History Characters / MCUHYDRALeadership

** His plan of cultivating and redistributing powers from Inhumans to those he deems worthy is quite similar to [[ComicBook/XMen X-Men]] villain [[Characters/XMenSinister Mister Sinister]], who used the same method on mutants. Coincidentally, the two even share the same first name.

* HateSink: Perhaps rivaling that of Daniel Whitehall. A SmugSnake who tortures and kills innocent Inhumans to steal their powers while gloating over it, justifying his sadism with an obviously thin story about 'redistributing powers'. It's implied that even the love for his family he had in the original timeline is gone, as he makes no mention of any desire to avenge his father and is heavily implied to have had his brother killed when he gave the command to the Chronicoms to start blowing up S.H.I.E.L.D. bases.
* HatesTheirParent: Well, hate is a strong word. That said, Nathaniel doesn't speak highly of his father after his death. While he does point out SHIELD's role in killing Wilfred and assaults Deke for it, he himself admits that the death of his father didn't upset him as much as it did, adding how he wanted nothing to do with his father's path, viewing his old man as being trapped by Hydra's traditions and rules.

** While Li is an AssholeVictim, draining the goodhearted Gordon is far less defensible, solely because he stood with Jiaying.

* ObviouslyEvil: Starting in After, Before, Nathaniel's starts wearing in an all-black Hive-esque outfit, talking about power setting people above the rules and bringing chaos.

* PosthumousCharacter: Like his father, Nathaniel had long since been dead by the time Gideon first appeared. Unlike his father, who was TheGhost, he did make a full appearance in flashbacks depicting how he died. And like his father, the SHIELD team would encounter a version of him in the past where he avoided his death due to the Chronicoms interference with the timeline.

* PsychopathicManchild: He's extremely short-tempered and after he violently throws a fit, he says it's because he's "used to getting what he wants". Given that he was born into and capitalized on (even if ultimately rejecting) a powerful HYDRA legacy, it's not too surprising.

* The Atoner: Gideon tries to convince Hive that he did everything in his power to bring his brother back. Hive doesn't buy it, because he possessed/consumed Nathaniel on Maveth and has his memories.

* IHaveYorWife: In "The Inside Man", Malick kidnaps Talbot's son, holding the poor boy hostage so the general will betray Coulson for him.

* NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast: "Malick" sounds an awful lot like "malice". Also, Gideon means "he that bruises or breaks; a destroyer."

* AnalogyBackfire: In "Stolen", Nathaniel compares himself to the legendary hero Robin Hood, specifically how he saved individuals that were going to be taken out by SHIELD and redistributing the wealth from the rich and mighty to the more deserving. However, the deaths he prevented were people who posed dangerous threats to others (hence why they were taken out to begin with) who he then recruits to his team. Meanwhile, the rich and mighty he targetsare the Inhumans, innocent people who he and his team hold captive for the purpose of transferring their abilities into his own subordinates. If anything, Nathaniel is more like the petty and ill-tempered Prince John, the main antagonist of Robin Hood's stories.

* BadassLongcoat: He starts wearing a [[EvilWearsBlack dark]] one in the 80s not to dissimilar to the one Hive wore.

* BigBadDuumvirate: He and Sibyl are the two main antagonists of the second half of the seventh season, Sibyl seeking him out and forging an alliance after his father's death. Malick provides Sibyl with muscle in exchange for knowledge of the future, and while he's little more than a useful pawn for the Chronicoms he gains much greater prominence and enmity with the agents, even serving as the FinalBoss.

* BlatantLies: Most of what Nathaniel says to Kora in the penultimate episode is a big fat lie, particularly his claims that before her death, Jiaying expressed her hatred for Kora and regretted that she'd ever been born (nothing could be further from the truth). Played with in regards to his claim that Daisy quaked the Earth apart in the original timeline; while it's implied to have been what happened before the team changed history, it was never firmly established whether Daisy or a Gravitonium-empowered Talbot was actually responsible, so Nathaniel's claim could be a deliberate lie (which would fit the narrative he's feeding Kora), or he could simply be misinformed. His insistent claims that Daisy is the villain and driven by ThePowerOfHate are unambiguously lies, though.

