Maria Hill

"Most of the intelligence community would like to drop me into a dark hole, but even they can't mess with Tony's army of lawyers. So for now, we're privatizing global security."

- Maria Hill

Maria Hill is the former Deputy Director of S.H.I.E.L.D., and also held the title of "Commander". She enjoyed a well-deserved reputation as tough-minded and by the book. Her clearheaded pragmatism was a valued source of reason during the critical discourse surrounding the Avengers Initiative. After Nick Fury faked his death, she worked with him and was a part of the assault team that took down the Helicarriers from Project Insight. She joined Stark Industries in the immediate aftermath to help protect herself from being put in prison. However, Hill stayed in touch with Phil Coulson and S.H.I.E.L.D. and acted as an intermediary between the organization and the Avengers during the War on HYDRA. She temporarily rejoined Nick Fury as his second in command on the Helicarrier No. 64 during the Battle of Sokovia to help defeat the genocidal artificial intelligence Ultron. She later moved to the New Avengers Facility to assist the Avengers.

Early Life
"A lot of us lost respect for Fury when he picked you as his second. If he wanted eye-candy around, he could have at least picked Romanoff."

- Grant Ward to Maria Hill

Maria Hill joined S.H.I.E.L.D. and rose through its ranks, at one point working in Madripoor and becoming one of the organization's best agents. By the time of the War for Earth, Hill had already caught the eye of S.H.I.E.L.D.'s director Nick Fury and had been appointed Deputy Director.

Agent May's Transfer
Hill approved the transfer of Agent Melinda May from being an active field agent to working in the administration department.

Loki's Arrival
Maria Hill and Nick Fury visited the main facility of Project P.E.G.A.S.U.S. to monitor the strange amount of energy that the Tesseract was emitting. Upon hearing that the Tesseract was unstable, Fury ordered her to ensure that the Phase 2 prototypes were shipped out. During their visit, Loki was transported to Earth through the power of the Tesseract. He enthralled several S.H.I.E.L.D. agents while killing others. After obtaining the Tesseract, Loki used two enthralled agents, Clint Barton and Erik Selvig to escape on a S.H.I.E.L.D. truck. Seeing this, Hill pursued them, engaging in a firefight in the facility's tunnel system but failing to stop Loki. The portal that Loki had arrived in began to collapse and created a powerful surge of energy that collapsed all the area around it destroying the facility. Hill was trapped by rubble, but survived. She radioed Nick Fury, informing him of what had happened and asking him what they should do. He told her that they were now at war.

Battle of New York
"You put those people together, you can't expect what's going to happen..."

- Maria Hill

After the destruction of the Joint Dark Energy Facility, Hill reported back to the Helicarrier and aided in the administration of events. She was present when Fury brought together the Avengers and was immediately uneasy about the alliance of the heroes. When Tony Stark arrived and began talking in great detail about how Erik Selvig could use the Tesseract, Hill questioned when he had become an expert in thermonuclear astrophysics and Stark replied that he had last night. Hill did not see Tony Stark planting a device on the Helicarrier's computer to download all of S.H.I.E.L.D.'s files. Maria Hill and Phil Coulson watched on a monitor as Nick Fury and the Avengers argued while under the influence of Loki's Scepter. This was interrupted when Clint Barton used an explosive arrow which made the Helicarrier malfunction and start losing altitude. Maria Hill quickly realized that the engine was down and ordered someone to get the engine going again. Tony Stark agreed to repair the engine, with the assistance of Steve Rogers. Hill and Nick Fury stayed in the control room and ensured that the invading forces did not take control of the Helicarrier. After the attack, she was informed that Agent Phil Coulson had been killed by Loki and was present when Nick Fury gave a speech to Steve Rogers and Tony Stark, explaining his intentions with the Tesseract and the reasons for forming the Avengers. She approached Fury a little while later and explained how she knew that Coulson's vintage trading cards that Fury had shown Captain Rogers were not in Coulson's jacket as Fury has claimed, but in his locker. Fury defended himself stating that they "needed the push". The lie was eventually successful in causing the Avengers to unite and attack Loki. Hill monitored the Battle of New York, and informed Fury that the World Security Council had taken control of a S.H.I.E.L.D. plane, for the purpose of bombing New York City to stop the Chitauri Invasion. Despite the best efforts of Hill and Nick Fury, the plane took off and fired a missile at New York City. Hill watched the monitors as Iron Man successfully flew the missile into the worm hole and stopped Loki's invasion, although it appeared that Stark had been killed in the mission, he was able to be revived by the Avengers. After the Avengers stopped the invasion she discussed whether or not the Avengers would stay together with Director Fury. Fury told her that they would, because the world would need them too, with this Hill walked back to the center of the Helicarrier and resumed her work.

