Spoilers for all works set prior to Avengers: Endgame are unmarked.
HYDRA
Appearances: Captain America: The First Avenger | Captain America: The Winter Soldier | Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. | Avengers: Age of Ultron | Ant-Man | Captain America: Civil War | Avengers: Endgame | WandaVision note | Loki note | What If...? | Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness
"Cut off one head, two more shall take its place! Hail HYDRA!"
HYDRA is a subversive criminal-paramilitary organization bent on world domination. Originally the Nazi Science Division, its main purpose was to create advanced Tesseract-powered weaponry for the German armies, but over the years, members of HYDRA became loyal only to their leader, Johann Schmidt. At the beginning of World War II, HYDRA still fought for the Nazi cause, but Schmidt later separated HYDRA from Nazi Germany to start his own conquest of the world. While in the present day they dislike being called "Nazis" and are more Equal-Opportunity Evil in terms of membership, fascism and conquest of freedom is still their core philosophy.
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In General
- A Nazi by Any Other Name: Again, they started out as a Nazi science division so the similarities are abundant. The modern version has dropped the racial purity angle, though. It's later revealed that HYDRA has existed in one form or another for centuries, way before the Red Skull was the leader. This is given a big fat Lampshade Hanging in Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., where Skye calls Ward a Nazi. Though he denies it.
- Airborne Aircraft Carrier: They got three of them, the Insight Helicarriers, armed with some really powerful and accurate long-range gun batteries.
- Ancient Conspiracy: Is revealed to be way older than World War II in Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D..
- Arc Welding: Senator Stern from Iron Man 2, Agent Sitwell, and the Clairvoyant in Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. are all Hydra agents.
- As Long as There Is One Man:
- "Cut off one head, two more shall take its place." As shown in The Winter Soldier this is a true statement. As the last remnant of HYDRA, Zola managed to reconstruct the organization from within S.H.I.E.L.D. in a far more subversive manner than the overt methods of Red Skull.
- The end of Season 2 of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. sees Grant Ward gathering the remnants that survived the Avengers' assault on Strucker around him as the new leader.
- Even after Ward is killed, HYDRA always finds a way back somehow. General Hale, a low-ranking HYDRA mole (all things considered), slips through the cracks and causes trouble for our heroes as the villain of Agents of SHIELD's fifth season.
- Back from the Brink: They certainly come by their Badass Creed catchphrase honestly.
- After the SSR and the Howling Commandos all but destroyed HYDRA in the 1940s, Zola did this to the organization, rebuilding it within the nascent S.H.I.E.L.D. for the next several decades.
- After the events of Winter Soldier thwart Project Insight, this happens again, with Daniel Whitehall and Sunil Bakshi taking over and fighting back in partnership with Baron Wolfgang von Strucker, Dr. List, and the rest of the HYDRA Council.
- HYDRA is again smashed once Whitehall, Bakshi, von Strucker, and List are killed and the Council is decimated, but Grant Ward gathers the remnants of the organization under his control, and is later Demoted to Dragon once Gideon Malick and his inner circle reemerges. Hive later adds to their Inhuman strength even as it twists HYDRA to its will.
- Even after Ward, Malick and Hive are killed, and Malick's information causes most of HYDRA's remaining assets to be seized and destroyed, General Hale manages to evade detection and takes over HYDRA's old academy as a base.
- There's also the Framework arc of Agents of SHIELD to take into consideration. Even when HYDRA is (almost) completely demolished in the main universe, they always find a way back, even if it's through an entire alternate reality.
- Finally averted after the deletion of the Framework and Coulson's team takes down the HYDRA academy base, and Talbot/Graviton kills Hale herself ... although the fate or whereabouts of Hale's aide Candice Lee are unrevealed. There's still Mitchell Carson from Ant-Man out there somewhere, as well as STRIKE agent Jack Rollins, and the Red Skull himself on Vormir. However, Candice Lee and Jack Rollins have likely been arrested, and the Red Skull is docile and powerless to act on his own, meaning that only Mitchell Carson could possibly pose a threat.
- Badass Creed: "Cut off one head, two more shall take its place! Hail HYDRA!"
