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| “ | From high school to grad school, no one believed in me! They thought I was cheating. They thought I wasn't capable! Shut me out. Well, guess what ... guess what I'm capable of now. I can create a city out of nothing, or I can cover it in volcanic rock. Robbie, I am becoming a god. | „ |
| ~ Eli explaining his motives to his nephew, Robbie Reyes. |
Eli Morrow is a major antagonist in season 4 of the TV series Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., being the main antagonist during the first part and the overarching antagonist during the second and third parts. He is the maternal uncle of Robbie and Gabe Reyes, and a disgruntled former employee at Momentum Labs. After witnessing his colleagues perform experiments with the Darkhold and feeling disrespected by everyone, Eli betrayed them and sought to use their work to become a god-like being. He is also responsible for the lab accident that transformed Lucy Bauer and their colleagues into "ghosts."
He is portrayed by José Zúñiga, who also played Al Eisenmund in Criminal Minds.
Biography[]
Past[]
According to himself, Eli was a prodigious young man back in his high-school years, but was transferred several times because his teachers and/or schoolmates accused him cheating due to not believing in his high intelligence. He eventually became an outcast, causing him to become vengeful against society.
Eli then became an engineer who was assigned to work with Joseph and Lucy Bauer at Momentum Labs after becoming aware of an ancient book known as the Darkhold. After the Bauers built a matter-generating machine in Los Angeles inspired by the Darkhold, Eli was seemingly concerned that Joseph had become obsessed with the machine and tried to warn Lucy, but when Lucy dismissed Eli's concerns, Eli realized that Lucy was just as insane as her husband was. Joseph hired the Fifth Street Locos, a street gang, to kill him in the middle of the night; however, they went after Robbie and Gabriel instead, which resulted in Robbie being turned into the supernatural villain-hunter known as the Ghost Rider and Gabriel being put in a wheelchair.
Eli betraying his team to get the Darkhold.
After Eli revealed that he'd gone power-hungry, trapping the rest of his team in strange boxes and turning them into ghost-like beings, he told Lucy, who'd witnessed him at the moment, that he wanted the book's power for himself. He locks Lucy in the laboratory chamber and traps her inside one of the boxes. He later tracked down Joseph and beat him repeatedly in an attempt to find out what had become of the book, seeking to find it and use its power for himself, but was arrested later on for attempted manslaughter and sent to prison. Joseph was rendered comatose.
Seeking to get the power of the Darkhold and the Momentum Labs technology, he began orchestrating events to lead up to his eventual escape from prison. He tipped-off the Chinatown Crew, a local gang, about the location of one of the boxes he trapped his partners inside of, leading to them finding it and opening it, releasing the incorporeal form of Lucy from it.
Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.[]
Let Me Stand Next to Your Fire[]
Eli telling Robbie about the Bauers using the Darkhold.
He first appears when Agent Phil Coulson visits him in prison to alert him of Lucy's return and reign of terror, but he doesn't believe Coulson at first, but when Robbie visited him on S.H.I.E.L.D.'s behalf, he told him everything that happened with Joseph and warned Robbie to steer clear of the Darkhold.
Lockup[]
Later on, Lucy arrived at the prison and kidnapped Eli and took him to the long-abandoned Momentum Labs. She then forced him to read the Darkhold while she finished building the machine.
The Good Samaritan[]
Eli finally getting the powers he craved for.
Once the machine was built inside an underground lab, as S.H.I.E.L.D. was onto them, Eli talked to Lucy and learned from her that Joseph sent the Fifth Street Locos after his nephews. S.H.I.E.L.D. arrived at the scene to rescue Eli and stop Lucy, as the amount of power from the Darkhold experiment could potentially result in the deaths of thousands of people in Los Angeles. Lucy was later burned to death when Robbie, as Ghost Rider, grabbed her and used his supernatural powers to reduce her to a pile of ash. Eli, having replicated the matter-generator from Momentum Labs, enters it as Phil Coulson arrives on-scene to "rescue" him. He had the Darkhold taken away, but Eli had already gotten what he needed. Coulson, realizing that Eli was the one who was after the power all this time, gets him to admit that he nearly killed Joseph to learn where the book was. Eli entered the matter-generator chamber, sealing himself inside. The machine turned on and a blast wave was sent through the base, hitting Coulson, Fitz and Robbie and sending them into a pocket reality. Eli exited the chamber and gained the ability to create matter from nothing, generating a rock-like solid from his hand and standing victoriously.
Deals with our Devils[]
Eli going on a murderous rampage with his powers.
Eli walks through the base with his newfound powers, eventually confronted by four S.H.I.E.L.D. agents in the halls, who aim at him with their machine-guns. Robbie, having been sent into a pocket reality by the shockwave, tries to talk to Eli, but he doesn't hear him, and watches helplessly as Eli kills the agents by making spikes of pure carbon protrude from the agents' bodies. Eli forms a carbon wall in the hallway to block off the rest of the advance and escapes from S.H.I.E.L.D. with ease. While in the other plane of existence, Robbie offers the Devil the chance to stay bonded to him for as long as he wants if he is allowed to use the power to find and kill Eli; they both return to the physical world through a portal made by the android AIDA and go with Agent Mack to find Eli and stop him from using his powers for further evil.
The Laws of Inferno Dynamics[]
Eli began using his newfound powers to create a machine called the Quantum Battery, powered by a Demon Core of his own making, in order to wipe away all life on Earth and replace it using his own powers of matter generation, and had help from the Chinatown Crew. One of his goons told him that S.H.I.E.L.D. was coming, so he proceeded to speed up the machine's development. The goon asks for more pay for this job, so Eli responds by killing him, spawning diamonds in his lungs that he coughs up, and tells the others to cut him open to get the rest of them. To keep the agents away, he set up a trap using a highly-flammable liquid that would ignite when contact is made with the water in the hallways. Agent Elena "Yo-Yo" Rodriguez tried using her Inhuman super-speed powers to enter, but is almost burned alive in the process.