* EvenEvilHasLovedOnes: Despite previously claiming to have had little reaction to his father's death, Nathaniel cares enough about the late Wilfred Malick to assault Deke for killing him, though he could have used that to justify this action. It's implied he cared about his brother, but considering his views on ScrewDestiny, any love he had for Gideon would have been gone once he learned that he was sacrificed to Hive after Gideon rigged the stone ceremony.

* HatesTheirParent: Well, hate is a strong word. That said, Nathaniel doesn't speak highly of his father. While he does point out SHIELD's role in killing Wilfred and assaults Deke for it, he himself admits that the death of his father didn't upset him as much as it did, adding how he wanted nothing to do with his father's path, viewing his old man as being trapped by Hydra's traditions and rules.

** Preventing Kora's suicide is ultimately what allows the Chronicoms to be defeated once and for all in the finale.

* AffablyEvil: He starts off as Faux, but after his Heel Realisation, his politeness towards Coulson appears to be genuine.

* IfYoureSoEvilEatThisKitten: Hive has Malick don a suit of Powered Armor and kill a man, just to show him what true power is. Malick is hesitant at first, but he really gets into it.

* VillainWithGoodPublicity: He was a member of the World Security Council as he was able to keep his alliance with HYDRA hidden a ''long'' time, to the point that not even Coulson or the Avengers knew his true colors until he made the mistake of telling Rosalind about S.H.I.E.L.D.'s Tahiti program.

* BodyHorror: His flesh and bones melt away afer volunteering for Hive's experiment to turn him into an Inhuman.

* AnalogyBackfire: In "Stolen", Nathaniel compares himself to the legendary hero Robin Hood, specifically how he saved individuals that were going to be taken out by SHIELD and redistributing the wealth from the rich and power to the more deserving. However, the deaths he prevented were people who posed dangerous threats to others (hence why they were taken out to begin with) who he then recruits to his team. Meanwhile, the rich and mighty he is referring to are the Inhumans, innocent people who he and his team hold captive for the purpose of transferring their abilities into his own subdordinates. If anything, Nathaniel is more like the petty and ill-tempered Prince John, the main antagonist of Robin Hood's stories.

* CatchPhrase: "Discovery requires experimentation", which he use whenever he employs such violent experiments and psychological methods on his victims.

* DeconstructedCharacterArchetype: Zola deconstructs the MinionWithAnFInEvil. Originally a timid Nazi scientist who later worked for HYDRA under Johann Schmidt, the Red Skull, he only sided with Schmidt after he killed the Nazi officers with Tesseract powered weaponry since they discovered Berlin was on Hydra's hostile capitals map, and when captured in 1945, he immediately rats out Red Skull to Captain America and the SSR. However, he's a far more sinister villain than both Red Skull and the Allies gave him credit for, having already studied the serum ahead of time and found the flaw, but neglected to tell Schmidt about it to see how monstrous he'd become and taunted Erskine that Schmidt will kill him, and even revived HYDRA within S.H.I.E.L.D., while brainwashing Bucky, who'd seemingly died during the mission that ended in his capture, into the Winter Soldier, and created an algorithm for Project Insight that would allow HYDRA to eliminate potential threats to their New Order.

* IAmNotMyFather: When Coulson made the suggested assumption that he was not so different from his father, Nathaniel furiously affirmed that he wants nothing to do with his father's ways. He speaks on how his father let himself controlled by Hydra's old school traditions and hierarchy, to which Nathaniel much prefers the idea of anarchy.

* BoxedCrook: He was recruited to work for S.H.I.E.L.D. after the war, along with other Nazi scientists, as part of the real-life Operation Paperclip. This proved to be a '''very bad idea''', as he used the opportunity to rebuild HYDRA within S.H.I.E.L.D. itself.

* TheCameo: He appears in TheStinger to the first season finale to ''Agent Carter''. He proposes an opportunity to team up with Dr. Fennhoff. It's unknown if this ever amounted to anything before he had his mind computerized.

'''Zola:''' First correction: I am ''Swiss''.

* MistakenNationality: Because of his accent and who he was working for, both Steve and the audience assumed he was German. Turns out that he's Swiss.

--> '''Zola:''' I merely develop the weapons, I cannot fire them!

* TheGhost: He is mentioned in Season 3 episodes "Closure" and "Paradise Lost". The latter episode revealed that he had passed away in 1970, when Gideon was a young adult. Averted in Season 7, where the SHIElD team encounter a younger version of him in the past, where he ends up not only becoming a Hydra head, but also a willing ally to the Chronicoms.

