Maria Hill

Overachieving Agent

Agent Hill’s past is a bit shrouded, but her formative years led her to the United States Armed Forces, and then to S.H.I.E.L.D., where she rose up through the ranks as one of the division’s best agents. Hill showed enough skill and promise that director Nick Fury appointed her Deputy Director and came to think of her as one of the few people he trusted in real emergencies.

The Best Training

Hill, having undergone all the training S.H.I.E.L.D. has to offer, is an expert martial artist, pilot, and sharpshooter. On any battlefield, she’s a force to be reckoned with, despite not being able to go toe-to-toe with super human enemies. But give her a Glock, a taser, and a task and she’ll get the job done.

Enemies All Around

Hill stands strong against HYDRA conspiracies, alien invaders, rampaging robots, and cosmic titans bent on universal genocide. She’s truly seen and done it all, ready and willing to face down any threat that dares to take on S.H.I.E.L.D. or the Avengers, including Loki and Ultron.

Thick and Thin

Though detached and calculating by nature, Hill is loyal to her direct superior, Nick Fury, and friends with agents like Phil Coulson. She’s a resourceful and reliable ally of Iron Man, Captain America, Black Widow, Hawkeye, and other upper-echelon heroes, but knows enough to not get too close to them from a personal standpoint—though she does joke about having a crush on Thor.

Maria's Journey

In a direct response to Thor appearing on Earth and causing damage to a small town in New Mexico, Hill and Nick Fury began investigating the power of the mysterious Tesseract salvaged by Howard Stark as part of a weapons manufacturing project called Project P.E.G.A.S.U.S.

Hill was on hand when the lab holding the Tesseract was attacked by Loki. She actively tried to stop the god of mischief, using a brainwashed Hawkeye (Clint Barton) to aid him, from escaping with the Tesseract, but was unsuccessful. With the event garnering “Level Seven” concerns, Fury, Hill, and Coulson decided to call in the Avengers for the first time, after years of planning for such a scenario.

Despite Captain America (Steve Rogers) and Iron Man (Tony Stark) capturing Loki in Germany, Hill was uneasy about gathering these heroes—including Hulk (Bruce Banner), Thor, and S.H.I.E.L.D agent, Black Widow (Natasha Romanoff)—together. Hill was particularly suspicious of Tony Stark’s motivations, ever protective of S.H.I.E.L.D.’s secrets regarding the development of weaponry designed to counteract alien threats.

It wasn’t long before Barton attacked the Helicarrier transporting them all. In the ensuing chaos, Loki killed Coulson in order to escape. Despite initially disagreeing with Fury’s decision to bring together the Avengers team, Hill suggested the use of Coulson’s Captain America trading cards as a tool for emotionally manipulating the team back into a cohesive unit.

As the Avengers fought Loki and his invading Chitauri army that was pouring out of a portal over Manhattan, Hill and Fury both attempted to thwart Gideon Malick and the other members of the World Security Council when the decision was made to launch a nuclear weapon at New York City—an attempt to sacrifice the city in order to defeat the Chitauri. They were unsuccessful, as one nuke was successfully launched. They did warn Iron Man, however, who stopped the missile and took it through the portal to destroy the Chitauri fleet on the other side of it. In the aftermath, the Avengers went their separate ways, though Fury told Hill he was sure they would eventually work together again.

Sometime later, on the eve of the launch of three new helicarriers as part of S.H.I.E.L.D.’s “Project Insight,” Fury learned that the organization had been infiltrated by enemies and summoned Hill to Washington, D.C. as backup. It appeared that Hill arrived too late, as Fury had already been shot and seemingly killed by the Winter Soldier. In reality, Fury faked his own death in order to get his enemies to drop their guard. Hill was the only person who knew he’d done so, with Captain America and Black Widow unaware of the ruse initially.

When Captain America, Black Widow, and their new ally, Falcon (Sam Wilson) were captured by S.H.I.E.L.D.’s STRIKE team—in fact, primarily HYDRA agents—who intended to kill them, Hill, having managed to infiltrate their ranks in disguise, knocked out a guard and freed the trio. She then took them to Nick Fury, who revealed he was actually alive to the surprised group.

Despite her reluctance, Hill agreed that S.H.I.E.L.D. needed to be destroyed in order to also destroy HYDRA, which had secretly invaded its ranks going back to S.H.I.E.L.D.’s earliest days. A plan was then formed by Fury, Hill, Black Widow, Captain America, and Falcon to board the Insight Helicarriers and make them attack each other with their own missiles, rather than the innocents HYDRA was targeting. Hill played a key role in this plan, as she commandeered a S.H.I.E.L.D control room from where she turned the Helicarriers on themselves after Rogers and Wilson had given control over to her from inside the Helicarriers.

