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 enjoys 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.

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.

Loki's Arrival
Maria Hill and Nick Fury visited at 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 he 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 failed 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. Hill was trapped by rubble, but survived. She radioed Fury, informing him of what had happened and asked him what should they do.

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

- Maria Hill After the descruction of the Joint Dark Energy Facility, Hill reported back to the Helicarrier, aided in the administration of events. She was present when Fury brought together the Avengers and attempted to stop the insurgents during Loki's escape. After the attack, she 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 Invasiom. After the Avengers stopped the invasion she discussion whether or not the Avengers would stay together with Director Fury.

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 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 after his death and his lack of awareness of the truth of the 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.

S.H.I.E.L.D. Civil War
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.

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 said that Captain America tends to inspire loyalty. Sitwell replied saying that Alexander Pierce was moving her off the case.

After Captain America and Black Widow and the Falcon discovered HYDRA's infiltration of the organization and were captured during a battle with the Winter Soldier, Hill freed them and brought them to Nick Fury's location. 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. Hill broke into the Triskelion with Captain America and Falcon and coordinated them in their attempt to disable and destroy Project Insight.

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 didn't believe Hill's insistence that Nick Fury was dead. 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 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. Upon arriving and discovering that Grant Ward was HYDRA, however, Hill helped Coulson fight off Colonel Glenn Talbot and his men, before she and Coulson's team escaped. Hill, in a S.H.I.E.L.D. Jump Jet, confronted Ward in Los Angeles, who taunted her that Fury should have made Black Widow the Deputy Director if he wanted eye candy. Hill didn't take the bait and continued distracting Ward long enough to allow Coulson to rescue Skye. Later that night, Hill implored Coulson and his team to at least come work for Tony Stark instead of going off on their own, but Coulson declined.

Abilities
Maria Hill has no superhuman powers but 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.

Hill is a highly-trained combatant and hand-to-hand fighter, 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 fight.

Friends and Allies

 * S.H.I.E.L.D.
 * Nick Fury - Former S.H.I.E.L.D. Director
 * Victoria Hand † - Former S.H.I.E.L.D. Subordinate
 * Felix Blake - Former S.H.I.E.L.D. Subordinate
 * Coulson's Team - Former S.H.I.E.L.D. 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
 * Stark Industries
 * Pepper Potts - Boss
 * Deathlok - Former Enemy (while under HYDRA coercion)

Enemies

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

Video Game Only

 * R.A.I.D.
 * Sin
 * Taskmaster
 * Shockwave
 * Serpent Society
 * King Cobra
 * Puff Adder
 * U.L.T.I.M.A.T.U.M.

Appearances
In chronological order--
 * The Avengers
 * Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.
 * Pilot
 * The Magical Place (mentioned)
 * Captain America: The Winter Soldier
 * Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.
 * Providence (mentioned)
 * The Only Light in the Darkness (mentioned)
 * Nothing Personal
 * Avengers: Age of Ultron