Hydra

Hydra is a world-wide subversive organization dedicated to global domination. At its height, Hydra was the most extensive, powerful, and dangerous such organization in history. Hydra is almost entirely composed of men, with some notable exceptions, such as former member Lara Brown, the daughter of a Supreme Hydra, and so-called Madame Hydra, who later became known as the Viper. Hydra agents wear green costumes with cowls concealing the entire head except for the mouth and chin. Their organization takes its name from the many-headed serpent-like monster known for its ability to grow two heads immediately to replace any head that was severed. Hydra prides itself on its ability to regroup and rebuild itself, allegedly mightier than before, after any major defeat. Indeed, the organization has now endured for four decades.

The man most responsible for the creation of Hydra was Baron Wolfgang von Strucker, the Prussian aristocrat who served as wing commander of Nazi Germany’s infamous Death's Head Squadron, and later as leader of its Blitzkrieg Squad of commandos. Infuriated by Strucker’s defeats by American commando Sqt. Nicholas Fury, and by Strucker’s refusal to execute the entire population of a French village, Adolf Hitler ordered the Gestapo to find and assassinate him. Strucker escaped Germany with the help of some of its men, and more importantly, with that of the Third Reich’s second most powerful leader, the Red Skull. The Skull eventually intended to challenge Hitler himself, and assigned Strucker to build a power base for him in the Far East. The embittered Strucker had no intention of serving anyone but himself, however, and severed ties with the Skull on becoming the Supreme Hydra.

On arriving in Japan, Strucker made contact with Japanese subversives who informed him that they were forming a secret society bent on world conquest. Strucker rapidly became the mastermind behind this society’s rise to power. He planned and led raids on major war plants and military equipment storehouses throughout the world. Although the Hydra uniforms bear something of an oriental look, Hydra’s organization along fascist lines attests to Strucker’s role in shaping the society. Hydra’s very name is the clear mark of a Westerner, and its salute, “Hail Hydra!” is an obvious variation on “Heil Hitler!” Upon building Hydra’s army and arsenal to what he judged to be a maximum strength, Strucker blew the original Supreme Hydra, who was Japanese, and became Supreme Hydra himself. He soon began construction of a fortress on a small Pacific island, which became Hydra’s principal base upon its completion a year later. While building Hydra’s arsenal, Strucker had also recruited a staff of brilliant scientists, who would later become the nucleus of the Hydra branch called Advanced Idea Mechanics (A.I.M.). Hydra was close to obtaining nuclear weaponry, and thus achieving the means to conquer Earth, when Hydra Island was invaded by Capitan Simon Savage’s U.S. Marine commandos and their Japanese counterparts, the so-called Samurai Squad. Hydra Island was destroyed, but Strucker escaped.

Strucker slowly and quietly rebuilt Hydra in the years following World War II, this time using its nucleus the best remaining men of the Nazi Schutz-Staffel (S.S.). However, after nearly being killed in an encounter with the young Charles Xavier and Magneto, Strucker decided to remain behind the scenes from then on. He moved Hydra’s principal base to America, and created a new core organization code-named THEM, which would supervise operations of Hydra and its sister societies. Strucker made himself Grand Imperator of THEM, its highest position, and masqueraded under a number of aliases in public life, most prominently, the multimillionaire Don Guy Antonio Caballero. Only a small fraction of Hydra knew of the Grand Imperator’s existence.

THEM appointed a businessman named Arnold Brown to Supreme Hydra. Brown’s principal usefulness to Hydra was in draining resources from the corporation he worked for, Imperial Industries International, and in managing Hydra’s day-to-day operations. Under Brown’s leadership, Hydra developed an arsenal of weaponry, submarines, and fighter aircraft greater than those of most nations. Hydra now had agents throughout the globe.

To meet the threat of Hydra, S.H.I.E.L.D. was created. Hydra assassinated S.H.I.E.L.D.’s first Director, who was replaced by Colonel Nicholas Fury of the C.I.A., coincidentally Strucker’s greatest wartime foe. Soon after Fury became Director, Hydra attempted to blackmail the world with its orbiting Betatron Bomb, which could release lethal radiation upon the Earth. While Tony Stark deactivated the bomb, Fury captured Hydra’s New York City headquarters. Brown was murdered by his own man, who seemingly failed to recognize Supreme Hydra without his costume.