* EvenEvilHasLovedOnes: Despite being a ruthless Hydra head, he does love both of his sons. After he and the Chronicoms sprung a trap decades in the making on S.H.I.E.L.D. in 1973, he was ultimately forced to let them go after they took his son Nathaniel hostage, pissing off the Chronicoms who simply [[LackOfEmpathy could not understand his reasoning]].

* EvenEvilHasLovedOnes: Despite being a ruthless Hydra head, he does love both of his sons. After he and the Chronicoms sprung a trap decades in the making on S.H.I.E.L.D. in 1973, he was ultimately forced to let them go after they took his son Nathaniel hostage, pissing off the Chronicoms who simply [[LackOfEmpathy could not understand his reasoning]].]]

* Obviously, the actions against Jiaying is what causes her to develop a hatred towards humanity, resulting in her becoming the FinalBoss of Season 2, with her even adopting his idea of experimenting on the Diviners for her own purposes.
* In the flashbacks of Season 3, he is the one who revealed to the Malick boys the truth about their father cheating himself out of being sacrificed to Hive. This act would cause Gideon to develop a fear of being chosen, leading to him using his father's method of rigging the ceremony in his favor, allowing him to live long enough to meet Grant Ward, who he would work together to bring Hive to the planet.
* In a flashback in Season 5, he is revealed to be the one who developed the Destroyer of World's project that would result in the world being quaked apart in the future.
* Finally, in Season 7, Nathaniel Malick, having witnessed Daisy using her powers, calls Whitehall for his instructions on surgically transferring enhanced abilities. This would lead Nathaniel to perfecting the method, which he planned to use on all the Inhumans at

** Inna deleted scene, Strucker thinks he’s being bursted out of prison, acting all smug with a big smile on his face, muttering “About time.”. Then he sees Ultron and he immediately begins to freak out in panic.

* FauxAffablyEvil: Initially he is shown as Affably Evil, when talking with Creel and after he interrogated Simmons and concluded that she was loyal, he is nothing but polite to her and guides her through her mission, but when Simmons asks what she should do if the target doesn’t respond well, Bakshi replies with ‘I guess there will be a new opening in our laboratory’, showing how beneath his facade, he couldn’t care less about his employees.

* ObstructiveBureaucrat: During the events of ''The Avengers'', he tries to reclaim the Tesseract/Cosmic Cube for HYDRA, insisting it's S.H.I.E.L.D. property for 70 years, as seen in ''Endgame''. [[ForegoneConclusion It still goes to Asgard for ''[[Film/ThorTheDarkWorld Thor: The Dark World]]'' regardless of his jurisdiction, of course]]. Still, HYRDA managed to get Loki's specter with the Mind Stone inside.

[[/Folder]]

* CanonForeigner
* DirtyCoward
* ReligionOfEvil
*

>''''"Nathaniel: Anarchy?"''

* AnalogyBackfire: In "Stolen", Nathaniel compares himself to the legendary hero Robin Hood, specifically how he saved individuals that were going to be taken out by SHIELD and stealing from the rich and powerful to give back to those more. However, the individuals whose deaths he prevented were people who posed dangerous threats to others (hence why they were taken out to begin with) who he then recruits to his team. Meanwhile, the rich and mighty he is referring are the Inhumans. He and his team kidnap the Inhumans in Afterlife for the purpose of transferring their powers into his own subordinates. If anything, Nathaniel is more like the petty and ill-tempered Prince John, the main antagonist of Robin Hood's stories.

* DesperatelyLookingForAPurposeInLife: Nathaniel had a hard time finding his place within Hydra. having becoming disillusioned with the cult faction that worshipped Hive as well as his distaste for Hydra's whole hierarchy system, while showing a bit of interest in Whitehall's experimentation with enhanced abilities. This is a stark contrast to how he was depicted in the flashbacks in Season 3, where he considered it an honor to be a part of the cult, and had no interest in joining Whitehall's faction of Hydra.

* BeenThereShapedHistory: He helped smuggle one of the key ingredients of the Super Soldier serum, which in turn would allow for the rise of Red Skull and Captain America.
* BigBadDuumvirate: [[spoiler:Joins forces with the Chronicom Luke to prevent the defeat of HYDRA. However, it only lasts one episode, as on their next meeting in 1976, Deke shoots him dead.]]

