Anton Ivanov was a major antagonist in the Marvel television series Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.. Appearing in Seasons 4 and 5, he was the leader of the anti-Inhuman hate group known as the Watchdogs, who referred to him as The Superior. A true xenophobe, Ivanov made it his mission in life to exterminate all Inhumans, believing that they did not deserve the powers they had since he felt that men should earn power. As well as pursuing his anti-Inhuman agenda, he also wanted to destroy S.H.I.E.L.D. - Phil Coulson, in particular - out of vengeance for the deaths of his SVR comrades.
History[]
Early life[]
Anton Ivanov was born in Russia and was formerly-affiliated with the Soviet Union before its eventual collapse. As a child, he had admired his father, who worked in the oil industry for little pay. However, one day, his admiration for him disappeared when he witnessed him sucking up to a powerful rich man.
According to his S.H.I.E.L.D. file, Ivanov was an avid collector of submarines, tanks and other military vehicles and weapons. Before becoming a collector, he was a guard at a mining facility in Russia, where an 0-8-4 was being kept. S.H.I.E.L.D. agents Phil Coulson and Melinda May went there at some point to obtain it, and Anton was among those who arrested them. After Coulson was saved by May, Anton was horrified to find all his comrades tortured, dead and buried; blaming S.H.I.E.L.D. for this crime, he began to search for Coulson himself, tracing his movements even after his alleged demise in 2012 at the hands of Loki.
Season 4[]
At some unknown point in 2017 or before, Ivanov became the leader of a notorious supremacist organization called the Watchdogs, who sought to kill all the world's Inhuman population after the Inhuman Outbreak in early 2015, viewing S.H.I.E.L.D. as weak for seeking to help them when in years past, they'd done the opposite to individuals with superhuman abilities. He also made an alliance with US Senator Ellen Nadeer, who also hated Inhumans, and became the source of her funding for anti-Inhuman activities. He also accepted help from former S.H.I.E.L.D. agent Felix Blake, who believed that S.H.I.E.L.D. had gone soft on them as well.
Uprising[]
After the Watchdogs launched EMP attacks on Los Angeles and Miami, Ivanov pretended to be a faceless Inhuman under a cover of shadows as he broadcast threats on live television, telling the public that other cities around the world would be struck unless the United Nations scrapped the Sokovia Accords, which were made to keep track of Inhuman movements and keep the Avengers under control. He sent Watchdog members to Miami to kidnap Elena "Yo-Yo" Rodriguez, and when Agents Phil Coulson, Leo Fitz and Alphonso "Mack" Mackenzie found her being targeted by men with guns, they figured out that they were really Watchdogs. They managed to locate the EMP device and disable it, stopping Ivanov's plans for the time-being.
Broken Promises[]
As the Superior, Ivanov ordered Watchdog members to kill Senator Nadeer's brother Vijay, who had become an Inhuman, but S.H.I.E.L.D. stopped them and Nadeer took her brother away in a helicopter. The Watchdogs were somewhat surprised to see Nadeer shoot her brother in the chest just as Ivanov ordered, and they dropped the body in the ocean.
Hot Potato Soup[]
Ivanov would later meet Dr. Holden Radcliffe, a S.H.I.E.L.D. consultant who defected for his own protection; Radcliffe told him about the Darkhold, a mysterious "magic" book seemingly written by the Devil himself which could provide the secrets of the universe. After being told that the book could give him the power to wipe out the Inhumans, Ivanov agreed to help Radcliffe acquire it. To this end, he kidnapped Agent Billy Keonig, who knew where the book really was, and had Radcliffe pretend to be a hostage. He told Keonig about his view of S.H.I.E.L.D., putting too much faith in machines, whereas man was the superior machine.
