Hive (comics)
| Hive | |
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| Publication information | |
| First appearance | Secret Warriors #2 (May 2009) |
| Created by |
Brian Michael Bendis Alex Maleev |
| In-story information | |
| Team affiliations | Hydra |
Hive is a fictional supervillain appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. Hive was an experiment made to physically embody the ideals of the fictional terrorist group Hydra. The entity is composed of untold numbers of genetically-engineered parasites.
Hive appears in the Marvel Cinematic Universe TV series Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. where he is an ancient Inhuman and is primarily portrayed by Brett Dalton.
Publication history
Hive first appeared in Secret Warriors #2 (May 2009) and was created by Brian Michael Bendis and Alex Maleev.
Fictional character biography
The Hive was created in the Hydra laboratories in their home base of Gehenna. An unknown and unwitting Hydra agent was offered/fed to these parasites as a host around which they could merge into a singular being. Grotesque and menacing in both stature and appearance the Hive had no identity of its own, per se, as its collective will dominates the human host it engulfs.[1] However, it possesses a quiet and cunning intelligence and as a result of its conditioning is completely dedicated to the Hydra cause to the extent that Baron Strucker appointed it as a figurehead alongside himself, the Viper, Gorgon, Kraken, and the new Madame Hydra in the form of triple agent Valentina Allegra de Fontaine.[2]
When Hydra went to war against the rival organization Leviathan, Valentina revealed her true allegiance and murdered her predecessor Viper. When Strucker and the other heads discovered Viper's corpse, the Hive shocked and appalled them all by merging with the deceased woman's body—re-animating Viper, but with the parasites themselves gathering into a bulbous mass atop her head with four prehensile tentacles.[3]
Taking back her title as Madame Hydra, she and Gorgon subsequently broke away from Baron Strucker's weakening grip on Hydra and formed an alliance with Norman Osborn's H.A.M.M.E.R. organization.[4] During this brief and fragile union, Osborn arranged for Madame Hydra to undergo surgery to remove the Hive from her in a way that would keep her alive.[5]
Powers and abilities
The Hive's body, while bipedal, is not a solid figure but a writhing congregation of its many parasites. As such, these parasites can actually latch away from the mass and attack others at high speed—making them effective projectile weapons. As one, the Hive is capable of asserting itself as an individual, albeit without name or personality. In this form it is capable of speech—the language, however, is unknown, though spoken also by other Hydra agents—suggesting it is one of their own design, created for strategic secrecy when in the field. The Hive is capable of breathing both on land and underwater.
Hive's strength level is never actually revealed but it is implied that the Hive possesses a greater than average physical strength from the combined efforts of its parasites.The Hive's only weakness is that despite the deadliness of its parasites it still has the physical limitations of its human host; in other words, whilst it can improve upon the host's strength and skills it cannot perform impossibilities such as flight if the host cannot. Also, any ailments afflicting the host prior to absorption will still be present and will affect the Hive—for instance, its original human host possessed a minute blood disorder and was also a diabetic—hence, why the Hydra heads deemed him as fodder for the Hive experiment and would have also made him weak enough to be absorbed. These maladies would have also been present within the Hive afterwards. When the Hive later merged with the Viper, these ailments would no longer be present.
In other media
- An Inhuman version of the character appears as the main antagonist in season 3 of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.. Originally a Mayan warrior (portrayed by Jason Glover), he was captured by the alien race Kree, and became one of their first subjects to undergo Terrigenesis, a process the Krees used to create soldiers known as Inhumans. Terrigenesis gives Hive a body composed of cellular parasites which must inhabit a dead human host to survive. While inhabiting a body, Hive gains the host's memories, while also being able to manifest an alien-like appearance with tentacles protruding from his head. He also can devour humans with his parasites as a means of nourishment to make his host body durable and strong. Through the same parasites, Hive is also able to sway or control Inhumans to obey his commands. This power caused ancient Inhumans to fear him and subsequently banish him to a faraway planet called Maveth using Kree technology. His remaining followers worshipped him in his absence and developed into a religious cult that persists in secret over the centuries before one day evolving into Hydra. His victims and subsequent hosts included Lord Manzani (portrayed by Daniel J. Wolfe), Nathaniel Malick (portrayed by Joel Courtney) and NASA astronaut Will Daniels (portrayed by Dillon Casey). Hive eventually returns to Earth in the corpse of Hydra leader Grant Ward (portrayed by Brett Dalton); he seizes control of Hydra and eliminates his competition. Hive then sets out to recreate the Kree's original experiment and transform every human into his primitive Inhuman warriors enslaved to his will. His attempts are thwarted by S.H.I.E.L.D. as he is sent to outer space with Lincoln Campbell in a Quinjet with an exploding warhead as they perish.
References
- Secret Warriors #2-6, 12, 15, 16, 20, and 24, Marvel Comics.