In the immediate aftermath of the fall of S.H.I.E.L.D., Hill joined Stark Industries to protect herself from legal prosecution. However, she stayed in touch with Phil Coulson and aided him in his mission to hunt Grant Ward and John Garrett. The following year, she was informed by Coulson that Loki's Scepter was taken by List to Sokovia, and passed the information on to the Avengers. Following an attack by Ultron, Hill rejoined Fury as his second-in-command and assisted during the Battle of Sokovia to thwart the AI's plans to destroy humanity.
Following the Avengers Civil War, Hill left Stark Industries and joined Fury's new crew. In 2018, Hill and Fury were among those killed during Thanos' Snap. Five years later, Hill was resurrected by Bruce Banner and attended Tony Stark's funeral. While Fury relocated to space, Hill chose to resume her spy career on Earth and became acquainted with Fury's Skrull friend Talos, who informed her of the secret invasion of humanity by the Skrull Resistance, led by Gravik, which caused her to summon Fury to Earth. Hill worked with Fury and Talos to prevent the Unity Day Bombing in Moscow intended by Gravik to spark World War III, although they failed. In the midst of the bombings, Hill was killed by Gravik, who shot her while having shapeshifted as Fury.
Maria Hill was born on April 4, 1982 to Elizabeth Hill. In adulthood, she joined S.H.I.E.L.D., rising through its ranks and becoming one of the organization's best agents. Hill had caught the attention of Nick Fury and was then appointed as S.H.I.E.L.D.'s Deputy Director, working closely with him[7] since the beginning of the Avengers Initiative.[8]
In 2008, Hill approved the transfer of Melinda May from being an active field agent to working in the administration department due to a traumatic incident she experienced during a rescue in Bahrain that had killed several active terrorists while May rescued her team of S.H.I.E.L.D. agents at the cost of Katya Belyakov's life, who had seemingly been caught in the crossfire.[9]
"Sir, evacuation may be futile." "We should tell them to go back to sleep?" "If we can't control the Tesseract's energy, there may not be a minimum safe distance."
In 2012, Hill visited the Joint Dark Energy Mission Facility where Project P.E.G.A.S.U.S. was going underway with Nick Fury to monitor the strange amount of energy that the Tesseract was emitting. Once they arrived they were greeted by Phil Coulson who made it clear that they were not aware of the reasons for the sudden surge of energy coming from the Tesseract and noted that Erik Selvig and his team of skilled scientists was still conducting tests to try and regain control of the situation with little success.
Upon hearing that the Tesseract was an unstable and serious risk, Fury ordered her to ensure that the Phase 2 prototypes were shipped out and that they evacuate as many staff members as they could. Hill questioned, however, that an evacuation could be meaningless as an explosion from the Tesseract could be too massive to escape from, but Fury ignored these concerns and instead told Hill to obey his orders.[7]
"A lot of men still under, don't know how many survivors." "Sound the general call, I want every living soul not needing rescue looking for that briefcase." "Roger that."
Watching the evacuation of the facility, Hill noticed Clint Barton and Erik Selvig who were going to leave the Joint Dark Energy Mission Facility with Loki. At this stage, Hill believed that Barton must have some kind of good reason to be transporting an unknown person from the facility. However, Hill then got a call on her radio from Nick Fury warning her that Loki had taken control of Barton and stolen the Tesseract. At this point, Hill was forced to take cover as Barton, who was enthralled by Loki, began shooting at her. While Hill waited behind a wall for Barton to stop firing, she heard their jeep startup as they made their escape.
Seeing this, Hill fired her weapon at them with little effect, so was forced instead to jump into another jeep and pursued them down the facility. Quickly catching up with them, Hill engaged in a firefight in the facility's tunnel system but failed to stop Loki despite her best efforts as she and Barton each fired shots at one another. The portal that Loki had arrived it began to collapse and created a powerful surge of energy created by the Tesseract that collapsed all the area around it, destroying the facility and causing Hill's jeep to crash when it hit a large falling piece of concrete, very nearly killing her.
Hill became trapped by rubble but survived. She radioed Fury, informing him of what had happened during the chaos and noting that she was unaware of how many people had survived the explosion as she believed the number would be very low. Hill asked Fury what they should do next, with Phil Coulson also letting them know of his own survival. Fury told Hill and Coulson that this situation was now a Level Seven and that they were now at war. As a result, Fury decided that it was time to relaunch the Avengers Initiative as this was a threat that S.H.I.E.L.D. could not handle alone, much to Hill's skepticism.[7]
After the destruction of the Joint Dark Energy Mission Facility, Hill reported back to the Helicarrier and aided in the administration of events, including the hunt for Clint Barton. She was present when Nick Fury brought together the Avengers and Hill was immediately uneasy about their unstable alliance, watching closely as Fury spoke with Bruce Banner whom she considered being a highly serious risk.