Ivanov prepared to cut out Keonig's eyes when Radcliffe broke character and found himself unable to watch such a barbaric act, offering a less-bloody way. He then placed Keonig on a chair, where his mind would be mapped-out by a machine called the Framework, which could pick out his memories and find the book that way. Ivanov grew impatient about the long setup process, but Radcliffe assured him that the Darkhold was worth it all. Ivanov explained his hatred of Inhumans as being because of them acquiring great power without earning any of it rightfully.
Aida, Radcliffe's android assistant, said that the process was finished and so they proceeded to scan Keonig's memories and find the place where the book was currently being hidden. Ivanov vowed to destroy the "thing" that he believed brought the Chitauri to Earth. Ivanov had little faith in the Framework, wanting to use his own barbaric methods to get Keonig to talk, but Aida killed his minion Leo, revealing herself as an android, but Ivanov thought of her as an Inhuman at first until Radcliffe corrected him.
Radcliffe later returned to the submarine after retrieving the Darkhold from the Keonigs' secret location, the Labyrinth, and drank with Ivanov, and learned that before, when he was talking about the "thing" that brought the aliens to Earth, he was actually referring to Agent Coulson, who was at the scene of most alien-related events despite being reported dead in 2012. Radcliffe agreed to help Ivanov find Coulson and kill him.
BOOM[]
While Radcliffe was spending his time in the Framework, which he was slowly gaining an addiction to, he exited it to find Ivanov reading the Darkhold, much to his fury, thinking that he should be the only one to do it. However, Ivanov stated that he now knew how to destroy the Inhumans; the key was Radcliffe himself and his plans with the LMDs. Radcliffe later showed Ivanov a case full of non-lethal Terrigen Crystals; they could make an Inhuman undergo Terrigenesis while leaving any human it reached unharmed. To this end, he sent Tucker Shockley, one of his henchmen, to Senator Nadeer, believing that if her brother had Inhuman DNA, she could potentially have it too.
However, Shockley went through Terrigenesis instead, exploding while in his cocoon and blowing up Nadeer's office and killing her. Shockley escaped and falsely claimed that Nadeer was the Inhuman and the crystal caused the explosion. They hugged, and Ivanov told him that he had to leave the country before S.H.I.E.L.D. found Radcliffe in his submarine. After leaving, Agent Daisy "Quake" Johnson captured the other Watchdogs, including Shockley. While on the road, Ivanov was called by Shockley, who told him that he was really the cause of the explosion in Nadeer's office. He offered to prove his loyalty to their cause, which intrigued Ivanov. Later, after gaining S.H.I.E.L.D.'s attention, Ivanov and other Watchdogs kidnapped Director Jeffrey Mace.
The Man Behind the Shield[]
With Mace as their hostage, the Watchdogs had his vest removed and left it at a warehouse in Russia for S.H.I.E.L.D. to find, along with a map of sorts that showed how hard Ivanov had been tracking Coulson over the years for his vendetta. On his submarine, Ivanov found Radcliffe still in the Framework, and tried to punch him to wake him up, but Aida stopped him as it could damage his brain and affect his importance to the Watchdogs' plans. Aida woke him up, much to his anger, and saw Ivanov there staring at him, seemingly feeling contempt for him spending so much time in the Framework. Though Radcliffe insisted that Aida could do everyone he could, Ivanov said that "a robot" wasn't the one he made a deal with, but it was made with Radcliffe himself. Radcliffe returned to the Framework, angering Ivanov.
Ivanov then saw to Mace, who was tied-up and beaten badly, revealing that he was not an Inhuman, but a normal man using a dangerous chemical to give himself powers. Ivanov let Mace escape by leaving the door open, then let him walk around until standing before the rest of the guards. Ivanov subdued Mace himself and had him put back in his cell, where he told him a story about how his father kissed the boots of a powerful man and lost all respect for him. Mace believed that being given the dangerous chemical serum was necessary, but Ivanov found Brigadier General Glenn Talbot akin to the powerful man that his father feared. He left the cell and found Aida outside, wanting to tell Radcliffe how it went. He was still rather impressed by the advancement and lief-like nature of the LMDs, and wondered if his methods were disturbing her, to which she responded that it was "unusual". Ivanov mocked her, saying "even filth has a purpose" before leaving her to dwell on her thoughts.
