Phil Coulson is one of S.H.I.E.L.D.'s most legendary and best-of-the-best operatives. He served as Director Fury's man on the ground for his most important missions. Dependable, loyal, and one of S.H.I.E.L.D.'s most decorated field agents, Agent Coulson was put in charge of surveillance and served as the primary operative in Director Nick Fury's Avengers Initiative.
Agent Coulson also ran ground interference and tactical operations in Puente Antiguo, New Mexico as part of S.H.I.E.L.D.'s investigation surrounding the incident with Thor and the Destroyer. Coulson was also the primary S.H.I.E.L.D. operative in the investigation into Stark Industries: Sector 16 and the incident on the Howard Stark Memorial Freeway.
When a threat to the world required the formation of a team of Super Heroes to defeat it, Coulson took on the task of assembling Nick Fury's Avengers as just another day at the office. He managed to convince Tony Stark to join the team, with the help of Pepper Potts, whom he befriended during his assignment to Stark. Back on the Helicarrier, Coulson was more than happy to meet his all-time hero, Captain America, who had joined the Avengers Initiative on Fury's invitation. Coulson asked Rogers to sign some vintage collectible sticker cards he'd gathered in around two years, stressing the fact that Rogers had always been a model for him.
After the team's first mission, Coulson told Fury that the team is not prepared to face the common menace, and that they need to be motivated someway. When Stark managed to capture Loki in Germany, Thor suddenly appeared, and tried to take Loki back to Asgard. However, the whole group assembled on the Helicarrier, where Thor informed them about Loki's plan to conquer the planet with the army of the Chitauri. During the meeting, Coulson informed Thor that he has moved Jane to a safe place.
When a brainwashed Clint Barton attacked the Helicarrier with the group of mercenaries, Loki managed to escape from his prison cell. When Coulson reached Loki's cell, he found the Asgardian free, and Thor trapped in his place. Coulson threatened Loki with a weapon created from the Destroyer, but he failed to realie that he was aiming the weapon at an illusion; the real Loki snuck up behind Coulson and stabbed him in the back. Laying on the floor severely wounded, Coulson was powerless to prevent Thor's expulsion from the Helicarrier, but managed to land a blow on Loki with The Revenge. Later, when the battle was over and lost, Fury reached Coulson just in time to hear his last words. As he died, Phil suggested Fury used his death to motivate the Avengers into working together as a team.
Coulson's death had a large effect on the team who became saddened or enraged in some way, but Phil's death would be the final motivator for the Avengers founding. However, Coulson's death lasted for nearly a week. Scientists worked night and day to bring Coulson back to life days after he had been killed. During the process, they altered some of his memories to make him believe that he was revived in Tahiti, in order to cope with the pain he felt and to make him less suicidal, as he wanted to die due to the intense agony he was experiencing. They made sure Coulson did not remember all of the painful procedures by forcing a memory of a grass shack in Tahiti into Coulson's memory. After recovering from his wounds, Coulson returned to assemble a new team of young agents to lead them against other supernatural threats. While on this team, Coulson discovered the truth about the events after his death. He then had to work through his memories to find which were real and which were fake. The Avengers are unaware that Coulson still lives.
Character traits
Phil Coulson is essentially an everyman, the kind of man who is not far different from most ordinary people, especially compared to the superpowered heroes he has come to associate himself with, but is still unique and characteristic in his own subtle way. He likes history, classic cars, antiques and other collectable items, and is a fan of Captain America, owning a set of Captain America vintage trading cards.
Coulson doesn't stand out as an especially strong fighter nor a scientific genius like his colleagues and subordinates. But perhaps what makes him unique and a capable agent and leader is his attitude of a guy just doing his job. He's very cool-tempered and calm, and almost always keeps a somewhat friendly, but generally neutral expression on his face, with an occasional dry sense of humor. And he doesn't let a lot of things bother him so much.
However, after his supposed death in The Avengers, he returns to active duty as an agent, and during the events of Agents of Shield, despite maintaining his same usual expression, there have been hints that he is still shaken by his brief death, and despite not remembering the experience so clearly, the experience of actually having died still haunts him.