Before long, Jasper Sitwell was able to locate Loki in Germany and Fury sent Captain America and Black Widow to apprehend him. Loki was soon captured by Rogers and Romanoff with the assistance of Iron Man, as well as the arrival of Thor, who wished to return his brother to Asgard. When Stark arrived with Phil Coulson and began talking in great detail with Banner about how Erik Selvig could use the Tesseract, Hill questioned when Stark had become such an expert in thermonuclear astrophysics and Stark replied that he had last night as he insisted that he had done the research, before he asked Hill how Fury could check his monitors. Hill did not see Stark planting a device on the Helicarrier's computer to download all of S.H.I.E.L.D.'s files.[7]
Hill and Phil Coulson watched on a monitor as Nick Fury and the Avengers argued while under the influence of Loki's Scepter. This was interrupted when Clint Barton used an explosive arrow which made the Helicarrier malfunction and started losing altitude. Hill quickly realized that the engine was down and ordered someone to get the engine going again. Tony Stark agreed to repair the engine, with the assistance of Steve Rogers.
As Hill was sent to check on the engines, she witnessed a mercenary throwing a grenade into the control room and managed to move out of the way of the explosion. Nick Fury began fighting back the invading forces but was also killed before Hill was able to shoot the mercenary aiming at Fury. Hill and Fury stayed in the control room and ensured that the invading forces did not take control of the Helicarrier while Thor battled Hulk, at which point Fury sent a jet in an attempt to lure Hulk off the ship before he destroyed it.[7]
In the aftermath of the battle, Hill had her injuries treated while the S.H.I.E.L.D. agents checked on the damage done to the Helicarrier. Hill learned that Loki had escaped from the Helicarrier in a Quinjet and Thor had been thrown off the ship and could have then been killed, although Hawkeye had been subdued by Black Widow and was recovering from the effects of Loki's mind control. However, Hill was also informed that Phil Coulson had been tragically killed when he was stabbed through the heart by Loki before he could stop him.
Hill was present when Nick Fury gave a speech to Steve Rogers and Tony Stark, explaining his true intentions of using the Tesseract to recreate HYDRA weapons, and the reasons for forming the Avengers, which was to build a team to fight the battles that S.H.I.E.L.D. never could win. Fury noted that Coulson had died while still believing that the Avengers could be formed and save the world. However, despite his speech, Stark was too upset by Coulson's death and stormed out of the room, leaving Fury to confess that his plan was maybe too old fashioned as Hill had always believed.
Hill approached Fury a little while later and explained how she knew that Coulson's vintage trading cards that Fury had shown Rogers was not in Coulson's jacket as Fury has claimed, but in his locker, meaning that Fury had been trying to emotionally manipulate the team. Fury defended himself stating that they needed the push to get them all ready to fight Loki once again. The lie was eventually successful in causing the Avengers to unite and steal a Quinjet in order to find and attack Loki in New York City where he planned on finally unleashing the full power of the Tesseract.[7]
Hill monitored the Battle of New York as the Avengers fought against Loki's army of the Chitauri, who had successfully invaded Earth through a portal created by the Tesseract which was being powered by Stark Tower. As the odds against the Avengers appeared to be getting lower, Hill informed Fury that the World Security Council were waiting to speak to him. Hill listened in horror as Gideon Malick attempted to convince Fury that they needed to launch a nuclear strike against the city which would kill millions of innocent civilians.
Hill attempts to stop a jet being launched
As Fury refused to obey Malick's direct order, he had his leadership taken away and Hawley took control of a S.H.I.E.L.D. plane, for the purpose of bombing New York City to stop the invasion and also kill Loki, regardless of the number of innocent lives this would destroy. Despite the best efforts of Hill and Fury, with Hill attempting to hack into the jet while Fury even shot it with a rocket, a second plane took off from the Helicarrier and fired a missile at New York City while Hill could only look on in horror while Fury made a new plan to stop the missile and save millions of innocent lives.
Hill watched the monitors as Iron Man successfully flew the missile into the Wormhole and destroyed the Chitauri Command Center, by doing so effectively ending Loki's invasion; although it appeared that Stark had been killed in the mission, he was able to be revived by the Avengers who then took Loki into custody, as he had been beaten into submission by Hulk and reclaimed the Tesseract, which would be taken back to Asgard despite the requests of the Council as well as Malick[7] and Alexander Pierce, who wanted to continue studying it's incredible and seemingly unexplainable power.[10]
"They've gone their separate ways, some pretty extremely far. If we get into a situation like this again, what happens then?" "They'll come back." "Are you really sure about that?"
