Eric Koenig


Eric Koenig is a fictional character appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. He first appeared in Sgt. Fury and his Howling Commandos #27 and he was created by writer Stan Lee and artist Dick Ayers. He is most commonly in association with the Howling Commandos and S.H.I.E.L.D.
Patton Oswalt portrayed the character in the first season of the TV series Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.. After Koenig is killed, Oswalt continued to portray his identical brothers Billy, Sam, and Thurston and grandfather Ernest throughout the remaining seasons.

Publication history

Eric Koenig's first appearance was in Sgt. Fury and the Howling Commandos vol. 1 #27, 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.

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. In issue #65, "Eric Koenig, Traitor!", Koenig seemed to have been exposed as a Gestapo plant, and his apparent treachery was part of the storyline from then on. This later turned out to have been a complicated double agent operation by the High Command, and in issue #79, Koenig was finally confirmed to be a loyal fighter for the Allies.
After the war, Koenig is among the members of the Howling Commandos who join Nick Fury in forming S.H.I.E.L.D. A Life Model Decoy of Koenig participates in the Deltite affair, but destroys itself after being captured and scanned by Tony Stark.
When S.H.I.E.L.D. is decommissioned and its agents transferred to the newly founded H.A.M.M.E.R. during the "Dark Reign" storyline, Koenig remains with H.A.M.M.E.R. It is later revealed that Koenig had been working for H.A.M.M.E.R. from within and assisted in a raid on several H.A.M.M.E.R. Helicarriers. Koenig is later killed in a battle against Hydra.

In other media

Eric Koenig appears in Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., portrayed by Patton Oswalt. Introduced in the episode "Providence", Koenig is assigned to Nick Fury's secret S.H.I.E.L.D. base, Providence, and assists Phil Coulson and his team following S.H.I.E.L.D.'s downfall until he is murdered off-screen by Hydra double agent Grant Ward. Oswalt returned in the season one finale "Beginning of the End" as Eric's twin brother Billy Koenig, who oversees a S.H.I.E.L.D. base called 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". In the season four episode "Hot Potato Soup", two more Koenig siblings are introduced: Thurston Koenig, a slam poet activist who mocks S.H.I.E.L.D. for allowing Eric to die, and an older sister named L.T. Koenig, who got her younger siblings to join S.H.I.E.L.D. and constantly picks on them. At the end of the episode, it is revealed that the Koenig siblings were part of S.H.I.E.L.D.'s original LMD program. In the season seven premiere "The New Deal", Coulson's team travel back in time to 1931 New York City and meet the Koenig siblings' grandfather, Ernest "Hazard" Koenig, who runs a speakeasy that goes on to become an asset to S.H.I.E.L.D.'s predecessor, the Strategic Scientific Reserve, and a S.H.I.E.L.D. safehouse under the pseudonym Gemini. Following an encounter with the agents, Ernest discovers his employee, Wilfred "Freddy" Malick, is the father of future Hydra leader Gideon Malick. In the episode "Know Your Onions", Ernest is given a glimpse of the future when he meets the agents' Chronicom ally Enoch and is brought aboard the agents' airship, Zephyr One, to help save Freddy from rebel Chronicoms. After the S.H.I.E.L.D. agents leave 1931 to pursue the Chronicoms, Ernest hires a stranded Enoch to become his new bartender in exchange for information on how he, his speakeasy, and his descendants will help S.H.I.E.L.D. in the future.