Anton Ivanov

"The old ways are better, simple, built to last like this submarine. Modern machines all software, no hardware, you put too much faith in them. Man is the superior machine, and I, am the superior man. I'm told you refuse to talk, and that you welcome pain, I too love pain, and I love to make others feel it, using the old ways."

―Anton Ivanov to Billy Koenig

Anton Ivanov, known to his subordinates as the Superior, is one of the main antagonists of the fourth season of the ABC TV series Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., and leader of the notorious Watchdogs.

Biography

Anton Ivanov was born in Russia and was formerly-affiliated with the Soviet Union before its eventual collapse. According to his S.H.I.E.L.D. file, he is an avid collector of submarines, tanks and other military vehicles and weapons.

Season 4

Ghost Rider

At some unknown point in 2017 or before, he became the leader of a notorious supremacist organization called the Watchdogs, who sought to kill all the world's Inhuman population after the Inhuman Outbreak, viewing S.H.I.E.L.D. as weak for seeking to help them when in years past, they'd done the opposite. He also made an alliance with US senator Ellen Nadeer, who also hated Inhumans and became the source of her funding for anti-Inhuman activities. He also accepted help from former S.H.I.E.L.D. agent Felix Blake.

He appears in a video broadcast by the Watchdogs all across the world after using an EMP device to blackout cities including Los Angeles and Miami. Pretending to be a faceless Inhuman under a cover of shadows, Anton told the world to tear down the Sokovia Accords, which was made to keep track of Inhuman movements, or more and more cities will fall. He sent Watchdog members to Miami to kidnap Agent Elena "Yo-Yo" Rodriguez, and when Agents Phil Coulson, Leo Fitz and Alphonso "Mack" Mackenzie found her being targeted by men with guns, they figure out that they are really Watchdogs. They manage to locate the EMP and disable it, stopping Anton's plans for now.

LMD

As the Superior, Anton ordered Watchdog members to kill Senator Nadeer's brother, who had become an Inhuman, but S.H.I.E.L.D. stopped them and Nadeer took her brother away in a helicopter. The Watchdogs were somewhat-surprised to see Nadeer shoot her brother in the chest just as Anton ordered, and they dropped the body in the ocean.

Anton would later meet Holden Radcliffe, a S.H.I.E.L.D. consultant who defected for his own protection; Radcliffe told him about the Darkhold, a mysterious "magic" book seemingly-written by the Devil himself which could provide the secrets of the universe. After being told that the book could give him the power to wipe out the Inhumans, Anton agreed to help Radcliffe acquire it. To this end, he kidnapped Agent Billy Keonig, who knew where the book really was, and had Radcliffe pretend to be a hostage. He told Keonig about his view of S.H.I.E.L.D., putting too much faith in machines, whereas man was the superior machine. He prepared to cut out Keonig's eyes when Radcliffe broke character and found himself unable to watch such a barbaric act, offering a less-bloody way. He then placed Keonig on a chair, where his mind would be mapped-out by a machine called the Framework, which could pick out his memories and find the book that way. Anton grew impatient about the long setup process, but Radcliffe assured him that the Darkhold was worth it all. Anton explained his hatred of Inhumans as being because of them getting great power without earning any of it rightfully. Aida, Radcliffe's android assistant, said that the process was finished and so they proceeded to scan Keonig's memories and find the place where the book was currently being hidden. Anton vows to destroy the "thing" that he believes brought the Chitauri to Earth. Anton had little faith in the Framework, wanting to use his own barbaric methods to get Keonig to talk, but Aida killed his minion Leo, revealing herself as an android, but Anton thought of her as an Inhuman at first until Radcliffe corrected him. Radcliffe later returns to the submarine after retrieving the Darkhold from the Keonigs' secret location, the Labyrinth, and drinks with Anton, and learns that before, when he was talking about the "thing" that brought the aliens to Earth, he was actually referring to Agent Coulson, who was at the scene of most alien-related events despite being reported dead in 2012. Radcliffe agrees to help Anton find him and kill him.

To be continued

Trivia

• Anton has repeatedly made statements about how he prefers the "old ways" and doesn't trust advanced technology, suggesting that he is somewhat afraid of evolving machinery.
• Anton served as the Bigger Bad of Season 4; he didn't appear until "Hot Potato Soup", but even before then, his shadow loomed due to the threat of the Watchdogs.