HYDRA

Johann Schmidt (World War II sect)

Alexander Pierce †

Wolfgang von Strucker †

Daniel Whitehall †

Octavian Bloom †

Banker †

Sheikh †

Baroness †

Grant Ward †

Gideon Malick †

Hive †

Hale †

Kaminsky

Marcus Scarlotti

Julien Beckers

Kenneth Turgeon

Mitchell Carson

Candice Lee

Viola

Joe

Lana

Ron

HYDRA Buyer

Brock Rumlow †

Carl Creel †

Stern

Kara Palamas † (brainwashed; formerly)

Jemma Simmons (undercover)

Bobbi Morse (undercover)

List †

Jasper Sitwell †

John Garrett †

Sunil Bakshi †

Kebo †

Wilfred Malick †

Stephanie Malick †

Lucio †

Fischer †

Steger †

Kirk Vogel †

Vasily Karpov †

Giyera †

Yuri Zaikin

Viktor Orlov

Anton Ivanov † (under coercion)

Ruby Hale †

Werner von Strucker †

Glenn Talbot † (brainwashed; formerly)

Wanda Maximoff (formerly)

Pietro Maximoff † (formerly)

Akela Amador (under coercion)

Donnie Gill

Michael Peterson (under coercion)

Edison Po †

Englishman † (under coercion)

Ian Quinn †

Josef †

Joseph Getty (under coercion)

Lead HYDRA Agent †

Manzini †

Nathaniel Malick †

Raina †

Russo †

Spud †

Thornally †

Toshiro Mori †

Velt †

Vincent Beckers †

Younger Lord †

HYDRA Armored Personnel Carrier

Volkswagen Kübelwagen

HYDRA Mini Tank

Schnellzug EB912

Leviathan

Insight Helicarriers (formerly, destroyed)

Jump Jet

Helicopter

Quinjet

HYDRA QuadCopter

HYDRA Preparatory Academy

HYDRA Headquarters

* STRIKE (formerly; in secret)

 United States Congress (formerly; in secret)

 Soviet Armed Forces (formerly; in secret)

 Russian Armed Forces (formerly; in secret)

 United States Air Force (formerly; in secret)

 NASA (formerly; in secret)

Confederacy (formerly)

*"HYDRA was founded on the belief that humanity could not be trusted with its own freedom. What we did not realize is that if you try to take that freedom, they resist. The war taught us much. Humanity needed to surrender its freedom willingly. After the war, S.H.I.E.L.D. was founded, and I was recruited. The new **HYDRA** grew, a beautiful parasite, inside S.H.I.E.L.D. For 70 years, HYDRA has been secretly feeding crisis, reaping war. And when history did not cooperate, history was changed."*
―Arnim Zola

**HYDRA** is an authoritarian paramilitary-subversive organization bent on world domination. It was founded in ancient times, formerly as a cult centered around the fanatical worship of Hive, a powerful Inhuman that was exiled to the planet Maveth by ancient Inhumans. Ever since his banishment, the cult had been determined to bring him back to Earth to commence a planetary takeover. Over the centuries, the cult evolved, taking many forms, with its most recent incarnation coming into existence shortly after the rise of Nazism in Germany under the leadership of Adolf Hitler and Johann Schmidt as the scientific branch of the Nazi Schutzstaffel. During this time, the cult took on the name HYDRA, which soon became the organization's most colloquial label. During World War II, Schmidt separated HYDRA from Nazi Germany to start his own conquest of the world, following a conflict between him and Hitler, and it was during or before this time when HYDRA seemingly abandoned the cult's original beliefs. Converting from occultism, to draconian anti-freedom principles, HYDRA became an organization with a hell-bent nature that is dedicated to this newfound political doctrine.

After its defeat at the hands of Captain America in 1945 and the subsequent disappearance of Johann Schmidt, HYDRA was secretly rebuilt inside S.H.I.E.L.D. by Schmidt's top scientist Arnim Zola, who was recruited into the agency during Operation Paperclip. Though Zola's body died in the early 1970s, HYDRA was already well established, and Zola's mind continued to live in a computer. In the following decades, HYDRA orchestrated crises and planted roots worldwide; establishing a clandestine network of operatives engaged in political engineering and scientific research. HYDRA's endgame was the overthrow of world governments to establish a fascist, totalitarian global state; thus preemptively eliminating potential threats to their new world order. Members who still followed the original beliefs of HYDRA took part in this as a means of smoothly and immediately transferring control of a groomed Earth to their Inhuman idol. New members for the organization were acquired from disenfranchised members of S.H.I.E.L.D., as well as children born to already established members, which were indoctrinated from childhood in facilities ran by HYDRA and assigned into different roles by the leadership.

By the end the 20th century, operatives of HYDRA had managed to spread outside of S.H.I.E.L.D., infiltrating many important organizations, including the United States Government and the World Security Council, eventually establishing many secret bases around the world. One of HYDRA's top agents in S.H.I.E.L.D., John Garrett, secretly led the Centipede Project with the goal to recreate the Super Soldier. In 2014, HYDRA's plans for world domination almost succeeded through their agent Alexander Pierce and S.H.I.E.L.D.'s Project Insight. However, their plan to eliminate 20 million people who posed a threat to HYDRA failed because of the efforts of HYDRA's oldest enemy, Captain America, who publicly exposed their infiltration of S.H.I.E.L.D. and destroyed their main tool of destruction, three of S.H.I.E.L.D.'s Helicarriers, with Alexander Pierce being killed by S.H.I.E.L.D.'s Director Nick Fury in the process. However, HYDRA leader Wolfgang von Strucker already had new plans for global domination, plans which included twins declared "miracles" and the Scepter.

