Maria Hill

Born on a particularly freezing night in Chicago, Illinois, Maria Hill came into this world as her mother left it, leaving her to grow up with a father that blamed her for his losses. This resentful and lonely childhood shaped Hill into an independent woman with a keenly developed senses self-preservation and self-sufficiency that kept her going through West Point, and on to the United States Armed Forces. During this time, her physical skillset and mental fortitude caught the eye of high-ranking S.H.I.E.L.D. officials who sought to bring her into the secret government fold.

After recruitment, one of Hill’s earliest missions ended with her getting a fellow S.H.I.E.L.D. operative killed in the line of duty while she had to carry out an assassination on another who’d been recently discovered to be a triple agent. Hill’s strong sense of moral obligation left her haunted by her actions and, believing herself a monster, ordered a hit on herself that would not spring into effect until her resignation from the line of duty.

Director Nick Fury saw her internal struggle over her recent actions and decided to aid her by erasing these painful memories from her mind. With her conscious unknowingly cleared, Hill quickly rose through the ranks, earning the title Commander before being appointed Director of S.H.I.E.L.D. after Director Fury went missing following his actions during Secret Wars.

Though not the most qualified for the job, officials chose Hill for her devotion to protecting the people of Earth from all threats in the best way possible, rather than remaining loyal to Director Fury and his unpopular ways.

Maria Hill first appeared as the newly appointed director of S.H.I.E.L.D., and right off the bat, she and a freshly formed team of Avengers did not see eye-to-eye. This may have been partially due to her tightlipped, abrasive nature and because Hill had never been a particular proponent of the Super Hero community. This became evident when she arrested, unmasked, and used psychic agents to probe Spider-Man’s mind for information that the team refused to share with her willingly.

However, upon learning about the mutant threat called the Collective, Hill deliberately disobeyed a direct order from the President of the United States in order to save the team’s lives and give them the opportunity to neutralize the threat. These actions put Hill and the Avengers on the same page and gave them a mutual respect that would continue to evolve throughout the following years.

Due to her tumultuous past with heroes, Hill supported the Super Human Registration Act, agreeing that those with potentially catastrophic abilities must be held accountable and regulated for the betterment of society. Before the act passed into law, Hill tried to persuade Captain America to lead the Avengers under the law’s directive—to arrest all heroes who didn’t comply—but he refused. Not willing to take no for an answer, Hill tried to arrest Cap in response to his refusal, seeing him as a fugitive, but he escaped and began the Secret Avengers. These acts prompted the events of Civil War as Hill spent months trying to run down unregistered heroes.

In the midst of the conflict, S.H.I.E.L.D.’s anti-superhuman tech, the Cape Killer, set its sights on Iron Man, shifting Hill’s focus toward thwarting the device and saving Iron Man’s life. She succeeded in her goal and, in the wake of the attack, confided in Iron Man that she should never have received the promotion to director; that the responsibility to police Super Heroes should belong to someone like Iron Man instead.

The Civil War came to a close and Hill stepped down as Director, handing the reins over to Tony Stark but stayed on as his Deputy Director helping to combat countless threats from aliens, super humans, and celestial beings alike. However, when Hill found Iron Man to be mentally unsound, she testified to remove him from his position, promptly leaving Hill to temporarily lead again.

Following these events, the Mandarin threatened to release a biological weapon that could wipe out billions in its wake. This prompted Hill to make the controversial decision to use an experimental weapon to prevent the attack, which landed her, Stark, and Dugan in hot water with the United Nations. Devoted to the cause, Hill used her weight as acting S.H.I.E.L.D. Director to lock down the U.N. and give Stark the time needed to stop the Mandarin. Stark returned to his status as Director and Hill received praise for her bravery.

Unfortunately, not long after, Norman Osborn took over homeland security and replaced S.H.I.E.L.D. with his own rendition of the organization, called H.A.M.M.E.R., firing everyone that threatened his stance, including Hill. Osborn also swapped out the Avengers with his own hand picked team of “heroes.” With the world now left in unfit hands, Hill helped Iron Man delete the Superhuman Registration Act database and fought alongside the true Avengers as fugitives to overthrow Osborn during his siege on Asgard. After Norman found himself removed from his false tower, Hill returned to lead the new Avengers team that Captain America reorganized.

Not long after, Captain America sought to reinstate S.H.I.E.L.D., putting Hill back in her rightful role as Director. Hill then originated a program known as the Kobik Initiative, which aimed to utilize fragments of the Cosmic Cube to rewrite reality as S.H.I.E.L.D. and the government saw fit without the public’s knowledge. News of this endeavor leaked to the public and Hill received orders to destroy the remaining cube pieces…or so she had people believe.

Hill continued the project in secrecy but the experiments done caused the cube to morph into a sentient young girl called Kobik. Unable to rewrite all of reality Kobik was instead used by Hill to create Pleasant Hill, a prison for Super Villains. Like most of Hill’s projects, this too proved quite controversial as the inmates had their memories, appearances and demeanors altered by Kobik in order to reform them into upstanding members of society.

Captain America learned of Pleasant Hill’s existence and ordered Hill to shut it down, but before she could argue, a group of inmates led by Baron Zemo reverted to their villainous selves and began a revolt against the S.H.I.E.L.D. outpost. During the attack, Hill sustained significant injuries, though the Avengers arrived to quell things soon after.

Charged for her actions by the World Security Council, Hill was removed from her position as Director of S.H.I.E.L.D. before making a characteristically fierce escape to the Alpha Flight space initiative, taking the plans for her latest proposal for a planetary force field with her. Due to her recent ousting from S.H.I.E.L.D., the mark she placed on herself in her early days at the agency came into effect, leaving her to fend off multiple attempts on her life before private investigator Jessica Jones stumbled upon the truth, allowing Hill to call off the hit.