Resurrection of Phil Coulson
Maria Hill was aware that Director Nick Fury used Project T.A.H.I.T.I. to bring Agent Phil Coulson back to life. She aided Fury in keeping the truth hidden from Coulson. She was also aware of Agent Melinda May's true purpose on the team.

Creating Coulson's Team
"...I vetted Ward."

- Maria Hill, after discovering Ward's betrayal

Hill interviewed and evaluated Agent Grant Ward after he successfully recovered a Chitauri Neural Link that international criminal Vanchat was housing in Paris. Having previously evaluated Ward, she assigned him to Agent Coulson's newly created team as he was promoted to Clearance Level 7. She also oversaw the team's first mission, to investigate the Rising Tide and the Hooded Hero. During this time, both she and Dr. Streiten talked about their concern over Phil Coulson's status after his recovery in Tahiti following his death and also about his lack of awareness over the true circumstances that surrounded his death.

Agent Coulson later reported directly to her after Mike Peterson was successfully sedated in Los Angeles.

When Coulson was abducted by the Centipede Project, Hill wanted constant updates on the situation of the rescue mission coordinated by Agent Victoria Hand.

Random Assessment
Maria Hill gave a random psychological assessment to Agent Mark Smith on his day off from working field missions. She found him unfit for assignment and sent him to S.H.I.E.L.D. S.T.A.T.I.O.N..

HYDRA Uprising
Prior to the launch of Project Insight, Nick Fury called Hill to Washington, D.C. following his discovery of suspicious information about S.H.I.E.L.D.'s intentions for Project Insight. Fury ordered her to come to DC within the next few hours, a few seconds after the phone call ended, Nick Fury was attacked by HYDRA.

After Nick Fury's apparent death at the hands of the Winter Soldier, Hill took Fury to a secret location so that he could heal and they could gather information about the truth about what was going on at S.H.I.E.L.D..

She then returned to the Triskelion and met with Jasper Sitwell telling him that she was absent because she was arranging Fury's funeral. Sitwell showed Hill footage of Captain America and Black Widow on the run and questioned her about it. She answered simply that Captain America tended to inspire loyalty. Sitwell replied, saying that Alexander Pierce was moving her off the case. After Captain America, Black Widow, and the Falcon discovered HYDRA's infiltration of the organization and were captured during a battle with the Winter Soldier, Hill managed to attack a HYDRA guard and take his uniform. She snuck onto the vehicle carrying Captain Rogers, Romanoff and Wilson and used a Taser Rod to knock out the other guard. She freed them and escaped with the help of a Mouse Hole device. She brought them to Nick Fury's location and got medical assistance for an injured Romanoff. There, she revealed to the three that Fury was not dead, and that they had developed a way to stop Project Insight but needed the group's help. They explained their plan to board the Helicarriers and change the chips inside to cause the Helicarriers' weapons to target each other rather than innocent people. Rogers explained his intentions to destroy both S.H.I.E.L.D. and HYDRA, as he believed that although HYDRA was the enemy, S.H.I.E.L.D. was a broken system, Hill agreed with Rogers and helped convince Fury that it was the right thing to do. Hill broke into the Triskelion with Captain America and Falcon and coordinated them in their attempt to disable and destroy Project Insight. While Rogers and Wilson disabled the Helicarriers, Romanoff infiltrated the main conference room to capture Alexander Pierce with the help of Nick Fury. Hill stayed in the command center, ordering and tracking the team during the mission. She defended herself several times from attacking HYDRA Agents. During the battle Rogers became trapped on board the Helicarrier, he ordered Hill to make the Helicarriers fire at each other with him still aboard, despite her protests she did as ordered and the Project Insight Helicarriers were destroyed. Rogers survived the crash, and Pierce was killed by Nick Fury. Romanoff leaked all of S.H.I.E.L.D. and HYDRA's files onto the internet, effectively destroying S.H.I.E.L.D.

