It’s been a long time coming, Agents of SHIELD fans but thankfully, we finally have Graviton on the show.
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Thanks to the events during tonight’s episode “Option Two” and the previewed tagged on to the end of the episode previewing next week’s episode, we now know that Graviton is finally making his long-awaited appearance. Except the anti-hero is someone nobody saw coming.
At the end of “Option Two,” General Glenn Talbot (Adrian Pasdar) stumbled upon General Hale’s contraption of doom. Using it, Talbot was able to absorb the entire supply SHIELD had of gravitonium, which granted him a great amount of gravitation powers.
Judging by his power set and the uniform he’s seen wearing in the preview —which just so happens to be the same exact uniform of his comic book counterpart — it’s likely safe to say that Talbot will be playing the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s version of Graviton.
Gravitonium isn’t a new plot point in Agents of SHIELD by any means.
After Canadian physicist Franklin Hall was absorbed into a stockpile of gravitonium — a gravity-manipulating substance — near the end of Agents of SHIELD‘s first season, fans expected we’d get Graviton sooner rather than later.
Fans would end up disappointed as season after season went by without the slightest mention of gravitonium or Franklin Hall until this season — SHIELD’s fifth — when the substance was brought back into the fray.
In addition to the reemergence of gravitonium this season, we also found out that not only was Hall absorbed into the liquid metal, but former SHIELD villain Ian Quinn had also gotten sucked in as well.
Graviton was created by writer Jim Shooter and artist Sal Buscema, first appearing in Avengers #158 (1977). The character’s alter ego in the comics was Franklin Hall, a gravity researcher who eventually gained the ability to control gravity. Classically an enemy of the Avengers, Graviton would later join MODOK’s Advanced Idea Mechanics’ High Council as its Minister of Science.
Obviously now that the MCU’s version of Hall has been absorbed into the gravitonium, it appears they’re going a much different route in the creation of the character.
Marvel’s Agents of SHIELD airs Fridays at 9 pm ET on ABC.
Three episodes remain in this season. “The One Who Will Save Us All” airs next week while “The Force of Gravity” airs on May 11.
The season finale — “The End” — airs on May 18. According to the official synopsis of the finale, “Coulson’s life or death is the challenge the team finds themselves in, as the wrong decision will cause the destruction of Earth.”
