Madame Hydra
Madame Hydra is the name of several different supervillains in Marvel Comics. It is a name given to a top female operative of Hydra.
Fictional character biography
Ophelia Sarkissian
Sixth Madame Hydra
The sixth Madame Hydra was created by Bob Harras and Paul Neary, and debuted in Nick Fury vs. S.H.I.E.L.D. #3. Madame Hydra received an entry in the Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe Update '89 #4, under the heading "Madame Hydra VI".This operative of Hydra impressed her superiors enough that, after only a short time in the organization, they promoted her to the level of Madame Hydra VI. 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.
Valentina Allegra de Fontaine
Valentina Allegra de Fontaine succeeded Viper as Madame Hydra. She wears an elaborate tentacle headdress and elaborate Hydra robes.Elisa Sinclair
Elisa Sinclair has appeared in Captain America's implanted memories that 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.In the present, Elisa intercepts Taskmaster and Eric O'Grady's Life Model Decoy counterpart Black Ant who were on their way to present evidence of Captain America's brainwashing to Maria Hill. After keeping Taskmaster and 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, Gorgon, Hive, Viper, Baron Helmut Zemo, Arnim Zola, and Doctor Faustus.
During the "Opening Salvo" part of the Secret Empire storyline, Elisa reunites with Captain America after he overthrew Red Skull for leadership of Hydra. 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. Elisa later gives Captain America the updates on the members of Hydra's Avengers. She tells him that Scarlet Witch has become unhinged due to her being possessed by Chthon, 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. 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.
Other versions
Heroes Reborn
In the Heroes Reborn reality, Madame Hydra is a terrorist leader. She answers to Hydra's leader Mandarin, who is actually a robot built by Doctor Doom. She is killed in battle against Iron Man.In other media
Television
- The Viper iteration of Madame Hydra appears in ', voiced by Lisa Ann Beley.
- The Viper iteration of Madame Hydra appears in the Spider-Woman: Agent of S.W.O.R.D. motion comic, voiced by Nicolette Reed.
- Viper appears in ', voiced by Vanessa Marshall. She officially appears in the episode "Prisoner of War". In the episode "Widow's Sting", she is captured by S.H.I.E.L.D., and is revealed to be a Skrull in disguise. In the episode "Prisoner of War", the real Viper was shown to be held captive in the Skrull ship, but was freed by Captain America and is forced to escape from the Skrull ship. She has a cameo appearance in the episode "Secret Invasion" and is shown aiding the heroes in their fight against the Skrulls. Viper returns in the episode "Along Came A Spider" where she and King Cobra are rescued from S.H.I.E.L.D. by the Serpent Society, but are eventually recaptured by Captain America and Spider-Man.
- An iteration of Madame Hydra appears in the fourth season of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. depicted as the alternate "Framework" reality form of Aida. Madame Hydra first appears in "What If..." where it is revealed that she is in control of keeping Daisy Johnson and Jemma Simmons in the Framework virtual reality in which Earth is ruled by Hydra. She is also in a relationship with Hydra's lead scientist Leo Fitz. In the episode "Identity and Change", her real name in the Framework is revealed to be Ophelia, and she has been keeping Holden Radcliffe's consciousness isolated on Ogygia with the consciousness of her counterpart Agnes Kitsworth, until Agnes is "deleted" by The Doctor. When Melinda May turns on Hydra and allows Daisy to go through terrigenesis, Daisy shoves Ophelia out a window, severely damaging her spine in the fall. Hospitalized, Ophelia tells Fitz that her body won't matter and that she will enact Project Looking Glass. Upon being created in the real world, Ophelia kidnaps Fitz with her newfound teleportation ability. Now experiencing human emotions including sympathy, she is convinced by Fitz to rescue Coulson, May and an unconscious Mack from drowning, but she and Fitz are captured by Simmons. Ophelia convinces Fitz that the decisions he made in the Framework were not his doing, but is jealous that Fitz still loves Simmons. Ophelia reveals that she is impervious to harm and displays electrical powers by killing off the S.H.I.E.L.D. agents who have come to rescue Fitz. She escapes and reunites with Anton Ivanov while making plans to make S.H.I.E.L.D. suffer for the pain they caused her. In the episode "World's End", Ophelia attempts to retrieve the Darkhold, but is stopped by Robbie Reyes's unexpected arrival, the only person who can harm her. Phil Coulson borrows the Ghost Rider's powers in order to successfully destroy Ophelia once and for all.
Film
- A version of Viper in the 1998 TV-movie ' as Andrea von Strucker.
- Russian actress Svetlana Khodchenkova was cast as the mutant-powered Viper in The Wolverine. Due to rights issues with Marvel Studios, this version is never referred to as Madame Hydra nor is her affiliation with the organization referenced. She is portrayed as a mutant immune to all toxins on Earth, able to shed her skin if she is ever infected, as well as being a master of creating toxins. Viper is also a brilliant scientist under the alias Dr. Green''' and helped build the Silver Samurai armor out of adamantium for Ichiro Yashida. She devises a means to negate Wolverine's healing factor using a micro-robot attached to the heart that is later removed by Wolverine. She is killed in the final battle with Yukio when her neck is broken by an elevator cable.
Video games
- Madame Hydra appears as a villain in ', voiced by Audrey Wasilewski.
- Viper is featured as the first boss encountered in the Facebook game '.
- Viper appears as a boss in .
- Madame Hydra appears as a villain in Marvel Heroes, voiced by Tasia Valenza.
- Viper appears in Lego Marvel Super Heroes, voiced by Kari Wahlgren.
- Viper appears in Lego Marvel's Avengers.
- Madame Hydra appears as a boss in Marvel Avengers Academy.
- Viper appears as Madame Hydra in Marvel Powers United VR, voiced by Vanessa Marshall.
Live performance
- Madame Hydra appeared as one of the villains in the arena show.
Toys
- An action figure of Viper was released in the 2012 series of Marvel Legends figures from Hasbro, one of two figures using similar body molds marketed as "Marvel's Madames", the other figure being Madame Masque.