* BrokenPedestal: His son Nathaniel admires him until he finds out Wilfred cheats during the ritual to choose Hive's sacrifice. Averted in the alternate timeline, Nathaniel looks down on his father, viewing the man as being bound by Hydra's rules and traditions.
* ChekhovsGunman: He was mentioned in Season 3's episode "Paradise Lost" via flashback, and, like his youngest son, was a plot device meant to help further explore Gideon's past and the history of the Hydra faction that worshipped Hive. In Season 7, his past self becomes involved with the Chronicoms, and serves as one of the main antagonists in the first half of the season.
* CosmicRetcon: [[spoiler:He originally died in 1970, but due to the Chronicoms' interference, he survived to 1976 in the resulting timeline.]]

* EvenEvilHasLovedOnes: [[spoiler:After he and the Chronicoms sprung a trap decades in the making on S.H.I.E.L.D. in 1973, he was ultimately forced to let them go after they took his son Nathaniel hostage, pissing off the Chronicoms who simply [[LackOfEmpathy could not understand his reasoning]].]]

* FromNobodyToNightmare: Seemingly an innocent bartender, Freddy Malick goes on to become one of the heads of HYDRA, specifically in the involvement of Johann Schmidt becoming Red Skull.
* TheGhost: He is mentioned in Season 3 episodes "Closure" and "Paradise Lost". The latter episode revealed that he had passed away in 1970, when Gideon was a young adult. In Season 7, the SHIELD team's journey into the past leads to an encounter with a young version of himself who not only ends up joining the Hydra ranks like in the main timeline, but also becomes a willing ally to the Chronicoms.

* ParentalNeglect: Based on both of his sons' statements, it is implied that because of his job as a Hydra head within SHIELD, and working behind the scenes with the Chronicoms for Project Insight, Wilfred had very little time to spend with his two sons. It's possible that his youngest son Nathaniel's feelings of neglect is the reason why he became disillusioned with Hydra's whole hierarchy and rules, as it perhaps made him feel that his father valued his position over him and his brother.
* PosthumousCharacter: Flashbacks in Paradise Lost shows that he died in the year 1970, with his two sons hosting his funeral, and doesn't make a physical appearance, only being [[TheGhost spoken about]] by a few characters. This is averted in Season 7, when the team encounter a younger version of him in the past, where he manages to avoid his planned death.
* RagsToRiches: His family lost everything due to the Wall Street Crash of 1929 but he managed to rebuild the family fortune after joining HYDRA.

->''''"You know all these rules, who’s given a gift, who’s given nothing. Who lives, who dies. It’s all written in the stars. I feel like we should shake things up. Give the world a little something new."''

* AnalogyBackfire: In "Stolen", Nathaniel compares himself to the legendary hero Robin Hood, specifically how he saved individuals that were going to be taken out by SHIELD and stealing from the rich and powerful (Inhumans) to give back to those more. However, the individuals whose deaths he prevented were people who posed dangerous threats to others (hence why they were taken out to begin with), while kidnapping innocent Inhumans for the purpose of transferring their powers into his own subordinates. If anything, Nathaniel is more like the petty and ill-tempered Prince John, the main antagonist of Robin Hood's stories.

** After chastising an underling [[DontCallMeSir for calling him "sir"]], lecturing him on how such power structures will have no place in his new world order, he later killed the same underling on the spot when he called him "sir" again, visibly terrifying his other underlings and [[StrawCharacter showing that he doesn't even understand the power structure he's building around himself]]

** He also blasts Kora and has her power drained after she started to express doubts that Daisy wasn't bad.

* BadassLongcoat: He starts wearing a [[EvilWearsBlack dark]] one in the 80s not to disimilar to the one Hive wore.

* BewareTheQuietOnes: Nathaniel is shown as the quieter of the Malick brothers, sitting alone during the S.H.I.E.L.D. celebration while Gideon tries to hit on Daisy. Underneath that quiet persona is a selfish, arrogant, and violent young man.

* BlatantLies: Most of what Nathaniel says to Kora in the penulitmate episode is a big fat lie, particularly his claims that before her death, Jiaying expressed her hatred for Kora and regretted that she'd ever been born (nothing could be further from the truth). Played with in regards to his claim that Daisy quaked the Earth apart in the original timeline; while it's implied to have been what happened before the team changed history, it was never firmly established whether Daisy or a Gravitonium-empowered Talbot was actually responsible, so Nathaniel's claim could be a deliberate lie (which would fit the narrative he's feeding Kora), or he could simply be misinformed. His insistent claims that Daisy is the villain and driven by ThePowerOfHate are unambiguously lies, though.