As the Avengers were departing as a team, Hill spoke to the World Security Council, who brought up her many complaints of Nick Fury in the past. She called the battle a series of mistakes. However, the council also made mistakes, how they tried to nuke the city. The Avengers worked because Fury believed in them. The Avengers were a mistake that worked. Hill ended the conversation saying that it was her official statement.[11] She then walked over to Fury and talked about whether or not they would stay together now they had stopped the Chitauri Invasion and won the Battle of New York. Fury told her that they would because the world would need them to. Accepting this answer, Hill walked back to the center of the Helicarrier and resumed her work.[7]
"The Battle of New York was the end of the world. This, now, is the new world. People are different. They have access to tech, to formulas, secrets they're not ready for."
Hill was aware that Nick Fury used Project T.A.H.I.T.I. to bring Phil Coulson back to life and aided Fury in keeping the truth hidden from him.[12] She was also aware of Melinda May's true purpose on the team.[13] Hill personally interviewed and evaluated Grant Ward after he successfully recovered a Chitauri Neural Link that T. Vanchat was housing in Paris. Having previously evaluated Ward, she assigned him to Coulson's newly created team as he was promoted to Clearance Level 7. Hill and Ward discussed the new world in the wake of the Battle of New York, which she described as what had caused the end of the world.
Hill testing Ward on his loyalty to S.H.I.E.L.D. before informing him of his new assignment, much to Ward's annoyance as he believed himself to be a poor team player, although these complaints were ignored. She also oversaw the team's first mission, to investigate the Rising Tide and the Hooded Hero. During this time, both she and J. Streiten talked about their concern over Coulson's status after his recovery in Tahiti following his death at the hands of Loki and also about his lack of awareness over the true circumstances that surrounded his death, with Hill noted that he must never learn the terrible truth about what really happened to him.
Coulson later reported directly to her after Mike Peterson was successfully sedated in Los Angeles after a prolonged chase.[12] When Coulson was abducted by the Centipede Project, Hill wanted constant updates on the situation of the rescue mission coordinated by Victoria Hand with the help of Coulson's Team.[6] Hill gave a random psychological assessment to Mark Smith on his day off from working field missions. She found him unfit for assignment and instead sent him to the S.H.I.E.L.D. S.T.A.T.I.O.N..[14]
Prior to the launch of the Project InsightHelicarriers, Hill was called by Nick Fury to Washington, D.C. following his discovery of suspicious information about S.H.I.E.L.D.'s true intentions with the project. Fury ordered her to come to D.C. within the next few hours but did not reveal his reasons for needing her. Seconds after their phone call ended, Fury was attacked by HYDRA operatives.
Fury escaped from the assassination attempt and regrouped in Steve Rogers' apartment to give him some intel. However, he was shot and seemingly killed at the hands of the Winter Soldier. In order to keep Fury alive, Hill used Tetrodotoxin B to slow his heart rate. She then took Fury to the secret S.H.I.E.L.D. Dam Facility so that he could heal with the assistance of Fine while they attempted to gather whatever information they could about the truth about what was truly going on inside S.H.I.E.L.D..[15]
Hill then returned to the Triskelion and met with Jasper Sitwell, telling him that she had been absent from S.H.I.E.L.D. because she was arranging Fury's funeral. Changing the subject, Sitwell showed Hill footage of Captain America and Black Widow on the run and questioned her about it. Hill simply answered that she was not at all surprised, as Rogers did tend to inspire loyalty among his allies. Sitwell replied that Alexander Pierce was moving Hill off the case and that she was to return to New York City after Fury's funeral, as Pierce felt that Hill's connections to Rogers and the Avengers put her loyalty to S.H.I.E.L.D. into question.[16]
Captain America, Black Widow, and Falcon discovered HYDRA's infiltration of the organization and were captured during a battle with the Winter Soldier. Hill managed to subdue a HYDRA guard and take his uniform. She snuck onto the vehicle carrying Rogers, Romanoff, and Wilson and used a Taser Rod to knock out the other guard. Hill freed them and escaped with the help of a Mouse Hole device before Brock Rumlow could execute the three of them.
Hill brought the trio to Nick Fury's location and got medical help from Fine for an injured Romanoff, who had been shot in the shoulder during her fight with the Winter Soldier. There, Hill revealed to Romanoff, Rogers, and Wilson that Fury was in fact not dead and that they had developed a way to stop Project Insight but needed the group's help. The three questioned why this had been kept a secret, and Hill explained that HYDRA needed to believe they had succeeded.