- Big Bad: The organization as a whole is the secondary antagonistic faction of the Infinity Saga, its grasps and taking over the world stirring up almost as much trouble as Thanos and Loki. They're also the main antagonists of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D..
- The Red Skull and Arnim Zola try to use the Tesseract to Take Over the World in Captain America: The First Avenger.
- In Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Alexander Pierce leads the organization in the present day after Zola managed to restart the organization within SHIELD, and brainwash Bucky Barnes into being the Winter Soldier.
- In the first season of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D, Centipede is revealed to be a HYDRA cell, with John Garret and Grant Ward exposed as its leaders in the aftermath of The Winter Soldier.
- In the second season, Daniel Whitehall leads HYDRA in the cold war against SHIELD. After his death, his actions cause Jiaying to become the new Big Bad, and the organization is still represented by Baron Wolfgang von Strucker as a Greater-Scope Villain.
- In the third season, Ward and Gideon Malick scheme to bring back the organization's ancient founder Hive.
- In Season 4, AIDA takes over the virtual reality known as the Framework and converts it into a HYDRA totalitarian state in the Agents of HYDRA pod, with herself as Madame HYDRA.
- In Season 5, Hale is revealed to be one of the last members of HYDRA, and sets the stage for the arrival of Graviton.
- In Season 7, they're part of a Big Bad Duumvirate with the Chronicoms.
- Big Bad Duumvirate: HYDRA forms an alliance with the Chronicoms in Season 7 of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., with first Wilfred Malick and then Nathaniel taking over as The Heavy.
- Big Brother Is Watching: Zola's algorithm combined with S.H.I.E.L.D. surveillance technology and infrastructure means they have everything on everyone. Sitwell spells it out for Cap and Widow; "Your education, voting records, damn SAT scores ..."
- Characterization Marches On: Similar to their comic book counterpart as noted above. When they were first introduced, they were a Nazi agency that was going rogue. Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. reinvents them as an Ancient Conspiracy, which has worshiped an Inhuman since the dawn of time and is trying to bring about his return.
- Cool Plane: Two: the Valkyrie bomber, a flying wing aircraft based off the Horten H.XVIII
prototype, and the Red Skull's personal helicopter, based off of the Triebflügeljäger. - Determinator: Like the mythological Hydra, the Red Skull's troopers will only keep coming after every seemingly fatal blow, more dangerous than before.
- Discard and Draw: Despite officially losing the Tesseract/Cosmic Cube after the Battle of New York, they gained Loki's specter with the Mind Stone inside as well as reserve engineering Chitauri tech for their troops' armor and jetpacks.
- Elite Mooks: The massive HYDRA troopers who wield dual cannons and flamethrowers during World War II. In Sokovia, they fielded troopers with Chitauri-derived armor and jetpacks.
- Enemy Civil War: There are 2 major ideologies within HYDRA who aren't very fond of each other: the scientific branch and the Cult, worshipping and aiming to bring back Hive to Earth. And even then, despite minor tensions they still remain unified, Evil Is One Big, Happy Family after all!
- Energy Weapon: The standard issue weapon used by HYDRA's troops during World War II is a rifle that uses energy extracted from the Tesseract to shoot energy blasts.
- Equal-Opportunity Evil: Averted in WWII, where the members appear to be primarily German just like the Nazis, though they never actually claim to be racial supremacists. Played straight otherwise however, as the 21st century version has multiple offshoots worldwide, and includes dedicated members of different races and genders (including Inhumans) determined to bring a New World Order. This makes a lot more sense with the Agents of SHIELD reveal that HYDRA as an organization is much older than the Nazis, and was merely using them for its own ends.
- This is Justified in the comic book prequel to The First Avenger. The Red Skull, in a Just Between You and Me moment, tells Doctor Erskine he thinks the Aryan supremacy thing is "racist junk science", which he knows because he's an actual genius. It's useful for gaining him political power, though, and he's willing to protect Erskine's Jewish wife if he works for him (or NOT protect her). Erskine actually thinks this makes him worse than Hitler.
- Further Justified when we find out Hydra is an Ancient Conspiracy that started as a cult devoted to the worship of a primordial Inhuman.
