Framework

"He discovered that there were universes stacked on top of his own..." The subject of this article comes from an alternate universe connecting to the main timeline of the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

The Framework is a simulated world created by Leo Fitz as a training program for S.H.I.E.L.D. agents. In 2017, Holden Radcliffe upgraded the Framework into a fully immersive global virtual reality.

Following the upgrade, Phil Coulson, Jeffrey Mace, Leo Fitz and Alphonso Mackenzie had their minds into the Framework, which gave them new memories and lives in the simulation. However, after Aida hijacked the program, it became a virtual world HYDRA took over, with Fitz and Aida leading the organization. After Daisy Johnson and Jemma Simmons hacked in and freed their friends, Aida deleted the program.

The remaining data was found by Deke Shaw, who integrated the technology into a virtual reality video game. In an alternate timeline 2091, the Framework servers were salvaged by Shaw, who built a localized version of the Framework for recreation purposes.

History[]

Prototype[]

The Framework was designed by Leo Fitz as a training simulation for agents, where they could act out situations with no physical harm being done to them in the real world.^[1] While at the Playground, Simmons used an early version of the Framework to walk through her lab, offering Fitz pointers on various issues currently with the design, including the fact it appeared to make her levitate off the ground while using it.^[2]

Sedating Melinda May[]

Holden Radcliffe used the Framework to keep Melinda May from escaping while her Life-Model Decoy had assumed her place within S.H.I.E.L.D.. Initially, May experienced getting a massage and facial but she resisted the program, eventually breaking out and fighting Radcliffe and his personal LMD Aida. When Aida overpowered and sedated her, Radcliffe reprogrammed the Framework with a simulation where she became stuck in a seemingly endless loop of escaping, and attempting to fight against Aida again and again.^[3]

Interrogating Billy Koenig[]

In an attempt to find the Darkhold and take it back, Holden Radcliffe allied himself with the Watchdogs to kidnap Agent Billy Koenig who knew where the Darkhold was being kept. To prevent the Superior from causing bloodshed, Radcliffe sent Koenig into the Framework where he experienced a puppy. Once the Framework finished mapping Koenig's memories, Radcliffe entered them, discovering that the Darkhold was held inside the Labyrinth vault.^[4]

A New Reality[]

Doctor Holden Radcliffe, with the knowledge of the Darkhold, eventually recreated the Framework to the point where it could create a complete recreation of modern-day Earth, with the goal being so the user would be able to correct their greatest regret. He used the Framework to allow Agnes Kitsworth to be put inside it where her mind could live on long after her body died from a brain tumor he could not cure, allowing them to continue their relationship with Kitsworth forgot all about living in an alternative digital reality.^[5] Due to the fact that said regret was often a single defining moment in the user's life, such as the Rescue in Bahrain, however, this correction often resulted in the user becoming a drastically different kind of person.

Sometime later, Aida captured Fitz, Jeffrey Mace, Phil Coulson and Alphonso Mackenzie before uploading all of their combined consciousnesses into the Framework. Each had the biggest regret of their life undone and the Framework extrapolated their mark on its history in the same fashion as May. This created a world where HYDRA had defeated S.H.I.E.L.D. and overthrown world governments in order to establish a fascist new world order.^[1]

Change in Purpose[]

Following the upload of the S.H.I.E.L.D. agents, Aida admitted to Radcliffe that he created a contradiction in her programming, which she used to find a loophole and betray him. She mortally wounded him before forcing him into the Framework as well, where his body died in real life. Aida then began her plan of building herself a new human body, and made herself the leader of HYDRA in the new reality.

Following the Siege of the Playground, Daisy Johnson and Jemma Simmons decided to enter the Framework and extract their colleagues.^[6] They soon discovered the fascist regime ruled by HYDRA, but were surprised to discovered how different their friends were inside the Framework. Leo Fitz was a ruthless doctor and second-in-command in HYDRA, Melinda May was a high-ranking operative in HYDRA, Phil Coulson was a history teacher and Alphonso Mackenzie lived with his daughter.

The two joined S.H.I.E.L.D., which operated as a resistance led by Jeffrey Mace, who was an Inhuman in the Framework. With the aid of virtual incarnations of people who were dead in the real world, like Grant Ward, Antoine Triplett and Burrows, Johnson and Simmons tried to convince their friends about the real world, while fighting against HYDRA and its leader, Madame Hydra, Aida's alias in the Framework at the same time.^[7][8]

As Johnson and Simmons almost succeeded in gathering all their friends, Mace was killed in the Framework, killing him in the real world as well.^[9] Simmons then realized Aida's true plan for the Framework: In order to create a human body for herself, Aida needed a machine constructed out of Quantum Batteries. Putting the agents in the Framework was to prevent them from stopping her plan, and also using Fitz to design the machine through Project Looking Glass. Once Aida's plan was fulfilled, she could kill them all inside the Framework.^[10]

Eventually, Johnson and Simmons managed to return to the real world with Coulson, May and Fitz, but without Mackenzie, who decided to stay with his daughter. Aida's plan for the Framework succeeded, as she created for herself a living human body.^[11] This body also granted Aida a number of superhuman abilities, obtained from Fitz's experiments on captured Inhumans.^[12]

Digital Apocalypse[]

Aida decided to delete the Framework and all its contents.^[13] Meanwhile, Elena Rodriguez entered the Framework in order to convince Alphonso Mackenzie to exit it. She woke up in the middle of the world's crisis.^[12] With the help of Holden Radcliffe, she found Mackenzie who still refused to leave. As more and more details were deleted from the Framework, Daisy Johnson created for Rodriguez and Mackenzie a way out of there. Only after Hope Mackenzie was deleted too, Mackenzie agreed to leave. As the last person in the Framework, Radcliffe accepted his death and was deleted before the Framework world was erased completely.^[13]