Coulson, meanwhile, arrives at the mining facility where the 0-8-4 was being kept years ago and found the skeletons of Ivanov's SVR comrades, having been dug up and placed there with a cellphone in one's skull. Ivanov, on the other end of the line, blamed Coulson for the deaths of his comrades, whom he had to dig up in order to pay respects to them, and promised to kill him and his team. He then went back to Mace in his cell and noted that he'd hidden behind S.H.I.E.L.D. and the Avengers while scheming away his own agenda, which Mace mocked as being nothing but a crazy conspiracy theory gone too far. He gave Mace a chance to denounce S.H.I.E.L.D. for its crimes, but he refused to do so and mocked Ivanov for his lack of real humanity. Now having his answer, Ivanov untied Mace "out of respect", then sent his minions in to beat him to death while he walked away.
As S.H.I.E.L.D. agents entered the base to save Mace, Ivanov found his way into a room to cut off Coulson, who had arrived at last, much to Ivanov's satisfaction, having waited many, many years to face him. He took note of Coulson's prosthetic robot hand, which he used to enhance himself; as he pinned the Chitauri attack in 2012 on Coulson right before him, Coulson realized that Ivanov was one of the guards at the facility where he took the 0-8-4 years ago. Coulson mocked Ivanov, describing him as nothing but a simple Redshirt who stood in his path to saving the world, saying that he didn't even remember what the Russian 0-8-4 looked like, what it did or why it mattered, and even laughed inside at not even knowing who Ivanov was despite all his time spent stalking him. Agent Johnson arrived and stood before Ivanov while Coulson left; the Russian challenged her to a fight, but she used her powers to blast him into a wall. He quickly recovered and fought Daisy, but was thrown through a column, where rubble from above fell on him and nearly killed him. Daisy left the room after that. Later, Aida arrived and saved Ivanov, believing that he still had a purpose to serve.
Self Control[]
Ivanov's battle with Quake had left him broken and paralyzed below the waist. Aida took him back to his oil rig base where she prepared to operate on him, but Ivanov warned her that he did not want to be plugged into the Framework or exist as a machine like she did. Aida assured him that he would become "many things" as she brought an electric saw down upon him and began carving up his body, all while Ivanov was still conscious and screaming in agony.
When Aida was done, Ivanov's head had been removed from his body and was kept alive inside a jar with numerous electrodes connected to his brain. When Ivanov awoke, he found himself in what appeared to be his normal body, repaired and whole again. As Aida then explained, his mind was controlling a robotic duplicate of his original body, showing his own disembodied head to him. While initially enraged, Ivanov soon came to see the advantages this state of being presented. Not only was his strength enhanced, but he had control over multiple LMD copies of himself.
All the Madame's Men[]
After Jeffrey Mace died inside the Framework, Ivanov disconnected his body from the hardware and crushed the Director's bones before dumping his body in the ocean. That way, when Mace's body was found, it would appear as though Quake had been the one to kill him.
After Aida logged out of the Framework following her avatar's injury at the hands of Quake, she informed Ivanov of how the S.H.I.E.L.D. agents were being made aware of their circumstances and were fighting back. Ivanov suggested that they simply kill the agents in the real world to prevent them from complicating their plans, but as he put a gun to Melinda May's head, he found himself unable to pull the trigger. Aida explained that as an LMD, his body was bound by the parameters set by Dr. Radcliffe, which meant that he could not harm the agents while they were still inside the Framework.
