Madame Hydra

"Attention all security staff, this is Madame Hydra! It seems my little pets are escaping their pens. All long-range units converge on the eastern rail bridge. The rest of you... KILL THE SUPER SOLDIER!"

- Madame Hydra

Ophelia Sarkissian, better known as Madame Hydra, was an officer of HYDRA during World War II.

Biography
"Captain, this is Madame Hydra, our highest ranking lieutenant. She commands the detention area."

- Arnim Zola to Captain America

HYDRA has a longstanding tradition of naming the highest-ranking female officer in its organization Madame HYDRA. The current Madame Hydra is respected and feared as a ruthless fighter. First found by Arnim Zola, the HYDRA doctor was impressed by Madame Hydra's brutality and her expertise in poisons, torture and interrogation. Slightly enamored with the woman, Zola put forward the idea of advancing the woman in rank to the level of Madame Hydra, and once she ascended to the title, she proved to be one of Red Skull's most loyal lieutenants. In 1944, he called her with the rest of HYDRA leadership to join him in Castle Zemo, where she thoroughly disgusted Baron Heinrich Zemo, who glibly commented in his journals that any of the baronesses of the past would faint immediatly upon the very sight of her.

After Captain America defeated Baron Wolfgang von Strucker, he was ambushed and captured by the mechanical Iron Cross, and taken to the dungeon complex beneath Castle Zemo. While he was blacked out, Arnim Zola took a sample of Cap's blood to recreate the Super Soldier Serum, before leaving the Captain himself in the custody of the new Warden of the dungeons - Madame Hydra. Hydra roughly abused Cap, though Zola made it explicit that she was not to kill him yet, and after she restrained him, she took the time to mockingly reveal that she had kidnapped his friends James Montgomery Falsworth, Bucky Barnes and Dum Dum Dugan of the Howling Commandos. Breaking free of the restraints and escaping his cage, Captain America rescued Bucky and prepared a massive prison riot, infuriating Madame Hydra and freeing the POWs who served as her "test subjects". Once Bucky escaped Castle Zola with a train loaded with the POWs, Cap turned around and rescued Dugan, and the two split up, with Cap pursuing Hydra before she could kill, or do something even worse, to Falsworth. Pursuing Madame Hydra across the castle, Cap eventually cornered her in Zemo's Ballroom. She used smoke bombs to disguise her reinforcements from Cap, and fired at him with her custom machine pistols from a ledge far away from him. However, Cap managed to defeat her reinforcements and use his vibranium shield to reflect the bullets back at her, forcing her to flee. Cap caught her and the two fought hand to hand, where Captain America proved to be superior - before finally reflecting her bullets past her, triggering a massive explosion behind her. The blast horribly scarred half her face, but she declined Captain America's offer to get her the medical help she needed, claiming her scars were a badge of honor and escaped on an aircraft outside. While she escaped Castle Zemo, her final words with the Captain revealed that her Commander, the Red Skull, would be on his way to the castle soon. She was killed by Captain America but the consequences of her actions continued to haunt Rogers for the rest of his mission in Castle Zemo - and almost leading to Falsworth being transformed into a mind-controlled super soldier to use as an assassin for the nefarious purposes of Zola.

Relationships

 * HYDRA - Allies
 * Red Skull - Leader
 * Arnim Zola - Superior officer
 * Wolfgang von Strucker
 * Iron Cross
 * Heinrich Zemo - Unwilling ally
 * Captain America - Enemy and Killer

Trivia

 * In the comics, Madame Hydra was the lover of the Red Skull.