Maria Hill (Earth-616)

Born in Chicago,[2]  she lost her mother the day of her birth when temperatures hit 44 degrees below 0 while her mom was still in the hospital. Because of this, her father never forgave her, which made Maria a cold hearted person. Hill had a brief stint in Madripoor that got her noticed by various heads of state and governments around the world.[3]

After the scandalous affair of the Secret War and its disastrous effect on New York City, S.H.I.E.L.D. director Nick Fury went into hiding. Maria Hill, viewed by the leaders of several nations as being both an efficient agent and, more importantly in their eyes, not directly loyal to Fury or any of his personal cadre, was appointed interim Executive Director. Hill's role had apparently not been announced to the public as yet; a Life-Model Decoy of Fury was regularly used in public to maintain an illusion of normalcy within the Directorate's ranks. Hill was expected to be loyal to United States interests before those of the United Nations, which S.H.I.E.L.D. was supposed to serve before any other country.

Hill quickly established new policies on super-powered heroes, as requested by the President of the United States and his peers in other national governments: to end S.H.I.E.L.D. support for the heroes. These policies were in full effect when Hill tried to prevent the Avengers from re-forming. In the wake of events in theSavage Land that led to their reorganization, the Avengers suspected her of being complicit in various crimes, but lacked the evidence to prove her malfeasance. For her part, Hill had suspected the latest incarnation of the Avengers of harboring an illicit agenda in connection with, among other things, the House of M affair.

While her tough attitude had not made her very popular among the super-hero community, she earned Iron Man's respect when she ignored the president's orders to nuke an island the Avengers were on. Maria Hill was directly responsible for Captain America going underground to lead the opposition against the Superhuman Registration Act. Weeks before the act became law, Hill summoned Captain America to gain insight into the developments inside the super-hero community. When the Captain informed her that the registration issue was dividing heroes and setting them against each other, Hill attempted to force him into leading the Avengers in a preemptive measure to capture and detain heroes who would not consent to having their identities revealed. Since the act had not yet become law, the Captain dismissed her command as politically skewed, saying that heroes needed to "stay above" such affairs.

Following Captain America's refusal, Hill summoned a battalion of soldiers armed with tranquilizers. Left with no other choice, Captain America fought his way out of the Helicarrier, becoming a fugitive. As S.H.I.E.L.D. Director, Hill was one of the leading enforcers of the Superhuman Registration Act, a task she carried out with relish and absolute ruthlessness. She blackmailed Wonder Man into actively supporting S.H.I.E.L.D.'s crusade to hunt down the super-heroes opposed to the Registration Act. She sent Kree supersoldier Noh-Varr, already brainwashed, to capture the Runaways and directed the murderous Thunderbolts to capture Spider-Man after he went rogue.

After foiling an attack on Stark Tower, Maria Hill admitted to Tony Stark (with the film A Few Good Men in mind; she had tried to make this exact speech a few weeks prior to this following their skirmish with Magneto) that she didn't want her job as director of S.H.I.E.L.D. and thought she shouldn't have been offered it in the first place. She suggested that the only other person besides Nick Fury who should lead the organization was Stark himself.

At the conclusion of the Civil War, the president of the United States appointed Tony Stark the new director of S.H.I.E.L.D., with Maria Hill as his acting deputy director. Stark seemed somewhat dismissive of her, offhandedly asking her to get him a cup of coffee. She did not look pleased.

When the alien Skrulls attacked the Earth as part of their long-term secret invasion, Maria Hill abandoned the S.H.I.E.L.D. Helicarrier after its systems had been infected by Skrull posing as the Avengers' butler, Edwin Jarvis.[4]

Later, Maria reunited with Nick Fury who had not been seen in many months. Fury suspected Hill of being a Skrull, but this was later shown to not be the case.[5]

Following the Secret Invasion, S.H.I.E.L.D. was decommissioned and Maria was let go. The organization was replaced with a new peacekeeping agency known as H.A.M.M.E.R.. The group's new director, Norman Osborn, knew that Maria was still colluding with Tony Stark after the latter deleted that Superhuman Registration Act database, and declared her a fugitive of justice.[6]

<p style="color:rgb(58,58,58);">Maria was sent on a mission by Tony, having found the Controller holed up in the basement of Futurepharm, hooked into a large machine holding many people in containers.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-Invincible_Iron_Man_.2311_6-0">[7]  She herself fell victim and was placed under his control. She eventually fought off his control and freed his mind slaves and managed to acquire the hard drive Stark sent her for. She then made her way to New York, where she enlisted the aid of a reluctant Black Widow in delivering the drive to Captain America. Unfortunately, the trauma during her time as a thrall of the Controller made her paranoid and disturbed.

<p style="color:rgb(58,58,58);">While trying to deliver the drive, H.A.M.M.E.R., having intercepted an e-mail sent from Stark to Hill, captured them and locked them in Avengers Tower. Luckily, Pepper Potts, disguised as Madame Masque, rescued them. After managing to steal back the drive, Maria demanded to the H.A.M.M.E.R. agents waiting to shoot as to why they should take orders from a madman like Osborn, thus the agents let them leave. <p class="caption" style="color:rgb(127,127,127);">Leader of the Avengers

Siege
<p style="color:rgb(58,58,58);">Maria was looking after an unconscious Tony Stark with Doctor Don Blakewhen all of a sudden an explosion happened nearby from the neighboring town of Broxton, Oklahoma - this was Don Blake left to protect Asgard. Later on, when Thor was beaten down by Osborn and his Dark Avengers, Hill showed up with a local named Jason to rescue him. She launched many bazooka rounds on Osborn and laid down cover fire for Jason to grab Thor. Later, she transmitted images and reports on Asgard to the President. She then went back to Stark to protect him when Speed arrives with the Iron Man Armor.

Heroic Age
<p style="color:rgb(58,58,58);">After Osborn's reign was over, Hill was put in charge of the Avengers.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-Avengers_Vol_4_1_7-0">[8]  She was later replaced by Captain America when the war against the Serpentwas over.

Return to S.H.I.E.L.D.
<p style="color:rgb(58,58,58);">After the attack of the Serpent was over, Rogers decided to reactivate S.H.I.E.L.D., with Maria again in the charge of deputy director.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-Secret_Avengers_Vol_2_1_8-0">[9]  After director Daisy Johnson broke the protocols by sending the Secret Avengersto kill A.I.M. leader Andrew Forson, Quake was suspended indefinitely and Maria was put in charge of S.H.I.E.L.D. once more.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-Secret_Avengers_Vol_2_5_9-0">[10]