliterate Aida with the powers that come with it. |
| 137 | * EndearinglyDorky: On the job, deadpan and stoic. Off the job, a goofy teddy bear of a man who collects superhero trading cards and squees over antique spy gear. |
| 138 | * EstablishingCharacterMoment: |
| 139 | ** In ''Film/IronMan1'', we don't see much of him in the first few scenes he pops up, but he's very polite about setting up an appointment with Stark and Pepper. Later on, when Pepper hurriedly brings him along to arrest Stane, he stands very cool and collected while deploying a secret agent gadget (OK, a bomb) to break the door lock. |
| 140 | ** In case you missed that, his first appearance in ''Film/IronMan2'' is warning Stark that if he tries to leave that he'll "taze [him] and watch ''Series/{{Supernanny}}''" while Stark drools into the carpet. |
| 141 | ** In case you missed ''that'', in ''Film/{{Thor}}'', he hands Jane Foster's crew a blank check while taking her notes. |
| 142 | ** The above examples demonstrate his ''personality''. In ''Film/AFunnyThingHappenedOnTheWayToThorsHammer'', we see [[OneManArmy the true extent of his physical abilities]], which established in the ''Franchise/MarvelCinematicUniverse'' that [[BadassNormal S.H.I.E.L.D. agents are effectively superheroes in their own right]]. |
| 143 | ** In the unlikely event that viewers missed ''The Avengers'', his first scene in ''Agents'' is him EmergingFromTheShadows, saying something dramatic[[note]]"Welcome to Level 7"; ItMakesSenseInContext[[/note]], and then saying that the corner he just left was really dark and saying that he couldn't help himself. It probably needs a new bulb. |
| 144 | * TheEveryman: Despite Coulson being called "the most recognizable face in the Marvel Cinematic Universe", he is depicted as an "Everyman" in a universe full of superheroes -- "the glue that binds" the characters together. In ''Film/{{Thor}}'', Coulson complains that Tony Stark "never tells [him] anything." In an interview with WNBC, Gregg explained his portrayal of the character as "just a guy grumbling about his job." |
| 145 | -->'''Clark Gregg:''' He's the guy who's tasked -- a very disciplined guy in my opinion who possesses secrets that would turn your hair white -- but at the same time he's tasked with handling these kind of diva superheroes, you know? Oh, really, Asgard? Dude, just get in the car. |
| 146 | * {{Fanboy}}: Of ComicBook/CaptainAmerica. He even has the trading cards. Also, [[ThatCameOutWrong he watched Rogers while he was sleeping]]... we-we mean, he was... he was present, while [[HumanPopsicle Rogers was unconscious... from the... ice]]. |
| 147 | * AFatherToHisMen: Coulson cares a great deal for his team and would do anything to protect them, even if it means going into the field alongside them. Skye in particular seems to look to him as a ParentalSubstitute. |
| 148 | * FearlessFool: |
| 149 | ** It takes a particularly special kind of badass to go up against an Asgardian single-handedly, even if he is wielding an experimental weapon based on alien technology. |
| 150 | ** He does it again on ''Series/AgentsOfSHIELD'' by attempting to take on Garrett and a group of Centipede-fueled soldiers on his own. It doesn't go so well, but he gets back up and tries again. |
| 151 | * FingerFirearms: He claims to have a laser finger in his artificial hand. Is this the truth or a bluff? Sorry, that's classified. |
| 152 | * FlatWhat: In "Nothing Personal", after finding out he was responsible for Project T.A.H.I.T.I. all along. |
| 153 | * {{Foil}}: To Jasper Sitwell. Both of them are high-ranking agents of S.H.I.E.L.D who tend to work together on assignments discovering and observing potential candidates for the Avengers Initiative. However, while Coulson is a legitimately nice guy [[IncorruptiblePurePureness who is wholeheartedly loyal to S.H.I.E.L.D and its cause]], Jasper is secretly a BitchInSheepsClothing who had been serving HYDRA for most of his life. And while Sitwell's death by the Winter Soldier's hands is barely even an afterthought for the heroes involved, Loki's murder of Phil was the lynchpin for getting the Avengers to finally assemble and defeat the God of Mischief. |
| 154 | * GoodIsNotSoft: |
| 155 | ** Coulson is one of the friendliest characters in the [[Franchise/MarvelCinematicUniverse MCU]], but there is a stone-cold ruthlessness hiding behind his grin. Whereas Whitehall and The Doctor crack the normally unflappable Raina with threats of violence, Coulson can have her tearfully begging for her life by just staring at her. |
| 156 | ** Coulson tells Bobbi Morse that he believes S.H.I.E.L.D. exists to protect the innocent and that potential threats should kept out of everyone's hands and not stored away to be studied and turned even more dangerous. He also adamantly states that he doesn't believe in acceptable losses. Yet later, when Mack becomes seemingly possessed and non-lethal approaches prove useless, Coulson unhesitatingly orders lethal action be taken and that Mack be sealed away. |
| 157 | * GoodIsOldFashioned: |
| 158 | ** This is exactly what Coulson believes that the world needs right now in ''Avengers''. The TV series continues this theme, with Coulson commenting to Reyes that "with the world changing so fast around us, we need some anchors to the past". The room they're talking in is filled with such things as a first-edition walkie-talkie wristwatch in perfect working order. |
| 159 | ** His belief seems to be proven in the field when the team uses Trips' grandfather's Howling Commando spy gadgets to assist them in taking down Centipede to great effect against vastly superior tech. |
| 160 | * GoodScarsEvilScars: |
| 161 | ** Has a vertical scar on his chest from when [[Film/TheAvengers2012 Loki stabbed him through the chest.]] |
| 162 | ** As of the second-season finale of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., Phil can add... er, subtract, his left hand, thanks to quick thinking from Mack saving Coulson from petrifying due to exposure to Diviner metal. |
| 163 | * GuileHero: Coulson is incredibly adept at throwing opponents off-kilter with his deadpan affability. If it wasn't for the fact that he is a truly friendly person who tries to see the best in everyone, he'd be a ManipulativeBastard on par with Nick Fury. He got his main introduction in ''Film/{{Thor}}'' and that really showcased this, with him letting people ''think'' they've gotten away with things, so he could observe them from a distance and respond accordingly. |
| 164 | * HairTodayGoneTomorrow: The receding hairline he has in the present is replaced with NinetiesHair in ''Film/{{Captain Marvel|2019}}''. |
| 165 | * HasAType: Seems to have a thing for {{Hunk}}y [[EveryoneLovesBlondes blonde men]], going by his expressing what seems like open attraction for both Thor and Steve in ''WesternAnimation/WhatIf2021''. However, given his LoveInterest in the series, it looks like his real type is heartbroken heroes that save the day. |
| 166 | * TheHeart: |
| 167 | ** Fury considers him to be this to S.H.I.E.L.D., calling him his "one good eye." Fury later states this verbatim in the episode "The Beginning of the End". |
| 168 | ** Also functions as this to his team of S.H.I.E.L.D. agents. Compared to Melinda May and Grant Ward, he tends to be more compassionate and favors nonlethal solutions to the problems they face whenever possible. Although Skye seems to be edging toward this role as well. |
| 169 | ** The "Building a Universe" documentary confirms that he's deliberately set up to be this for the Avengers. |
| 170 | * HeartbrokenBadass: While he's hidden it very well, it's revealed in "The Magical Place" that the loss of his relationship with his cellist girlfriend post-''Avengers'' hit him pretty hard. You can see it practically kills him to be near Audrey and not be able to tell her he's alive. |
| 171 | * HeroAntagonist: In ''Thor'', he leads the S.H.I.E.L.D. group trying to investigate {{Mjolnir}}. To keep it hidden from outsiders, he screws over Jane Foster, Darcy Lewis, and Eric Selvig in all ways possible. Thankfully once Thor gets his powers back, Coulson acknowledges both him and S.H.I.E.L.D. are fighting the same cause, or, as a PragmaticHero, he recognizes there's really no way he or his team could stop Thor from doing whatever the hell he wanted. |
