Maria Hill

Commander Maria Hill (/məˈraɪə/ mə-RY-ə) is a fictional character appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. As a former Director of S.H.I.E.L.D., she appears in various storylines which often feature the Avengers or members of that group.

For the daughter of the regiment, see Maria Hill, Daughter of the Regiment.

Maria Hill
Maria Hill, from Secret Invasion #5. Art by Leinil Francis Yu.
Publication information
Publisher	Marvel Comics
First appearance	The New Avengers #4 (March 2005)
Created by	Brian Michael Bendis David Finch
In-story information
Alter ego	Maria Hill
Team affiliations	U.S. military S.H.I.E.L.D. Avengers Secret Avengers
Partnerships	Iron Man Nick Fury Captain America
Abilities	Trained agent Highly trained in weaponry Expert marksman and mastery of various other weapons

Cobie Smulders portrays Maria Hill in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, first appearing in The Avengers (2012), Captain America: The Winter Soldier (2014), Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015), Avengers: Infinity War (2018), Avengers: Endgame (2019), and Spider-Man: Far from Home (2019). She also appeared in two episodes of the first season and an episode of the second season of the television series Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D..

Publication history

Maria Hill first appeared in The New Avengers #4 (March 2005), and was created by Brian Michael Bendis and David Finch.[1]

Joe Quesada, who was Marvel's editor-in-chief during her first appearance, describes the character thus: "[Hill] is such a strong personality, she's like a force of nature and quite frankly, while perhaps not immediately loved by all involved, she's certainly as strong and imposing a figure as Nick Fury. Right now I feel that people view her as the outsider but [while] I don't think she's any harsher than Fury has ever been, what's different is that we aren't quite clear about her motives."[2]

She appeared as a supporting character in the 2010–2013 Avengers series, from issue #1 (July 2010) through its final issue, #34 (January 2013), but only appeared sporadically after the first half of its run.

In 2014, she was a regular character in Black Widow and Secret Avengers.

Fictional character biography

Introduction

Hill, who was born in Chicago,[3] joins the United States armed forces and later becomes an agent of S.H.I.E.L.D.[4]

The Avengers suspect Hill of being complicit in various crimes, but lack evidence to prove her malfeasance. At the same time, Hill suspects the latest incarnation of the Avengers are harboring an illicit agenda in connection with the "House of M" affair. She abducts Spider-Man and the Vision to question the two about the situation.[5]

She earns Iron Man's respect when she ignores the President of the United States's orders to nuke an island while the Avengers are on it.[6]

"Civil War"

In the 2006–2007 storyline "Civil War", Captain America refuses to assist Commander Hill in preparations to arrest any superheroes who refuse to comply with the Superhuman Registration Act, seeing such activity as politically motivated, but Hill, arguing that Captain America must obey the will of the American people, attempts to arrest Steve Rogers to which Captain America fights out of the Helicarrier and escapes.[7] After the Superhuman Registration Act passes into law, Hill is one of the leading enforcers. She blackmails Wonder Man into actively supporting S.H.I.E.L.D.'s crusade to hunt down the superheroes opposed to the Superhuman Registration Act. She sends Kree supersoldier Noh-Varr, already brainwashed, to capture the Runaways. She directs the Thunderbolts to capture Spider-Man; the two Thunderbolts members sent out, Jester and Jack O'Lantern, are slain by the Punisher.[8] After foiling an attack on Stark Tower, Hill thinks that she does not want her job as director of S.H.I.E.L.D. and thinks she should not have been offered the position in the first place. She suggests that the only other person besides Nick Fury who should lead the organization is Stark himself.[9] At the conclusion, the President appoints Tony Stark as the new director of S.H.I.E.L.D., with Hill (displeased) as acting deputy director.[10]

Deputy Director

After being made Deputy Director, Maria Hill becomes a core member of the S.H.I.E.L.D. cabinet and assists Stark in dealing with a sudden rise in various terrorist groups who have gained access to hyper-advanced biological weapons. Unlike the rest of the cabinet (including Sal Kennedy whom she loathed personally), Hill remains skeptical of a single conspiracy behind all these attacks.[11] When the Mandarin's neoplastic tumor began infecting the Helicarrier, Hill organizes the evacuation; she (wrongly) believed the infection is the main objective of the attack.[12] Subsequently, however, Hill becomes much more trusting in Stark's leadership, a trusted agent in her role as Deputy Director, and far less bound by conventional process, particularly after a confrontation with Dum Dum Dugan, in which she's forced to confront the fact that she was apparently willing to take actions that would allow innocent people to die while still sticking to "the book" because the alternative was to disobey orders.[13] She eventually risks her career by locking down the United Nations under S.H.I.E.L.D. martial law so Stark can escape a tribunal nd track down the Mandarin.[14]

