HYDRA



In the continuity of this Disney XD animated series, HYDRA serves as a stand-in for the Nazi's in World War II and features prominently in Captain America's adventures in that era with Baron Heinrich Zemo and the Red Skull as its high-ranking commanders. HYDRA persists as a recurring threat through the first season in modern day as well under the command of Baron Von Strucker, though Viper is also present as Madame Hydra. Grim Reaper plays the role of one of HYDRA's foremost superhuman operatives, and Black Widow seemingly betrays S.H.I.E.L.D. to join them, secretly doing so as a double agent for Nick Fury.

HYDRA is ultimately defeated later in the first season when it goes with war with A.I.M. over possession of the Cosmic Cube. The Avengers intervene, leading to a battle between Captain America and Baron Strucker for the cube. They both touch it, seemingly having no affect. Both HYDRA and A.I.M. are then defeated and incarcerated.

Origin
Rising out of the fall of the Axis Powers in World War II, HYDRA was created as a secret organization of global domination by Nazi spymaster Baron Wolfgang von Strucker along with Kraken. This developed with the help of an alliance with Shoji Soma, grandmaster of the Hand. When the power base pf HYDRA felt firmly established, Strucker installed himself as its supreme commander and ended the alliance with the Hand.

HYDRA recruited from the remnants of the Nazi's military forces and acquired alien technologies to advance its resources beyond what most governments possessed. Strucker chose to build HYDRA"s forces quietly over the following decades.

Team Evolution
Through the decades, HYDRA was consistently used as a source of all-purpose terrorism and villainous cannon fodder with its legions of uniformed operatives and its philosophy "cut off one head and two will takes its place." It also consistently served as an opposite number for S.H.I.E.L.D., Marvel's source of all-purpose espionage and heroic cannon fodder.

A number of other criminal organizations began as branches of HYDRA before striking off as their own independent entities, such as A.I.M. and the Secret Empire.

Baron Strucker has most commonly depicted as HYDRA's supreme leader. However, the organization fractured after his first death, leading to a variety of HYDRAs with a variety of leaders. This continued even after Strucker was resurrected and he supposedly reunited HYDRA. Other apparently supreme leaders of HYDRA included Viper and the Gorgon.

This was addressed in Secret Warriors by Jonathan Hickman, who introduced the HYDRA High Council. This embraced the sometimes inconsistent portrayals of HYDRA by rationalizing it as HYDRA now having a council-based leadership that including Strucker, Viper, Gorgon, the Hive, Kraken and a new Madame Hydra. The structure of HYDRA was much more strongly defined through the course of this series but also heavily changed in the end due to an internal civil war. Much of the High Council was left either dead or defected, leaving HYDRA under the command of Gorgon and Madame HYDRA.