With its existence publicly known, HYDRA started a war against the remnants of S.H.I.E.L.D., taking over many S.H.I.E.L.D. bases. For many months, HYDRA's forces led by John Garrett fought a vicious fight against the small team of loyal S.H.I.E.L.D. agents led by Phil Coulson. Despite its attempt to infiltrate the United States Armed Forces through Ian Quinn and the Deathlok Soldiers, Garrett's group was ultimately defeated through the combined efforts of S.H.I.E.L.D.'s former director Nick Fury, Coulson's team, and the United States Marines.

However, even that defeat was only a temporary setback for HYDRA. S.H.I.E.L.D. was destroyed and publicly declared a terrorist organization, and many HYDRA agents continued with their work, including the high ranking member Daniel Whitehall who used the fall of S.H.I.E.L.D. to start the campaign to recover the Obelisk. However, the campaign ended disastrously for HYDRA. Whitehall was killed before he could fully exploit the Obelisk, his second in command Sunil Bakshi was captured, and many other heads of HYDRA were killed by HYDRA itself when S.H.I.E.L.D. fooled them into thinking that there was a power struggle within HYDRA's ranks. Two of the remaining heads of HYDRA, Baron von Strucker and Doctor List, continued with their experiments on powered individuals. However, even their experiments came to an end when the Avengers attacked Strucker's fortress in Sokovia, killing List and capturing Baron von Strucker, who was later killed by the robot Ultron. Strucker's demise marked the end of HYDRA's militaristic and scientific faction, allowing for its more ancient roots to take control.

Two of the few remaining HYDRA leaders, Grant Ward and Gideon Malick, joined forces to rebuild HYDRA, destroy S.H.I.E.L.D., and bring Hive back to Earth. Despite Ward's death on Maveth by the hands of Coulson, Malick's plan succeeded because Hive took possession of Ward's body and returned to Earth in his reanimated corpse. Hive slowly began taking control of some Inhumans, and at the same time took over the leadership of Malick's cell, which ended with Malick's death caused by Daisy Johnson. Hive eventually left HYDRA to seemingly perish in the military campaign led by Brigadier General Glenn Talbot.

Loyal to its oath, HYDRA survived even that defeat. A single cell led by the United States Air Force officer General Hale continued its hunt for S.H.I.E.L.D. agents, and at the same time worked to save humanity from a threat from space. Despite making a deal with the alien Confederacy, Hale hoped to transform her daughter to the strongest person on Earth in order to force them to alter the deal. However, S.H.I.E.L.D., whose core members had seen what appeared to be the catastrophic consequences of this project, intervened in her plans and even the prospect of ensuring the safety of humanity could not unite the two organizations as Hale had hoped. Hale was eventually killed by an enhanced and insane Talbot, leaving HYDRA's fate uncertain.

Following the death of Hale, HYDRA's status was unknown for a large amount of time. Like HYDRA in its World War II sect, the Titan Lord Thanos sought the Infinity Stones in an attempt to balance half the Universe. At a confrontation in 2018 on Vormir, Johann Schmidt, now captured on the planet as Red Skull, explained to Thanos that a lifetime ago he too sought the Stones for HYDRA. However, Thanos continued to sacrifice someone whom he loved in order to obtain the Soul Stone, which he did. With the Soul Stone no longer guarded by Red Skull, Thanos went on to use it and the rest of the stones in the Infinity War, although it failed at the hands of S.H.I.E.L.D. and the Avengers, returning the stone to Vormir under Red Skull's watch.

Recently, HYDRA came on S.H.I.E.L.D.'s radar after a second, Russian-HYDRA joint base was spotted in Russia. Ordered by President Benjamin Asher, a S.H.I.E.L.D. team was deployed to Moscow under Nick Fury. The result was the fall of Moscow. The city was heavily attacked, resulting in parts of the Kremlin exploding, civilian homes and commercial buildings being bombed, and thousands of civilian losses. At the scene, S.H.I.E.L.D. reported in that Bucky Barnes was responsible, along with a few other HYDRA agents. This meant that HYDRA was once again brainwashing the Winter Soldier. Barnes was later captured by S.H.I.E.L.D., but escaped, leading the agency to search for him again. HYDRA claimed responsibility for the attack the next day.

After the fall of Moscow, an event in New York City hosted by Mayor Jack Wane along with President Asher was attacked, resulting in multiple civilian deaths through a mass shooting. The President and Mayor were unharmed, although multiple federal agent lives were lost, as well as around 50 civilian lives lost, with over a hundred more injured. Following the President and Mayor's evacuation, Red Skull made an appearance at the scene on Earth. This only meant one thing. Schmidt sacrificed someone he loved on Vormir, which was believed to be impossible due to his genocidal nature, hence the reason why he was banished to Vormir. Due to him sacrificing someone and being released, this gave Schmidt the Soul Stone, putting it in his possession. HYDRA was once again after the Infinity Stones, a major problem for S.H.I.E.L.D. and an extreme danger for the rest of the modern world, and the Universe.

Due to the failure of the Infinity War, preventing the genocide of half the Universe by Thanos, the Infinity Gauntlet was put in the possession of S.H.I.E.L.D. Darth, an agent who was looking after the Gauntlet, kept hold of it until he was forced to give it up, ordered by the World Security Council. The Gauntlet was locked up in a highly Classified facility, so Johann Schmidt would not be able to obtain it, and finish the Infinity War, promoting the Endgame. Currently, HYDRA is once again fighting the newly reestablished S.H.I.E.L.D., which is larger and stronger than it was before HYDRA's infestation, posing a major threat to HYDRA, a now much smaller terrorist organization.