10/28/15 – I just watched the Agents of SHIELD episode “4,722 Hours” that aired 10/27, detailing Simmons’ plight on some distant planet (re: Utah plus blue filter), and the presence of Will the astronaut, while frustrating for any FitzSimmons supporters (like my wife), was also intriguing. There has to be more to the story, right? It can’t just be a “blue” planet, with a stranded astronaut-ex machina, right? Peeking around the internet, I found the astronauts full name was Will Daniels (if it came up in the episode, I didn’t hear it). Will Daniels in Marvel continuity is…no one, at least no one of note (unless there’s a 616 version of a Euro-league American basketball player). But, you know who IS someone of note, and has the last name of Daniels…Blackout! That’s right, Marcus Daniels, master of the Darkforce, better known as Blackout.

Though Blackout is an artifact of SHIELD’s simpler days of “monster of the week”, long gone by, the nebulous nature of both his “Darkforce” powers and the composition of monolith/portal, and the presence of another Daniels could point to Blackout resurfacing on Agents of SHIELD.

Perhaps a search for his long-lost brother Will is what drove Marcus to such heights in his research of Darkforce, trying to recreate the portal to rescue him, meaning Marcus might be nothing more than a cameo mention.

Perhaps the “Death” stalking the blue planet in “4,722 Hours” is tied to the Darkforce, and Marcus acted as the Earthbound conduit of it, or is part of it now, meaning a full return.

Or perhaps it’s just a coincidence, and Daniels is a common last name.

-Jim