Hill and Fury outlined their plan to board the Helicarriers and change the chips inside to cause the Helicarriers' weapons to target each other rather than innocent people. Rogers revealed his intentions to destroy both S.H.I.E.L.D. and HYDRA, as he believed that although HYDRA and Alexander Pierce were the enemy, S.H.I.E.L.D. was proven to be a broken system; Hill agreed with Rogers and helped convince Fury that it was the right thing to do.[15]
"We need to breach those carriers and replace their targeting blades with our own." "One or two won't cut it. We need to link all three carriers for this to work, because if even one of those ships remains operational a whole lot of people are gonna die."
Hill broke into the Triskelion with Rogers and Falcon, taking Moore and the other controllers captive, and coordinated them in their attempt to disable Project Insight. While Rogers and Wilson disabled the Helicarriers, Romanoff infiltrated the main conference room to capture Alexander Pierce with the help of Nick Fury. Hill stayed in the command center, ordering and tracking the team during the mission. She took control of the Helicarriers one by one as their chips were inserted while defending herself several times from any attacking HYDRA agents.
During the battle, Hill spotted Brock Rumlow heading for the World Security Council to stop Pierce's arrest and alerted Falcon, who went to keep him away from the council. Later when Rogers became trapped onboard the third Helicarrier while fighting the Winter Soldier, he ordered Hill to make the Helicarriers fire at each other. Despite her protests that Rogers was still inside, Hill did as ordered and the Insight Helicarriers were destroyed. Rogers survived the crash, while Pierce was killed by Fury. Romanoff successfully leaked all of the organization's files onto the internet, effectively bringing S.H.I.E.L.D. down.[15]
"Most of the intelligence community would like to drop me into a dark hole, but even they can't mess with Tony's army of lawyers. So for now, we're privatizing global security."
Once the battle at the Triskelion left S.H.I.E.L.D. in shambles, Hill visited the Human Resources department of Stark Industries and was interviewed for a job, taking a polygraph test. This was a move to protect herself from prison as the protection coming from Stark Industries' lawyers rather than Tony Stark, as well as to allow her to continue maintaining global security. She communicated with Nick Fury during this time, feeding him intelligence and covertly working for him.[15][17]
While working for Stark Industries she was interviewed and questioned by various intelligence agencies from around the world including the CIA, the NSA, and the NRO. She was also interviewed by United States Congress, which to her were the most stressful meetings because in her view they acted more immature. Despite working for Stark, she was still constantly under high-level surveillance by multiple agencies including the FBI.[13]
One night in Washington, D.C., while complaining to Pepper Potts about the hearings, Hill noticed the many poorly-concealed agents tailing her had been knocked out. Hill called for backup and was surprised to be confronted by Melinda May shortly thereafter. May revealed Phil Coulson's location and asked Hill to check on him as he had learned information about his revival. She demanded to know who was behind Project T.A.H.I.T.I., believing that it was Alexander Pierce.
Hill confessed that she asked Nick Fury before, but he only told her, "that he buried the intel when he decided not to bury Coulson." May guessed that it was a riddle she needed to solve and asked Hill if she could ask Fury directly, but Hill insisted that he had indeed been assassinated just before the Battle at the Triskelion, through May did not believe this story. Their conversation was cut short when at last the FBI agents surrounded her, at which point Hill berated them for taking more than three minutes to locate her, something she would never have tolerated in her own S.H.I.E.L.D. agents.[13]
"We should have seen HYDRA coming. But after D.C., they don't stand a chance." "John Garrett does." "Garrett? I heard Ward took care of him." "Ward's his secret weapon. He killed Victoria Hand."
Hill subsequently reported the location of Nick Fury's top-secret Providence base to the United States Air Force in the hopes that its capture could be used to prevent Phil Coulson and his team being sent to prison. Glenn Talbot arrived first, causing a stand-off between him and Coulson's Team, who had been hiding out in the base. Coulson demanded to know how Talbot found the base, at which point Hill arrived and revealed she was the one who had informed Talbot.
Upon arriving at the base, Talbot questioned the team while Hill had a meeting with Coulson and tried in vain to convince him to surrender the base to Talbot and his men; telling him to hand over some small pieces of intel about S.H.I.E.L.D., which just annoyed him. Coulson refused and told her that their priority should be tracking down John Garrett and Grant Ward, who were HYDRA agents, was responsible for the murders of Eric Koenig and Victoria Hand, and had recently kidnapped Skye. Hill made her choice and helped Coulson fight off Talbot and his soldiers, before she and Coulson's team, escaped.[13]
"If I were you, I'd get the hell out of my way." "Give up Skye and we'll talk about it." "Yeah, that's not happening." "You know, I never liked you, Ward, not since our first sit-down, but I never figured you for John Garrett's lapdog."