Aida, however, told Ivanov that the Framework was in danger due to the actions of both Jemma Simmons and Daisy Johnson, who the Superior had remembered as the Inhuman who had crippled his body during their previous fight. Aida went on to note they had hacked into the Framework, and were now attempting to dismantle it all from the inside, and therefore needed to die, so Ivanov was ordered to find them and kill them. Desiring nothing more than a chance to get his own revenge against Quake, Ivanov noted that due to their last encounter, he would do this mission with great personal pleasure.
While his Watchdogs continued working on Project Looking Glass for Aida, Ivanov became distracted and picked up one of his knives from a table. Superior then went up to Phil Coulson, who was still locked inside of the Framework with the others, as Ivanov then attempted to drive his knife into Coulson's throat, still seeking revenge for the deaths of his allies in the SVR. Ivanov found himself once again incapable of killing Coulson, and so he furiously promised that once the machines had freed him from the parameters that were keeping him from killing, he then would slice open Coulson's throat.
The Return[]
Whilst waiting for Aida to resolve the situation in the Framework, Ivanov was left aboard his oil platform with only his duplicates to talk to. Soon enough, Aida had completed Project Looking Glass and the machine that the Watchdogs had assembled for her produced a new organic body for her, complete with Inhuman abilities. While Aida teleported away with Leo Fitz, Ivanov saw Coulson and May emerge from the Framework machine, which meant he was no longer restricted from killing them. Ivanov attacked and Coulson and May shot him, but his mechanical body was immune to pain. He took down May before charging at Coulson, pressing a gun under his chin and mocking him for having no S.H.I.E.L.D. to hide behind. Just then, however, Coulson activated his prosthetic hand's energy shield which sliced clean through the front of Ivanov's head, severing his face.
While Coulson had killed one of Ivanov's bodies, there were many more aboard the rig and two more approached May and Coulson, who were shocked by this revelation. They locked themselves inside the room to keep Ivanov away while they tried to figure out a way to defend themselves. Ivanov's two bodies worked together to hack into the door and then get back inside, intending to beat the two agents to death. Upon entering their room, they only found Alphonso Mackenzie inside, still logged in the Framework, as Coulson and May were nowhere to be seen.
Ivanov discovered that May had used Epinephrine to enhance her adrenaline as she charged out of the shadows and attacked him along with Coulson. The two Ivanovs then fought against May and Coulson, unaffected by their blows, but soon found out that the pair were superior fighters, as May soon disarmed the Superior she was fighting while Coulson kept the upper hand. Eventually, Coulson had succeeded in electrocuting one of the robotic bodies, killing it, while May crushed the other Superior's head with a hammer, by furiously striking him before collapsing, exhausted from the Epinephrine.
However, while Ivanov was keeping May and Coulson distracted, his Watchdogs were loading all of his equipment onto his submarine. Once they had loaded all of the essentials, the submarine departed from the oil platform and fired torpedoes at it, causing the facility to begin collapsing. As Ivanov (in another LMD body) watched the oil rig collapse, Aida suddenly teleported aboard the submarine and demanded that the Watchdogs cease their attack and save the S.H.I.E.L.D. agents. Ivanov mocked Aida, noting that she no longer had control over him and that despite her apparent empathy at that moment, she had felt no such empathy when he had taken a hammer to Mace's corpse. Aida became angry and threatened to kill Ivanov, but the Superior was unimpressed by her threat, stating that she could destroy this body but his brain was elsewhere and he had numerous other bodies to control. Aida then disappeared from the submarine and went to rescue the S.H.I.E.L.D. agents herself.
Some time later, Aida returned to Ivanov's submarine, having suffered a violent breakdown after Leo Fitz had rejected her. Ivanov seemed to take amusement from Aida's suffering, also noting that she had the emotional fortitude of a child and was being overwhelmed by her newfound feelings. He then explained that it was possible to use the Darkhold to remake the world as she had envisioned with the Framework, a world under her total control. Aida found the prospect appealing, especially if it hurt Fitz and his friends. After downing Ivanov's bottle of vodka, she pushed him to the floor and began having rough sexual intercourse with him. However, her rage got the better of her and she furiously smashed Ivanov's android head open on the deck. This didn't kill Ivanov, of course, as his consciousness controlled multiple android bodies, one of which appeared in the doorway and asked Aida if she felt any better.
