Who are the villains of SHIELD?

I’ve only seen a few scattered episodes of Agents of SHIELD but I have seen and read enough about the show to appreciate that it has used some of the Marvel Universe villains thus far in its run. I don’t know the TV show well enough to tell who these people are on TV, but here’s who the villains are in the comics.

The show mentioned Graviton once, although I’m not sure he ever actually appeared. He’s a villain with the power to manipulate local gravity fields, making things lighter or heavier. I mainly remember him from trapping Wonder Man at the bottom of a pool in West Coast Avengers and nearly drowning him.

Lorelei was on a few episodes. She is the younger sister of the Asgardian villain Amora the Enchantress. In the ‘80s, Lorelei disguised herself as an Earthwoman and seduced Thor by feeding him enchanted golden mead that lowered his inhibitions. Amusingly, Odin knew about Lorelei’s deception but did not intervene because she was Asgardian and more suitable for Thor than a regular human. Nothing but the best for the heir to the throne.

Agents of SHIELD has also featured John Garrett, who isn’t quite a villain but was an antagonist in the legendary 1986 miniseries Elektra: Assassin. In that comic, he is a (kind of dirtbag) SHIELD agent whom Elektra mentally seduces into helping her break out of prison. The two fight ninjas underwater and battle the demonic Beast, who has possessed liberal presidential candidate Ken Wind in an attempt to destroy the world with nuclear missiles. Garrett winds up switching his mind with Wind and becomes president, saving the world temporarily but also bringing some dangerous bravado to the office of the president. The inclusion of this character tickles me because this story has more of a cult following and I like knowing that someone out there knows it like I do.

I read that a recent episode showed the Absorbing Man, who is only known in the show as his alter ego, Crusher Creel. He is a longtime villain of Thor and the Avengers, given power by Loki to piss off his brother. He can absorb the properties of anything he touches, making him theoretically indestructible, as he can become living steel. However, he is also dumb as a post so he inevitably ends up in prison.