Rick Stoner

Colonel Richard Stoner is a fictional secret agent appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. The character, created by Barry Dutter and M.C. Wyman, first appeared in Fury #1 (May 1994). He is notable for being the first known executive director of S.H.I.E.L.D.

Rick Stoner was portrayed by Patrick Warburton, in the Marvel Cinematic Universe TV series Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.'s fifth and seventh seasons.

Fictional character biography
Rick Stoner was a hard man who always stuck to the rules and showed much disdain towards his fellow World War II soldiers, specifically Nick Fury whom he had a love-hate relationship of sorts with. He along with James "Logan" Howlett worked at the C.I.A. and fought Hydra. Stoner was eventually offered the director's seat of the then newly formed S.H.I.E.L.D. Upon looking at the Howling Commandos' dossiers, he told himself that "these jokers will never become S.H.I.E.L.D. agents as long as I'm director". His director status is short lived as he's shot and killed by Hydra while trying to uncover a traitor within S.H.I.E.L.D.

This turned out to be a cover up with Stoner actually having been disavowed and abandoned by S.H.I.E.L.D., plotting revenge against Fury for taking his job. Now under the Fallen Angel codename, he plots to use a project to manipulate reality. Stoner and Fury have a battle over the project, ending up trapped in a pocket universe. Fury ultimately prevails while Stoner is killed.

In other media
Rick Stoner appears in Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., portrayed by Patrick Warburton. This version is a general. He first appears in the season 5 episode "All the Comforts of Home" as a prerecorded holographic greeting message for a then-uninhabited version of a S.H.I.E.L.D. base called the Lighthouse. The message was filmed in the 1970s, and he is depicted as having a very jovial attitude. In the episode "Option Two", Phil Coulson's team learn that Stoner had equipped the Lighthouse for every possible type of apocalyptic scenario after he unknowingly activates the nuclear option, causing the Lighthouse to go into lockdown. After a Gravitonium-powered Glenn Talbot defeats alien warriors sent to kill Coulson's team and takes Coulson to confront the aliens' leader Qovas, Stoner's holographic message appears again to announce the end of the nuclear protocol. He makes his first physical appearance in the season seven episode "A Trout in the Milk", when the agents travel to the year 1970 in the alternate timeline created by the Chronicoms, and Daniel Sousa identifies him as "Little Ricky", a junior agent who "couldn't tell the difference between a clip and a mag." Due to the Chronicoms' influence in the 1950s, Stoner unknowingly approves of a Hydra plot identified as Project Insight, which was developed decades early. Coulson and Melinda May confront Stoner and attempt to warn him of the plot, but the latter is forced to knock him out after using her empathetic abilities to determine he did not believe them. Stoner eventually believes them after two Chronicoms attempt to steal his face and teams up with May to take out the remaining Chronicoms and kills their leader Luke, before parting with the future S.H.I.E.L.D. Agents on good terms.