Marvel's Cloak and Dagger has debuted on Freeform with its first two gripping episodes, which introduce budding superheroes Tyrone Johnson a.k.a. Cloak (Aubrey Joseph) and Tandy Bowen a.k.a. Dagger (Olivia Holt). The premiere also re-introduced the shady oil company Roxxon Corp., which has been featured in the Marvel Cinematic Universe since the very first Iron Man movie, and represents Cloak and Dagger's strongest connection to the rest of the MCU.

Despite how many times Roxxon has cropped up in MCU movies and TV shows, you could be forgiven for not remembering it. The company (whose name is a little-disguised analog of the real-life oil company Exxon), is a powerful and sometimes sinister conglomerate that operates quietly in the background, providing a day-to-day resource while secretly harboring connections to all sorts of nasty operations. Here's a rundown of all the times we've seen Roxxon previously in the MCU, and the corporation's role in Cloak and Dagger.

Roxxon in the MCU So Far

Agents of SHIELD - Roxxon gas station

Roxxon was taken from the pages of Marvel Comics, where the company played a similar role to the one that it plays in the MCU: a shady energy company that represents corporate greed, particularly at the expense of the little guy. Roxxon's first appearance in the MCU was in Iron Man, where the Roxxon sign could be seen in the background of Iron Man's climactic battle with Iron Monger. Roxxon then went on to play similarly minor roles in the next two Iron Man movies - first as a race car sponsor in Iron Man 2, and then when an unfortunate Roxxon employee was captured and killed on camera by The Mandarin in Iron Man 3 (though the whole thing, of course, turned out to be faked).

Bridging the gap between Marvel movies and TV is the Marvel One-Shot A Funny Thing Happened On the Way to Thor's Hammer, in which Agent Phil Coulson stops off at a Roxxon gas station and finds himself in the middle of an armed robbery (a situation that he calmly defuses).

Related: Cloak & Dagger Showrunner Reveals Where to Find Stan Lee Cameo

The Marvel movies and TV shows technically share a universe, but since a command structure shakeup in 2015, Marvel Studios boss Kevin Feige has reported directly to Disney, while Marvel TV has been managed under the umbrella of Marvel Entertainment. A side effect of this has been a noticeable rift between the movies and TV series, and it looks like the TV side of things got Roxxon in the custody battle, because the company hasn't been referenced in any of the movies since Iron Man 3. However, it has woven itself quite deeply into the fabric of the TV universe. In Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., Roxxon was the parent company of Cybertek, the company behind Project Deathlok and the Centipede Project (both attempts at creating super-soldiers). In Agent Carter, Roxxon boss Hugh Jones was revealed to be a member of the powerful, clandestine group called the Council of Nine.

The connections to secret organizations don't end there. In Daredevil, we learned that Roxxon is affiliated with The Hand, and one of Foggy Nelson and Matt Murdock's first cases after law school involved a Roxxon employee who had been stricken with cancer after working at one of the company's plants. But while Roxxon has represented a slow-drip of menace in the MCU so far, Cloak and Dagger may truly drag it into the light.

Page 2: Roxxon's Role in Cloak and Dagger

Aubrey Joseph in Cloak and Dagger

Roxxon's Role in Cloak and Dagger

Roxxon's presence in Cloak and Dagger indicates that the show is based primarily on the Ultimate Universe comics, in which Roxxon is directly responsible for Tandy and Tyrone's powers. In their Ultimate origin story, Tandy and Ty are in a car accident that leaves them comatose, and a branch of Roxxon called the Roxxon Brain Trust faked their deaths and then proceeded to experiment on them, using a powerful and mysterious energy called Darkforce. In Cloak and Dagger's original origin story, they got their powers after being forcibly injected with a drug that was intended to be a cheaper version of heroin.

In the first two episodes of Cloak and Dagger, we learned that Tandy and Ty got their powers at the same time: Ty's brother was shot by a police officer, and Ty jumped into the water to save him; meanwhile, Tandy was in a car accident with her father and ended up in the water as well. A nearby Roxxon rig exploded, imbuing them both with powers and also forging a powerful connection between them.

Related: Cloak & Dagger Can Resolve Dropped MCU Plot Thread

It looks like season 1 of Cloak and Dagger will slowly tease out the mystery behind Roxxon, as the company has been heavily featured in the marketing - the bright red logo forming the background of the poster released during NYCC last year - and the show's premiere found Ty waking up on the top of a Roxxon Corp. building with no memory of how he got there. Though Roxxon might seem like obvious bad guys, showrunner Joe Pokaski told Newsweek that his take on the corporation is slightly more complex than that:

"Roxxon, for me, has always felt like the quintessential Marvel corporation... Since Iron Man 2, I would say. There was something interesting adding our little spin on Roxxon Gulf being the New Orleans version. It felt right to us. Our philosophy on our show is corporations aren't necessarily evil, they are just amoral. If they can make the same amount of money saving your lives, they would, they just generally don't."

If Roxxon isn't already aware of the fallout of the rig explosion, the company will probably learn about Cloak and Dagger's powers as the pair try to uncover the mystery of what happened to them all those years ago, and where their powers come from. Through this storyline we could well see Cloak and Dagger produce more links to other Marvel TV shows, or perhaps even the movies. Speaking to Screen Rant, Marvel TV boss Jeph Loeb explained that this is one of the strongest links Cloak and Dagger has to the rest of the MCU: "Roxxon only exists in the MCU, so you have to thereby go, it is all connected simply because that's one of the very significant points that happen between them."

There are still eight episodes left in Cloak and Dagger season 1. Will Ty and Tandy be able to get to the bottom of what Roxxon did to them, or will they only find themselves in more danger?

More: Cloak & Dagger Review: Another Superhero Series In No Hurry To Get Where It’s Going

Cloak and Dagger airs Thursdays at 8pm on Freeform.