| 172 | -->'''Coulson:''' ''[confiscating Jane Foster's stuff]'' Sorry, ma'am, [[CharacterCatchphrase we're the good guys]]! |
| 173 | * HeroicSacrifice: |
| 174 | ** Coulson's choice in facing Loki alone could be interpreted as one, especially given the fact that he thought his death would get the Avengers to stop bickering with one another to avenge him, as it were. |
| 175 | ** At the end of Season 2 of ''Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.'', he grabs a falling Terrigen crystal so it won't explode and kill everyone, a death sentence for a non-Inhuman. Luckily, a quick-thinking Mack cuts off his hand before the petrification can spread. |
| 176 | ** Allowing Ghost Rider to possess him in order to destroy Aida is revealed to have been one in Season 5 as this resulted in the Kree Blood keeping him alive being burned out of his body and [[SecretlyDying slowly killing him]]. He makes another sacrifice at the end of the season by giving Daisy the Centipede Serum, the only thing that can replace the Kree Blood, in order to give her enough power to kill Graviton and save the world. |
| 177 | * HerosClassicCar: Coulson has a '62 Corvette that he calls Lola. It was a beat-up old clunker that his dad had been working on and kept dragging him in to work on it. Now he keeps it with him and has it modified to fly. |
| 178 | * HeWhoFightsMonsters: Throughout the first half of Season 3, he becomes dangerously similar to Grant Ward in his pursuit of vengeance against Ward. This is even why Coulson feels that Ward won their FinalBattle as he went against what S.H.I.E.L.D. stands for. |
| 179 | * IDidWhatIHadToDo: Adopts this moral from Fury more and more as the series progresses, much to the shock and frustration of his team. |
| 180 | * ImprovisedWeapon: We get our first glimpse of Coulson's physical abilities in ''[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BRi0Y59sJDs A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to Thor's Hammer]]'', when he takes care of two armed robbers with only a bag of flour and martial arts. All because he couldn't decide on chocolate or powdered doughnuts. |
| 181 | * InSeriesNickname: |
| 182 | ** Skye calls him "A.C." because it's "cooler" than "Agent Coulson". |
| 183 | ** Asgardians tend to have trouble with his name, assuming it means "Son of Coul", which, to be fair, ''is'' the literal meaning of the name Coulson, though Midgardian naming conventions make it quite possible that there hasn't been a Coul in his ancestry for quite some time. |
| 184 | *** Assuming he introduced himself to them as "Agent Coulson", [[HilariousInHindsight they would presumably believe that]] [[Film/IronMan his first name is "Agent".]] |
| 185 | * InTheBack: Courtesy of Loki and his scepter in the Hulk cell room. |
| 186 | * {{Irony}}: He was the agent in charge for Project T.A.H.I.T.I., as revealed in "Nothing Personal". However, he was so horrified at the side effects of the procedure, he threatened to quit if it wasn't shut down. After his death, Director Fury subjected him to Project T.A.H.I.T.I., complete with the memory alteration process. |
| 187 | * ItsPersonal: |
| 188 | ** When Akela is found committing crimes, he goes after her himself because she was his apprentice. |
| 189 | ** When he hears that someone's popping off T.A.H.I.T.I. patients, he decides he has to get to the only other one of the first six remaining before the T.A.H.I.T.I. killer does because he was the project's director. To do this he locks up Skye in his place to keep her from interfering. |
| 190 | ** After Ward murders Rosalind Price, he declares himself perfectly willing to cross lines not even Fury crossed if that's what it takes to destroy him once and for all. |
| 191 | ** Coulson tries to avert this while searching for Holden Radcliffe after he kidnaps May, if only because she would hate it. However, it's well-established that hurting his teammates (particularly May) tends to make things very personal for Coulson. |
| 192 | * InsistentTerminology: He has the most trouble with Daisy's name change in Season 3, still calling her "Skye" in the first few episodes. It mostly drops after that, but he occasionally calls her "Skye" in high-stress situations. |
| 193 | * KilledOffScreen: He passes away between Season 5 and Season 6. |
| 194 | * TheKnightsWhoSaySquee: |
| 195 | ** He's very fond of Captain America. He's got the trading cards, plus he designed Cap's modern-day outfit. |
| 196 | ** He has a love of classic spy gear. When Tripplet shows off his collection of his grandfather's Howling Commandos gear, Coulson goes full fanboy on the spot. |
| 197 | ** In "Emancipation", he tells May that along with Cap, Peggy Carter was one of his childhood heroes. In the first episode of ''WebVideo/AgentsOfSHIELDSlingshot'', he reveals that he had a special S.H.I.E.L.D. pin that Peggy Carter was given after the foundation of S.H.I.E.L.D.. |
| 198 | [[/folder]] |
| 199 | |
| 200 | [[folder:L-Y]] |
| 201 | * LastNameBasis: In ''The Avengers'', Tony Stark snarks that Coulson's first name is "Agent", as opposed to "Phil", but after the agent's mortal wounding, Tony has a change of heart and when [[BadassBoast boasting to Loki]] about the various Avengers who are going to be coming for him, he finishes by referring to him by his first name. |
| 202 | -->'''Tony:''' There's someone else you pissed off. [repulsor blast] [[HeHadAName His name was Phil.]] |
| 203 | * TheLeader: |
| 204 | ** He's in charge of TheTeam, and for all that he's a very nice, very good man, he never forgets his position. After S.H.I.E.L.D. goes defunct in "Turn, Turn, Turn" Simmons points out that he's technically no longer in charge and things go more democratic. However, the team still follows him into the middle of nowhere. |
| 205 | ** As of the season one finale, the new Director of S.H.I.E.L.D., officially his team and Agent Billy Koenig. He has expanded it quite a bit by the start of the second season. |
| 206 | ** Even after he steps down from the directorship, Mace is constantly going to him for advice and he is usually looked to as the de facto leader, such as just after arriving in the BadFuture, when Daisy immediately looks to Coulson to resolve a disagreement about their plan of action. |
| 207 | * LimitedWardrobe: He's almost never seen wearing anything other than a collection of dark suits. One episode has him choosing between two different shades of gray. The first episode of Season 3 show that he does in fact own other types of clothes. |
| 208 | * LivingLegend: Not as instantly recognised as May or Fitz-Simmons, perhaps, but it's clear that since the Battle of New York ''everyone'' in S.H.I.E.L.D. knows his name and what he did. (Though not many of the rank-and-file know he's still fulfilling the "living" part of the trope.) See MemeticBadass, below. |
| 209 | * LockedOutOfTheLoop: |
| 210 | ** Despite believing he didn't die in ''The Avengers'' and just faked his death to motivate the team, it appears there's more to it than that. Maria Hill cryptically says to Dr. Streiten that Coulson can't ever find out the truth. During "A Magical Place", Coulson confronts him and the truth is... he's still a human being. He had simply lost the will to live during the procedure to bring him back to life, so they had to put that memory of Tahiti in his brain. |
| 211 | ** Inverted for another instance of the trope in "Providence": Agent Koenig reveals to Coulson that Nick Fury's alive, but to keep it to himself, hence making Coulson the only member of his team in the loop. |
| 212 | ** As of season 2 it's his job as Director of S.H.I.E.L.D. to lock everyone else out of the loop. Like Fury said, no-one is supposed to know everything, except the guy in charge. |
| 213 | ** Unknown to him, there's another S.H.I.E.L.D. out there -- it considers itself to be the ''real'' S.H.I.E.L.D. Bobbi and Mack have been acting as double agents for them the entire season with the end game of acquiring Fury's Toolbox. And they've taken great pains to keep their secret from Coulson to the point of kidnapping Hunter when he realizes what's going on. |
