Yo-Yo Rodriguez


Yo-Yo Rodriguez, also known as Slingshot, is a fictional superhero appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. Yo-Yo Rodriguez first appeared in The Mighty Avengers #13 and was created by writer Brian Michael Bendis and artist Alex Maleev. She has a form of super-speed, when used she automatically returns to the place where she started. She was a member of Nick Fury's Secret Warriors team. She is the daughter of supervillian Johnny Horton.
Yo-Yo Rodriguez is portrayed by Natalia Cordova-Buckley, in the Marvel Cinematic Universe TV series Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.. In this version she is reimagined as an Inhuman.

Publication history

Yo-Yo Rodriguez first appeared in The Mighty Avengers #13 and was created by writer Brian Michael Bendis and artist Alex Maleev. Born in Puerto Rico, she is the daughter of the supervillian John "Johnny" Horton. Through her father's mutated DNA, she gained superhuman speed and the ability to snap back to the exact same spot she started running. Following the Secret Invasion event, taking on the name Slingshot, she was one of the members of Nick Fury's black-ops team called the Secret Warriors, which was written by Bendis and Jonathan Hickman. During this run, both her arms were cut off by Hydra member Gorgon, and were later replaced with two prosthetic arms.

Fictional character biography

Yo-Yo Rodriguez is the Puerto-Rican daughter of the Griffin. She is recruited by Nick Fury to join his anti-Skrull task force during the "Secret Invasion" storyline. This team becomes known as the Secret Warriors.
Both of her arms are severed by the Gorgon and she is temporarily unable to remain active with the team. However, both arms are later replaced with prosthetics. With her new arms, she returns to active duty.
Slingshot is believed to have been killed in a confrontation with the Wrecking Crew.

Powers and abilities

She can run at superhuman speed, then bounces back to the point where she began. Trained by Nick Fury in espionage, hand to hand combat and firearms, her primary weapon is a bo staff.

In other media

Television

An Inhuman version of Yo-Yo Rodriguez appears in Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., portrayed by Natalia Cordova-Buckley. She first appeared in the episode "Bouncing Back". Elena Rodriguez is a "street-wise Colombian woman given Inhuman abilities", namely the ability to move at super speed for the duration of one heartbeat before returning to the point from which she started. She first comes into contact with S.H.I.E.L.D. in the episode "Bouncing Back" when they investigate her for stealing weapons from the National Police of Colombia's corrupt members after they kill her cousin Francisco. She grows close to Mack, who nicknames her "Yo-Yo" due to her powers, and eventually agrees to join S.H.I.E.L.D.'s Secret Warriors to help them fight the forces of the Inhuman Hive. After signing the Sokovia Accords, Rodriguez returned to her life with occasional monitoring by S.H.I.E.L.D. She returns to the team after encountering the Watchdogs and pursues a relationship with Mack. In the episode "All the Comforts of Home", Rodriguez's forearms are sliced off by Hydra agent Ruby Hale, but she survives. While recovering in the episode "Principia", Elena learns Mack salvaged robots from a mission and gave them to their colleague Leo Fitz so he can develop prosthetic arms for her. While the arms are effective, Yo-Yo's speed temporarily disabled due to the messages being sent between her brain and arms not moving fast enough. Despite this, she became involved in the field after Ruby had become infused with gravitonium and killed her before the unstable substance caused her to destroy the world. Fitz eventually fixes her arms so that they do not malfunction when she uses her powers. In the season seven episode, "After, Before", Yo-Yo has an epiphany when she realizes that she has been withholding her powers the entire time; she no longer needs to snap back to her point of origin.

Web series

Cordova-Buckley reprises her role in a six-part online digital series titled . The six-part series showed Elena on the hunt for Victor Ramon who is responsible for the death of her cousin and has allied with the Watchdogs.