A relatively new character, Yo-Yo Rodriguez aka Slingshot, was created by Brian Michael Bendis and Alex Maleev in 2008. First appearing in Mighty Avengers #13, she rose to prominence in the Marvel Universe when Nick Fury handpicked her for the Secret Warriors, an anti-Skrull taskforce led by Daisy “Quake” Johnson. While the team helped fight during the Skrull’s Secret Invasion, the continued afterwards as a covert arm of S.H.I.E.L.D. taking on various threats including a new iteration of HYDRA.
Aside from her S.H.I.E.L.D. training, Yo-Yo possesses super-speed with the unique twist of “slingshotting” back to the spot where she began running. During one of the Secret Warriors’ missions against HYDRA, Yo-Yo had both of her arms ripped off by the Gorgon, one of the new heads of the evil organization. While the traumatic event kept her benched from the team for a time, she was eventually equipped with two cybernetic arms, giving her an extra edge in the field.
With much of Season 3 of Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. taking inspiration from Jonathan Hickman‘s Secret Avengers (the main title Yo-Yo was featured in), it was only a matter of time before the character appeared on the show. Her appearance was rumored awhile back, but was finally confirmed last month when Natalia Cordova-Buckley was announced in the role.
Thanks to the extended trailer for Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D.‘s return from their mid-season break and a clip from the episode, we got our first look at the MCU’s newest speedster in action as the team heads to what looks to be her native Puerto Rico to recruit her for the growing Secret Warriors team.
With the death of Quicksilver in Avengers: Age Of Ultron, the MCU is in dire need of a new speedster. And given her eventual bionic prosthetics, she’ll have plenty of people to commiserate with should the show take that route given Coulson’s robot hand and Misty Knight‘s eventual cybernetic arm. In the comics, it was revealed that Yo-Yo’s father was career criminal Johnny Horton (aka the super-villain Griffin), a character that was actually referenced by Garret when he and Ward raided the Fridge in Season 1 of Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D.. While it seemed like a throwaway joke at the time, referencing a man who’d attached lion’s paws to his arms, Slingshot’s addition to the series could be an opportunity to bring Horton onto the show and add an extra level of tension to Yo-Yo’s developing character.
Slingshot will make her debut when Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. returns to ABC tonight with the episode “Bouncing Back.”
