Rick Stoner was a hard man who always stuck to the rules and showed much disdain towards his fellow World War II soldiers, specifically Nick Fury whom he had a love-hate relationship of sorts with. He along with James "Logan" Howlett worked at the C.I.A. and fought Hydra. Stoner was eventually offered the director's seat of the then newly formed S.H.I.E.L.D. Upon looking at the Howling Commandos' dossiers, he told himself that "these jokers will never become S.H.I.E.L.D. agents as long as I'm director". His director status is short lived as he's shot and killed by Hydra while trying to uncover a traitor within S.H.I.E.L.D. This turned out to be a cover up with Stoner actually having been disavowed and abandoned by S.H.I.E.L.D., plotting revenge against Fury for taking his job. Now under the Fallen Angel codename, he plots to use a project to manipulate reality. Stoner and Fury have a battle over the project, ending up trapped in a pocket universe. Fury ultimately prevails while Stoner is killed.
In other media
Rick Stoner appears in Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., portrayed by Patrick Warburton. This version is a general. He appears in season 5 episode "All the Comforts of Home" as a prerecorded holographic greeting message for a then-uninhabited version of a S.H.I.E.L.D. base called the Lighthouse. The message was filmed in the 1970s, and he's depicted as having a very jovial attitude. In the episode "Option Two", it's revealed that Stoner had equipped the Lighthouse for every possible type of apocalyptic scenario. Phil Coulson unknowingly activates the nuclear option, causing the Lighthouse to go into lockdown. After a Gravitonium-powered Glenn Talbot defeats alien warriors sent to kill Coulson's team and takes Coulson to confront the aliens' leader Qovas, Stoner's holographic message appears again stating that the atmosphere has returned to normal, ending the nuclear protocol. He appears physically in the season seven episode "A Trout in the Milk" when the agents travel to the 1970's. Some insight is given when a time-displaced Daniel Sousa identifies him as "Little Ricky", a junior agent who "couldn't tell the difference between a clip and a mag." Due to the Chronicoms' influence in the 1950's, Stoner unknowingly approves of a Hydra plot identified as Project Insight, making the plan several decades earlier than when it was supposed to launch. Because the Chronicoms shortened the Time Window, the agents jump forward three years to stop the launch. Phil Coulson and Melinda May, posing as Patrick Kutik and Chastity McBryde, respectively, confront Stoner and attempt to warn him of the plot that the Chronicoms have. May sees that Stoner does not believe them and knocks him out. Stoner eventually believes them when two Chronicoms attempt to steal his face and give it to an inactive Chronicom Hunter. He teams up with May to take out the remaining Chronicoms and leaves on good terms with them, stating to himself how filling out the report on what transpired will be amusing.
