'Agents of SHIELD' Is Putting Together the MCU's First Supervillain Team

Marvel Cinematic Universe fans have already seen Earth's Mightiest Heroes assemble as the Avengers. Marvel's Agents of SHIELD looks like it's about to assemble the supervillain equivalent.

SPOILERS for Marvel's Agents of SHIELD, "All the Comforts of Home", follow.

"All the Comforts of Home" brings the SHIELD team back to their own time period and picks up on some plot threads leftover from the Fitz-centric episode "Rewind." The episode reintroduces General Hale, the commanding officer of the Blue Raven base where Fitz was held as a prisoner for months. She also shot two of her subordinates in their heads for failing to stop Lance Hunter from breaking Fitz out of the base and then breaking back in to take Enoch's cryogenic capsule and the Zephyr One.

Now it turns out General Hale may be the supervillain equivalent of Nick Fury.

The tag to "All the Comforts of Home" shows Hale tracking down the Absorbing Man, "Crusher" Creel, in Philadelphia. After failing to protect General Talbot, Creel had given up on that kind of life. But Hale lets him know that she's "putting together a team."

Hale's line seems deliberately crafted to remind viewers of Nick Fury and the Avengers Initiative, the program that led to the formation of the Avengers. It seems like Hale has similar plans, but for less reputable individuals, though it is unlikely she would see it that. As her conversation with her daughter, Ruby earlier illustrates, she believes she and her people are the good guys in this situation.

Beside Creel, Hale has also recruited Ruby into her team. Ruby at first appears to be a particularly smart and cunning teenage girl who looks up to Daisy "Quake" Johnson. Later, she leads a team of robotic soldiers on a mission to capture SHIELD and uses her circular throwing blade to cut off Yo-Yo's arms. She later reveals that she did not take SHIELD in because Quake was not there. Her fixation is more than hero worship. Ruby is determined to take Quake in alive herself as if she was a figure to collect. Much about Ruby remains a mystery, but she's certainly capable of standing alongside Creel in battle with SHIELD.

Who else could join this group? Past episodes of this season hinted that gravitonium will play a role in the destruction of Earth. This could mean that Graviton will finally make his Marvel Cinematic Universe debut, as many fans suspected he would years ago.

Marvel's Agents of SHIELD airs Fridays at 9 p.m. ET on ABC.