What do we know about the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s version of S.H.I.E.L.D? Not a whole lot, really. They’re a little known government agency that was founded by Howard Stark and others. Who those others are, and when and how they were founded is unknown.
… But I have this theory.
A few months back, some lucky fans got their mitts on promotional t-shirts for Thor and Captain America. The Captain America looks like one that Steve Rogers would have worn while training or preparing for Project Rebirth. It depicted Steve’s name, serial number, rank but it also depicted the emblem of the branch of the US Army under which auspices Project Rebirth was conducted, namely the Strategic Scientific Reserve.
The emblem appears also as the insignia on Captain Rogers and Major Carter’s service uniforms.
Now here’s where I make a bit of a leap… Doesn’t that look a bit like the S.H.I.E.L.D logo, in as much as it depicts a bird spreading its wings, looking forward against a circle?
Howard Stark is known to have worked for the American government during World War II as part as the Manhattan Project as well as creating Captain America’s uniform and S.H.I.E.L.D, and the Howling Invaders are said to have been under Captain America’s command, while Colonel Chester Philips recruited and mentored Steve Rogers and was possibly his direct commanding officer. So I’m going to assume they all worked for, or were at least seconded to the SSR.
Now in real life, the Office of Strategic Services was set up during World War II to coordinate and conduct espionage operations behind enemy lines. Disbanded after the war, it was later reformed into the Central Intelligence Agency.
So what I’m saying is, what if something similar happened in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. What if the SSR locked horns with HYDRA during the war, and then after the war, Hydra folded, though some key members (Zemo and von Strucker perhaps) managed to escape to South America, and some years later Hydra re-emerged as a subversive organization intent on world domination.
To combat the new HYDRA, Howard Stark, Nick Fury, and perhaps Chester Philips and others as well reform their old department under the new name of the Strategic Homeland Intervention, Enforcement and Logistics Division.
If that were the case, it would make Captain America technically the first Superhero in the employ of S.H.I.E.L.D, literally the first Avenger.