Working at Stark Industries
"S.H.I.E.L.D. implodes and everyone wants answers. The CIA, NSA, NRO, them I can handle, but Congress, Congress is like kindergarten."

- Maria Hill

After the battle at the Triskelion left S.H.I.E.L.D. in shambles, Hill visited the Human Resources department of Stark Industries, and was interviewed for a job. This was a move to protect herself from prison (the protection coming from Stark Industries' lawyers rather than Stark himself) as well as to allow her to continue maintaining global security.

While working for Stark Industries she was interviewed and questioned by various intelligence agencies from around the world including the CIA, the NSA, and the NRO. She was also interviewed by Congress, which to her were the most stressful meetings because in her view they acted like children. Despite working for Stark, she was still constantly under high-level surveillance by multiple agencies including an unknown Russian agency. One night in Washington, D.C., while complaining to Pepper Potts about the hearings, Hill noticed the many poorly-concealed (in Hill's mind) agents tailing her had been knocked out. She was generally unsurprised to meet Melinda May shortly thereafter. May revealed Phil Coulson's location and asked Hill to look in on him. She also wanted to know who was behind Project T.A.H.I.T.I., believing that it was Alexander Pierce, Nick Fury's superior and secretly HYDRA operative. Hill confessed that she asked Fury before, but he only told her, "that he buried the intel when he decided not to bury Coulson." May guessed that it was a riddle she needed to solve and asked Hill if she could ask Fury directly, but Hill insisted that he was dead, though May did not believe her. Their conversation was cut short when the FBI showed up, at which point Hill berated them for taking more than three minutes to locate her, something she would never have tolerated in her own agents. Hill subsequently reported the location of Nick Fury's top secret Providence base to the United States Armed Forces in the hopes that its capture could be used to prevent Coulson and his team being sent to prison. Colonel Glenn Talbot and his men arrived first, causing a stand-off between him and Coulson's team, who had been hiding out in the base. Coulson demanded to know how Talbot found the base, at which point Hill arrived and revealed she had told him that she was the one who had informed Talbot. Upon arriving at the base, Talbot questioned Coulson's Team while Hill had a meeting with Coulson and tried in vain to get him to surrender the base to Talbot and his men; she told him to hand over some small pieces of intel about S.H.I.E.L.D., which just annoyed Coulson even more. Coulson refused and told her that their priority should be tracking down the traitor John Garrett and Grant Ward, who had been revealed to be an operative of HYDRA, was responsible for the murders of Eric Koenig and Victoria Hand, and had recently kidnapped Agent Skye. Hill made her choice and helped Coulson fight off Colonel Glenn Talbot and his men, before she and Coulson's team escaped. Coulson's team were able to track down Grant Ward who was attempting to escape with Skye and Deathlok in the Bus. Hill, in a S.H.I.E.L.D. Jump Jet, confronted Ward in Los Angeles and ordered him to surrender. Ward taunted her that Fury should have made Black Widow the Deputy Director if he wanted eye candy. Hill did not take the bait and threatened to shoot Ward out of the sky if he tried to escape, Ward however made it clear that he knew it was an empty threat as Coulson would never allow Skye to be sacrificed. Hill continued distracting Ward long enough to allow Coulson to sneak aboard the plane. Ward took off unaware of Coulson's presence; Coulson was successful and escaped the plane with Skye. Later that night, Coulson took rooms in a small motel for him and his team; he asked Hill to set up tactical back-up for him as he prepared to attack John Garrett. Hill told him that there really was no S.H.I.E.L.D. anymore. Hill implored Coulson and his team to end their association with S.H.I.E.L.D. once Garrett had been stopped. She gave Coulson an offer to come work for Tony Stark instead of going off on his own, but Coulson declined. He asked her to say hello to Stark for him, but changed his mind when he remembered that Stark still believed he was dead. Hill then left without saying goodbye.