- Even Evil Has Standards: If Sitwell is an indication, even Hydra didn't like having the Abomination recruited into the Avengers. Also, Sitwell and many other HYDRA infiltrators were perfectly happy to assist the Avengers in stopping the Chitauri invasion of Earth.
- The Evils of Free Will: Their core philosophy and why they justify a fascist form of government. However, they sorely pay for it during World War II, and thus decide to become subtle about it and trick citizens in voting away their own freedom for security.Zola: HYDRA was founded on the belief that humanity could not be trusted with its own freedom. What we did not realize was that if you try to take that freedom, they resist. The war taught us much. Humanity needed to surrender its freedom willingly.
- Evil Counterpart: To the SSR/SHIELD, being a more oppressive covert organization.
- Eviler than Thou: To the Nazis. They were willing to bomb everyone.
- Evil Is Petty: In addition to all the atrocities mentioned on this page, HYDRA has also... leaked the Avengers: Age of Ultron trailer.
- For Science!:
- Armin Zola's motivation even after his "retirement" in America.
- Raina and other Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. villains have this motivation. Notable because, at least Raina, finds the idea of working for Hydra otherwise discomforting.
- Doctor Whitehall has this as his motivation.
- Gas Mask Mooks: It's unknown why they dress with gas masks.
- Genius Bruiser: Garrett. He looks like Bill Paxton and acts like a frat boy but manages an ultra-secret scientific conspiracy for Hydra.
- Ghostapo: They were the Nazi science division before going rogue.
- Government Conspiracy: One in the Nazi government's at the start. Then one in America.
- The Guards Must Be Crazy:
- Too blind to prevent a single soldier with a brightly colored shield from sneaking into their base. One even pokes his head around a door to see who's knocking (and gets knocked out for it), despite the fact the door has a window!
- Averted in The Winter Soldier. The guards are significantly more competent this time.
- Hated by All: Pretty much everyone in the MCU who isn't secretly a part of their ranks despises HYDRA, and for good reason. They were Captain America's old enemies in the second World War who managed to reform themselves by infiltrating S.H.I.E.L.D, and were responsible for several assassinations carried out by their Winter Soldier program (including Tony Stark's parents). Even a few villainous characters such as Helmut Zemo and Agatha Harkness (who bear in mind, is a 350-year old witch) look down on them, with the latter dismissing them as an "anti-freedom terrorist organization", and the former stating that they deserved to be brought down.
- The Heavy: Deathlok (until being freed from Hydra's control in "Beginning of the End"), Agent Ward, Crossbones, the Winter Soldier (a.k.a. Bucky Barnes, through being brainwashed).
- Hiding in Plain Sight: As S.H.I.E.L.D.'s sleeper cell.
- Hydra Problem: Actually a bigger issue than in the mainstream version where Baron Strucker is usually in charge. Hydra has had numerous leaders and when one dies, they just get another one. Coulson takes down HYDRA by basically cutting off as many heads as possible and, when he gathers enough intel, he calls in the Avengers to deal the final blow. Hydra is now scattered and Kelbo says that "heads ain't growin' back". Then Ward decides to revive HYDRA in his own image and recruits Baron Von Strucker's son as his apprentice; two more heads have grown. All known heads are again cut by the end of the third season, including Hive, the original head. In Season 4 of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., HYDRA does not appear at all (except in the digital alternate reality of the Framework, where history has been altered so that they run the world), and may in fact be gone. Only to return again in Season 5, with General Hale and her daughter Ruby, who escaped the take-down in Season 3. Hale specifically states that she and Ruby are the last two heads (they have other people working with them, but apparently they aren't HYDRA), and eventually they team up with Strucker's son, who although comatose had also survived. All three are dead by the end of the season, which was Hydra's last chronological appearance, meaning they are finally gone for good. Maybe. Probably.
- The Infiltration: It's revealed that HYDRA had infiltrated SHIELD shortly after the latter had been formed.
- Killed Off for Real: By the end of season 5 of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., the group as a whole is finished. Talbot has used intel gleaned from Gideon Malick to wipe all their bases off the map without much fanfare, and S.H.I.E.L.D. killed Hive. The remnant group led by Brigadier General Hale is ended, with Hale's daughter Ruby being killed by Yo-Yo and Hale herself then suffering a Karmic Death at the hands (or powers) of Talbot/Graviton. However, Mitchell Carson is still somewhere out there with shrinking particles.
