Hive (Earth-616)

Hive
Name	Hive
Affiliation and Relationships
Affiliation	Hydra's High Council
Marital Status	Single
Physical Characteristics
Eyes	Irises: White
Origin and Living Status
Living Status	Alive
Reality	Earth-616
Place of Birth	Hive, Indian Ocean
Personal Information
Identity	No Dual
Base of Operations	Gehenna, New Zealand
Creators and Appearances
Creators	Jonathan Hickman, Brian Michael Bendis, Stefano Caselli
First	Secret Warriors #2 (March, 2009)
First	Secret Warriors #2 (March, 2009)

The Hive is a collection of parasites created by Hydra that can take control of humans. They took on a single humanoid form and evolved intelligence after being given a human host. Loyal to Hydra, the Hive served on the High Council of Hydra.

History

Hydra's parasites merging with a human sacrifice, evolving them into the Hive

Creation and early years

Created in the Hydra laboratories of their underwater base beneath the Indian Ocean, the Hive was an experiment made to physically embody the Hydra ideal. The entity is composed of untold numbers of genetically-engineered parasites. An unknown and unwitting Hydra recruit was offered to these parasites as a host, around which they could merge into a singular being, a process that took years, monitored by the Kraken. Grotesque and menacing in both stature and appearance, Hive had no identity of its own, per se, as its collective will dominates the human host it engulfs. However, it possesses a quiet and cunning intelligence and, as a result of its conditioning, is completely dedicated towards the Hydra cause to the extent that Baron Strucker appointed it as a member of the High Council of Hydra (alongside himself, the Viper, the Gorgon, the Kraken, and the new Madame Hydra in the form of triple agent Valentina Allegra de Fontaine).

War with Leviathan and Nick Fury

When Hydra went to war against a rival organization, Leviathan, Valentina revealed her true allegiance and murdered her predecessor, Viper. When Strucker and the other heads discovered her corpse, Hive shocked and appalled them all by merging with the deceased woman's body -- re-animating her, but with the parasites themselves gathering into a bulbous mass atop her head with four prehensile tentacles.

When the High Council of Hydra splintered, the Hive took on the side of the Gorgon; thus, the Hive underwater base fell into the Gorgon's jurisdiction. Nick Fury sent his own son Mikel Fury, commanding the Grey Team of Caterpillars, to destroy this base. However, the team was overwhelmed by the Hive and his parasite-controlled forces. Mikel sacrificed himself and his team by setting off a large bomb.

Secret Empire

Having survived, the Hive was eventually tracked down by the new Madame Hydra, Elisa Sinclair, inside an ancient Hydra temple in Egypt. Elisa had it become a member of the new High Council of Hydra to serve the Hydra Captain America.

Attributes

Powers

• Living Hive: The Hive's body, whilst bipedal, is not a solid figure but a writhing congregation of its many parasites. As such, these parasites can actually shoot away from the mass and attack others at high speed -- making them effective projectile weapons.
  • Resurrection/Possession: Hive has displayed the ability to bring Madame Hydra back to life by bonding one of its parasite to her.

Abilities

As one, Hive is capable of asserting itself as an individual, albeit without name or personality. In this form, Hive is capable of speech -- the language, however, is unknown, though spoken also by other Hydra agents -- suggesting it's one of their own design, created for strategic secrecy when in the field. The Hive is capable of breathing both on land and underwater.

Weaknesses

The Hive's only weakness is that despite the deadly nature 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 impossible tasks 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 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. However, when the Hive later merged with Viper, these ailments would no longer be present.

Notes

• Hydra was planning to create more Hives in Hell's Heaven, but the base was destroyed.

Trivia

• The Hive is likely inspired by the Hydra parasites from Earth X. This is supported by the appearance the Viper took when the Hive revived her.
• The Hive is reminiscent of H.P. Lovecraft's Cthulhu. In addition to its appearance, the Hive's text bubbles use "eldritch" lettering similar to those used by other Cthulhu Mythos characters and pastiches.

See Also

• 23 appearance(s) of Hive (Earth-616)
• 1 appearance(s) in handbook(s) of Hive (Earth-616)
• 3 minor appearance(s) of Hive (Earth-616)
• 3 mention(s) of Hive (Earth-616)
• 2 mention(s) in handbook(s) of Hive (Earth-616)
• 14 image(s) of Hive (Earth-616)

Links and References

• The Hive at ComicVine