| 214 | * LuckilyMyShieldWillProtectMe: The latest model of Coulson's prosthetic hand is able to project an energy shield strong enough to withstand an explosion, with an appearance not unlike Captain America's own shield. He thought it [[RuleOfCool would be cool]] if the Director of S.H.I.E.L.D. used an actual shield of their own. |
| 215 | * MaybeMagicMaybeMundane: The first season of ''Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.'' does a lot of dancing around Coulson's "death?" and what happened to him. He ''Film/TheMatrix''-style dodges a car door flung by an EmpoweredBadassNormal in the pilot of that show and people frequently remark that something's ''different'' about him. TheReveal seems to put a kibosh on him having gifted abilities, though. |
| 216 | * MagneticHero: Gonzales remarks that Coulson's ability to inspire UndyingLoyalty in people, even from mercs who are OnlyInItForTheMoney, makes him more dangerous than a Gifted. |
| 217 | * TheManBehindTheMan: Once Mace is revealed as a fraud, but still a good man trying to do the right thing, Coulson leaves him in place to handle the PR and politics that Coulson isn't fond of, but he makes clear that he is the one calling the shots from here on out. |
| 218 | * MemeticBadass: "Providence" confirms that he's become one InUniverse to other high-ranking S.H.I.E.L.D. agents. He's even acquired his own {{Fanboy}}, in the form of Agent Eric Koenig. Eric's brother Billy seems to have just as much affection for Coulson when they meet. |
| 219 | * MissionControl: |
| 220 | ** Plays this role in the ''LEGO Marvel Super Heroes'' video game; he's even voiced by Gregg. |
| 221 | ** In season two of the series, he also plays this role because he's the new Director and has to coordinate things. |
| 222 | * MomentKiller: Seems to be a RunningGag. Many times when his team members such as Fitz-Simmons or Bobby-Hunter have ShipTease arise between them, Coulson interrupted their moments, either accidentally or intentionally. In the first episode of Season 4, he did again to Mack and Elena. |
| 223 | * MyGodWhatHaveIDone: When he finds out that ''he'' was the one in charge of Project T.A.H.I.T.I. and that he recommended that it should be shut down or he would quit S.H.I.E.L.D. because there were too many ill side effects on the test subjects. His haunted expression says it all. |
| 224 | * MysteriousMiddleInitial: His full name is Phillip J. Coulson. While it is never revealed what the "J" stands for, his full name is stated repeatedly when he is addresed by the Chronicom Enoch. |
| 225 | * MythologyGag: in ''Deadpool'' Bi-Annual #1, he's shown ''actually in Tahiti'' getting a massage from a hot girl... complete with lampshade hanging on the scene. |
| 226 | * NiceGuy: One of the nicest S.H.I.E.L.D. agents there is. |
| 227 | ** He was outraged when he learned the lengths that Fury went to for his revival, and yet he makes the same decision when one of his own subordinates was in critical condition. However, he's incredibly conflicted about it, [[TearJerker breaking down]] when he admits to Skye what he knows about the [=GH325=] used to save them. |
| 228 | ** In a heroic version, he, like his idol Captain America, is officially a vigilante ex-S.H.I.E.L.D. agent working against HYDRA after it began the civil war within S.H.I.E.L.D., a state he finally acknowledges fully in "Ragtag". |
| 229 | * NiceJobBreakingItHero: By killing Ward instead of leaving him trapped on a barren planet, he unwittingly allows Hive to return to Earth, thus accomplishing HYDRA's ultimate objective ''for'' them. Hive can't do much of anything without a dead body to possess, and his previous host body had just been destroyed, but thanks to Coulson, there was a brand new one lying just a few feet away. |
| 230 | * NoodleIncident: |
| 231 | ** The events of the first ''Iron Man'' film ain't his first rodeo. |
| 232 | *** ''Film/CaptainMarvel2019'' may or may not have been his first rodeo. |
| 233 | ** In "0-8-4": remember the panic when an anti-matter meteor nearly devoured Miami? No, you don't, because S.H.I.E.L.D. kept it contained. |
| 234 | ** In "The Laws of Inferno Dynamics", Coulson tells Daisy that he witnessed the previous Ghost Rider escape from Hell. Daisy naturally wants details, but Coulson waves it off as ItsALongStory. |
| 235 | * NumberTwo: To Nick Fury as his "one good eye"; something underlined by the insane effort Fury put in to bring him back to life. Maria Hill might be Deputy Director, but Coulson is Fury's go-to agent to send into the field to liaison with the Avengers and his most trusted agent, since they both were partners back in the day. |
| 236 | ** After Mace takes over as Director of S.H.I.E.L.D. in season 4, he frequently looks to Coulson for advice and assistance on field operations, putting Coulson back in this slot. |
| 237 | * ObfuscatingStupidity: He can do an excellent impression of an affable, slightly bumbling accountant. [[LetsGetDangerous You do not want to force him to drop it]]. |
| 238 | * OneManArmy: Not to the extent of Ward, May, or likely even Trip, but he can still single-handedly defeat handfuls of {{Mooks}} on his own (even while unarmed), including soldiers from the U.S. military. |
| 239 | * OnlyMostlyDead: Even after Loki seemingly killed Coulson, Clark Gregg maintained he might still be alive, stating that [[http://www.craveonline.com/film/articles/173736-clark-gregg-on-the-avengers-marvel-one-shots-iron-man-3-and-more Whedon told him beforehand that Coulson would survive the events of the film]] (although afterwards he [[http://twitter.com/clarkgregg/status/210219396378013696 admitted he was lying]]). Ultimately it was ambiguous until ''Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.'' was announced, upon which Joss Whedon himself confirmed that Coulson survived his wounding in ''The Avengers''...though as BackFromTheDead above shows, not enough to avoid a painful/traumatic resurrection process. |
| 240 | * OnlySaneMan: Trapped among prima donna superheroes and morally ambiguous world security leaders. |
| 241 | * OOCIsSeriousBusiness: |
| 242 | ** As mentioned [[PerpetualSmiler below]], Coulson is almost-perpetually calm. Thus, if he ever raises his voice, you know something must be very, ''very'' wrong. Additionally, he trashes his own office after Ward murders Rosalind Price. |
| 243 | ** He wouldn't lock up one of his own (e.g. Simmons and Skye) unless it was a very serious situation. Ward would be an exception, except Coulson had already decided he wasn't one of his own. |
| 244 | * OrderReborn: At the end of Season One, Nick Fury entrusts the rebuilding of S.H.I.E.L.D. to Coulson. |
| 245 | * OriginalGeneration: [[LogicBomb Retroactively]]; see "PromotedToOpeningTitles" below. |
| 246 | * PapaWolf: He's very protective of his protégés. |
| 247 | ** "Eye Spy". After learning the identity of the person who was controlling Akela, he immediately springs into action in order to arrest the crook. |
| 248 | ** In "[[Recap/AgentsOfSHIELDS1E13TRACKS T.R.A.C.K.S.]]" he instantly knocks out Quinn when the latter implies he hurt Skye, [[CallBack mirroring what Skye did to Raina two episodes back regarding Coulson.]] |
| 249 | ** In "End of the Beginning", he points a gun, filled with real bullets as opposed to nonlethal Icers, at May when she is hunting down Fitz, who has discovered that she is TheMole for an unknown party. To reiterate: he drew down on ''a member of his own team'' in order to protect another one. |
| 250 | ** In "A Hen in the Wolf House", Coulson looked like he was trying to keep his cool when Raina threatened to blow Simmons' cover at the HYDRA unless he handed Skye to him. Coulson understandably keeps his cool in the restaurant to avoid a scene, but there is clearly a hint of anger behind his voice. |
| 251 | ** In "Who You Really Are", Lady Sif attempts to capture Skye, believing her newly-acquired superpowers to be a threat. Coulson responds to the Asgardian (read: someone who can easily best him in a fight) with a GoThroughMe reaction. |
| 252 | ** In ''Purpose In the Machine'' he threatens to turn over Professor Randolph unless he helps them save Simmons. |