Hill tracked down Grant Ward who was attempting to escape with Skye and Deathlok in the Bus. Hill, onboard a S.H.I.E.L.D. Jump Jet, confronted Ward and ordered him to surrender, threatening to shoot him out of the sky. Ward then taunted her that Nick Fury should have made Natasha Romanoff his second, making it clear that he knew Phil Coulson would not allow Skye to be sacrificed. Hill continued distracting Ward long enough to allow Coulson to sneak aboard the plane and rescue Skye.
Later that night, Coulson took rooms in a small motel; he asked Hill to set up tactical back-up for him as he prepared to attack John Garrett. Hill told him there was no S.H.I.E.L.D. anymore. Hill implored Coulson and his team to end their association with S.H.I.E.L.D. as soon as Garrett had been defeated. She gave Coulson an offer to work for Tony Stark, but Coulson declined. He asked her to say hello to Stark for him but changed his mind when he remembered that Stark still believed he was dead. Hill left without saying goodbye, also telling Melinda May that Ward was HYDRA.[13]
Working with the Avengers[]
Avengers Reassembled[]
With the rising threat of HYDRA, the Avengers were officially reassembled by Stark's financial backing, using the former Stark Tower, now renamed Avengers Tower, as their headquarters, with Hill becoming something of a personnel assistant to them, while still secretly feeding information to Fury.[17] When J.A.R.V.I.S. assembled the Avengers to assist Black Widow, Hill came to inform Stark while he was having a playful argument with Potts.[18]
"I'm guessing HYDRA doesn't know Loki's Scepter was the weapon that killed me, but I bet they know it can control minds." "In their hands, that's catastrophic. Coulson, please tell me you know where it is." "Sokovia. I'm pretty sure List is headed there right now."
As Hawkeye was being taken to be cared for by Helen Cho, Hill spoke to Captain America about Pietro and Wanda Maximoff, whom they had encountered during the battle; Hill explained their powers in detail to Rogers, switching to less complicated terms to make it clear to him. When Hill made a comment about how they had volunteered for Strucker and List's experiments, Rogers compared them to himself as he had volunteered for Abraham Erskine's experiments.[17]
Hill was present at a celebratory party thrown by Tony Stark at the Avengers Tower. Drinking with Stark, Thor, and James Rhodes, she snidely opined that Pepper Potts and Jane Foster had intentionally missed the party, mocking the pair as they competed over who had the more impressive girlfriend by listing their accomplishments before Hill walked away with Rhodes while teasing them over their egos and how both of their respective partners could ever deal with such a pair.
Once most of the guests had left the party, Hill sat with Clint Barton and continued drinking and played cards with Rhodes and Stark. While many of the Avengers attempted to lift MjĂžlnir without success; Hill herself did not attempt to lift the hammer, although she did take a chance to make fun of Steve Rogers for some comments he had made during the Attack on the HYDRA Research Base earlier that day which Black Widow had decided to tell her.[17]
While the celebrations continued, the group was suddenly interrupted by the arrival of Ultron, an A.I. made from the bodies of several Iron Legion robots. Hill was the first to load her gun as Ultron began ranting about his desire to destroy the Avengers in order to save the world from further destruction as he viewed them as a great threat to humanity.
Despite Steve Rogers' best efforts to reason with the robot, Ultron refused to listen and instead sent in a small army of reprogrammed Iron Legion robots to attack them. Hill joined the team in a fight against Ultron's small army Ultron Sentries, firing her gun at them while the main heroes destroyed them as best they could. Eventually, Ultron's body was destroyed by Thor who launched MjĂžlnir at the main body, but not before one of the Sentries had managed to escape with the Scepter before it could be stopped.[17]
In the aftermath of the skirmish, Hill and the rest of the team were forced to make a plan to deal with the new threat. Hill and James Rhodes noted that as Ultron had proven that he could hack into the Avengers Tower's security systems, he could easily steal nuclear codes and cause global destruction. They went on to discuss who Ultron had killed, as Tony Stark to revealed J.A.R.V.I.S.' mainframe had been attacked and seemingly destroyed by Ultron.[17]
"The news is loving you, guys. Nobody else is." "Stark Relief Foundation?" "Already on the scene. How's the team?" "Everyone's... we took a hit. Weâll shake it off."
As the hunt for Ultron continued, Hill informed Steve Rogers of a further sighting of Ultron and his legion of Ultron Sentries who had been attacking robotics labs, weapons facilities, and jet propulsion labs. Hill confirmed that several people had been killed and Ultron was being helped by Pietro and Wanda Maximoff and had assassinatedBaron Strucker from within his prison cell.
