Phillip Coulson

## Biography

### Early Life

The son of Robert and Julie Coulson, Phil was born in Manitowoc, Wisconsin. As an only child, he wished that he had siblings, idealizing what kind of relationship he would have with a younger brother. After high school, Coulson began studying history at college as well as how S.H.I.E.L.D. shaped the times. His interests got him recruited into S.H.I.E.L.D., where he studied at the Academy of Communications, eventually becoming a special agent and was taught by his supervising officer Nick Fury alongside John Garrett.

### Career with S.H.I.E.L.D.

Phil Coulson is a former Director of S.H.I.E.L.D. Prior to his appointment, he served as one of the organization's best operatives. He acted as former Director Nick Fury's right-hand man for many important missions. He was put in charge of surveillance and served as the primary operative in Fury's Avengers Initiative. Coulson also ran ground interference and tactical operations in Puente Antiguo, New Mexico, as part of S.H.I.E.L.D.'s investigation surrounding the incident with Thor and the Destroyer. Coulson was also the primary S.H.I.E.L.D. operative in the investigation into Stark Industries: Sector 16 and the incident on the Howard Stark Memorial Freeway.

During the Attack on the Helicarrier, Coulson was killed by Loki. His death gave the Avengers the push they needed to band together and stop the Chitauri invasion. On the orders of Director Fury, Coulson was brought to the Guest House, a secret facility where he was brought back to life using treatments developed by Project T.A.H.I.T.I., a project which he had formerly presided over. To preserve his sanity after he was healed, all memory of these events were removed from his mind.

Coulson returned to S.H.I.E.L.D. to lead a new team to investigate the cases S.H.I.E.L.D. had not yet classified. While on this team, Coulson discovered the truth about the events after his death. During the HYDRA Uprising, despite the dissolution of S.H.I.E.L.D. and the betrayal of a member of his team, he led his team against the forces of HYDRA, attempting to stop his former colleague John Garrett, winning the final battle in which Garrett was ultimately defeated. After the battle, Nick Fury appointed him the new Director of S.H.I.E.L.D., ordering him to rebuild the organization from scratch.

To perform this task, Coulson led the remains of S.H.I.E.L.D. in many battles against HYDRA, crippling the terrorist organization. He even made some contacts with the US military via Brigadier General Glenn Talbot. However, he became a fugitive when another faction of S.H.I.E.L.D., led by Robert Gonzales, attacked and occupied his base. Now accompanied by only a few loyal friends, Coulson started a battle to reclaim S.H.I.E.L.D. He eventually made a deal with Gonzales, and they worked together against HYDRa, finally reunifying the two factions into one organization with Coulson as its rightful director. However, a new threat soon arose, the Inhumans led by Jiaying, the mother of Agent Skye. In the ensuing conflict, both S.H.I.E.L.D. and the Inhumans suffered casualties, and even Coulson paid an extreme price to achieve victory, having his left arm cut off. But even that loss did not stop him, and he started a new project that would ensure the safety of humanity.

The mission of recruiting Inhumans for the team became more difficult, as the Advanced Threat Containment Unit led by Rosalind Price, was dealing with the threat of the new Inhumans. However, Coulson had a relationship with Price while facing the threats of Grant Ward's HYDRA, Lash, and the Inhumans. After Ward killed Price, Coulson followed him to the planet Maveth and killed him to avenge all the people whom he had murdered. As he thought that Gideon Malick was the last remaining leader of HYDRA, Coulson discovered that the ancient Inhuman, Hive, had returned to Earth from Maveth, using Ward's body as a host. With Malick's death, Coulson, with feelings of guilt for causing this threat, invested efforts to prevent Hive from accomplishing his plant to change all humans into Inhumans and to control all of them. Once Lincoln Campbell sacrificed himself to kill Hive and save humanity, the directorship of S.H.I.E.L.D. passed to Jeffrey Mace, while Coulson and Alphonso Mackenzie conducted a pursuit after the former agent turned vigilante Daisy Johnson.

With the revelation of Lucy Bauer and her ambition to find the dangerous Darkhold book, Coulson created an alliance with Johnson and Ghost Rider to find the book before the ghost did. He was caught in an explosion with Ghost Rider and Fitz by Eli Morrow and almost sank into another dimension but managed to get out with help from Holden Radcliffe and Aida. Coulson then led the last fight against Morrow. Following the revelation that Mace was not actually an Inhuman, Coulson returned to the position of Director *de facto* while Mace remained *de jure* Director. Continuing fighting the Watchdogs and their leader Anton Ivanov who targeted him, Coulson was kidnapped by Radcliffe, replaced by an LMD and put inside the Framework, where he lived as a history teacher. With the help of Johnson and Jemma Simmons, Coulson escaped the Framework, only to face against the threat of Aida to the world.

After he killed her by temporarily bonding with a demonic entity, Coulson and the others were sen to the year 2091, when Earth had been destroyed and the surviving humans were enslaved by the Kree. He and the other agents eventually made it back to present day, although Coulson revealed that he was dying from his old injury due to his deal with the Spirit of Vengeance. In order to learn more about the Destruction of Earth, Coulson was imprisoned by General Hale, who not only revealed that HYDRA still existed under her lead, but also that there was an impending alien invasion. Following his escape, S.H.I.E.L.D. entered into a conflict with the alien Confederacy, but as he was trying to negotiate with them, his friend Talbot turned into a villainous powered person. Following Talbot's defeat and aversion of the destruction of Earth, Coulson chose to retire and live his remaining days in Tahiti with Melinda May with whom he started a relationship.