| 253 | * ParentalSubstitute: |
| 254 | ** Given Skye's history of being continually passed between foster homes, Coulson's probably the closest (and certainly the longest running) thing to a father figure she's had in her entire life. This has continued even after Skye finally meets her real father, which is one of the reasons why Cal doesn't like Coulson. |
| 255 | ** He's also this to a lesser extent to Fitz, and the only father-figure that didn't betray him in some way (Fitz's dad walked out of the family and Dr. Radcliffe (who ''did'' view Fitz as a son) ended up betraying the team). |
| 256 | * PerpetualSmiler: |
| 257 | ** A part of his persona that he uses to help guide conversations. He's almost never seen without his serene, calm smile on his face, even during otherwise morose or trying situations. Since he never loses his cool, he never drops the smile. |
| 258 | ** In ''Series/AgentsOfSHIELD'', Coulson seems to feature a more stoic and serious demeanor. This is more than likely due to him [[CameBackWrong coming back wrong]]. When the situation demands it, whether it's resolving a conflict within his team, or dealing with the shadier aspects of S.H.I.E.L.D., Coulson has proven that you shouldn't handle him lightly. |
| 259 | * PlugNPlayProsthetics: In the season 2 finale "S.O.S., Part 2", Mack is forced to cut off Coulson's hand to prevent a Terrigen crystal from petrifying him. In the seasons that follow, Coulson now has a prosthetic hand which he can use with the same ease as his original hand, and contains some useful gadgets to boot (including a forcefield-shield). |
| 260 | * PopularityPower: After Coulson's death in ''The Avengers'', Website/{{Twitter}} and Website/{{Tumblr}} ''exploded'' with support for him to come back, campaigning the slogan [=#CoulsonLives=]. Their attempts were so successful that not only did Marvel bring Coulson BackFromTheDead, but [[AscendedMeme they even made tweeting [=#CoulsonLives=] unlock a trailer]] for ''Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.''. |
| 261 | * PresentAbsence: After his death post-season 5, Coulson leaves a pretty big shadow over core S.H.I.E.L.D. throughout season 6. Half of the character arcs throughout the season are directly related to him: |
| 262 | ** Mack taking over as Director of S.H.I.E.L.D. and coming into his own as a capable leader throughout the season despite the weight of being Director as well as living up to the standard set by Coulson throughout the past four seasons. Represented especially well by the holograms that Coulson left behind to give some pointers to Mack, which Mack still listens to. |
| 263 | ** May still coping with the loss of Coulson while simultaneously having to go up-against Sarge, an alien WellIntentionedExtremist on a campaign to destroy an interdimensional planet-destroying entity. While Sarge is the [[EvilCounterpart antithesis]] of Coulson, May still spends the season hoping to see just one more glimpse of Coulson in Sarge when it becomes increasingly clear that Coulson is part of Sarge in some way. |
| 264 | ** Daisy spends most of the season avoiding the fact that Coulson is dead, having not even opened the letter that Coulson left for her before he passed and revealed to have left for space immediately after dropping Coulson off was in part due to the fact that she didn’t want to face the reality of him dying. It’s only after Sarge [[SomethingOnlyTheyWouldSay calls her Skye]] that she brings herself to tearfully read the letter and move on. |
| 265 | ** Sarge himself has no idea who exactly Coulson is and doesn’t have any concrete memories of his life before he began hunting Izel, which acts as the DrivingQuestion for most of the characters, only for he himself to brush off any possible relationship between Coulson and himself repeatedly until Izel finally clues him into exactly who he is in "Leap" - a non-corporeal entity named Pachakutiq who possessed a copy of Phil Coulson’s body during his [[Recap/AgentsOfSHIELDS5E12TheRealDeal encounter]] with uncontained Monolith energy, which was then displaced throughout spacetime to roughly a century ago on another planet. Sarge experiences a brief LossOfIdentity from this, but then once he bounces back he cements his physical transformation into Pachakutiq and pulls a complete FaceHeelTurn. |
| 266 | ** While not on the season-wide magnitude, Fitz, having been LockedOutOfTheLoop due to cryostasis, still tears up while Simmons has to explain to him that Coulson died to avert the BadFuture while Fitz was taking TheSlowPath. |
| 267 | * PromotedToOpeningTitles: He started off as just a standard suit in the first ''Iron Man'' movie, but his role was greatly expanded by ''Thor''. Now, he's deeply entrenched into the Marvel lore, even getting his own comics, short films and ''TV series''. |
| 268 | * ProperlyParanoid: |
| 269 | ** As Director he keeps his people LockedOutOfTheLoop on things they don't need to know for security reasons. Which proved to be justified when he found out that Mack and Bobbi were moles for a splinter cell of S.H.I.E.L.D. who are very hostile to anything associated with alien tech or "gifted people". |
| 270 | ** In season 3, he says that the only agents who do ''not'' have trust issues are either young or dead. |
| 271 | * ReasonableAuthorityFigure: He is ''extremely'' tolerant of the antics his team sometimes gets into and in some cases even encourages them. As he explains to Lincoln in season 3, he expects his subordinates to speak up when they disagree with him but after he has listened to them and considered their viewpoint, he ''also'' expects them to follow his orders regardless of disagreements. |
| 272 | * ResurrectionSickness: After his death during ''Film/{{The Avengers|2012}}'', he was resurrected using the regenerative drug GH.325; upon his initial revival, Coulson was in terrible pain and begged to be killed again, forcing the scientists to implant FakeMemories of him going through a peaceful rehabilitation in Tahiti. |
| 273 | * TheReveal: ''Battle Scars'' #6 reveals that "Cheese", Marcus Johnson's soldier friend, is actually the 616 counterpart of Agent Coulson. |
| 274 | * RoomFullOfCrazy: After Garrett goes insane from injection of the alien compound and began etching alien writing on walls and other surfaces, Coulson starts compulsively doing the same, starting a couple of times a month, then progressing to weekly, then daily. Once he discovers that the writing is actually a three-dimensional blueprint of a city, the compulsion vanishes. |
| 275 | * RunningGag: Referring to traitorous individuals as sons of bitches. Done in "Turn, Turn, Turn" to Garrett and in "A Fractured House" to Ward. |
| 276 | * SacrificialLion: All who heard of his loss were motivated to defeat Loki for him. Especially [[Film/IronMan Tony Stark]]. |
| 277 | -->'''Tony:''' And there's one other person you pissed off. [[AndThisIsFor His name is Phil]]. ''[blasts Loki with his repulsors]'' |
| 278 | * SecretKeeper: He's the only person in Earth, besides Nick Fury and the Rambeau Family (and possibly Maria Hill), that knows about Captain Marvel's existence before she show up in the aftermath of the Decimation. |
| 279 | * SecretlyDying: It's revealed that the deal Coulson made with Ghost Rider to destroy Aida resulted in the Kree blood in his body being burned out. As such Coulson is slowly dying throughout season 5 which the Team is [[WhatTheHellHero naturally unhappy to find out about]]. |
| 280 | * SeenItAll: Hints of Type 1, as is typical of [[TheMenInBlack MIB]]. He also has Type 2's smartness as he orders his men to let Thor try and lift his hammer, and realized just in time that Destroyer's head opening and glowing is a very bad thing. When he calls Black Widow, who's been captured but then subsequently beats the tar out of her captors, his expression is of complete boredom as he listens to [[CurbStompBattle the resulting scuffle]] as if it were ''hold music''. This trait is a case of CharacterDevelopment throughout the entire Franchise/MarvelCinematicUniverse. In his first appearance in ''Film/IronMan1'', he was rather nervous and unsure of himself. Each subsequent film added more and more to his confidence. |
