Board Thread:Television/@comment-1713281-20131004113215/@comment-1895174-20150929221408

One last idea to put out there before the season starts:

Ward is the MCU's Simon Williams/Wonder Man. Or he's based on his older brother Eric/Grim Reaper. Ward has enough in common with both characters that I could make a case for either of them.

Like Wonder Man, Ward comes from an incredibly wealthy, privileged family that is also really messed up. His older brother was a bad kid tortured by their mother while their father did nothing. In the comics, the Enchantress heard about Simon Williams' case and used her powers to get him out of prison. She then enticed him with promises of power, revenge, and the control over his life that he never had to convince him to join the Masters of Evil. She then took him to a remote location where Zemo could turn him into the fake hero that could infiltrate the Avengers. Swap out the proper nouns and slightly reorganize the order of events, and you have how Garrett recruited Ward into Hydra. Brett Dalton also bears a physical resemblance with the character (just throw in some red eyes and purple lighting effects), and I wouldn't be surprised if "Ward, Grant" was a manipulation of "Wonder Man" the writers' room came up with so they didn't have to reveal this from the start.

I do recognize that last point is borderline Pepe Silvia levels of crazy.

On the other hand, Ward is also an abusive older brother, and his mom abused him as well and only showed any love towards his youngest brother, Thomas. That would be points in favor of him being Grim Reaper. Both characters also left their family at an early age because of the abuse, and both burned down their family home (Ward did that twice). Eric also lead his own team of villains, something Ward's going to do in the upcoming season. The problem with saying he's Grim Reaper, though, is that we don't know enough about Thomas to say he could be Wonder Man. I couldn't imagine this show giving us Grim Reaper as a major character without including his younger brother.