Well, whether or not you should know about Captain America's go-to military team is up to you, but you definitely could, if you paid close enough attention.

"Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D." (and ABC's other, newer Marvel TV show, "Agent Carter") are built on the recent spate of big-screen Marvel movies, especially the "Captain America" ones. The first film, "Captain America: The First Avenger," introduced the Howling Commandos as the team that helped Cap take on the Nazis in Europe during the Second World War.

Sharp-eyed fans will have noticed a cameo by two of them (Dum Dum Dugan, played by Neal McDonough, and Jim Morita, played by Kenneth Choi) in the season 2 premiere of "Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D." in September.

Of course, the team has been around much longer than the movies and TV show. They were first introduced in comics in the 1960s, as companions not for Captain America, but for Nick Fury (the character played by Samuel L. Jackson in the films and briefly in the "Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D." TV show).

They have been mainstays, though hardly stars, in various Marvel comics in the years since.

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