| 281 | * SharpDressedMan: Season One, Episode Six of ''Series/AgentsOfSHIELD'' is the first time he's seen without a suit. His suits get progressively [[http://hellotailor.blogspot.co.uk/2012/05/costumes-and-characters-of-avengers.html sharper]] as we learn more about him. |
| 282 | * ShellShockedVeteran: His behavior is a little more erratic post-''Avengers'' as seen in ''Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.''. Coulson eventually admits this to himself and May, who tells him that ''dying'' is going to change someone no matter who they are. His revival also took a bit of a toll on his sanity and faith in S.H.I.E.L.D.. |
| 283 | * ShipperOnDeck: |
| 284 | ** For Thor and Sif, as seen when Sif wonders why hearing Thor's name makes her smile: |
| 285 | --->'''Coulson:''' Who can explain the mysteries of the Asgardian brain?\ |
| 286 | '''May:''' ''I'' can. |
| 287 | ** He also encourages [=FitzSimmons=], trying to arrange things for Fitz to admit his feelings in "Only Light in the Darkness". |
| 288 | * SilentSnarker: He doesn't even have to ''say'' anything (which delighted Creator/JossWhedon to no end). His reactions are pure gold. |
| 289 | * SmallRoleBigImpact: To the Avengers in ''Film/AvengersAgeOfUltron''. Despite not actually appearing in the film, it was he who tipped them through Maria Hill to beat HYDRA and to locate and retrieve Loki's scepter in Sokovia. It's also revealed that the Helicarrier that shows up in the film's climax and saves everyone is "Theta Protocol", which Coulson has been working on for almost a year. |
| 290 | * TheSpymaster: As the new Director of S.H.I.E.L.D., part of his job is to handle assets and secrets. Season 2 deals primarily with how acting as TheSpymaster is taking its toll on Coulson, though he proves to be excellent at it as seen with the moment Coulson wipes out most of HYDRA's leadership in one fell swoop. However it's because of this that "real" S.H.I.E.L.D. distrusts him and even Simmons and May began to lose faith when they find out to what extent they've been LockedOutOfTheLoop. |
| 291 | * TheStoic: Being a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent who's SeenItAll, not much fazes Phil. Whenever he sees something that would insight Fight-Or-Flight responses out of most other people or could cause someone to act with their emotions, he is patient enough to observe the moment objectively. That [[NotSoStoic isn't to say that he can ever get emotional]]; he's a ConsummateProfessional, losing his cool only [[BerserkButton whenever his team crosses a certain line]] or when he experiences something especially traumatic. |
| 292 | * StoicSpectacles: Part of his disguise as Simmons's "father" in "T.R.A.C.K.S." and as a Fitz Expy in "Ragtag", right down to the cardi and tie. |
| 293 | * SuperStrength: His robotic arm has some degree of it, enough to shortly restrain Lash, though the strain is shown to be visibly damaging the arm and the AxCrazy Inhuman eventually breaks free. |
| 294 | * TeamDad: |
| 295 | ** Whenever the team gets into an argument, expect Coulson to be the one to break it up. Skye even refers to him as such. |
| 296 | ** Coulson so embodies this trope, [[http://howtodadwithphil.tumblr.com/ there's a blog about it]]. |
| 297 | ** When Coulson shows up to debrief Jemma about her time with HYDRA, he confronts her about her food choices. |
| 298 | --->'''Coulson:''' Sriracha? Beer? That's it? |
| 299 | ** In "...Ye Who Enter Here", Skye has a dream where Coulson and May are acting as parents to a baby (obviously herself). Coulson is white, May is Chinese. Skye's biological father is white, her biological mother Chinese. |
| 300 | ** In "SOS", when Cal confronts Coulson, the latter outright admits that Skye is the closest he's ever had to a daughter. |
| 301 | * ThatCameOutWrong: Coulson's fanboy love of Captain America intersects with some unintentional awkwardness when talking to the man himself. |
| 302 | -->'''Coulson:''' I watched you while you were sleeping. ''[awkward silence]'' I-I mean... I was present when you were unconscious from the ice. |
| 303 | * TheyKilledKennyAgain: As Phil himself put it in the series finale of ''Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.'', "Is this a competition? Because I've died like five times." |
| 304 | * TomatoInTheMirror: He was the one calling the shots on Project T.A.H.I.T.I. all along. His reaction? A FlatWhat-like reaction in the form of a stunned "Huh". |
| 305 | * TookALevelInJerkass: In the second half of the first season, toward May when he finds out that Fury told her about his resurrection and was ordered to keep him in the dark about it. Justified, because that's not something you forgive so easily, and even then he realizes he's been acting as such and wants to apologize for it within two episodes. |
| 306 | * TrueCompanions: He sees his team as his family, with himself as the father. When a surgeon told him and the rest to gather Skye's family before she died, he said it was already present. |
| 307 | * UndyingLoyalty: To S.H.I.E.L.D. and Nick Fury. His HeroicBSOD in "Providence" reflected that even though S.H.I.E.L.D. his disbanded, he still sees himself as a devoted agent that still means something. Phil was the only one who believed Fury sent him the co-ordinates of the base too. |
| 308 | * UnfazedEveryman: There really isn't anything that can surprise him, be it thunder gods, men clad in flying wearable tanks, or superhuman WWII vets who were frozen for the better part of a century.[[note]]The WWII vet gets a reaction, but only because [[TheKnightsWhoSaySquee he's]] a {{fanboy}}.[[/note]]Justified in that this is the sort of thing S.H.I.E.L.D. does. Thunder gods aren't special, they're Thursday. [[OOCIsSeriousBusiness This makes what he sees in T.A.H.I.T.I. all the more serious]] as it drives him into a HeroicBSOD. |
| 309 | * UnwantedRevival: In "That Magical Place", we finally see the details of his "resurrection", and it's horrifying. His skull was split open and a robot operated on his brain while Coulson begged "Just let me die." over and over again. Dr. Streiten says, because of the procedures, Coulson completely lost the will to live and the Tahiti memories were an attempt to give that will back. |
| 310 | * UnresolvedSexualTension: Coulson and May have been friends for years and its hinted at throughout the show that they could be something more. However due to their work constantly getting in the way the two never get past this phase of their relationship. By the Season 5 finale, the two finally resolve the tension and decide to spend Coulson's last few days together at Tahiti. |
| 311 | * VengeanceFeelsEmpty: He doesn't feel satisfied over killing Ward, admitting to Fitz that he expected doing so to haunt him (but he ''definitely'' didn't expect it to haunt him ''literally'' via [[NiceJobBreakingItHero inadvertently allowing Hive to find a new body to take control of and arrived to Earth with]].) He did so out of avenging Rosalind as killing out of payback, let alone in ''cold-blood,'' isn't what S.H.I.E.L.D. does. He even go as far as stating that ''Ward'' was the true victor in their [[FinalBattle final confrontation]]. |
| 312 | * VillainKiller: Phil Coulson is quite proficient at killing {{Big Bad}}s, being the one who kills John Garrett in Season 1, Daniel Whitehall in Season 2, Grant Ward in Season 3 and Aida in Season 4. |
| 313 | * WhatTheHellHero: |
| 314 | ** Gives Skye two of them. The first is in "Girl in the Flower Dress" after she betrays his trust (see BerserkButton and BewareTheNiceOnes above). The second is in "The Hub" after he catches her prying into something about the mission of the episode meant for Level 8 eyes; this earns her a good talking-to and an explanation as to why secrecy is important in certain situations. He then uses what Skye told him about what she saw in those files (that nobody had been assigned to extract their teammates after they completed their mission, and that nobody had told them that before sending them in) to give another one to Agent Hand. |