In the aftermath of the Duel of Johannesburg, between Iron Man and Hulk, the public blamed the massive destruction caused on the Avengers. Hill arranged for the Stark Relief Foundation to handle the situation and called Clint Barton while he piloted the Quinjet and recommended them to find a hideout for a while, as the team was suffering from the effects of Wanda Maximoff. Barton assured her that he knew where they could go, taking them to his home where they could rest and then be greeted by Nick Fury.[17]
Flying the Helicarrier in close, Hill sent out the rescue crafts to save the civilians while War Machine assisted in the battle. One of Ultron Sentries attacked the Helicarrier during the battle, but Hill and Fury fought back, with Hill firing her weapon at the attacking robot until they destroyed it before it did more harm to the ship or their crew-members. Eventually, the battle was won, thousands of civilians were saved and Ultron was destroyed forever by the Vision.[17]
"The Accords might be handy for keeping tabs on enhanced individuals in the field but regulating them seems a bit of a political pipe dream. Plus, I don't see Thor signing on a dotted line if he ever shows up again."
Soon afterwards, Hill was assigned to help out at the new Avengers Compound in upstate New York, coordinating all the efforts of the Avengers' newest incarnation, who was now under the joint leadership of Captain America and Black Widow. Hill worked alongside Helen Cho inside her brand new laboratory.[17] Hill also kept working closely with Nick Fury again, discussing the Sokovia Accords and witnessing the Avengers falling apart.[20] She continued her work for Stark Industries and oversaw a launch of a communications satellite alongside Tony Stark and Happy Hogan. Hogan was unimpressed by the launch, amusing Hill. Hill asked if Stark believed the satellite would work, and Stark said that they would know in a month. Hill asked what she thought they would find, and Stark explained that he hoped not to find anything. Hill commented that it would be a waste of money and asked what would happen if they did find something. Stark simply said that he hoped what they found was friendly.[21]
"Patching through to Colonel Rhodes for an update." "Still no word from Stark?" "No, not yet. We're watching every satellite on both hemispheres, but still nothing."
In 2018, after having spoken to Tony Stark about Vision, Hill left Stark Industries and joined Nick Fury as they realized yet another alien invasion was beginning.[20] They drove through Atlanta, Georgia, with still no clear idea of what was happening. Fury asked Hill for updates on Stark's location, after he had disappeared into a spaceship during his recent fight in New York City. She replied they had found absolutely nothing despite extensive searching around the globe.
Interrupting this topic, Hill then informed Fury that they had just spotted several more unidentified objects which had been detected above Wakanda, indicating that something serious was happening there. However, before they could make contact with Cameron Klein, a car in front of them suddenly swerved out of control, forcing Hill and Fury to stop in the middle of the road. Hill then went to investigate and see what could have caused the unexpected car crash.
Hill and Fury were both unharmed, but when they had gone to check on the driver, there was no one inside. Suddenly, people around them began to disappear while more vehicles crashed, and a helicopter crashed into a building. Not knowing what was going on, Hill soon began to disintegrate into dust as well and called to Fury for help.[2]
Five years later, as a result of the Blip, Hill was restored to life. A week later, she attended Tony Stark's funeral at his house.[10] Over the next few months, Hill had noticed a major change in Nick Fury, seeing that he wasn't the same as he was before the Blip, however, he would not reveal why, which concerned Hill.[5] Instead, Fury left Earth to build S.A.B.E.R., a new organization operating in space. In his absence, Fury had Talos and Soren temporarily replace him and Hill.[22]
Having still not found a new home, the Skrulls living on Earth became upset about their continued displacement, so they removed Talos from the council and exiled him, replacing him with Gravik, who radicalized the Skrulls, commencing an invasion to claim Earth as their new home by replacing many humans across the planet. Talos regrouped with Hill to help fight against this war, not knowing who else they could trust.
Everett Ross gained intel from Donald Prescod but discovered that he was being followed, so he contacted Hill for an extraction. Hill, who was driving in the streets, directed Ross where to met up with her. Hill arrived in an alley, where she found Ross badly injured on the ground, having fallen off the roof. Hill went to help him, as the Russian man chasing Ross appeared and revealed himself to be Talos. Ross succumbed to his injuries, revealing himself to be a Skrull, who Talos explained was a part of the rogue faction.[5]
With the amount of people they could trust decreasing and the threat growing closer to wiping out all of human existence, Talos requested that Nick Fury be brought in from the S.A.B.E.R. Space Station. Hill made contact with Fury and gave him coordinates to land in the middle of a forest. Once Fury arrived back on Earth, Hill welcomed him back, and the two old friends hugged.
Hill drove Fury to their safehouse, and informed him that Talos was waiting to talk with him upstairs. When the two came down and joined Hill, she debriefed Fury on the situation, explaining how Gravik replaced Talos on the Skrull Council and was now leading the invasion by preying on Skrulls that are angry about their displacement. They still didn't know where Gravik was operating from, but they had learned of a dirty bomb which he planned to use in Russia and blame it on the United States of America. Talos explained how the Skrull attacks on the world would soon lead to the end of all human life, which agitated Fury, and he left.
