History Sandbox / MCUHYDRA

* KickTheSonOfABitch: For their racists cruelty towards Inhumans, Hive has the Watchdogs kidnapped to be used as as guinea pigs in its Terrigenesis experiments.

** His reaction after being found by the S.H.I.E.L.D. agents being tied up on a chair. This happened after Ward [[KickTheSonOfABitch beat him up off screen along with other HYDRA agents]].

** Given that the Franchise/XMen and associated characters can't be used in the MCU due to [[ScrewedByTheLawyers rights issues]], this Hive is more or less a stand-in for ComicBook/{{Apocalypse}}; his backstory, immortality, goals, and overall personality have far more in common with that character than the comics Hive.

* NotUsingTheZWord: His debut was before Disney/MCU had the rights to ''Franchise/XMen'', but it is likely he'd be referred to as a mutant. The Agents even theorize that exposure to nuclear radiation may have caused his powers, which was one of the reasons often given for Mutants developing mutations.

* LawyerFriendlyCameo: Outside of the MCU - Bob, Agent Of HYDRA has a [[TheCameo cameo]] in ''Film/{{Deadpool|2016}}'' as a {{mook}}, though any ties to HYDRA are ExiledFromContinuity due to Creator/TwentiethCenturyFox not having the rights to the organization. Similarly, Viper from ''Film/TheWolverine'' is never referred to as Madame Hydra, but is exclusively referred to as Viper.
** ''Series/TheGifted'' also has Baron Von Strucker's siblings and their descendants as the focus of the show, with their ties to Hydra only hinted at via the Nazis.

* AsskickingEqualsAuthority: By far the most powerful and threatening Inhuman seen, and the most dangerous HYDRA leader in the entirety of the MCU, which is befitting given he was made to control and lead the Inhumans and was HYDRA's founder and first leader.

* SuperpowerLottery: Most Inhumans have one power; Hive has several, very different and unusual abilities. Justified as the Inhumans, unlike mutants, are explicitly designed, and Hive was specifically designed to be the leader of the Inhumans and so his multiple powers are likely to ensure AsskickingEqualsAuthority.

* OverlordJr: ''Series/AgentsOfSHIELD'' reveals that he has a son named Werner von Strucker. Ironically, Werner says that his father kept him as far away from HYDRA as possible, and Werner ended up instead being a RichIdiotWithNoDayJob who spent his father's money. It was someone else who groomed him for HYDRA leadership.

* RichIdiotWithNoDayJob: Until Ward came along, he just loafed around spending his father's money, but finds his inner strength while getting tortured.

* TheRedBaron: They all have titles such as The Banker, The Sheikh, and The Baroness.

* NamesTheSame: InUniverse: There was a "Kaminsky, Henry" trying to enlist in the military at the same recruiting office as Steve Rogers in ''Film/CaptainAmericaTheFirstAvenger''. Mix in a little OneSteveLimit and some saddening possibilities emerge.

* HotScientist: Is a MadScientist who as Skye notes also happens to be quite good looking.

* WeaponOfChoice: A Walther [=P38=] semi-automatic pistol.

* WeaponOfChoice: He and his S.T.R.I.K.E. team carry electrified shock batons that are powerful enough to knock-out a mercenary with a single touch and hurt Rogers.

* ILoveNuclearPower: It's theorized his powers come from living near a nuclear plant that caught fire. However, it's noted that no one else in the vicinity received powers of any sort, so in the end the source is unknown.

* PronounTrouble: In addition to gender difficulties, it will sometimes alter the pronouns it uses for itself. Sometimes it says "I," sometimes "we," and sometimes it refers to its hosts as separate people while other times it speaks as them directly. There's also some ambiguity, even on Wiki/ThisVeryWiki, about the proper pronoun to use when referring to Hive; some people use "it" (a reference to Hive's [[IncrediblyLamePun inhuman]] [[HumanoidAbomination nature]] and complex biology) while others use "him" (every body we've seen Hive use has been male, which was also Hive's original gender).

* PyrrhicVillainy: Malick's goals (bringing back Hive and his own survival) ultimately cost him everything: his brother, daughter, his leadership of HYDRA, and his own life.

* KnifeNut: He whips one out and... used it to cut Benny and Claire's bonds.

* KnifeNut: He has a wicked looking combat knife, as well as a knife-and-chain weapon.

* PetTheDog: [[spoiler:In ''Avengers: Endgame'', just after trying to take the Tesseract off of Tony's hands by force and despite the fact he would later mark him for death with Project Insight, Pierce shows legitimate concern for Tony when he suffers a heart attack, tending to him and calling for a medic.]]

!!!'''Portrayed By:''' Creator/BillPaxton, Creator/JamesPaxton (young)

* BoomHeadshot: [[spoiler:How his 1983 self dies in the altered timeline, [[IncrediblyLamePun at the hands]] of Victoria Hand, who's death he was ultimately responsible for in the original timeline.]]

* CastingGag: [[spoiler:Who better to play a younger incarnation of Garrett than Bill Paxton's own son?]]

* TheDragon: [[spoiler:As of "Stolen", his AlternateTimeline self has become this to Nathaniel Malick.]]

* FreudianExcuse: The reason he initially (covertly) joined HYDRA in the first place was as a way to get {{revenge}} on S.H.I.E.L.D. after he was injured by an [[NoodleIncident IED in Sarajevo]] and S.H.I.E.L.D. refused to provide him a medical evacuation. [[spoiler: In the new timeline, seven years prior to this incident, even merely ''learning'' about the future from Nathaniel Malick is enough to make him just as much of a monster as in the original timeline]].

