Agents Of SHIELD: Mace Gets A New Patriot Costume

04/02/2017 04:28 pm EDT

Marvel's Agents of SHIELD will finally return from its hiatus on Tuesdays with the beginning of the final story arc of the show's fourth season. The new story arc sees Phil Coulson and his team forced into a virtual reality called the Framework, where the Life Model Decoy called Aida fixed whatever their greatest regret was. For most of the characters, that means they are now working as agents of Hydra, with Aida herself acting as Madame Hydra. For Phil Coulson, that means leaving the espionage life behind and teaching grade school lessons about the threat of Inhumans.

But for SHIELD Director Jeffrey Mace, the Framework has a very different life in store. It was revealed earlier in this season of Agents of SHIELD that the director wasn't quite what he seemed. At first, he was said to be an Inhuman hero who protected innocent civilians who were caught in the blast in Vienna when the Sokovia Accords were being introduced in Captain America: Civil War.

The events of the season eventually forced Mace to admit that he is not an Inhuman or a hero. That public image began as a simple mistake, but then he Brigadier General Glenn Talbot offered him the chance to become a real hero, a Super Soldier, and the director of SHIELD via Project Patriot, a formula he could inject to gain super strength and durability.

Up Next: First Look At Madame Hydra On Agents of SHIELD

However, now that he's trapped in the Framework, Mace seems to be living a different life. Marvel and ABC released teaser art that reveals Mace is The Patriot, a wanted man in the world of the Framework. Of course, to be a fugitive in a world where Hydra is in power likely means that Mace is now a hero by any other standards.

To go with his Framework status quo, the art reveals Mace wearing a new superhero costume. The costume is quite similar to the all-black armor he wore in the field as director of SHIELD, but this version is mostly blue, meaning it more resembles Jeffrey Mace's Patriot costume from the Marvel Comics Universe. See for yourself in the gallery below.

In the Marvel Comics Universe, Jeffrey Mace is the Golden Age hero called the Patriot, who has no superpowers at all but still fight for freedom during World War II. Later, the Patriot became the third person to wear the mantle of Captain America, after Steve Rogers was frozen in ice and the second Captain America died in action. He later retired from the superhero life altogether.

It seems the Framework may bring Mace closer than ever to being a true superhero in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Now fans will just have to wait to see the new Patriot costume in its full, live-action glory.

Marvel's Agents of SHIELD airs Tuesdays at 10 p.m. ET on ABC.

MORE: Agents of SHIELD Propaganda Posters Hint At Life Under HYDRA / Agents Of SHIELD EP On How The Framework Effects FitzSimmons / New Rumors About Agents Of SHIELD's HYDRA Arc Detailed

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