* CharacterizationMarchesOn: In the Season 3 flashbacks, Nathaniel is depicted as a timid yet devoted believer of the Hydra cult that his family has been apart for generations. He was very close to his brother Gideon, and was equally devastated by the loss of his father. He also notably rejected Whitehall's facton of Hydra, yet maintained a level of fear of the man. The version of him that appears in Season 7 is a cruel, arrogant, and outwardly violent young man who became disillusioned with Hydra due to its hierarchy and tradition in favor of anarchy, showed more interest in Whitehall's experiments in transferring enhanced abilities. In addition, he doesn't have a lot of genunine care for his family, as he and his brother don't appear to be close, and the fact that his father's death had very little reaction from him, considering that he now viewed his father as a man trapped by Hydra's hierarchy and tradition.

* DesperatelyLookingForAPurposeInLife: Nathaniel had a hard time finding his place within Hydra. having becoming disillusioned with the cult faction that worshipped Hive as well as his distaste for Hydra's whole hierachy system, while showing a bit of interest in Whitehall's experimentation with enhanced abilities. This is a stark contrast to how he was depicted in the flashbacks in Season 3, where he considered it an honor to be a part of the cult, and had no interest in joining Whitehall's faction of Hydra.

* EvenEvilHasLovedOnes: Despite previously claiming to have had little reaction to his father's death, Nathaniel cares enough about the late Wilfred Malick to assault Deke for killing him, though he could have used that to justify this action. It's implied he cared about his brother, but conidering his views on ScrewDestiny, any love he had for Gideon would have been gone once he learned that he was sacrificed to Hive after Gideon rigged the stone ceremony.

* EvilerThanThou: Out of the Malick family, he is by far the most sadistic, cruel, and bad-tempered. He's also the only one to be a NonActionBigBad thanks to obtaining powers from Daisy.

* FromNobodyToNightmare: He was originally a blip on the radar of history, nothing but a pawn in Gideon Malick and Hive's story. Come Season 7, he's stolen the powers of one of the m,ost powerful known Inhumans, aligned himself with the Chronicoms, and is out to cause chaos.

* IAmNotMyFather: When Coulson made the suggested assumption that he was not so different from his father, Nathaniel furiously affirmed that he wants nothing to do with his father's ways. He speaks on how his father let himself controlled by Hydra's old school tradtions and hierarchy, to which Nathaniel much prefers the idea of anarchy.

** He reveals, in gruesome detail, Jiaying's bleak future in the original timeline, up to and including her attempt to murder Daisy and her own death. After killing Jiaying, he mockingingly says that it looks like Jiaying won't live forever, and Daisy won't live at all.

* PosthumousCharacter: Like his father, Nathaniel had long since been dead by the time when Gideon first appeared. Unlike his father, who was TheGhost, he did make a full appearance in flashbacks depicting how he died. And like his father, the SHIELD team would encounter a verison of him in the past where he avoided his death due to the Chronicoms interference with the timeline.

* RebelPrince: In a way, as he was born into a Hydra blueblood family. Unlike his brother, Nathaniel wants nothing to do with the Hydra cult, as he became disillusioned with the organization's hierarchy and tradition. During his conversation with Coulson, Nathaniel firmly said that he has no use for his father's thinking, prefering the freedom of anarchy.

* ChekovsGunman: He first appears as a nameless member of the World Security Council that Fury talks to in "The Avengers". In Season 3, he is revealed to be a head of Hydra, and serves as the one of the antagonists of the season.

* WhatHappenedToTheMouse: [[In Season 7, his younger self only has one scene before completely disappearing from the story, while his younger brother Nathaniel gets involved with the Chronicoms. It is implied that he would have taken over his father's position following the latter's death at the hands of Deke.

* CatchPhrase: "Discovery requires experimentation."

* TheDreaded: His subordinates are terrified of failing him, and rightly so, given his penchant for ColdBloodedTorture and utter lack of anything resembling a conscience. Even the usually unflappable Raina is scared of him. Even in prison, he instilled fear to those loyal to Hydra, as shown when Nathaniel Malick was shown to be quite worried about being summoned by the man, and also reminding his brother of what could happen if they refused to attend a meeting with the man.