Fury returned from meeting with Sonya Falsworth, who he planted a bug on, allowing them to listen to her having a conversation with Derrik Weatherby about the Skrull invasion. Falsworth revealed a potential specialist that could aid the Skrulls in building a dirty bomb, named Vasily Poprishchin. Hill asked what their next course of action would be, so Fury made a plan to visit Poprishchin, which would include incapacitating a few MI6 agents that Falsworth will have planted around the area.[5]
The three headed to meet with Vasily Poprishchin, with Hill waiting in the car, as Nick Fury and Talos went inside. Hill spotted G'iah leaving the area with the bombs, so she followed her, informing Fury of the situation. Hill kept a distance from G'iah, and followed her underground, but the Skrull was aware of Hill's presence and the two fought. G'iah managed to overpower Hill and get away, but Talos arrived, so Hill told him where she went.[5]
After the failed mission to get ahead of the Skrulls, Hill and Nick Fury decided to get a drink together at a bar that night and play chess, a long tradition of theirs. Hill arrived first and when Fury entered the bar, she observed as he eased the tension with a hostile patron by buying him a drink. Fury then joined Hill, and she remarked on him making friends with the locals. The two then toasted, and Hill admitted that it was good to have Fury back on Earth as she made her first move.
Fury was suspicious of Hill's sincerity, so she pressed Fury on why he left the planet, which he stated was to build up S.A.B.E.R.. Hill knew immediately that was not the whole story, and wondered whether they no longer told the truth to each other during their chess games. Fury revealed that he had a crisis of faith, and that he returned because it followed him up in space, as well as owing Talos. Hill noticed that Fury hadn't moved yet, which led her to addressing how his behaviour after the Blip made it clear to her that he wasn't ready for this fight, and it could get someone hurt.[5]
The next day, Hill, Nick Fury and Talos arrived at Vossoyedineniye Square to intercept the bombs, having gained intel from G'iah about them. Hill spotted G'iah carrying two backpacks which she marked with infrared spray, but they missed the pass, so the three searched the area to find the backpacks.
Fury located two Skrulls carrying the backpacks, so Hill and Talos chased after them, but due to the massive crowds, they got away. Hill and Talos decided to split up, and they both managed to lock onto the Skrulls. Hill closed in on one of them, but before she could stop him, the Skrull faced Hill and threw the backpack up in the air, forcing Hill to catch it. Upon looking inside of the bag, Hill saw that it was empty and realized that were just decoys and that they had fallen into a diversion. Having lost what they thought was their advantage over the Skrulls, they witnessed Gravik detonate the real bombs, which had already been planted, thrusting the area into chaos.
Hill immediately went to help the civilians, until she went to regroup with Fury, only to be shot point-blank in the stomach, sending her into shock as she collapsed to the ground. Hill looked up in horror as Fury, unbeknownst to her that it was actually Gravik, pointed his gun at her, but fled after another explosion went off. The real Fury arrived and held Hill in his arms, as she told him that he shot her, but he tried to assure her it wasn't him. Hill then succumbed to her injuries and died, while Fury and Talos were forced to flee, leaving her body behind.[5]
Legacy[]
Mother's Grief[]
"You're Nick Fury. Maria believed in you. She would've followed you to the gates of hell and back. Look, I don't know what Maria died for out there. But whatever it was, don't let it be for nothing."
After her death, James Rhodes arranged to get her body back from Moscow to London by using his political influence, where she was given a military funeral. Maria's mother, Elizabeth Hill, was present at London and talked to Nick Fury who stood far away from the crowd. When Elizabeth asked Fury why Maria was killed, Fury told her that someone wanted to hurt him so he set up a trap for him and killed Maria. As Fury extended his condolences and apologized for failing to protect her, Elizabeth told Fury that her daughter believed in him and would follow him to the gates of hell, and asked Fury to make sure her daughter's death meant something.[23]
"Former S.H.I.E.L.D. Director, Nicholas Fury, is being sought for the murder of former S.H.I.E.L.D. Agent Maria Hill as officials investigate Fury's possible involvement in the failed attempt on President Ritson's life."
Maria Hill was well-known in S.H.I.E.L.D. for being rather tough-minded and by the book. Her clear-headed pragmatism and reason were valued on multiple important occasions, especially during the critical situation surrounding the Avengers Initiative. She was shown to be extremely loyal to S.H.I.E.L.D. and especially to Director Nick Fury, having personally helped him several times, such as when he faked his death after being attacked by the Winter Soldier. However, Hill ultimately proved that for the greater good, she was willing to discard her loyalties to S.H.I.E.L.D. and help Captain America to destroy HYDRA, despite the fact that it would tear S.H.I.E.L.D. apart.
