The Melter

Joey Gutierrez, also known as the Melter, makes his TV debut. Gutierrez isn’t a direct comic book reference but there is a Marvel character who goes by the codename Melter. The original Melter gained his abilities through devices but the second character who went by Melter, Christopher Colchiss, did get his powers genetically.

Colchiss is an obscure character from Dark Reign: Young Avengers, while the original Melter was an Avengers villain for many years. Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. seems to be going their own way with the Melter as Gutierrez doesn’t fit neatly with either of these two character.

Coulson’s hand and the axe that took it

Last season, Mack lopped off Coulson’s hand with an axe to prevent Coulson from becoming a statue. Coulson used several replacement hands in these two episodes but you may have missed that the axe that took Coulson’s hand is hanging in Coulson’s office.

Lash

Inhumans are dropping like flies but it’s not a secret organization executing them. No, it’s a lone creature known as Lash who punches his fist through these Inhumans’ chests. Lash is a newer villain created by Charles Soule and Joe Madureira just over a year ago and first appeared in Inhuman #1. Lash is kind of like the Apocalypse of the Inhumans. He rids the world of Inhumans he deems are unfit to exist.

President Ellis

William Sadler reprises his role as President Ellis from Iron Man 3. Ellis is named after author Warren Ellis, who created Iron Man’s Extremis abilities.

Shout outs to 2015 Marvel summer movies

The phrase “cities falling from the sky” is an obvious reference to Age of Ultron. Fitz was also so desperate to locate Simmons that Coulson brings up one of Fitz’s ridiculous theories: Simmons was shrunk to a sub-atomic level. That’s a reference to Ant-Man and the unfortunate fate given to Janet Van Dyne.

Simmons on another planet

We don’t get any clues as to which planet Simmons is stuck but it must be a Kree planet. Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. has a strong link with the Inhumans, who have a shared history with the Kree, and Fox owns all the other important Marvel alien races. Seriously, Fox owns the rights to the X-Men, who tell stories of the Shi Ar, and they own the rights to the Fantastic Four, who bump into every other alien race in the Marvel universe. No wonder Marvel’s upset that they don’t own the rights to the Fantastic Four.

Elliot Randolph

I like Peter MacNicol. He reprises his role as Elliot Randolph, the Asgardian warrior who came to Earth many centuries ago. Randolph admits that he’s laying low because of the governments hate for irregulars. This sounds like a lead-in for Captain America: Civil War. It wouldn’t be the first time a Cap movie affected Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D..

Amazon Woman

A threatened Randolph referred to Bobbi, codename Mockingbird, as an “Amazon Woman.” Adrianne Palicki, who plays Bobbi Morse, starred as Wonder Woman in a terrible 2011 TV pilot. Looks like Marvel was poking fun at DC with that one.

Secret Warriors

During Dr. Garner and Daisy’s exchange, Dr. Garner refers to Daisy’s recruit of an army of super beings as her “Secret Warriors.” In the comics, Daisy starred in a comic series named Secret Warriors, where she and Nick Fury led a team of super powered folks. Coincidentally, Secret Warriors first introduced the idea that S.H.I.E.L.D. was a part of Hydra all along in the comics.

Werner von Strucker

On his quest to reconstitute Hydra, Grant Ward finds a descendant of Baron von Strucker’s, Werner von Strucker. Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. could’ve chosen Andreas von Strucker, the Swordsman, but they chose the less exciting Werner. I kid but not really. I’m sure Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. will spice up Werner and this wasn’t the first time the lesser of the von Struckers has hit the screen. Scott Heindl portrayed Werner in the David Hasselhoff engine, Nick Fury: Agent of Shield.

Let’s hope Werner von Strucker gets a better treatment here than he did in one of the first screenplays penned by David S. Goyer. I have a theory on what David S. Goyer’s middle initial really stands for but I’m told it’s Samuel. Let’s just say there’s a reason Nick Fury: Agent of Shield only got a 3.5 (out of a possible 10) on IMDB, and it can be illustrated in a Venn diagram where Goyer overlaps with Hasselhoff.

Did you miss our Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. review? Here’s a link. Enjoy.