Ian Quinn was a major antagonist in Season 1 of the TV series Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.. He was the CEO of Quinn Worldwide which worked for HYDRA's Centipede Group under John Garrett.
History[]
Early life[]
Quinn attended Cambridge University with Franklin Hall, and the two became friends through their mutual belief that ideas belong to no one and that knowledge should be free to anyone who could use it. It was during this time, that Quinn saw the potential of Hall's then-theoretical element Gravitonium, despite Hall's fear of the danger posed by it.
Quinn Worldwide[]
Quinn later practiced this belief, using Franklin Hall's and others' ideas and turning them into Quinn Worldwide, a huge multi-national conglomerate. Outwardly a generous and benevolent philanthropist with charitable donations exceeding more than eight billion dollars, in truth he was ruthless in his business practices, shunning regulation and oversight to the detriment of the environment and local populations. During this time, he began a 20-year search for the near-mythic Gravitonium.
Seeking to avoid regulation and legal blowback, Quinn moved his operation to Malta, where he obtained citizenship and could operate free from legal persecution from other nations. It was during this time, after twenty years and twelve mines on six continents, that he finally discovered a large deposit of Gravitonium.
Gravitonium[]
Quinn, wishing to have the expertise of his old friend Hall, and believing that Hall would want to be a part of the experiments, arranged to have Hall kidnapped from his position as a S.H.I.E.L.D. asset during a S.H.I.E.L.D. transport, and brought to Malta.
During his men's attack on the S.H.I.E.L.D. convoy, they used a gravity weapon and an excavator to open the truck. What Quinn didn't anticipate was that it was Franklin Hall himself that leaked the information necessary to enable his own kidnapping. Hall had heard of Quinn's discovery and sought to destroy the Gravitonium for the safety of the world. When Hall activated the Gravity Field Generator to overload, Quinn saw the effects and realized that Hall was trying to destroy the Gravitonium and kill Quinn in the process. He ordered the evacuation of his compound and escaped by way of his private helicopter.
Hall's attempt to destroy the Gravitonium was stopped by a S.H.I.E.L.D. extraction team led by Agent Phil Coulson, who feared for the lives that would be lost if the Gravitonium was destroyed in this manner and deactivated the generator, seemingly sacrificing Hall in the process. The Gravitonium was confiscated by S.H.I.E.L.D. and stored in an unmarked vault at The Fridge, a S.H.I.E.L.D. storage facility. Given Quinn's status as a citizen of Malta, he did not face any legal repercussions from his kidnapping of Hall or his assault of S.H.I.E.L.D. agents in the kidnapping attempt.
Further dealings[]
Some time later, Quinn attempted to buy Donnie Gill and Seth Dormer's freezing device, and his request for a demonstration lead to the formation of an icy 'superstorm' over the S.H.I.E.L.D. Academy of Science and Technology. After S.H.I.E.L.D.'s investigation of this incident, Agent Coulson made a call to Quinn's personal phone to warn him against his malicious dealings. Quinn retaliated with a cryptic mention from "the Clairvoyant", revealing that he had some form of dealings with the enigmatic figure that was behind Project Centipede.
Soon after, Coulson's team suspected that Quinn was involved with the tech they acquired in Jamaica. Later on when investigating the disappearance of Mike Peterson, Skye infiltrated Quinn's Italian compound and discovered the Deathlok program. Upon finding Skye, Quinn's men disarmed her and held her hostage. He awoke Mike Peterson and gave him a Cybertek robotic leg. He asked Peterson if he would kill Skye, to which Peterson said that those were not his orders and left to execute the Cybertek team. When Skye demanded answers, Quinn shot her twice in the abdomen and left her for dead, claiming he had his own orders. He was subsequently captured by Coulson's team and taken to the Bus.
Agent John Garrett arrived on a plane with Agent Antoine Triplett to take Quinn into custody. As Agents Grant Ward and Triplett fought due to conflicting orders concerning Quinn, Coulson stopped the fight and convinced Garrett to leave Quinn in his custody until Skye could recover, if she could recover, from her gunshot wounds. Upon finding a means to that recovery in the secret Guest House facility, Coulson's team turned Quinn over to Garrett, who took him to the Fridge.
S.H.I.E.L.D. civil war[]
Quinn was then freed after HYDRA revealed its existence inside of S.H.I.E.L.D. He was then brought to Havana, Cuba, to the "Clairvoyant", who was really John Garrett, the man who threatened to pull his tongue off. There, he was brought to HYDRA's secret headquarters. At first, he was angry that Garrett had no real powers. However, Quinn's qualms about him were set aside when Garrett gave him his Gravitonium back.
After Quinn got his hair cut, he left for Washington, D.C. and met with representatives of the United States Armed Forces. He explained that, with S.H.I.E.L.D. now defunct, he could sell to them a thousand Deathlok Soldiers for the War on Terror after they took a tour of the new facility he had in New Mexico.
While giving a tour of the Cybertek Manufacturing Facility to the United States Armed Forces, Coulson's team attacked. Quinn told the officers that it was a drill and everything was fine. Garrett and Grant Ward interrupted the tour and Garrett began to argue with General Jacobs. When Jacobs demanded to know who Garrett was, Quinn answered that he was their strategy consultant. Garrett ultimately killed Jacobs. Horrified by Garrett's violent outbursts and failing mental health, Quinn and Raina decided to take the Gravitonium and left.
Fate[]
However, after escaping, Raina opened the container holding the Gravitonium, which had Franklin Hall inside it. The seemingly-living liquid metal mass then enveloped and consumed Quinn. For three years, no one was aware of what had happened to Quinn and everyone assumed he went into hiding. When Carl Creel touched the element, he had constant memories belonging to Hall and Quinn, and he claimed they were constantly arguing inside the substance. Glenn Talbot, who later absorbed the Gravitonium, said Quinn told him that he found the Gravitonium in a mine.