2008–2010 storylines

During the 2008 "Secret Invasion" storyline, after the Helicarrier is disabled by Skrull invaders, Maria Hill, who is left in charge in Iron Man's absence, confronts a number of extraterrestrial Skrulls, shapeshifters who can assume the appearance of anyone or anything, who are revealed to have replaced Edwin Jarvis and a number of S.H.I.E.L.D. agents.[15] The Skrulls execute Hill, but Hill is revealed to be a Life Model Decoy of Hill. Hill then activates the Helicarrier's self-destruct system, killing all the Skrull infiltrators on board, escaping via jet pack.[16]

In the aftermath of the Skrull Invasion's failure, during the "Dark Reign" storyline, S.H.I.E.L.D is disbanded by the President, and Hill and Stark lose their jobs, replaced by the newly appointed director Norman Osborn who then reforms the fallen S.H.I.E.L.D. into H.A.M.M.E.R.[17] In the Iron Man monthly series, Hill tries to go about having a normal life but Osborn dispatches H.A.M.M.E.R. to arrest her for theft. She joins her former boss as a fugitive after Iron Man stole the Superhuman Registration Database. The night before Tony leaves the two have a sexual tryst.[18] Hill is sent on a mission by Tony to retrieve a hard drive. Hill finds the Controller holed up in the basement of Futurepharm, hooked into a large machine holding many people in containers. She barely manages to escape him, before downloading the data Tony sent her for. The skirmish with the Controller would leave her in a state of paranoia for a while. She then enlists the Black Widow to deliver the data to Captain America, all the while evading H.A.M.M.E.R. agents. However, they are captured when H.A.M.M.E.R. intercepts an e-mail from Stark. They are rescued by Pepper Potts, disguised as Madame Masque.[19]

During the 2010 "Siege" storyline, Hill comes to the aid of Thor after Osborn launches an attack on Asgard.[20] Hill becomes a supporting cast member in the Iron Man series, protecting him and his friends from multiple threats.[21] In the 2010 "Heroic Age" storyline, which followed "Siege", Hill is appointed by Captain Steve Rogers to work with a new team of Avengers.[22]

2010 to the present

Following the apparent death of Fury, she was appointed commander, then acting director, and finally director of S.H.I.E.L.D. following Daisy Johnson's actions that involved the Secret Avengers invading A.I.M. Island.[23]

During the "Avengers: Standoff!" storyline, Hill and S.H.I.E.L.D. have established Pleasant Hill, a super villain prison designed to resemble a gated community. While working at Pleasant Hill, Maria Hill operates as the Mayor of Pleasant Hills. A training video for the S.H.I.E.L.D. cadets working there showed that she and the S.H.I.E.L.D. scientists have used reality-warping technology derived from the Cosmic Cube called "Kobik" as a demonstration was used where Graviton is turned into a mild-mannered Pleasant Hill chef named Howie Howardson.[24] When Commander Steve Rogers is brought before Maria Hill, he tells her of his knowledge that the Kobik project was not disposed of. Maria Hill presented the inhabitants of Pleasant Hill to Steve Rogers: she mentions that the citizens are reformed supervillains. When Steve Rogers demanded to know where were the fragments of Cosmic Cubes used for Kobik, she directed him to the eerie little girl who was the fragments of the Cosmic Cube that have taken the form of a near-omnipotent child.[25]

Following the "Civil War II" storyline, Hill was later seen being kidnapped by Diablo, who attempted to extract the security code clearances for all the active helicarriers and the Triskelion, when she was rescued by Victor Von Doom.[26]

Skills and abilities

Maria Hill is an extremely effective commander, leader, tactician, and military strategist. She is a highly skilled martial artist and hand-to-hand fighter, as well as being a proficient marksman and armed combatant.

