'Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D.' Adds The Vicious Lash

On Tuesday night, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. will finally return (after a monstrous cliffhanger, of course) and Season 3 is all set to feature a whole new crop of villains — "the real S.H.I.E.L.D." and rogue Inhumans of Season 2 be damned. Leading the (potential) villain pack in the Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Season 3 premiere is Lash, an Inhuman with a very cool look. Now, you were able to get the slightest glimpse of the new bad guy in the Season 3 trailers, but luckily for us, the interwebs, along with some info gleaned from the comic books, illuminates things a bit more.

It was first announced that Lash would be included in the Marvel TV show back at Comic-Con, where it was also revealed that former NFL player Matt Willig would be taking on the helm as the character. Marvel said that Lash's "loyalties remain ambiguous," but he seems pretty darn villainous to me — especially if you look back to his history in the comics.

In one of his story arcs, he went on a quest to find other Inhumans (after a Terrigen bomb deployed over New York City awakened new super-powered individuals all over the world), though unlike Skye — I'm sorry, Daisy Johnson — and Mack's new initiative to find and protect Inhumans, his motives were far less savory. Lash killed Inhumans he felt were unworthy of their new powers. There was no Terrigen bomb at play here, but what with the contamination of the fish oil we saw in the Season 2 finale, I think we can safely assume that a lot of unsuspecting people are going to be gaining some special abilities.

If Lash's plot on Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. follows his story from the comic books, I think we can expect his path to cross with S.H.I.E.L.D.'s fairly early on — and they're almost certainly going to be at odds. After all, if Daisy and Mack are all about helping Inhumans, a scary-looking Inhuman going around effectively murdering his own kind is definitely going to be a pretty sizable fly in the ointment. Plus, his powers are not exactly something to be reckoned with. In addition to his intimidating spines and physique, the dude also specializes in energy manipulation. He can absorb it (sounds kind of like the crazy life force-sucking trick Jiaying tried to pull on Skye back in the finale), transmute it, use it as a shield, blast it from his palms — heck, he can even disintegrate people.

At any rate, Lash is sure to be an exciting addition to the show. As star Elizabeth Henstridge gushed to Zap2It, "He’s going to shake things up ... It’s going to be a huge spectacle. We’re so honored to be able to have him in the show. It’s just huge. I can’t even explain how crazy it’s going to get." Thank goodness Season 3 is almost here, eh?