World's End[]
After reaching the Watchdogs' warehouse, Aida and Ivanov began plotting to destroy S.H.I.E.L.D. and recreate the world of the Framework in the real world. In the midst of their plotting, they were interrupted by the arrival of the Ghost Rider, who demanded the Darkhold. While one of Ivanov's copies fought the Rider, another fled the scene. The Rider threw his opponent against the wall, hard enough to damage key circuitry and shut it down. He then attacked Aida with his Hellfire Chain, severely burning her arm before she managed to teleport away.
Back on the Watchdogs' submarine, Ivanov looked at Aida's wound, noting how it wasn't healing as fast as it should. The Superior surmised that this was due to Aida's organic body being made of the same dark matter that comprised the hellish dimension that the Spirit of Vengeance came from, thus the Ghost Rider was the only one capable of killing her now.
As part of Aida's plan, Ivanov disguised himself as an intelligence agency official in order to infiltrate the International Intelligence Inquiry Committee being hosted by General Talbot. There, he made the claim that S.H.I.E.L.D. had gone renegade and were weaponizing Inhumans for their own agenda, much like HYDRA had attempted to do. Talbot insisted that Ivanov was lying, but the Superior insisted that he be allowed to finish, presenting the Darkhold to the Committee as the solution to their S.H.I.E.L.D. problem. As Talbot was about to object again, an LMD of Quake suddenly barged into the meeting room and shot him in the head. This gave Ivanov the chance to turn public opinion against both Inhumans and S.H.I.E.L.D.. Moments later, Agents Coulson and May entered the room and fired on Ivanov, who shrugged off the bullets and made his escape. With real S.H.I.E.L.D. agents now on the scene, Ivanov's plan to discredit them was now in action.
A short while later, Ivanov found Quake battling against several Life-Model Decoys of herself. After she had managed to destroy them, Ivanov struck by throwing a knife into her shoulder. Feeling confident, he then reminded Quake that even if she destroyed his current body, he would simply build another body and keep coming, vowing that neither she nor S.H.I.E.L.D. could stop him from completing his plans. Quake told the Superior that he really shouldn't claim to be unstoppable as this always led to the bad guys being stopped. At that very moment, Ivanov had the Hellfire Chain wrapped all around his body before Ghost Rider then pulled him across the air, burning his robotic body. Just as Ivanov was flying through the air, Quake fired one of her shockwaves at him which caused his android body to be torn apart. However, Ivanov's human head and brain remained hidden, allowing him to get away, while Aida was later found and destroyed by the Spirit of Vengeance.
Season 5[]
The Devil Complex[]
Some time after orchestrating S.H.I.E.L.D.'s downfall with Aida, Ivanov was later apprehended by General Hale of the U.S. Air Force. Hale, who was actually leading her own HYDRA cell, forced Ivanov into assisting her with preventing an apocalyptic event. When pressed into HYDRA's service, Ivanov's severed head was attached to an upgraded cybernetic body and his remaining copies were converted into Sleeper Mechs, which Ivanov retained control over for Hale's purposes.
When Hale had been captured by S.H.I.E.L.D., Ivanov arrived onboard Zephyr One to ensure her freedom, with Carl Creel also on board, threatening to blow up the plane if they did not obey their instructions to allow Ivanov to free Hale from her cell. Ivanov was greeted by Coulson, who held him at gunpoint, as the Superior noted that Coulson should not have hoped to have seen the last of him. The two then discussed if Ivanov still believed himself to be the superior man, to which he claimed that since gaining his current body he had redefined what it meant to be superior, noting that parts of him would always be human while he remained stronger and immortal. Ivanov claimed that humanity was threatened as he then demanded that they hand over Hale, promising that Creel would destroy their plane if they did not obey him.