- Knight of Cerebus: Not much in their first appearance. Definitely in their second. They become an absolute No-Nonsense Nemesis, that pull out all the stops to kill Captain America and enact a monstrous plan, one that comes closer to succeeding than just about any other villainous plan in the entire Marvel Cinematic Universe.
- Knight Templar: For all their talk of peace and saving lives, their list of targets includes Tony Stark and President Ellis. It's not so much "people who are threats to the world" as "people who will challenge HYDRA's status quo".
- Lawyer-Friendly Cameo: Outside of the MCU — Bob, Agent of HYDRA has a cameo in Deadpool (2016) as a mook, though any ties to HYDRA are Exiled from Continuity due to 20th Century Fox not having the rights to the organization. Similarly, Viper from The Wolverine is never referred to as Madame Hydra, but is exclusively referred to as Viper. The Gifted (2017) also has Baron Von Strucker's siblings and their descendants as the focus of the show, with their ties to Hydra only hinted at via the Nazis.
- The Man Behind the Man: To the Centipede Group.
- A Million Is a Statistic: They view 20 million people targeted by Zola's algorithm as a small price to pay to unite the world under their banner.
- Movie Superheroes Wear Black: Villains, but still it's different from their green outfit from the comics.
- Nebulous Evil Organisation: HYDRA is a weapon R&D place in a frigid mountain area that wants to take over the world.
- No-Nonsense Nemesis: Becomes this by the time of the modern day. They don't employ the Sorting Algorithm of Evil and instead send everything they've got at you from the very beginning. They aren't keen on Evil Gloating unless they're stalling for time. They also don't explain what their exact plans are, only general goals and beliefs (which just might convert you to their side). This is Lampshaded by Zola, who says that World War II taught them how to be smart.
- Not Quite Dead: Armin Zola is alive at the end of Captain America: The First Avenger. This was a massive mistake.
- "Not So Different" Remark: From S.H.I.E.L.D., with Pierce pointing out that their enemies are HYDRA's enemies.
- Obviously Evil:
- While HYDRA might've done a good job fooling everyone into believing they were gone for at least six decades, they really start to drop the ball in the 2010s, with their shady tactics and language, plus the fact that they decided to put Captain America on their watchlist. Ant-Man lampshades this in Avengers: Endgame, incredulously asking how the Avengers didn't catch on to them earlier.
- Agatha Harkness also lampshades this trope in WandaVision, pointing out how illogical it was for Wanda and Pietro to join HYDRA of all things to avenge the deaths of their parents.
- Old Shame: In-Universe example. The group's Nazi past and a variant on the Sieg Heil salute becomes this in modern days according to Garrett and Ward. Daniel Whitehall, who becomes leader after them, averts this as he's clearly unrepentant about his Nazi past and makes numerous invocations to it left and right.
- Once Done, Never Forgotten: At least a couple of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. episodes demonstrate they're having a Nazi (albeit one not loyal to the cause) as their leader is this for them, with operatives being known to complain whenever someone calls them or compares them to Nazis. Even the fact that they've been operating for thousands of years isn't any help to them.
- Playing Both Sides: Winter Soldier, Agent Carter, and Civil War all provide hints that they were doing this during the Cold War, with agents infiltrating both SHIELD on the NATO side and Leviathan on the Warsaw Pact side.
- Properly Paranoid: Each and every leader in HYDRA is fully prepared to kill the others if they betray the group, and is fully aware of that fact. Coulson takes advantage of this to essentially con all but one member of the HYDRA Council to kill each other in a single massive round of paranoid backstabbing. All it takes is a few comments by an imposter to one leader's flunky.
- The Purge: Hydra's plan for world domination through SHIELD requires 20,000,000 deaths.
- Putting on the Reich: Inverted, instead they take off the Reich and become their fascistic faction, though retaining some Nazi traits. Later they lose the "racial supremacist" bit when Armin Zola reforms them. They're plain neo-fascists now.
- Religion of Evil: The Ancient Hydra were one of these.