Finding the Scepter
"I'm guessing HYDRA doesn't know that Loki's Scepter was the weapon that killed me, but I bet they know it can control minds." "In their hands that's catastrophic; Coulson please tell me you know where it is." "Sokovia, pretty sure List is headed there right now."

- Phil Coulson and Maria Hill

Hill was contacted by Phil Coulson, after he had successfully located the Scepter which was in the possession of Baron Wolfgang von Strucker in Sokovia. The pair discussed the recent events at the Playground which involved Robert Gonzales' attempts to take control of the base. Both Coulson and Hill mocked Gonzales' method of having his team vote on every decision. With the location of the Scepter confirmed, Coulson ordered Hill to start the Theta Protocol and send in the Avengers to take down the HYDRA base and recapture it.

Avengers Assembling
Concluding her conversation, Hill found Tony Stark and Pepper Potts engaged in a playful argument. She informed them that J.A.R.V.I.S. was assembling the Avengers to assist Black Widow.

Working with the Avengers
"He's fast and she's weird."

- Maria Hill describes the Maximoff twins Following the successful Attack on the HYDRA Research Base and capture of both the Scepter and Baron Wolfgang von Strucker, Hill greeted the Avengers at Avengers Tower. As Hawkeye was being taken to get medical attention, Hill spoke to Captain America about the Maximoff twins, whom they had encountered during the battle; Hill explained their powers in detail to Rogers, switching to less complicated terms to make it clear to him. Hill was present at a party thrown by Tony Stark at the Avengers Tower. Drinking with Stark, Thor, and Col. Rhodes, she snidely opined that Pepper Potts and Jane Foster had intentionally missed the party. After the party, she sat with fellow former S.H.I.E.L.D. agent Clint Barton while many of the Avengers attempted to lift Thor's hammer Mjølnir without success; Hill herself did not attempt to lift the hammer. The group was interrupted by Ultron; Hill was the first to load her gun and joined the team in a fight against him and his Ultron Sentries. Eventually Ultron's body was destroyed and they were forced to make a plan to deal with the new threat.

Battle of Sokovia
Nick Fury requested that Hill join him in planning support for the Avengers' battle against Ultron. Fury and Hill recruited former S.H.I.E.L.D. agents including technician Cameron Klein and took possession of an old Helicarrier. When they arrived at Sokovia they found the Avengers engaged in a massive battle against the Ultron Sentries. Flying the Helicarrier in close, Hill sent out the rescue crafts to save the civilians while War Machine assisted in the battle. One of Ultron Sentries attacked the Helicarrier during the battle, but Hill and Fury fought and destroyed it before it did more harm to the ship. Eventually the battle was won, the civilians were saved and Ultron was destroyed forever.

New Avengers Facility
Following the battle, Hill was present at the New Avengers Facility, coordinating the efforts of the Avengers' new incarnation.

Personality
Maria Hill is well-known in S.H.I.E.L.D. for being rather tough-minded and by the book. Her clear-headed pragmatism was considered a valued of reason on multiple important occasions, especially during the cricital situation surrounding the Avengers Initiative.