| 315 | ** May receives one from him when it is revealed that she'd been informing on him to Director Fury and knew all about his resurrection the entire season. Fury eventually gets one of his own, but the only bit of it we hear is a flustered-sounding Coulson telling him, "Stupid, stupid, stupid! And cruel! And ''very'' stupid!" |
| 316 | ** He's also on the receiving end of two. First, from Skye after she finds out about the mission in "The Hub". Second, when he's disguised as Simmons's estranged father in "T.R.A.C.K.S.", he gets lectured by Creator/StanLee himself on good parenting. |
| 317 | ** Strangely enough, he also experiences a self-inflicted variation. Shortly after he cold-bloodedly murders Ward by caving his chest in, he spends a good deal of time eating away at himself for resorting to something he staunchly believed was wrong and beneath a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent. When Hive reveals itself, Coulson experiences a full-blown MyGodWhatHaveIDone when he realizes his killing of Ward is precisely what Hive needed to escape to Earth - a fresh corpse to inhabit as a vessel. |
| 318 | * WideEyedIdealist: His belief in heroes, old-fashioned notions, and in the Avengers to work together as a team can be seen as this. In the ''Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.'' pilot, he manages to talk down an enraged Mike because he believes people are ''good''. This is also why Nick Fury calls him TheHeart of S.H.I.E.L.D.. |
| 319 | * WillTheyOrWontThey: With May with the two on the fence about if they want to be with each other or not. By the Season 5 finale, the two of them decide [[RelationshipUpgrade they will]], and leave to spend what few days Coulson has left together. |
| 320 | * WithMyHandsTied: ''[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QAMgkpQYOSQ A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to Thor's Hammer]]''. Coulson doesn't need his gun to bring down petty thugs. |
| 321 | * WolverinePublicity: ''WesternAnimation/TheAvengersEarthsMightiestHeroes'' has a story in [[ComicBook/TheAvengersEarthsMightiestHeroes the comic series]] in which Maria Hill recaps the first season, with help from Nick Fury's records. Coulson joins her in examining the records, despite the fact he never shows up in either season of the cartoon. This also extends to ''ComicBook/UltimateMarvel'', where he shows up in ''[[ComicBook/CataclysmTheUltimatesLastStand Cataclysm: Ultimates]]'' without any warning, and goes on to be TheLeader of the Ultimate Future Foundation. In the central "Earth-616" Franchise/MarvelUniverse, shortly after ''Film/{{The Avengers|2012}}'', he became the go-to background S.H.I.E.L.D. agent for people to call upon to help other people, be it for a reason, like having him tag along with a hero or heroine, or for no reason, like having him brought up as someone's friend, with no relevance to the plot. |
| 322 | * WouldHitAGirl: Camilla Reyes, his former flame. Justified as she started it ''and'' can dish it out as well as she can take it. |
| 323 | * YouAreInCommandNow: In "Beginning of the End", Nick Fury gives him the resources to rebuild S.H.I.E.L.D., with Coulson as the new director since he himself is officially dead. |
| 324 | * YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness: A heroic example, directed at Grant Ward, in "A Fractured House". The only reason he did not kill Ward back in Season One was because he was useful for HYDRA intel. Now he is more useful as a bargaining tool. |
| 325 | * YourDaysAreNumbered: Turns out the deal with Ghost Rider cost him the Kree blood that was keeping him alive. As a result, he is now slowly dying. By the Season 5 finale, it's revealed that Coulson has only a few weeks left before he dies again, seemingly for good. |
| 326 | [[/folder]] |
| 327 | |
| 328 | !!Items |
| 329 | |
| 330 | [[folder: Lola]] |
| 331 | !!''Lola'' |
| 332 | [[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/383299c9_9935_4e2d_9ecd_42a1089a4550.jpeg]] |
| 333 | |
| 334 | !!!'''Appearances (in use):''' ''Series/AgentsOfSHIELD'' (appears in ''[[Recap/AgentsOfSHIELDS1E1Pilot Episode 1: "Pilot"]]'', ''[[Recap/AgentsOfSHIELDS1E10TheBridge Episode 10: "The Bridge"]]'', ''[[Recap/AgentsOfSHIELDS1E12Seeds Episode 12: "Seeds"]]'', ''[[Recap/AgentsOfSHIELDS1E20NothingPersonal Episode 20: "Nothing Personal"]]'') |
| 335 | |
| 336 | ->''"Don't touch Lola."'' |
| 337 | -->-- '''Several characters''' |
| 338 | |
| 339 | A '62 red Corvette that Coulson helped his father restore. Coulson has since made his own modifications to the car. |
| 340 | ---- |
| 341 | * NumberOneDime: In Season 2, Coulson explains that its sentimental value comes from the fact that his dad was a car guy, and they together restored a certain red '62 Corvette. |
| 342 | * BrickJoke: Remember how Lola can fly? Comes in handy in "Seeds". The ability becomes a ChekhovsGun in "Nothing Personal," when her flying ability saves Coulson and Skye. Coulson is later able to restore her but only after getting S.H.I.E.L.D. back to ops, though apparently he never got around to fixing her flight capability. |
| 343 | * CargoShip: [[invoked]] |
| 344 | ** Several other characters - including Skye, Maria Hill and Nick Fury - take Coulson's professed love for Lola quite seriously. Skye even echoes Coulson's warning of "don't touch Lola" to a group of visitors when he's not around to do so himself. |
| 345 | ** Coulson eventually reveals that when he was a boy, his father restored a '62 Corvette and had his son help; the young Phil was upset and wished he was out with his friends... until he saw how beautiful the finished product was. Lola is implied to be ''that'' car, but either way it's clear she has sentimental value to him because she brings back fond memories of his late father. |
| 346 | * CompanionCube: Coulson refers to his car the same way he would a member of his team. Nick Fury even once asked how "she was doing." |
| 347 | -->'''Reyes:''' There's the flying man-cave, the hot red sports car--\ |
| 348 | '''Coulson:''' Her name is Lola.\ |
| 349 | '''Reyes:''' Of ''course'' it is. |
| 350 | * CoolCar: A red Corvette that can fly. |
| 351 | * FlyingCar: Lola is equipped with a version of Howard Stark's early repulsor technology as demonstrated in ''Film/CaptainAmericaTheFirstAvenger''. |
| 352 | * FunWithAcronyms: '''L'''evitating '''O'''ver '''L'''and '''A'''utomobile. |
| 353 | * HatesBeingTouched: |
| 354 | ** According to Coulson, who tells everyone not to touch her. |
| 355 | ** Agent Blake makes a point of loudly running his finger along Lola's side as he walks off the Bus in "FZZT" to piss Coulson off. |
| 356 | ** It's given a MeaningfulEcho in "The Magical Place" when, as she's kicked off the Bus on Agent Hand's orders, Skye tells her and everyone else still on board, "Don't touch Lola." |
| 357 | ** Skye is naturally upset when Ward and Deathlok shoot her up as she and Coulson use her to escape the Bus, which Ward had captured. |
| 358 | ** Once Creator/EmilyVanCamp [[http://33.media.tumblr.com/0631232a90c26d633ecd35ae17ba3c30/tumblr_neniljQHvU1su6zr6o1_500.gif touched Lola in a Marvel special]], the fandom went nuts... but [[IfItsYouItsOK Coulson himself]] [[https://twitter.com/clarkgregg/status/530085312509542400 sees no problem]]. ([[TheVamp Lorelei]] [[https://twitter.com/clarkgregg/status/443548089094111232 apparently has a pass too]]). |
| 359 | ** He lets Skye drive her in the Season 2 finale, though this is partly out of necessity, since he only has one hand, which would make driving difficult. |
| 360 | ** In "The Patriot", May (or rather, her LMD) tells Daisy that Coulson once let her drive Lola in an early mission of theirs. |
| 361 | * MidLifeCrisisCar: Camilla accuses her of being this. Coulson says she's more of an ''after''life crisis car. |
| 362 | * PutOnABus: After being a regular fixture in Season 1, she's rarely seen in Season 2, but occasionally referenced; mostly by Mack, who's angling to do some work on her. Lola reappears in "One Door Closes", when Coulson finally offers Mack a peek under the hood. Completely absent in Season 3, though Lola starts to reappear in Season 4 when Coulson becomes a field agent again. She disappears for good after that; at best she was confiscated by the US government after S.H.I.E.L.D. lost the Playground base (and Coulson had bigger things to worry about than retrieving her). Lola ''finally'' returns in the [[BackForTheFinale last minutes of the series finale]], with the Coulson LMD flying her off [[CallBack just like Coulson did at the end of the series pilot.]] |