Other versions

MC2

In the world of the MC2 universe, Maria Hill is a member of the National Security Force. When a government assignment went awry a piece of the Carnage symbiote was released. The Symbiote was stopped by Spider-Girl, the daughter of Spider-Man, as she later reported the success to that world's Nick Fury. She is later seen accusing American Dream of the A-Next, for crimes against the US, as the heroine stumbles upon a government mission.[27]

Ultimate Marvel

In the Ultimate Marvel universe, Maria Hill is an ex-S.H.I.E.L.D. Agent and a homicide detective currently working for the NYPD. She first appears while questioning Miles Morales about the death of Aaron Davis. This investigation led to the discovery that Spider-Man wasn't the killer as the press believed and that Davis had an accidental death when a weapon backfired.[28] She is the one working on the Venom case that involved a home invasion into the Morales house and hurt his father. She notices that Gwen Stacy, Mary Jane Watson, Ganke Lee and Miles quickly went into his home. She illegally barges in, but is coy with the kids, only to be thwarted by Gwen's knowledge of law due to her deceased father, and Mary Jane recording her on her tablet. Maria definitely suspects Miles as Spider-Man. Suddenly, there is word that Venom is attacking the hospital where Miles father and mother are at. Maria yells at Miles telling him to save the citizens at the hospital. Miles scales the light post and buildings in front of Maria confirming that he is Spider-Man.

In other media

Television

• Maria Hill appears in Iron Man: Armored Adventures, voiced by Tabitha St. Germain in a Russian accent.
• Maria Hill is featured in The Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes, voiced by Kari Wuhrer. This version is a central member of S.H.I.E.L.D. who becomes the new director after Nick Fury's sudden disappearance.
• Maria Hill appears in the pilot episode of the ABC series Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (set in the Marvel Cinematic Universe) portrayed by Cobie Smulders (who reprises her role from The Avengers).[29] Smulders also appears in the episode "Nothing Personal" (which takes place after Captain America: The Winter Soldier).[30] In "The Dirty Half Dozen", Maria is revealed to still be in contact with S.H.I.E.L.D., and notifies the Avengers of Baron Strucker's location, setting the stage for Avengers: Age of Ultron.[31][32]
• Maria Hill appears in several episodes of Marvel Disk Wars: The Avengers, voiced by Akeno Watanabe.
• Maria Hill appears in the Avengers Assemble animated series.[33] She has a non-speaking cameo at the end of "The Final Showdown" with Black Widow and Nick Fury trying to look for the dimension where the Red Skull and the Tesseract disappeared to.

Film

Cobie Smulders as Maria Hill in The Avengers

• Cobie Smulders plays Maria Hill in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, appearing in The Avengers (2012), Captain America: The Winter Soldier (2014),[34] Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015), and in various episodes of the TV series Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D..[35]
  • Smulders also portrays Maria Hill in Avengers: Infinity War (2018),[36] and Avengers: Endgame (2019).[37]
  • In the post-credits scene of Spider-Man: Far From Home (2019),[38] it is revealed that after the events of Avengers: Endgame, Talos and his wife Soren (who are Skrulls) had switched with Fury and Maria Hill for the entirety of the film; Soren as Maria Hill is additionally portrayed by Smulders. While the real Fury is in space with the rest of the Skrulls on an undisclosed mission,[39] the real Maria Hill's whereabouts are never revealed.[40]
• Maria Hill appears in the 2013 anime film Iron Man: Rise of Technovore, voiced by Junko Minagawa in the Japanese version and Kari Wahlgren in the English dub.[41]
• Maria Hill appears in the 2014 anime film Avengers Confidential: Black Widow & Punisher, voiced by Junko Minagawa in the Japanese version and Kari Wahlgren in the English dub.[42]

Video games

• Maria Hill appears as an NPC in Marvel: Ultimate Alliance 2, voiced by Margaret Easley.[43]
• Maria Hill appears as a NPC in the Facebook game Marvel: Avengers Alliance.
• Maria Hill appears in Marvel Heroes, voiced by Kari Wuhrer.
• Maria Hill appears as an unlockable playable character in Lego Marvel Super Heroes, voiced by Danielle Nicolet.
• Maria Hill appears as an unlockable playable character in Lego Marvel's Avengers, with Cobie Smulders reprising the role.
• Maria Hill is a NPC in Marvel: Avengers Alliance Tactics.
• Maria Hill is a playable character in Marvel Puzzle Quest.[44]
• Maria Hill is a supporting character in Avengers (2020 video game).

Live performance

• Maria Hill appears in the Marvel Universe LIVE! stage show.[45]