- Renegade Splinter Faction: They split off from the Nazis, and they themselves have quite a few. Agents of SHIELD reveals that they are way older than the Nazis are, but that they joined the Nazis for their own ends during WWII. HYDRA's end goal (conquer the world) is the same across all branches, but the means of doing so vary depending on the branch, with Malick's desiring to bring Hive back to Earth instead of instigating a worldwide fascist coup via mass assassination like Zola and Pierce's does.
- Ripped from the Headlines: Hydra's infiltration of SHIELD is specifically said to have begun with Operation Paperclip, the real-life program in which former Nazi scientists were recruited to work for the American government. This gave Zola and his cronies the access they needed to subvert American nationals into becoming double agents and recreate Hydra as a conspiracy within SHIELD from the start of the latter organization.
- State Sec: Started off as this, growing from a research division to a high-tech army. Then the Red Skull goes rogue, and becomes a splinter faction. It gets zig-zagged when they infiltrate S.H.I.E.L.D..
- Strange Salute: They stick both arms, with clenched fists, in the air and scream "Hail HYDRA!" It looks a lot like the Nazi salute. [The salute is mocked in Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., where Garrett says it makes the person doing it look like a "West Texas cheerleader at a Pep Rally"].
- Stupid Jetpack Hitler: They were originally formed as the Nazi science division, and were led by the Red Skull, a man with a fascination with mythological artifacts. That man eventually discovered the Tesseract, which had been hidden on Earth by Odin, and with it created the most technologically advanced army on Earth yet.
- Take Over the World: Their mission statement. Past and present incarnations both.
- There Is No Kill Like Overkill: When they go after Fury, their foot-soldiers don't skimp on the dakka, and they send along their best soldier to finish the job.
- Those Wacky Nazis: Used to be, but they broke away. They highly resent being called Nazis, especially in the modern era, when their enemies refer to them like that. Also, as revealed in the third season of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., their roots are far older than the Nazis.
- Took a Level in Badass: When HYDRA reformed under Zola, they got smart.
- Villain Decay: After the failure of Project Insight, the dissolution of S.H.I.E.L.D., and the outing of HYDRA, things go downhill for them. As we see in Age of Ultron, the Avengers have been systematically destroying their organization, ending in the death of their current leader, Baron von Strucker. Afterwards, as we see in Ant-Man, Civil War and Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., they are reduced to a paramilitary subversive organization with little chance of regaining their former power or glory, and by the end of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Season 5, the group is all but destroyed, except Mitchell Carson, who escaped with Cross's Pym Particles in Ant-Man.
- Villainous Legacy: The whole organization is one, in a sense: Red Skull may most likely be long gone, but the organization is still very much alive and continuing to cause trouble, until S.H.I.E.L.D. (partnering with Gideon Malick and later Graviton) deals enough damage that it appears to finally be fatal, though Mitchell Carson is still out there.
- Villainous Virtues: If nothing else, HYDRA members are immensely loyal and show bravery and self-sacrifice even in the face of death. The only three who defy this are Zola, Sitwell and Baron von Strucker, and Zola still upheld HYDRA's goals until his death, and even sacrificed his now-immortal computer life to try and kill HYDRA's sole remaining threat, and von Strucker wanted to get captured intentionally to distract the Avengers so his second-in-command Dr. List could escape with their research. Even the higher-ups, like Red Skull and Pierce, have Pet the Dog moments to their subordinates.
- We Are Everywhere: They have deeply infiltrated S.H.I.E.L.D., to the point that there's no way of knowing who's loyal and who isn't until guns start shooting.
- We Have Reserves: Lampshaded by their very motto; "cut off one head and two more will take its place!"
- Well-Intentioned Extremist: Post-Red Skull their new leadership seems to sincerely believe they are bringing law and order to a chaotic world. The factions of HYDRA only differ on how it will be accomplished: the ancient Hive-worshipping cult, who believe their deity is working for the Greater Good and will create a perfect world free of war, poverty and want, and the post-ideological schism militaristic and scientific faction, who want to make the world peaceful, orderly, and unified at any cost though more conventional mass subtle manipulation and socio-political engineering. Even then, Evil Is One Big, Happy Family and they remain unified nonetheless.
- You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: Baron Strucker considers the SHIELD infiltration to be this in The Stinger.