Since working for Stark Industries, Hill had grown close to her employer Pepper Potts and the Avengers. Though very professional when on the job, she joked with her colleagues and was lighthearted during times of levity. However, she still remained professional and never let her guard down, not completely trusting Tony Stark, nor did he trust her. Despite both of them not trusting each other, Hill was saddened by Tony's sacrifice to defeat Thanos and attended his funeral out of respect.
Abilities[]
Master Tactician: According to her S.H.I.E.L.D. Files, Hill was "a superb tactical strategist." Thus, she served as Nick Fury's faithful second-in-command, and her files described her as "flawlessly efficient." While working for Stark Industries, she got called by Pepper Potts to discuss next moves. Potts trusted her expertise enough to ask her about the Fridge and Man-Thing, despite Hill not knowing anything about it.
Expert Martial Artist:
Hill fighting multiple enemies at once
Hill was a highly trained combatant and martial artist, and she was also able to overpower both HYDRA soldiers. She was also capable of engaging and defeating several United States Air Force soldiers unarmed after they had captured Coulson's Team in Providence. During this altercation, Hill displayed incredible skill in martial arts and maintained the upper hand throughout the entire fight. Her fighting style consisted of Boxing, ShotokanKarate, Krav Maga and combat shooting.
Expert Marksman: Hill was incredibly skilled with firearms. Alongside Nick Fury, Hill was able to defend the Helicarrier from Loki's brainwashed agents using only a sidearm. She also engaged and attempted to stop Clint Barton, who had fallen under Lokiâs spell, in a high-speed firefight as the brainwashed agent tried to aid Loki in his escape with the Tesseract. As two HYDRA operatives attempted to remove her from the Project Insight command center, Hill killed them before they could fire a shot.
Expert Spy: Hill was a tremendous undercover agent, being able to infiltrate the HYDRA truck in search of rescuing Rogers, Romanoff, and Wilson. Nick Fury and her were able to stay off the grid for four years following the Fall of S.H.I.E.L.D..
Bilingualism: Hill was fluent in both English and Russian.
Smith & Wesson M&P Compact: Hill carried this compact pistol following S.H.I.E.L.D.'s collapse and armed herself when she realized the people tasked with her surveillance had been knocked unconscious.
Hill carried this sidearm on the Helicarrier during the evacuation of civilians in Sokovia. Hill shot at the Ultron Sentry that managed to crash inside the bridge until it was ultimately destroyed by Fury. During Gravik's Secret Invasion. she used the Glock to hold a Russian man at gunpoint before realizing he was a disguised Talos.
Helicarrier: During the Chitauri Invasion, Nick Fury asked Hill to co-command the Helicarrier. she was there for the arrival of the Avengers and the capture of Loki. During the Attack on the Helicarrier Hill quickly assessed the situation and realized that one of the engines was destroyed and needed to be repaired. Hill then ordered a Jet to get the Hulk's attention to prevent further destruction. Hill was among the many agents stationed on the carrier to watch the successful ending of the Battle of New York. After the Battle Hill was one of few to know about Theta Protocol (an operation to secretly repair the carrier in case it's needed again). Hill again co-commanded the carrier with Fury during the Battle of Sokovia and ordered the lifeboats to rescue Sokovians from Ultron.
Infiniti QX50: Hill used this SUV as a mode of transportation while working with Nick Fury. She rode this vehicle with Fury in Atlanta at the time of the Snap.
Avengers Tower: After defecting from S.H.I.E.L.D., Hill joined the ranks in Stark Industries, becoming the liaison for the Avengers, during Stark's party, Hill was present and the first one loading her gun to use against the Iron Legion drones hacked by Ultron. continuing to assist the Avengers until their move to the Avengers Compound.
In the deleted scenes of The Avengers, Hill was asked by the World Security Council to spy on Nick Fury and report on his actions, with Hill constantly informing the Council of every incident, including Loki's control over Clint Barton, much to Fury's displeasure. The deleted scenes also featured Hill being interviewed by the Council, where she notified them that she did not support Fury or his belief in the Avengers Initiative. Following the Battle of New York, she spoke to the Council once again, where she reported on Fury's actions, prompting the Council to demote Fury and appoint Hill as the new Director of S.H.I.E.L.D.. However, following the end of the meeting, it is revealed that the events surrounding the Chitauri Invasion, particularly the Council's decision to detonate a nuclear explosive in New York City, prompted Hill to switch allegiance to Fury. Joss Whedon chose to remove these scenes from the final cut, making Hill loyal to Fury from the beginning and giving them a much more trustworthy relationship, while also allowing Fury to retain his position as Director.
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