With S.H.I.E.L.D. dissolved, Hill kept in contact with Fury, who’d gone into hiding, from a position within Stark Industries, where she acted as a mole.

During her time at Stark Industries, Hill found herself once again providing support to the reunited Avengers. She attended a celebratory reception at Avengers Tower after a successful mission to take down Wolfgang von Strucker’s remnant HYDRA cell. There, she drank with Barton, played cards with Tony Stark and War Machine (James Rhodes), and watched in amusement as several Avengers attempted to lift Thor’s magical hammer, Mjolnir.

The members of the party were interrupted by the violent emergence of the robot Ultron however, who’d formed himself in the laboratory floors below. Hill joined the Avengers in their ensuing fight against Ultron and his Sentries before he escaped. As the Avengers went searching for Ultron, Hill continued to provide the team with information. She was the one to suggest the Avengers go into hiding following a destructive battle between Iron Man and a brainwashed Hulk, for which the Super Hero team was blamed.

Alongside Fury, Hill and several loyal allies from their S.H.I.E.L.D. days manned a S.H.I.E.L.D. Helicarrier to evacuate of Sokovian citizens during a final showdown between Ultron and the Avengers. Soon after, with Ultron defeated, Hill gave the Avengers additional assistance as their new headquarters in upstate New York began operation.

Years later, Hill and Fury were discussing a recent alien attack on New York, and related threats spotted over Wakanda, when a car swerved out of control and nearly caused Fury’s car to crash into it. Hill ran over to investigate, only to discover that there was no driver. Suddenly, it became clear people were vanishing all around them. Hill herself—unaware that Thanos had just succeeded in acquiring all six Infinity Stones and had used them to eliminate half of all life in the universe—disintegrated into dust as she called out Nick’s name. Hill was gone too quickly to see that her friend and ally Fury would turn to dust himself mere moments later.

Back In Action

Thanks to her heroic compatriots, The Avengers, Hill and Fury returned to life five years after being initially vanished by Thanos. She did not rush into the final battle with the time-traveling Thanos, but did attend Tony Stark's memorial service to pay her respects.

Months later, Hill and Fury responded to a mysterious calamity in Mexico, arriving at a village that had been destroyed by a sandstorm that locals claimed had a face. As soon as they stepped out of their vehicle, Quentin Beck materialized, shooting energy blasts as a giant Sand Elemental that had started rampaging again.

Beck told Fury and Hill that he was from an alternate Earth, one which had been wiped out by the Elemental creatures. Hill accompanied Fury, along with a few other agents, to Morocco, to watch Beck best an Elemental, while Fury attempted to contact Peter Parker for assistance.

In Venice, Italy, after a Water Elemental was defeated by Beck and his powers, Fury managed to track down Peter Parker in person, as Peter was there for a school science trip. Fury brought Peter to his secret headquarters in Venice, where Peter received a chilly reception from Hill. Fury and Hill then continued to work behind the scenes, changing Peter’s school trip itinerary so that he could be in Prague to help Beck defeat a giant Fire Elemental. After the fire monster was destroyed, Fury and Hill went to Berlin to report in with EuroPoll.

Beck, secretly a villain who was using illusions and attack drones to fake the Elemental events, tricked Peter into handing over a piece of tech that he’d inherited from Tony Stark—one that gave Beck full access to Stark Industries’ drone army, Using all the drones, Beck launched a new Elemental attack. He contacted Fury and Hill, letting them know that the biggest Elemental yet was headed to London. Once Fury and Hill arrived, Happy Hogan called Fury and, in a coded message, told him that Beck was a fraud.

Now knowing that Beck was behind the Elementals, Fury and Hill knew they’d probably be targeted for death. Hill ran up to the roof of the building they were watching the Elemental battle from and shot down a cloaked drone that had been position right in front of Fury’s window. After Spider-Man thwarted Beck’s plot, and Fury claimed that he’d been suspicious of Beck all along, Hill let it slip that he was lying and that he’d been duped by Beck preposterous story the entire time.

Once away from everyone, Fury and Hill placed a call to…the real Nick Fury! Fury, who’d apparently needed someone on Earth to impersonate him and Hill, was in space, on a ship among the Skulls. In his place on Earth was the shapeshifting Skrull general, Talos. As Hill, Talos’ wife Soren.