** While his objections aren't remotely moral in nature, Whitehall wants nothing to do with the "ancient cult" facet of HYDRA, viewing it as barbaric religious nonsense, while preferring the scientific aspects established by the Red Skull. He even tried to convince the young Malick brothers, Gideon and Nathaniel, to turn away from the cult and join his faction of Hydra. He also views the boys' father Wilfred Malick as a coward, knowing that the man devised a way to cheat his way out of being chosen to go through the Monolith.

* {{Hypocrite}}: He frequently says that his twisted experiments on innocent individuals is necessary for scientific discovery. And yet, he keeps said results from his experiments for himself, thus revealing he is only interested in discoveries to use for himself.

* VillainousLegacy: Despite being long dead, he still casts a long shadow in subsequent seasons, and it's not uncommon for him to appear to in flashbacks. General Hale wants to use an old superhuman program -- the Destroyer of Worlds to stop the Confederacy from taking over Earth.

* BrokenPedestal: His son Nathaniel admires him until he finds out Wilfred cheats during the ritual to choose Hive's sacrifice. In the alternate timeline, Nathaniel looks down on his father, viewing the man as being bound by Hydra's rules and traditions.

* FromNobodyToNightmare: Seemingly an innocent bartender, Freddy Malick goes on to become one of the heads of HYDRA.
* TheGhost: He is mentioned in Season 3 episodes "Closure" and "Paradise Lost". The latter episode revealed that he had passed away when Gideon was a young adult. In Season 7, the SHIELD team's journey into the past leads to an encounter a young version of him who not only ends up joining the Hydra ranks like in the main timeline, but also becomes a willing ally to the Chronicoms.

He had died in 1970, as shown in showed Gideon and Nathaniel hosting his funeral at the family home.

* BadassLongcoat: He starts wearing a [[EvilWearsBlack dark]] one in the 80s.

* BewareTheQuietOnes: Nathaniel is shown as the quieter of the Malick brothers, sitting alone during the S.H.I.E.L.D. celebration while Gideon tries to hit on Daisy. By the end of the episode, Nathaniel kidnaps Sousa and Daisy, and is planning on using Whitehall's methods to acquire her powers through vivisection.

* CanonForeigner: Like Gideon Malick, he's an original character of the MCU.
* CharacterizationMarchesOn: In the Season 3 flashbacks, Nathaniel is depicted as a timid yet devoted believer of the Hydra cult that his family has been apart for generations. He was very close to his brother Gideon, and was equally devastated by the loss of his father. He also notably rejected Whitehall's facton of Hydra, yet maintained a level of fear of the man. The version of him that appears in Season 7 is a cruel, arrogant, and outwardly violent young man who became disillusioned with Hydra due to its hierarchy and tradition, showing more interest in Whitehall's experiments in transferring enhanced abilities and and trying to bring about anarchy. In addition, he doesn't have a lot of genunine care for his family, as he and his brother don't appear to be close, and how his father's death at the hands of Deke barely had any reaction from him.

* DesperatelyLookingForAPurposeInLife: Nathaniel states that he really had a hard time finding his place within HYDRA, going as far as to call the cult ridiculous for worshipping the space octopus Hydra, though he was somewhat intrigued by Whitehall's experiments. This is a stark contrast to how he was depicted in the flashbacks in Season 3, where he considered it an honor to be a part of the cult, and had no interest in joining Whitehall's faction of Hydra.

* EvenEvilHasLovedOnes: Despite previously claiming to have had little reaction to his father's death, Nathaniel cares enough about the late Wilfred Malick to assault Deke for killing him, though he could have used that to justify this action. It's implied he cared about his brother, but conidering his views on ScrewDestiny, any love he had for Gideon would have been gone once he learned that he was sacrificed to Hive after Gideon rigged the ceremony.

* EvilerThanThou: Out of the Malick family, he is by far the most sadistic, cruel, and bad-tempered one.

* FromNobodyToNightmare: Oiginally a blip on the radar of history, nothing but a pawn in Gideon Malick and Hive's story. Now, he's stolen the powers of one of the most powerful known Inhumans, aligned himself with the Chronicoms, and is out to cause chaos.

