Marvel fans are no strangers to seeing their favorite characters interpreted differently, but one major MCU hero’s introduction is a shocking tonal departure from her later adventures. No character is set in stone, and the story of Daisy Johnson aka Quake shows just how much characters can change between stories, especially once the character is adapted into another medium. This doesn’t mean that every change is a bad thing, however, and sometimes fans need to accept retcons as necessary.

In contrast to Daisy’s later characterization on Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., the 2004–2005 miniseries Secret War introduces Daisy Johnson to Marvel Comics as a superspy who isn’t afraid to kill, even if there are innocent casualties involved.

The miniseries centers around a secret team of heroes led by Nick Fury, who visit Latveria to take down Lucia Von Bardas, the country’s new leader, who has been funding supervillain-based terrorism in the United States. Daisy, on Fury’s orders, brings down Castle Von Doom with her earthquake powers, seemingly killing Von Bardas along with countless innocents. However, this only leads to more destruction when Von Bardas returns a year later.

Daisy Becomes a More Moral Character Very Quickly

Daisy in Secret War is very different from not just her MCU counterpart, but also the character she’d become in later comics. In this story, Daisy is the ultimate extension of Nick Fury’s philosophy of doing whatever it takes for the greater good. She’s a seemingly unrepentant killer and answers only to Fury, not the U.S. government, which refuses to let Fury go after Von Bardas, herself a U.S.-backed asset. Even before her MCU counterpart in Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. showed a more relatable character, Daisy began to shift in a different direction.

Her next major ongoing appearance is in the book Secret Warriors, written by Jonathan Hickman and Brian Michael Bendis, and drawn by Stefano Caselli. In this series, Daisy leads a team of secret younger heroes on Fury’s behalf. She is less outwardly self-confident and much more humane, willing to go speak against Fury and more torn up about casualties. In fact, at the book’s conclusion, Fury taps Daisy as S.H.I.E.L.D.’s new leader specifically because he believes she won’t make the same mistakes as him, a far cry from her origin. She’s still willing to be a superspy, but the implication is that her experiences with Fury have actually pushed her in the opposite direction as him.

Marvel’s Daisy Johnson Shows Comic Characters Constantly Evolve

One of the things that Daisy’s first appearance shows is that characters aren’t always set in stone from their first appearance, and that if something isn’t working, they can be changed. When he was first introduced, Batman used a gun to defeat criminals, and Superman couldn’t fly at first. Some fans are uncomfortable with any sort of retcon to a character, but there’s a reason that the practice has been commonplace in mainstream comics. As long as there’s a good justification for a change and it doesn’t break the character, retcons can help to bring a character to new heights.

The events in question don’t even have to be retconned. Comics continuity is more than wide enough to fit multiple interpretations of a character, especially when the distinction is an internal one. Daisy can be a killer in one story, and a more moral version of herself in another. Two contradictory interpretations can fit into canon; just about everyone’s favorite character has at least one story where said character is written very differently. Whether someone’s a fan of Daisy Johnson from Marvel Comics or the MCU, her killer origin isn’t going anywhere, and that actually makes her more interesting.