Madame Hydra

Madame Hydra is the name of several different fictional supervillains appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. It is a name given to a top female operative of HYDRA.

Fictional character biography

Ophelia Sarkissian

Madame Hydra
Publication information
PublisherMarvel Comics
First appearanceCaptain America #113 (1968)
Created byJim Steranko
In-story information
Team affiliationsHYDRA

This operative of HYDRA may have impressed her superiors enough that, after only a short time in the organization, they promoted her to the level of Madame Hydra VI (the identities of Madames Hydra I through V, who rank above her, are unknown). One of her first missions as Madame Hydra was to capture Nick Fury and deliver him to the Deltites, a group of artificially created duplicates which were taking over S.H.I.E.L.D. After failing in her mission and discovering that the Deltites were manipulating her, she allied with the S.H.I.E.L.D. agents against the takeover. She was later turned over to federal authorities and was found to be criminally insane, and sent to Arnold Sanitarium for psychiatric treatment (the same sanitarium that Bigfoot was later imprisoned in).[1]

Valentina Allegra de Fontaine

Valentina Allegra de Fontaine succeeded Viper as Madame Hydra. She wears an elaborate tentacle headdress and elaborate HYDRA robes.[2]

Elisa Sinclair

Elisa Sinclair has appeared in Captain America's implanted memories that the Red Skull's clone and Kobik placed in him to make Captain America think that he is a HYDRA sleeper agent. She is depicted as an ancient being with magical powers that had an extensive reach.[3]

In the present, Elisa intercepts the Taskmaster and Eric O'Grady's Life Model Decoy counterpart the Black Ant who were on their way to present evidence of Captain America's brainwashing to Maria Hill.[4] After keeping the Taskmaster and the Black Ant alive and persuading them to become her personal guards, Elisa then collects a new HYDRA High Council consisting of herself, a new Kraken, the Gorgon, the Hive, the Viper, Baron Helmut Zemo, Arnim Zola, and Doctor Faustus.[5]

During the "Opening Salvo" part of the Secret Empire storyline, Elisa reunites with Captain America after he overthrew the Red Skull for leadership of HYDRA.[6] While in her study room following HYDRA's takeover of the United States, Elisa uses her magic spells to counter every one of Doctor Strange's attempts to bring down the Darkforce dome that is surrounding Manhattan. While having tea with Captain America, Elisa is informed of Captain America's suspicion about Baron Zemo and Doctor Faustus' disloyalty. Elisa brushes off the suspicion and tells Captain America that they plan to assemble the Cosmic Cube in order to restore Earth to their vision.[7] Elisa later gives Captain America the updates on the members of HYDRA's Avengers. She tells him that the Scarlet Witch has become unhinged due to her being possessed by Chthon, the Vision is still kept under HYDRA's control through Arnim Zola's A.I. Virus, and Odinson is still praying to Odin about his troubles, like Jane Foster being trapped in an alternate reality. As Captain America prepares to leave, Elisa tells Captain America that he has become like a son to her.[8] During HYDRA's attack on the Underground's base at the Mount, Elisa detects an unusual amount of energy in the Mount and rushes in. Madame Hydra arrives and teleports Captain America away at the last second as the Tony Stark A.I. explodes, where it destroys the base and Madame Hydra.[9]

Other versions

Heroes Reborn

In the Heroes Reborn reality, Madame Hydra is a terrorist leader. She answers to HYDRA's leader the Mandarin, who is actually a robot built by Doctor Doom.[10] She is killed in battle against Iron Man.[11]

In other media

Television

Film

Valentina Allegra de Fontaine and Viper appear in Nick Fury: Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D., portrayed by Lisa Rinna and Sandra Hess respectively.[citation needed]

Marvel Cinematic Universe

Mallory Jansen as Madame Hydra, as depicted in Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.

Variations of individuals who have used the Madame Hydra alias in the comics appear in media set in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU):

Video games

Miscellaneous

  • The Viper incarnation of Madame Hydra appears in the Spider-Woman: Agent of S.W.O.R.D. motion comic, voiced by Nicolette Reed.[16]
  • Madame Hydra appears in Marvel Universe: LIVE!.[18]

Merchandise

An action figure of the Viper incarnation of Madame Hydra was released in Hasbro's "Marvel Legends" line as part of the "Marvel's Madames" sub-line.

References

  1. ^ Nick Fury vs. S.H.I.E.L.D. #6
  2. ^ Secret Warriors #3
  3. ^ Captain America: Steve Rogers #2
  4. ^ Captain America: Steve Rogers #12
  5. ^ Captain America: Steve Rogers #14
  6. ^ Captain America: Steve Rogers #16
  7. ^ Secret Empire #1
  8. ^ Secret Empire #5
  9. ^ Secret Empire #6
  10. ^ Iron Man vol. 2 #1
  11. ^ Iron Man vol. 2 #10
  12. ^ Findlay, Kurtis (2010-04-26). "Avengers Images from C2E2". animatedsuperheroes.com. Retrieved 2010-08-16.
  13. ^ Abrams, Natalie (April 1, 2017). "Madame Hydra to appear on Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. — first look". Entertainment Weekly. Archived from the original on April 2, 2017. Retrieved April 2, 2017.
  14. ^ Abrams, Natalie (April 4, 2017). "Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. boss on those Framework twists". Entertainment Weekly. Archived from the original on April 5, 2017. Retrieved April 5, 2017.
  15. ^ Jim Reilly (2010-10-05). "Captain America: Super Soldier Announced". Xbox 360 IGN. Retrieved 2011-01-11.
  16. ^ a b c "Voice Of Madame Hydra – Captain America franchise | Behind The Voice Actors". Behind The Voice Actors. Retrieved September 25, 2018. Check mark indicates role has been confirmed using screenshots of closing credits and other reliable sources{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: postscript (link)
  17. ^ "LEGO Marvel Superheroes: Stan Lee Hulks Out – Comic-Con 2013". IGN. 20 July 2013. Retrieved 20 July 2013.
  18. ^ "New Images Reveal the Superheroines of 'Marvel Universe Live!'". Archived from the original on 2014-07-17. Retrieved 2014-06-29.