See also

• List of S.H.I.E.L.D. members

References

1. DeFalco, Tom; Sanderson, Peter; Brevoort, Tom; Teitelbaum, Michael; Wallace, Daniel; Darling, Andrew; Forbeck, Matt; Cowsill, Alan; Bray, Adam (2019). The Marvel Encyclopedia. DK Publishing. p. 170. ISBN 978-1-4654-7890-0.
2. Quesada, Joe. "Joe Fridays". Newsarama. Archived November 15, 2006, at the Wayback Machine
3. Secret War #5
4. Iron Man: World's Most Wanted
5. New Avengers Vol 1 #19. Marvel Comics.
6. New Avengers Vol 1 #20. Marvel Comics.
7. Mark Millar (w), Steven McNiven (p), Dexter Vines (i). Civil War 1 (July 2006), Marvel Comics
8. Punisher War Journal. Marvel Comics.
9. New Avengers Vol 1 #25. Marvel Comics.
10. Civil War #7. Marvel Comics.
11. Iron Man, Director of S.H.I.E.L.D. #15. Marvel Comics.
12. Iron Man, Director of S.H.I.E.L.D. #18. Marvel Comics.
13. Iron Man #26. Marvel Comics.
14. Iron Man #28. Marvel Comics.
15. Secret Invasion #4. Marvel Comics.
16. Secret Invasion #5. Marvel Comics.
17. Secret Invasion #8. Marvel Comics.
18. Fraction, Matt (w), Larocca, Salvador (a). The Invincible Iron Man Vol 5 #10. Marvel Comics.
19. Fraction, Matt (w), Larocca, Salvador (a). Invincible Iron Man #11–18. Marvel Comics.
20. Siege #3. Marvel Comics.
21. "Invincible Iron Man" #20–28 (2008–2009). Marvel Comics.
22. Avengers vol. 4 #1. Marvel Comics.
23. Secret Avengers vol. 2 #1-8. Marvel Comics.
24. Avengers Standoff: Welcome to Pleasant Hill #1. Marvel Comics.
25. Avengers Standoff: Assault on Pleasant Hill Alpha #1. Marvel Comics.
26. Infamous Iron Man #1. Marvel Comics.
27. American Dream #1–5. Marvel Comics.
28. Ultimate Comics Spider-Man vol. 2 #15. Marvel Comics.
29. Goldberg, Lesley (July 19, 2013). "Cobie Smulders' Comic-Con Reveal: Secret 'Agents of SHIELD' Role". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved July 19, 2013.
30. Gierhart, Billy (director); Paul Zbyszewski & DJ Doyle (writer) (April 29, 2014). "Nothing Personal". Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Season 1. Episode 20. ABC.
31. Harnick, Chris (July 22, 2014). "Lucy Lawless Joins Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. and We're Geeking Out". E! Online. Retrieved July 22, 2014.
32. "Cobie Smulders Talks About Maria Hill". YouTube. April 15, 2015.
33. "Marvel's Avengers Assemble Season 1, Ep. 26 – Clip 2". YouTube. 22 May 2014.
34. Graser, Marc (October 29, 2012). "Frank Grillo to play Crossbones in 'Captain America' sequel". Variety. Archived from the original on October 29, 2012. Retrieved October 29, 2012.
35. Thompson, Bob (November 7, 2013). "Vancouver's Cobie Smulders is on a roll (with video)". Calgary Herald. Archived from the original on November 8, 2013. Retrieved November 7, 2013.
36. Jimmy Kimmel Live! (October 17, 2016). Cobie Smulders Spills the Beans on Avengers: Infinity War and it was Everything!. YouTube. Retrieved October 17, 2016. Cobie finally spills the beans on the next Marvel movie she's in – The Avengers: Infinity War." (from the video's description) Alt URL
37. Hood, Cooper (April 27, 2019). "Every Character In Avengers: Endgame". Screen Rant. Retrieved April 28, 2019.
38. Buchanan, Kyle (August 7, 2018). "Spider-Man: Far From Home Adds Samuel L. Jackson, Cobie Smulders". Vulture.com. Archived from the original on August 7, 2018. Retrieved August 7, 2018.
39. Abad-Santos, Alex (July 2, 2019). "Spider-Man: Far From Home's 2 end-credits scenes set up Marvel's future". Vox. Archived from the original on July 3, 2019. Retrieved July 3, 2019.
40. "'Spider-Man: Far From Home' Star Cobie Smulders Sets the Record Straight on That End-Credit Reveal". The Hollywood Reporter. July 31, 2019. Retrieved 30 September 2019.
41. "Marvel Anime Age – Iron Man: Rise of Technovore". toonzone.net.
42. "'Marvel's Avengers Confidential': See the trailer here!". Entertainment Weekly's EW.com.
43. "Voice Compare » Marvel Universe » Maria Hill". Archived from the original on 30 December 2014. Retrieved 30 December 2014.
44. Piecing Together Marvel Puzzle Quest: Maria Hill
45. "New Images Reveal The Superheroines Of 'Marvel Universe Live!'". Comics Alliance. Archived from the original on 2014-07-17.

External links

• Maria Hill at Marvel.com
• Maria Hill at The Appendix to the Handbook of the Marvel Universe