She was shown to be extremely loyal to S.H.I.E.L.D. and especially to Director Nick Fury, having personally helped him several times, such as when he faked his death after attacked by the Winter Soldier. However, Hill ultimately proved that for the greater good, she was willing to discard her loyalties to S.H.I.E.L.D. and help Captain America to destroy HYDRA, despite the fact that it would tear S.H.I.E.L.D. apart.

Abilities

 * Expert Marksman: Hill is incredibly skilled with firearms. Alongside Nick Fury, Hill was able to defend the Helicarrier from Loki’s brainwashed agents using only a sidearm. She also engaged and attempted to stop Agent Clint Barton, who had fallen under Loki’s spell, in a high speed firefight as the brainwashed agent tried to aid Loki in his escape with the Tesseract. As two HYDRA operatives attempted to remove her from the Project Insight command center, Hill killed them before they could fire a shot.NP 159 fight.png
 * Expert Martial Artist: Hill is a highly trained combatant and martial artist, capable of engaging and defeating several of Colonel Glenn Talbot’s highly trained soldiers unarmed after they had captured Coulson's Team in Providence. During this altercation Hill displayed incredible skill in martial arts, and maintained the upper hand throughout the entire fight.

Weapons

 * : The Glock 19 was used by Hill as her sidearm while serving S.H.I.E.L.D., using it when she tried to prevent Loki and Clint Barton from escaping the Joint Dark Energy Mission Facility with the Tesseract, and when she infiltrated the Triskelion with Captain America and Falcon, using it to threaten the agents stationed at the communications room and killing two HYDRA operatives who wanted to enter the room.
 * : Hill carried the compact version of the Smith & Wesson M&P pistol to protect herself following S.H.I.E.L.D.'s collapse, taking it when she realized the people tasked with her surveillance had been knocked unconscious.
 * Taser Rod: Hill used one of the rods when posing as a member of STRIKE, knocking unconscious the other guard inside the van transporting Steve Rogers, Natasha Romanoff and Sam Wilson.

Allies

 * S.H.I.E.L.D. (First Incarnation)
 * Nick Fury - Former Director
 * Victoria Hand † - Former Subordinate
 * Felix Blake - Former Subordinate
 * Robert Gonzales † - Former Subordinate
 * Cameron Klein - Former Subordinate
 * Coulson's Team - Former Subordinates
 * Phil Coulson - Friend
 * Melinda May
 * Leo Fitz
 * Jemma Simmons
 * Skye
 * Antoine Triplett †
 * Avengers
 * Steve Rogers/Captain America - Former S.H.I.E.L.D. Subordinate
 * Tony Stark/Iron Man - Employer
 * Bruce Banner/Hulk
 * Thor
 * Natasha Romanoff/Black Widow - Former S.H.I.E.L.D. Subordinate
 * Clint Barton/Hawkeye - Former S.H.I.E.L.D. Subordinate
 * Sam Wilson/Falcon
 * James Rhodes/War Machine
 * Pietro Mximoff/Quicksilver †
 * Wanda Maximoff/Scarlet Witch
 * Vision
 * Helen Cho
 * Stark Industries
 * Pepper Potts - Boss
 * Lian May

Enemies

 * Loki
 * Chitauri
 * Vanchat
 * Ultron †
 * Ultron Sentries †
 * HYDRA
 * Alexander Pierce † - Former S.H.I.E.L.D. Superior
 * Jasper Sitwell † - Former S.H.I.E.L.D. Subordinate
 * John Garrett † - Former S.H.I.E.L.D. Subordinate
 * Grant Ward - Former S.H.I.E.L.D. Subordinate

Video Game Only

 * R.A.I.D.
 * Sinthea Schmidt/Sin
 * Tony Masters/Taskmaster
 * Lancaster Sneed/Shockwave
 * Serpent Society
 * Klaus Voorhees/King Cobra
 * Gordon Fraley/Puff Adder
 * Rachel Leighton/Diamondback
 * U.L.T.I.M.A.T.U.M.