Hive (comics)

For the DC Comics criminal organization, see H.I.V.E.

Hive (comics)
250x450px Hive (left) attacking Yo-Yo Rodriguez and Stonewall on the cover of Secret Warriors #12.
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 Hydra, the fictional terrorist group. The entity is composed of untold numbers of genetically-engineered parasites.

Hive appears in the third season of Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. where he is an ancient Inhuman possessing character Grant Ward, portrayed by Brett Dalton, with various abilities.

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. 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.

When Hydra went to war against a rival organization called Leviathan, Valentina revealed her true allegiance and murdered her predecessor Viper. When Baron Strucker and the other heads discovered her corpse, the 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.

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 the recently-escaped Norman Osborn and his H.A.M.M.E.R. organization. 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.

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

File:Hive Agents of Shield.png

Hive as he appeared on the television series Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.

In Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., Hive or as he is known by his real name Alveus is the main antagonist of season three. Originally a Mayan warrior (portrayed by Jason Glover), he was among the first Inhumans to undergo Terrigenesis after experimentation by the alien Kree race after being abducted by the Kree Reapers. Terrigenesis had a radical effect on Hive; his body became composed of cellular parasites which must inhabit a dead human host to survive. While inhabiting a body, Hive gains the host's memories while being able to manifest his monstrous appearance and can also devour humans with his parasites as a means of nourishment to make his host body highly durable and strong. He can also infect Inhumans with his parasites to dominate their will by putting them into a euphoric state, giving him a Messiah complex. This power led ancient Inhumans to fear him, and they subsequently banished him to a faraway planet using Kree technology. His remaining followers worshiped him in his absence and developed into a religious cult that would one day evolve into Hydra. His victims included Lord Manzani (portrayed by Daniel J. Wolfe), Gideon Malick's brother Nathaniel (portrayed by Joel Courtney), and NASA astronaut Will Daniels (portrayed by Dillon Casey). Hive eventually returns to Earth in the body of deceased Hydra leader Grant Ward (portrayed by Brett Dalton) seizes control of Hydra and eliminates it's competition. After recruiting a team of Inhumans and an unwitting Holden Radcliffe, he begins a plan to recreate the Kree's original experiment and transform every human into what Holden Radcliffe calls "Inhuman Primitives" after what happened to the five Watchdogs members that he had abducted. Hive's plan is foiled by S.H.I.E.L.D., and he ends up being destroyed in space by the sacrifice of Lincoln Campbell. Before the Quinjet exploded, Hive states that he was finally brought his death.

References

• Secret Warriors #2-6, 12, 15, 16, 20, and 24, Marvel Comics.

External links

• Hive at Marvel Wiki
• Hive at Comic Vine

• Secret Warriors #2
• Secret Warriors #3
• Secret Warriors #4
• Secret Warriors #20
• Secret Warriors #21