* HatesTheirParent: Well, hate is a strong word. That said, Nathaniel doesn't speak highly of his father. While he does point out SHIELD's role in killing Wilfred and assaults Deke for it, he himself admits death of his father didn't upset him as much as it did, adding how he wanted nothing to do with his father's path, viewing his old man as being trapped by Hydra's traditions and rules.

* HumanSacrifice: He was originally sacrificed to Hive in 1970, which his brother, who was scared of being sacrificed, had rigged to select him during their first time taking part in the ceremony. This averted in the alternate timeline created by the Chronicoms, as his father's death being prevented meant he and his brother did not have to take part in the ceremony.

** He claims that he wants nothing to do with Hydra, yet continues to use his Hydra connections for his own goals. For example, he has nothing but contempt for Daniel Whitehall, but is content with using his theory of transferring enhanced abilities for his own means.
** He criticizes the leaders of Afterlife for picking and choosing who gets to undergo Terrigenesis. His solution is to forcibly drain the powers from Inhumans so that he can pick and choose who really deserves them, reserving such power for his own allies.
** For all his rants about chaos, he gets violent whenever people don't do as he says, which includes striking Jemma when she refuses to give up Fitz's location and killing one of his henchmen for calling him "sir".

* IAmNotMyFather: When Coulson made the suggested assumption that he was not so different from his father, Nathaniel furiously affirmed that he wants nothing to do with his father's ways. He speaks on how he considered his father being controlled by Hydra's old school tradtions and hierarchy, to which Nathaniel much prefers the idea of anarchy.

* CanonForeigner: None of them seems to have comics counterparts, which is odd, because even in the comics, HYDRA has several branch leaders like them. Although since they are [[WeHardlyKnewYe short-lived]] in this series, this won't be a waste of characters.

* HiddenAgendaVillain: Even Malick admits he doesn't know what Hive has actually planned. Given what Hive did to the planet he was trapped on, it can hardly be good for humanity. Eventually it reveals its goal: turn the rest of humanity into Inhumans.

->''''"You know all these rules, who’s given a gift, who’s given nothing. Who lives, who dies. It’s all written in the stars. I feel like we should shake things up. Give the world a little something new."''

* EvenEvilHasLovedOnes: Despite previously claiming to have had little reaction to his father's death, Nathaniel cares enough about the late Wilfred Malick to assault Deke for killing him, though he could have used that to justify his action.

* EvilerThanThou: He is far more dangerous and ruthless than his father and brother, and that's saying something.

** His plan of cultivating and redistributing powers from Inhumans to those he deems worthy is quite similar to [[ComicBook/XMen X-Men]] villain [[Characters/XMenSinister Mister Sinister]], who used the same method on mutants. The two even share the same first name.

* HumanSacrifice: He was originally sacrificed to Hive in 1970.

** He claims that he wants nothing to do with Hydra, yet continues to use his Hydra connections for his own goals. Notably, he has nothing but contempt for Daniel Whitehall, but is content with using his theory of transferring enhanced abilities for his own means.

** He condemns the likes of SHIELD, HYDRA, and Inhumans, accusing them of committing unspeakable acts for world order and control...all while he is helping an alien race in their goal to take over the planet, kidnapping innocent enhanced individuals so he can experiment on them for the purpose of transferring their powers into his subordinates. And the finale, he lets slip that his entire motive is to TakeOverTheWorld.

** While Li is an AssholeVictim, draining the goodhearted Gordon is far less defensible.

[[quoteright:250:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/nathaniel_malick.jpg]]

->'''Nathaniel Malick:''' Dad... he would swap in this stone during the ceremonies and feel for the notch to make sure he never drew it from the bag.\\
'''Gideon Malick:''' He would never do that.\\
'''Nathaniel Malick:''' But he did. It's all right here, Gideon. Dad was afraid to be the Traveler. He was a coward... and a cheater. Everything he said to us was a lie.

A member of the HYDRA faction that worshiped the Inhuman Hive, Wilfred Malick's second son, and the younger brother of Gideon Malick. Originally sacrificed to Hive in 1970, his fate was changed via CosmicRetcon when his father became involved with the time-traveling Chronicoms.

* ParentalNeglect: Based on both of his sons statements, it is implied that because of his job as a Hydra head within SHIELD, and working behind the scenes with the Chronicoms for Project Insight, Wilfred had very little time to spend with his two sons. It's possible that his youngest son Nathaniel's feelings of neglect is the reason why he became disillusioned with Hydra's whole hierarchy and rules.