Eric Koenig

Publication history

Eric Koenig's first appearance was in Sgt. Fury and the Howling Commandos vol. 1 #27 (February 1966), and he was created by writer Stan Lee and artist Dick Ayers.

Eric Koenig received an entry in the All-New Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe A to Z: Update #3 (2007).

Fictional character biography

Eric Koenig was a member of the original Howling Commandos and fought alongside the team during World War II. He was a pilot as well as a trainer and was a very Anti-Nazi German, as the Nazis killed his sister. He was the replacement of Dino Manelli, who was away on a special mission, and then replaced Izzy Cohen when he was a Prisoner of War. Upon Cohen’s return, Koenig stayed as a member of the team. After the war, Koenig was one of the Howlers that joined Nick Fury in forming S.H.I.E.L.D. A Life Model Decoy of Koenig appeared and was part of the Deltite affair, but destroyed itself after being captured and scanned by Tony Stark.

When S.H.I.E.L.D. was decommissioned and its agents auto-transferred to the newly founded H.A.M.M.E.R. during the Dark Reign storyline, Eric remained with H.A.M.M.E.R. This was despite the fact that 1200 agents who were Fury loyalists (including Dum Dum Dugan and Gabriel Jones) resigned and formed the Howling Commandos PMC. It later transpired that he was working for them from within, and aided in a heist that saw the HCPMC (now owned by Fury) raid a number of H.A.M.M.E.R. Helicarriers, and bolstering their ranks when over 3000 H.A.M.M.E.R. agents defected to their side. He is later killed in a battle against HYDRA. Gabriel Jones is also one of the many S.H.I.E.L.D. fatalities along with Eric.

In other media

Eric Koenig appears in the Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. episode "Providence", portrayed by Patton Oswalt. Reviewer Oliver Sava called Koenig "a breath of fresh air after all the tense events leading up to his appearance". He is a helper at Nick Fury's secret S.H.I.E.L.D. base Providence. Eric Koenig has Phil Coulson keep private about the fact that Nick Fury is still alive. In the episode "The Only Light in the Darkness", Eric Koenig conducts lie-detector tests on Phil Coulson's team in order to see who can be trusted. He is murdered offscreen by Grant Ward and his body is found in a ventilation duct by Skye. In the episode "Nothing Personal", Eric Koenig's body is found by Jemma Simmons, who confirms Eric Koenig's cause of death.

Oswalt returned in the season finale "Beginning of the End" as Eric's twin brother Billy Koenig, who oversees the S.H.I.E.L.D. secret base the Playground.

In addition to appearing as Billy in the second season, Oswalt also portrays Eric and Billy's other brother Sam Koenig in the episode "...Ye Who Enter Here". Sam helps Billy to protect Raina from Hydra agents until Skye, Melinda May, Lance Hunter, and Antoine Triplett arrive in Vancouver. When Triplett asks how many brothers they have, Billy and Sam say 13, although they then indicate that this is a joke. When Sam doesn't make an appearance for most of the mid-season finale, Billy jokes to Trip that Sam is "recharging his batteries"; however, Trip tells Billy he knows he is trying to mess with him.

In the episode "Hot Potato Soup", two more Koenig siblings are revealed. Thurston Koenig, who is not a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent and refers to them as a bunch of "sheep" due to the death of their brother Eric, and an older sister named L.T. Koenig (portrayed by Artemis Pebdani). L.T. got her younger siblings to join S.H.I.E.L.D. and constantly picks on them. Billy, Sam and L.T. try to hide the Darkhold from the Watchdogs and Holden Radcliffe, but they discover too late that Melinda May was replaced by an LMD. By the end of the episode, the Koenigs confirm that they are all human.