Remorath Rumble[]

Upon parting ways with the S.H.I.E.L.D. agents to explore the world he had been transported in, Deke Shaw actually stole many of S.H.I.E.L.D. tech. Having started his own tech company, Shaw used the Framework equipment, his previous experience with the Framework and his memories of his adventures with S.H.I.E.L.D. to create a Framework-based virtual reality video game called Remorath Rumble, in which the Framework users could fight against Remorath and Kree warriors.^[14]

Alternate Framework[]

Rebuilt[]

In an alternate timeline where Earth had been destroyed, Deke Shaw rebuilt the Framework and programmed it to simulate an early 21st-century bar. He went on to make a profit by allowing the residents of the Lighthouse to use it as a form of leisure in exchange for currency.^[15]

Notable Characteristics[]

The Framework is a computer simulation that can simulate various environments. These simulations can vary from simple recreations of the Playground, to an entire alternate version of modern-day Earth, depending on what is coded in. Alongside this, the Framework can also create avatars of living beings. The user enters the Framework through a specialized helmet that uploads their consciousness into the simulation. Once the upload is complete, the Framework adapts to the user's environment through cerebral and physical re-calibration.^[3][5] The user's real life body, meanwhile, is left in a sleep-like state while inside (which does not apply to the original early design). Nevertheless, if a user is killed within the Framework's reality, they will also perish in the real world.^[9] With the future version of the design, the user can instead automatically enter the Framework by getting within range of Deke Shaw's custom transmitters.^[15]

Residents[]

HYDRA Ophelia Sarkissian/Madame Hydra † (displaced) Leopold Fitz/The Doctor (displaced) Alistair Fitz † Melinda May (displaced) Skye † Sunil Bakshi † Pinsky † Slate † Gedrick † Marilyn † Kenneth Turgeon † Daniel Whitehall † John Garrett † Felix Blake † Alexander Pierce † Jasper Sitwell † Laura † S.H.I.E.L.D. Resistance Jeffrey Mace/Patriot † (displaced) Phil Coulson † (displaced) Daisy Johnson/Quake (displaced; briefly) Jemma Simmons (displaced; briefly) Alphonso Mackenzie (displaced) Jemma Simmons † Grant Ward † Antoine Triplett † Burrows † O'Brien † Hart † Nick Fury † Victoria Hand † Billy Koenig † Cooke †

Daisy Johnson Holden Radcliffe † Hope Mackenzie † Vijay Nadeer † Burnell † Chris Adler † Julia Price † Amy † Eva Belyakov † Katya Belyakov † Andrew Garner † Rick † Elena Rodriguez † Lincoln Campbell † Carl Creel † Ian Quinn † Winslow † Audrey Nathan † John Horton † Mrs. Fitz † Gordon † Mrs. Lee † Ian Beavers † Buddy † Holden Radcliffe † (displaced) Agnes Kitsworth † (displaced)

Landmarks[]

• Ogygia
• Washington, D.C.
  • Alexander Pierce High School
  • HYDRA Broadcasting Center
  • HYDRA Enlightenment Cultivation Center
  • Mackenzie Residence
  • Playground
  • S.H.I.E.L.D. Academy
  • Skye's Apartment
  • Triskelion
  • Whitehall Institute

Appearances[]

Appearances for Framework

In chronological order: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. | Episode 4.01: The Ghost Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. | Episode 4.03: Uprising Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. | Episode 4.11: Wake Up Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. | Episode 4.12: Hot Potato Soup Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. | Episode 4.13: BOOM Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. | Episode 4.14: The Man Behind the Shield Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. | Episode 4.15: Self Control Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. | Episode 4.16: What If... Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. | Episode 4.17: Identity and Change Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. | Episode 4.18: No Regrets Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. | Episode 4.19: All the Madame's Men Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. | Episode 4.20: Farewell, Cruel World! Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. | Episode 4.21: The Return Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. | Episode 4.22: World's End Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. | Episode 5.01: Orientation Part One (mentioned) Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. | Episode 5.03: A Life Spent (mentioned) Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. | Episode 5.04: A Life Spent (mentioned) Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. | Episode 5.05: Rewind (mentioned) Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. | Episode 5.10: Past Life (mentioned) Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. | Episode 5.11: All the Comforts of Home (mentioned) Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. | Episode 5.12: The Real Deal (mentioned) Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. | Episode 5.14: The Devil Complex (mentioned) Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. | Episode 5.15: Rise and Shine (mentioned) Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. | Episode 5.19: Option Two (mentioned) Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. | Episode 6.04: Code Yellow Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. | Episode 6.06: Inescapable (mentioned) Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. | Episode 6.08: Collision Course Part One (mentioned) Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. | Episode 6.12: The Sign (mentioned) Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. | Episode 7.01: The New Deal (mentioned) Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. | Episode 7.11: Brand New Day (mentioned) Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. | Episode 7.13: What We're Fighting For (mentioned) Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. | Episode 5.02: Orientation Part Two

Trivia[]

• The Framework is considered the first reality other than the prime reality to appear in a Marvel Cinematic Universe-related production. Showrunners Maurissa Tancharoen and Jed Whedon explicitly describe the Framework as an alternate reality.^[16]
• The concept of a virtual reality has been used previously in Marvel Comics, although it doesn't have any relation to S.H.I.E.L.D. In Incredible Hulk #608, the Intelligencia designed a trap for Hulk, which is also considered Earth-10508.

References[]

External Links[]

• Framework on Marvel Database