## Relatives

* Robert Coulson (*father, deceased*)
* Julie Coulson (*mother, deceased*)

## Powers and Abilities

### Powers

**Cybernetic Enhancements:** After losing his hand and replacing it with a prosthetic hand, Coulson acquired a number of powers. However, in order to avoid having his hand confiscated by the police during his expected arrest, Coulson has currently switched to a "civvy hand" which has only enhanced strength and nothing else.

* ***Enhanced Strength:*** Coulson's cybernetic hand gives him some degree of enhanced strength. He was able to keep Lash, an Inhuman with great physical strenth, from killing Alphonso Mackenzie by gripping his arm, as well as kill Grant Ward by crushing his chest. The newest version of his cybernetic hand made him strong enough to crush a metal pipe, rip the barrel off an assault rifle, and to momentarily stun the android Aida with a single hit. Coulson's "civvy hand" is strong enough to match and even overpower a Kree soldier's own strength.
* ***Scanning:*** By making direct contact with another person's hand, Coulson can scan their handprint, as he did at the Symposium on Alien Contagion.
* ***Electronic Disruption:*** Coulson is able to disrupt electronic signals, such as the audio signal of the security cameras used in the room where Bobbi Morse and Lance Hunter had been interrogated.
* ***Electromagnetic Pulse Emission:*** Coulson claimed that Leo Fitz could remotely trigger and EMP over the hand.
* ***Energy Shield Construction:*** The hand can generate an energy shield which is capable of withstanding explosions and gunfire.
* ***Vehicle Manipulation:*** Coulson remotely controlled a Quinjet using his hand when there was no other way out of the Playground.
* ***X-Ray Vision:*** The hand is capable of projecting X-rays in order to see inside of objects, such as a truck.
* ***Electronic Communication:*** When their Quinjet crashed after fleeing from the Attack on Jeffrey Mace, Coulson attempted to call the base with his hand.

#### Former Powers

**Demonic Transformation:** In an attempt to have Aida lower her guard so that the Spirit of Vengeance could get to her, Coulson briefly bonded to the Spirit of Vengeance and was able to transform into a demonic, flame-engulfed, humanoid skeleton.

* ***Superhuman Strength:*** While transformed, he was able to easily restrain Aida despite her superhuman strength.
* ***Fire Manipulation:*** While transformed, he had various fire-based powers, similar to the other Ghost Riders. He managed to use his fire-based powers to incinerate Aida, who screamed in agony and pain as she died and disintegrated.

### Abilities

**Expert Martial Artist:** Coulson is highly trained in multiple martial arts and hand-to-hand combat styles, taking on a highly-trained specialist as Grant Ward, easily holding his own against a brainwashed Agent 33, and even fighting Calvin Zabo, a man with enhanced strength, on equal terms. He easily subdued Sebastian Derik, a highly trained assassin, even after having been tortured by him, and handled himself against Alphonso Mackenzie, who had gained strength from being under the control of the Kree City. He also killed an LMD of Anton Ivanov after leaving the Framework.

**Expert Marksman:** Coulson is skilled in the use of military assault weapons as well as edged weapons. He has wielded a variety of weapons in his missions, including experimental weapons.

**Expert Spy:** Coulson is an expert at intelligence and espionage. He could tell what the man controlling Akela Amador looked like just by her description of how he typed. He has maintained very good covers on multiple occasions including when pursuing Ian Quinn on a train, at Cybertek's offices, and at Gabriel Soto's party in Miami, where he, along with Melinda May, were able to locate all the security cameras.

**Multilingualism:** Coulson is fluent in English and Spanish, though claiming he is only able to speak "vacation Spanish". Coulson used this skill in multiple missions, especially in Peru, where he was stationed in 2002. He also speaks some Russian, albeit not fluently.

**Master Tactician:** An accomplished logistics specialist, Coulson assesses tactical situations and implements equipment and personnel as needed. He is also very proficient at designing operations. He is a recognized expert on analysis, being able to run possible scenarios for any given situatiion and quickly recognize the probable one, such when deducing the Clairvoyant was a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent or the reason why Skye accompanied Grant Ward out of Providence despite knowing he was a HYDRA operative. He also excels at tracking fugitives, being able to locate Ward in Tijuana while he was running from justice. Once he became the Director of S.H.I.E.L.D., Coulson was able to develop plans and strategies that gave severe blows to HYDRA and to end the threat posed by Jiaying and her community of Inhumans intending to develop an open war against S.H.I.E.L.D.

**Expert Interrogator:** Coulson is an expert in interrogations, knowing how to gather intelligence from rather small bits of information. While talking to Erik Selvig, Coulson knew that he was lying about the true identity of "Donald Blake". He had figured out that Elliot Randolph was an Asgardian based on how he interrogated Thor. During an interrogation of Glenn Talbot, Coulson knew what to say to get the emotional reaction he wanted to glean Talbot's fingerprints. Coulson interviewed each remaining member of his team to learn that Grant Ward loved his brother Thomas.