| 363 | * WeaponizedCar: Lola has a pair of [[Film/{{Goldfinger}} Aston Martin DB5]]-like machine guns that pop out from the front lights, as Ward and Deathlok found out the hard way. According to Fitz, she also has flamethrowers that we have yet to see in action as well as the world's first GPS. |
| 364 | [[/folder]] |
| 365 | |
| 366 | !!Alternate Versions |
| 367 | |
| 368 | [[folder:Coulson [=LMD=]]] |
| 369 | !!''Phil Coulson [=LMD=]'' |
| 370 | !!!'''Species:''' Life-Model Decoy |
| 371 | !!!'''Portrayed By:''' Creator/ClarkGregg |
| 372 | !!!'''Appearances:''' ''Series/AgentsOfSHIELD'' |
| 373 | |
| 374 | An android duplicate of Agent Phil Coulson, created to infiltrate S.H.I.E.L.D. as part of Radcliffe's plans to replace the entire organization with LMD duplicates. |
| 375 | ---- |
| 376 | * DragonInChief: The first one to appear is the ''de facto'' leader for the [=LMDs=] who takeover The Playground. |
| 377 | * FauxAffablyEvil: The initial Coulson LMD retains his friendly nature, all the while still using it in a tone where it feels like it is about to kill someone. |
| 378 | * KillItWithFire: LMD May blows him up along with herself. |
| 379 | [[/folder]] |
| 380 | |
| 381 | [[folder:Framework Coulson]] |
| 382 | !!''Framework Phil Coulson'' |
| 383 | !!!'''Species:''' Human |
| 384 | !!!'''Portrayed By:''' Creator/ClarkGregg |
| 385 | !!!'''Appearances:''' ''Series/AgentsOfSHIELD'' |
| 386 | |
| 387 | A version of Coulson in the Framework. |
| 388 | ---- |
| 389 | * AmnesiaMissedASpot: Coulson keeps a folder of things that, unknowingly to him, reference things from his pre-Framework life, like a picture of Audrey, a calendar page that has a picture of a red Chevy Corvette (and is for the month of May), an advertisement for Tahiti, an article with "Quake" in the headline, and several sheets of paper with "It's a magical place" written on them repeatedly. |
| 390 | * AcquiredPoisonImmunity: It's discussed in-universe that Coulson's past brainwashing experience with the T.A.H.I.T.I. program is what allowed him to break through his current brainwashing easier than the others, as it appeared to not fully take and led to him being a ConspiracyTheorist who knew things weren't quite right. Although still not 100%, aspects of Coulson's original personality, such as his ability to shoot, begin to manifest themselves as the episode goes on. |
| 391 | * ConspiracyTheorist: Coulson is one in the Framework, and only pretends to be the loyal HYDRA apologist to stay under the radar. Some of his theories are correct, but he also believes strange things like HYDRA introducing topical mind control chemicals into most commercial brands of soap, [[SeriousBusiness which is why he makes his own]]. |
| 392 | * EmbarrassingLastName: Coulson's fake HYDRA ID is Jamie Flugelman, it being the only name Ward could clear from HYDRA's database. After giving him the ID, [[OnceDoneNeverForgotten Mace proceeds to call him "Flugelman" for the rest of the episode]]. The HYDRA agent checking [=IDs=] at the Enlightenment Center also calls attention to the name. Coulson claims it's Canadian. |
| 393 | * EasyAmnesia: Inverted. It may seem weird that Coulson previously refused to believe Jemma and then believed Daisy rather easily. But he had plausible reason not to trust Jemma because of her somewhat aggressive YouHaveToBelieveMe rants and attitudes that only made him agitated/cornered as she asked him to remember many things from his past life in the real world, while Daisy got him to remember with a slow and careful method by doing a variant of SomethingOnlyTheyWouldSay (telling Coulson he's like family for her). Even then, Coulson only remembers some fragments of his past life. In real life, most amnesiac people can't be pressured to remember many things at once, and they need time to remember their forgotten past slowly and piece by piece. |
| 394 | * TheKnightsWhoSaySquee: In "Identity and Change", he geeks out once he meets the Patriot, not unlike when he met Captain America. |
| 395 | * NeverForgottenSkill: Though little attention is drawn to it, Coulson proves extremely competent with multiple types of firearms, even though his Framework self is a teacher who likely never touched a gun before. |
| 396 | * MadnessMantra: "It's a magical place" for Coulson; we get a glimpse of his notes where he has written at least two pages full of it. |
| 397 | * MetaCasting: Just like in [[Recap/AgentsOfSHIELDS1E13TRACKS T.R.A.C.K.S.]], Coulson's glasses are presumably Creator/ClarkGregg's actual glasses. |
| 398 | * OrwellianRetcon: Teaches Hydra's rewritten history and anti-Inhuman propaganda as fact to his students, even advising a student to ''never'' say anything about Hydra's Nazi roots. |
| 399 | * PapaWolf: Coulson instinctively protects Jemma when the firefight ensues, showing that even though he still can't fully remember her, he doesn't lose his paternal instinct. When he sees his former students being "reconditioned", he resolves to ''save'' them all. |
| 400 | * PointOfDivergence: Never having gone into S.H.I.E.L.D., Coulson lives a quiet life as a high school teacher and goes along with HYDRA's anti-Inhuman propaganda. It's also possible he was indirectly responsible for HYDRA's rise; Coulson was always a stabilizing influence on S.H.I.E.L.D. in general and for May specifically, so the Bahrain and Cambridge incidents could have gone differently had he been there. |
| 401 | [[/folder]] |
| 402 | |
| 403 | [[folder:Sarge]] |
| 404 | !!''Sarge / Pachakutiq'' |
| 405 | --> See [[Characters/MCUDimensions Dimensions]] |
| 406 | [[/folder]] |
| 407 | |
| 408 | [[folder:Phil Coulson Chronicom LMD]] |
| 409 | !!''Phil Coulson'' |
| 410 | [[quoteright:310:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/phil_coulson_chronicom_lmd___profile.jpg]] |
| 411 | !!!'''Species:''' Chronicom Life-Model Decoy |
| 412 | !!!'''Citizenship:''' None |
| 413 | !!!'''Portrayed By:''' Creator/ClarkGregg |
| 414 | !!!'''Appearances:''' ''Series/AgentsOfSHIELD'' |
| 415 | |
| 416 | A new LMD of Phil Coulson, created by Jemma Simmons, Leo Fitz and Enoch, using Chronicom technology. |
| 417 | ->This is for tropes that ''only'' apply to the LMD Coulson. For other tropes see the above folders, as they are largely the same character. |
| 418 | ---- |
| 419 | * EleventhHourSuperpower: After a [[EurekaMoment somewhat belated epiphany]] that he can instinctively read code, and Chronicom code at that, he rapidly developed a HollywoodHacking skillset. When Yo-Yo asked if he was some kind of computer genius now, she got a BluntYes in response. |
| 420 | * AndIMustScream: After spending almost two years as a VirtualGhost, Coulson remarks that he was thirsty for the whole two years with no way to quench it. The first thing he did when he regained a body was having a glass of water. |
| 421 | * AscendedFanboy: In a way. With his LMD body giving him SuperStrength and SuperToughness, Coulson almost gleefully notes that he's an actual superhero now. |
| 422 | * BewareTheNiceOnes: Applies to him even more now than his original self, as even his own crew tends to forget that it's now a super strong robot behind his affable personality. |
| 423 | -->'''Daisy:''' He's alarmingly strong.\ |
| 424 | '''Jemma:''' Yeah. I keep forgetting. |
| 425 | * BigGood: It's strongly hinted at the very end of Season 6 that he will serve this role in Season 7. Though ultimately somewhat [[AvertedTrope averted]] in that despite being a replica of the real Coulson, [[SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome there's no realistic way they would let a newly birthed LMD assume leadership of S.H.I.E.L.D. from Mack]]. So while he's absolutely a vital member of the team, he's not the leader. |
| 426 | * CameBackStrong: As a human consciousness resurrected in a super strong, nigh-invulnerable android body, Coulson definitely qualifies. |
