Who she is: Melinda May, a.k.a. The Cavalry
Her power: She doesn’t possess any superpowers, but is arguably the best hand-to-hand combat fighter in the entire S.H.I.E.L.D. organization.
Her story: Melinda May is a reluctant recruit of Phil Coulson in Marvel’s Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D., where she agrees to be a pilot on condition of not having to fight. We soon learn this is the result of a traumatic experience in which May was forced to kill numerous people, including a malevolent superpowered child—an event that earned her the nickname “The Cavalry.” However, she’s soon pulled back into the fray as a fighter, helping Coulson’s team through any number of missions.
She briefly left S.H.I.E.L.D. in an effort to rekindle the romance with her old love, psychiatrist Andrew Garner, but returned after that romance failed to help track and kill Grant Ward (a.k.a. Hive). Soon, it was revealed Garner had become the murderous Inhuman Lash—a bummer for May, to put it mildly. She helped to capture him, only to have Garner escape again before he was revealed to have been meant to save Daisy Johnson from Hive’s control, a feat that cost Garner his life. May then helped to defeat Hive and his plan to launch a nuclear weapon containing Inhuman mist. Since then, May has been kicking ass as usual, right up until she was captured by a conniving scientist and his cyborg assistant, who plugged her into a virtual reality called the Framework.
Played by: Ming-Na Wen
Currently, Melinda May is: Trapped in a simulation of reality.
Where will we see her next? In more of season four of Marvel’s Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D., which premiered in September 2016.