Eli being confronted by Robbie who was the Ghost Rider.
Meanwhile, Robbie, having escaped the dark realm that he'd been sent to, enters the building, walking through the flames and not feeling a thing. He enters the Quantum Battery and sees the Demon Core powering it, but is stopped when Eli uses his powers to impale Robbie on a carbon blade. He realizes that Robbie isn't a normal person, given that the plutonium, the flames and the carbon should've killed him on the spot; he declares that justice will be served, revealing himself as the Ghost Rider. Eli, horrified that his own nephew was this monster, tries telling him about his plans, but he doesn't want to hear them. Eli explains how he'd been shunned by everyone he knew all his life, and was called a cheater and a fraud, but with his powers, he could prove the world wrong, now being a god. Robbie warns him that the Devil is after him, but he dismisses this.
Eli being burnt to death by his own nephew for his crimes.
The Chinatown Crew brings Phil Coulson into the room, having been captured, as he explains that his powers are actually sourced from Hell. He is not pulling matter out of nothing, but is actually pulling it out of the dark realm he'd been sent to before, and the more he uses his powers, the more tremors in the area happen. He warned that he should stop using his powers before the quakes build up and destroy Los Angeles, but Eli believes that using the Demon Core, he can wipe out all life on Earth and replace it, having gained the Darkhold's knowledge on mastering life and death. In that moment, Coulson summoned the rest of S.H.I.E.L.D. to save him, swiftly-defeating the Chinatown Crew. Elena manages to save the team and send Eli into the Quantum Battery with Robbie, trapping him inside. Below the room, Fitz, AIDA and Simmons manage to build a gateway to the dark realm, hoping to send the Quantum Battery there and save the world. Robbie transforms into Ghost Rider as the gateway opens. Coulson throws a chain to hopefully pull Robbie out to safety, but he instead stays and burns Eli alive with the flames of Hell engulfing them both. The gateway opens and the Battery, with both Robbie and the now-screaming Eli being engulfed by the gateway, which promptly shuts on them and traps Robbie there.
Personality[]
As his nephew Robbie Reyes stated, Eli Morrow was a "good man who did a bad thing". However, it became clear that the prolonged influence of the Darkhold had driven Morrow insane due to the lack of respect and recognition for his engineering talents and intelligence his entire life. His ego and insecurities were exacerbated by the magical book, driving him to murderous intent. Morrow violently beat his colleagues to near-death when they stood in his way of claiming the Darkhold and even turned them into ghosts despite the risks of using the Quantum Particle Generator. Once he gained the powers of matter creation Morrow completely lost his mind and his vengefulness that he harbored his entire life took over.
Morrow brutally killed several S.H.I.E.L.D. agents when they stood in his way and even attempted to murder his own nephew, Reyes after he was revealed to be the Ghost Rider. He claimed himself a God and announced his desire to destroy a city and its entire populace to prove his abilities to everyone. However, when he was in jail Morrow retained some form of humanity when he was detached from the Darkhold. He expressed disgust over Joseph Bauer for crippling Gabe Reyes due to their attempted assassination on him and Lucy Bauer's own willingness to kill thousands of people to cure herself from her ghostly state. Any humanity vanished, however, when Morrow saw a chance of obtaining the Darkhold yet again.
Despite his dark traits, Eli Morrow loved his nephews dearly, raising them as if they were his own children. He loved them so much them when learning that Joseph Bauer hired the Fifth Street Locos to assassinate him, but ended up nearly killing his nephew Robbie, and his other nephew Gave was put in a wheelchair for the rest of his life, Morrow swore vengeance on Bauer and anyone affiliated with them, as shown when he brutality turned his teammates and Bauer's wife into incorporeal ghosts and beat up Bauer into a coma. After the Darkhold corrupted him, he still retained his love for his nephews to some extent as he offered Robbie a chance to spare his live, after finding out he is the ghost rider, but was visibly sad when he declined an vowed to kill him for all the bad things he has done. After that rejection, Morrow lost all care for Robbie due to the Darkhold warping his mind and was willing to kill him to stop the Spirit of Vengeance for destroying himself.
Powers and Abilities[]
Eli creating pure carbon at will.
Powers[]
- Material Creation: After using the Darkhold in conjunction with the Momentum Labs machine, Eli discovered that he could generate matter at will. He has been shown to be able to make formations out of pure carbon, from sharp icicle-like blades to a pure-carbon wall that blocks off pursuers. He is also able to create ice at will even in room temperature, suggesting a connection with the elements. It was originally believed that he could create matter from nothing, but it was later revealed that he is channelling demonic energies from the Dark Dimension to fuel his powers.
Abilities[]
- Master Engineer: Eli was able to successfully run the Momentum Labs experiment to generate matter with the help of Lucy Bauer and several other collaborators.
- Tactician: Eli was capable of tricking and manipulating other people, including his nephew, his colleagues and S.H.I.E.L.D. so he could achieve his goals, maintaining his good person persona until they realized too late.
- Bilingualism: Eli is fluent in both English and Spanish, which was his first language.
Relationships[]
Family[]
Allies[]
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Enemies[]
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Trivia[]
- In the comics, Eli's angry spirit fused with his nephew Robbie, turning him into Ghost Rider. Before this, he had been a Satanist and a serial killer.
- Eli's abilities in matter manipulation are akin to those of supervillain Molecule Man.
- Eli Morrow's ability to create matter involved drawing energy from the Dark Dimension is akin to the Ancient One's explanation of Magic.
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