Eventually, Hale had arrived while being protected by Creel, standing by Ivanov. While Coulson accused Hale of working with a terrorist like Ivanov, he also claimed that it was the Superior who had been responsible for shooting of General Talbot, which Creel insisted was not the case as he noted Daisy Johnson was the one who had shot Talbot. Hale, however, then pointed out that the Superior himself was an android built from Leo Fitz's designs, while offering to take him apart to prove it. Ivanov watched as Coulson had agreed to go with Hale, in exchange for the safety of his agents, despite all of Melinda May's fierce objections to the contrary.
Once on board the Quinjet, Hale took over the controls while Ivanov ordered Coulson to put on a mask and turn over his own prosthetic hand to be scanned for weapons. He listened as Coulson tried to convince Creel that he was on the wrong side before turning back to Ivanov and questioning why his Sleeper Mechs did not have his face, with Ivanov claiming that the robots were nothing more than soldiers. Coulson theorized that when Aida was killed, Ivanov had also lost the ability to make more Life-Model Decoys. When Coulson had claimed Hale must have something over him, she had confessed that she currently had possession of Ivanov's severed head.
The Honeymoon[]
On General Hale's order, Ivanov was sent to HYDRA's facility in Herefordshire, England, where their Particle Infusion Chamber was located. Upon arriving at the facility, the Superior ordered his team of Sleeper Mechs to head inside and procure the Chamber. Before long, the Chamber had been secured, so Ivanov contacted called Hale at her facility to tell her of his success. Hale noted that she would join the Superior once Werner von Strucker had finished writing out his father's detailed plans for the device. When Ivanov reminded Hale of her promise to him, she reassured him that he would have his own chance to step into the Chamber himself, and become the Superior man. Their conversation was cut short, however, when an explosion occurred in the facility, as Ivanov and his soldiers went to investigate.
The explosion was soon revealed to have been caused by the arrival of the S.H.I.E.L.D. agents who had come to steal the Particle Infusion Chamber before HYDRA could get their hands on it. While Leo Fitz and Jemma Simmons were being held down with the tense shootout against his own squad of Sleeper Mechs, Ivanov stopped and confronted Yo-Yo Rodriguez. Drawing out his knives, he then attacked Yo-Yo, furiously slashing at her as she avoided all his hits and tried to hit back against him. Looking at her new bionic arms, the Superior commented that he had heard about Ruby Hale maiming her during her previous mission, comparing himself to Yo-Yo by noting that she was also now part machine. Yo-Yo, however, noted that she was not machine where it mattered and furiously fought back against the arrogant Superior. Ivanov knocked Yo-Yo to the floor, noting that his cyborg body did not feel pain.
However, Yo-Yo refused to give up the fight, fighting back with all her S.H.I.E.L.D. training, despite no longer actually being able to use her Inhuman power due to the nervous feedback from her arms causing her tremendous pain. But, with her new enhanced strength from her cybernetic arms, she was able to push Ivanov away before then picking up one of his discarded knives from the floor and began slashing back at him. With Ivanov now on the defense, Yo-Yo proceeded to use this to her advantage as she pushed him down the facility's corridors, before managing to slice open his shirt, revealing how his human head now rested over a Life-Model Decoy body.
Seeing that his head was his weakness, Yo-Yo commented that Ivanov was part machine before she then grabbed ahold of his head and furiously pushed him out of the nearby window. The both of them fell several floors down to the ground, with Ivanov dying on impact as his skull smashed against the concrete while Yo-Yo was only mildly injured due to using Ivanov's body to cushion her fall. Upon Ivanov's death, the Sleeper Mechs he was controlling all shut down simultaneously, saving the lives of Fitz and Simmons who had been trapped in a room with them.