Phillip 'Phil' Coulson

Agent Phil Coulson is a covert S.H.I.E.L.D. agent in Peter Parker's high school as the principal, where he keeps an eye on him and his friends. In the past he has worked closely with many heroes including the Avengers.

History

At their first meeting he tried to persuade Nick Fury not to include Spider-Man as a member of S.H.I.E.L.D. Trainees, due to Spider-Man being a wild card. Director Fury disagreed, saying that he would train Spider-Man to be one of the greats.

Spider-Man was introduced to the other young heroes and argued with Coulson saying they were part of the training program, but Spider-Man left, saying he didn't sign on for this. When Peter wanted a transfer to another school upon discovering Power Man, White Tiger, Iron Fist and Nova, were now attending Midtown High School, he was denied as Agent Coulson was now the acting principal. Principal Coulson stated that he was there as well as the the other four heroes in a way for Fury to keep an eye on Peter.

Peter argued with Nova in the school hallway but as they were about to fight, Coulson sent them to detention. There, Peter realized it was a trick to gather the S.H.I.E.L.D. trainees: Using special chairs, Coulson sent them to the S.H.I.E.L.D. helicarrier, and Fury putted them a test to battle giant robots.

TV Tropes Trivia

Phil Coulson, a SHIELD agent undercover as the principal of Spidey's school, is an immigrant from the Marvel Cinematic Universe. And then made the transition to the main Marvel Universe.

• Season 4 is set to bring in Jemma Simmons, a member of Coulson's team that debuted in Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.. She's since appeared in the main universe comics and as an NPC in the video game Marvel's Future Fight before turning up in this show.

• Ascended Fanboy: Based on what was revealed for the 5th episode, Spider-Man is a massive fanboy of Iron Man and in return, Tony makes him his own Iron Spider armor. Also, White Tiger is a SHIELD fangirl and geeks out every time they are in the Helicarrier. Agent Coulson, true to the movies, is a rabid Captain America fanboy. Flash Thompson is also a Spider-Man fan boy, before he becomes Agent Venom?

• Be Careful What You Wish For: For Spidey's lack of respectability due to Jonah's bad press, Nick Fury, Coulson, Thor and his team of heroes are more than ready to do all they can do save him when he gets turned into a talking pig. Showing he was a lot more desirable than thought, ironically, by Loki.

• Lampshaded at the end of one episode where Coulson asks Spider-man if he's learnt his lesson about not touching things that don't belong to you after he lost Captain America's shield. Spider-man points out that if he hadn't done this then they never would have found out about Doctor Doom's plan to take over the world.

• Both Coulson and Juggernaut are covered in grey goo after the Awesome Android spits them out, in the latter's case helps hide his lack of clothes.
• Distressed Damsel: Subverted bigtime! Aunt May alternates between scolding and sweet talking the Beetle until he's distracted enough for her to run off, then pulls a Ripley on him with a jet engine then bats her eyes at Coulson and Spider-Man like she was helpless all along.
• Funny Background Event: After Agent Coulson invites Aunt May on a date, Peter starts talking about it. In the background you can see Coulson's shadow jumping around in the principal's office, and then you can hear something crash.

• Guess Who I'm Dating?: Aunt May and Agent Coulson? HELP!