| 427 | * CloneAngst: Downplayed. LMD Coulson displays some reservations about the possibility of not being the original Coulson, and the fact that both he and the original would've been opposed to his creation in the first place, but quickly agrees to help the team regardless, and somewhat comes around to the idea that being an LMD has its perks. He agrees with Mack however that they will revisit his status once they resolve the current crisis. |
| 428 | * DeathIsCheap: Exploited. By the time the LMD is built, Coulson is now fully aware that he has died multiple times and always returns in one form or another. By the time of Season 7 of Agents of SHIELD, he practically declares dying to be his own personal little "superpower" as he pulls a HeroicSacrifice he fully expects he'll come back from ''somehow''. |
| 429 | * DoAndroidsDream: Starts to develop an existential crisis around this, lamenting that his personality is "programming" and wondering aloud whether he has a soul. May's continual rejection of him as not being "him" doesn't help. |
| 430 | * EatingMachine: LMD Coulson can still eat and drink like a human, and can even feel thirst despite not actually requiring that manner of sustenance. |
| 431 | * GeniusBruiser: Inherits Coulson's mind from when he was in the Framework, along with 2 years worth of historical data; this gives him an almost encyclopedic knowledge and recall of records and history. On top of this, he gained increased durability, strength, and combat effectiveness thanks to his Chronicom hardware. |
| 432 | * HeroicSacrifice: Blew up the Chronicoms' timeship in 1976 while he was still inside, arguing that "dying's kind of [his] superpower" and that he'll come back somehow, which proved accurate almost immediately. |
| 433 | * KeeperOfForbiddenKnowledge: Why he was created in the first place. With the Chronicoms in possession of Fury's Black Box, and as such all of S.H.I.E.L.D.'s most secret secrets to try to unravel the organization via time travel, S.H.I.E.L.D. needed the next best thing to try and stop them-- Coulson's encyclopedic knowledge of S.H.I.E.L.D. history and knowledge of the Black Box itself. |
| 434 | * LastEpisodeNewCharacter: He makes his first appearance at the end of the last episode of season 6. |
| 435 | * LogicalWeakness: No matter how advanced he is, {{EMP}}s are still a weakness of his, though they only knock him out and cause some minor malfunctions, such as [[DeliberatelyMonochrome rendering his vision monochrome]] and causing him to hear a PrivateEyeMonologue in his head, conveniently just in time for a FilmNoir episode. |
| 436 | * MySkullRunnethOver: His mind was designed based on the most recent scan of the real Coulson's mind, that being from when they were in the Framework over 2 years prior, but he was also given data to fill in the blanks in the time lost. As such, when he was first activated, he suffered from an information overload as he "remembered" 2 years worth of information, including his own death, in about a minute's time, necessitating a temporary shutdown for him to get a hold of himself. |
| 437 | -->'''Coulson:''' 2 years in 10 seconds. It's like the worst episode of "This Is Your Life" ever. |
| 438 | * NoSell: Given his new Chronicom body, LMD Coulson is now extremely durable, tanking a shotgun round to the shoulder and taking punches like they're nothing. |
| 439 | * ProHumanTranshuman: Underneath all the plastic and circuitry, Coulson's still the same selfless hero he was in his past life. |
| 440 | * RedeemingReplacement: In a sense, he could be considered as such to the evil LMD of Coulson that briefly usurped S.H.I.E.L.D. in season 4. |
| 441 | * ReplacementGoldfish: To the real Coulson. |
| 442 | * RidiculouslyHumanRobots: To an even greater degree than other robots seen in ''Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.''. His personality, intelligence, quirks, wit, and moral code make him virtually indistinguishable from the real Coulson (while also having downloaded the original Coulson's memories), and while other [=LMD=]s could very effectively mimic the humans they were replacing in order to serve a higher purpose in their programming, this LMD-Coulson doesn't appear to ''have'' a programmed purpose at all--much like an actual human--and really is effectively a second version of Coulson himself. |
| 443 | * VirtualGhost: How he lived in the 80s. His hard drive survived his body's destruction in 1976 and was eventually found by Deke, who rigged it up with a TV he could appear on and communicate through, and a camera and mic so he could see and hear. Ultimately though he was just a TV on a mobile stand and couldn't move himself around, preventing him from going full TVHeadRobot. |
| 444 | * WeAreAsMayflies: As the reality of his existence sets in, Coulson realizes he is doomed to watch everyone he loves die while he effectively lives forever. |
| 445 | [[/folder]] |
| 446 | |
| 447 | !!Variants |
| 448 | |
| 449 | [[folder:King Loki's Coulson]] |
| 450 | !!''Agent Phil Coulson'' |
| 451 | %% |
| 452 | %% Image selected per Image Pickin' thread: https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/posts.php?discussion=16893088020.45695400&page=1 |
| 453 | %% Please don't change or remove without starting a new thread. |
| 454 | %% |
| 455 | [[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/coulson1.png]] |
| 456 | [[caption-width-right:300:''"It’s an accurate description. Sir, he’s gorgeous."'']] |
| 457 | !!!'''Species:''' Human |
| 458 | !!!'''Citizenship:''' American |
| 459 | !!!'''Voiced By:''' Creator/ClarkGregg |
| 460 | !!!'''Appearances:''' ''[[WesternAnimation/WhatIf2021 What If...?]]'' |
| 461 | |
| 462 | The Phil Coulson of Earth-51825, who assists Nick Fury with the investigation of the assassinations of the Avengers. |
| 463 | ----- |
| 464 | * AmbiguouslyGay: He comments on [[EvenTheGuysWantHim how gorgeous Thor looks when he’s alive]] and [[PervertedSniffing how good he smells]] after [[{{Squick}} his death]], and his [[EmbarrassingPassword password]] to access the Avengers Initiative files is [=#SteveSteveSteveIHeartSteve0704=], much to Natasha Romanoff's amusement. |
| 465 | * EmbarrassingPassword: Natasha asks Coulson for his S.H.I.E.L.D. password, and he reluctantly tells her it's [=#SteveSteveSteveIHeartSteve0704=]. |
| 466 | * PervertedSniffing: He really takes a minute to enjoy the scent of lavender from Thor’s rotting corpse. |
| 467 | * SparedByTheAdaptation: Loki's invasion of Earth occurs differently in this timeline -- he's able to conquer Earth without any Avengers to oppose him -- so Coulson does not die by Loki's hand here. |
| 468 | [[/folder]] |
| 469 | |
| 470 | [[folder:Party Thor's Coulson]] |
| 471 | !!''Agent Phil Coulson'' |
| 472 | %% |
| 473 | %% Image selected per Image Pickin' thread: https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/posts.php?discussion=16893088020.45695400&page=1 |
| 474 | %% Please don't change or remove without starting a new thread. |
| 475 | %% |
| 476 | [[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/coulson2.png]] |
| 477 | [[caption-width-right:300:''"Director, the party atmosphere seems to be spreading."'']] |
| 478 | !!!'''Species:''' Human |
| 479 | !!!'''Citizenship:''' American |
| 480 | !!!'''Voiced By:''' Creator/ClarkGregg |
| 481 | !!!'''Appearances:''' ''[[WesternAnimation/WhatIf2021 What If...?]]'' |
| 482 | |
| 483 | The Phil Coulson of Earth-72124, who helps Maria Hill in trying to stop Thor Odinson's planet-wide party. |
| 484 | ----- |
| 485 | * TheComicallySerious: Compared to his Episode 3 variant, this Coulson is very uptight about Earth's security for justifiable reasons. |
| 486 | * OnlySaneMan: He seems to be the only character in the episode who isn't irrationally fond of Thor nor irrationally incensed by him (with the possible exception of Carol, who was more initially annoyed by him, before becoming fairly incensed), protesting both that they can't just let the destruction he causes go unopposed but also that it's also probably not worth using nukes to get rid of him. |
| 487 | [[/folder]] |
| 488 | ---- |
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