* HeelFaceDoorSlam: [[spoiler:1983 Garrett in the alternate timeline suffers this fate. After being [[YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness left to die]] by Nathaniel Malick, he teams up with S.H.I.E.L.D. to get revenge on him, only to get killed the moment they leave the bunker. No one really mourns his death, as they still didn't trust him in the least.]]

* ShoutOut: [[spoiler:The manner in which James Paxton portrayed 1983 John Garrett is very reminiscent of the roles Bill Paxton often took in the '80s, calling to mind in particular ''Film/WeirdScience'' and ''[[Film/AlienS Aliens]]''.]]

* {{Teleportation}}: [[spoiler:In the altered timeline, Garrett acquires a copy of Gordon's teleportation powers thanks to Nathaniel Malick's procedure.]]
* SurprisinglySuddenDeath: Was [[LudicrousGibs literally vaporized]] from off-screen [[KilledMidSentence mid-sentence]] as he was attempting to pull a NotQuiteDead. [[spoiler:And then again in the alternate timeline, he is shot in the head literally the moment he teleported S.H.I.E.L.D. out of the Lighthouse.]]

A bartender at a New York speakeasy, working under Ernest Hazard "Gemini" Koenig. Eventually, the seemingly innocent young man becomes a force to be reckoned with...

* AffablyEvil: As a head of HYDRA, Malick is not without a certain sense of courtesy and honor, as shown when he spares Deke's life in 1955 after the latter spared him in 1931, citing his gratitude for Deke's role in his rise to power, although he tells Deke not to expect the same courtesy a second time.
* BeardOfEvil: By 1955, he's a HYDRA leader within S.H.I.E.L.D. and sporting a nifty beard.

* BigBadDuumvirate: [[spoiler:Joins forces with the Chronicom Luke to prevent the defeat of HYDRA. However, it only lasts one episode, as on their next meeting in 1976, Deke shoots him dead.]]
* BigBadWannabe: [[spoiler:While a major player in HYDRA, he's a small fry compared to the Chronicoms, who use him to further their own schemes. They do not seem terribly fazed when Deke unceremoniously kills him.]]

* CosmicRetcon: [[spoiler:He originally died in 1970, but due to the Chronicoms' interference, he survived to 1976 in the resulting timeline.]]
* DirtyCoward: He resorts to using a scored stone to keep from becoming a sacrifice to Hive. [[spoiler: His past self is also shown to be this, as shown he ran and hid from the Chronicoms, leaving his contact Viola behind after she was shot by the Chronicoms]].
* EvenEvilHasLovedOnes: [[spoiler:After he and the Chronicoms sprung a trap decades in the making on S.H.I.E.L.D. in 1973, he was ultimately forced to let them go after they took his son Nathaniel hostage, pissing off the Chronicoms who simply [[LackOfEmpathy could not understand his reasoning]].]]
* ForWantOfANail: The Chronicoms want to kill him during his youth to prevent the rise of HYDRA and the creation of S.H.I.E.L.D.
* FromNobodyToNightmare: Seemingly an innocent bartender, Freddy Malick goes on to become one of the heads of HYDRA.

* KillSat: [[spoiler:As part of the Chronicom's alterations to history, he nearly launched [[Film/CaptainAmericaTheWinterSoldier Project Insight]] 38 years early, using satellites instead of helicarriers.]]

* CasanovaWannabe: [[spoiler:His younger self suffered this in 1973 when he chose Daisy Johnson as his target, with her all too familiar with who he is, and who he would become.]]

[[quoteright:250:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/nathaniel_malick.jpg]]

!!!'''Portrayed By:''' Creator/JoelCourtney (season 3), Thomas E. Sullivan (season 7, pictured)

A member of the HYDRA faction that worshiped the Inhuman Hive and the brother of Gideon Malick. Originally sacrificed to Hive in 1970, his fate was changed via CosmicRetcon when his father became involved with the time-traveling Chronicoms.

* AmbiguousSituation: Nathaniel's plan, laid out in FakeUltimateHero below, raises the question of whether he knows about the Chronicoms' plan to turn Earth into their new homeworld. If he doesn't, he's an UnwittingPawn at best, and if he does, his plan is either the result of SuicidalOverconfidence or [[DidntThinkThisThrough an astonishing lack of foresight]].
* AnarchyIsChaos: Nathaniel's vision of anarchy certainly sounds like this, coupled with MightMakesRight.
* AndThisIsFor: Villainous example, as Nathaniel injures Deke with a powerful quake for killing his old man.
* BadBoss:
** When asked by Garrett if transferring Gordon's powers into him would also cause him to lose his eyes, Nathaniel states that he actually hadn't considered that as a potential side effect, yet doesn't even try to abort the transfer, even when Garrett tells him that he changed his mind. Fortunately, Garrett remained unaffected in the end, but still.
** After chastising an underling [[DontCallMeSir for calling him "sir"]], lecturing him on how such power structures will have no place in his new world order, he later killed the same underling on the spot when he called him "sir" again, visibly terrifying his other underlings and [[StrawCharacter showing that he doesn't even understand the power structure he's building around himself]]
** In the penultimate episode, he promptly abandons Garrett when the latter gets caught by Coulson, May and Elena at the Lighthouse, leaving him there to die in the explosion. To KickTheSonOfABitch a little further, he doesn't know Garrett's been compromised, he's just unwilling to alter his timetable.
* BadVibrations: When he steals Daisy's powers, he also inherits the resulting PowerIncontinence. By 1983, he has much more control over them.
* BadassLongcoat: He starts wearing a [[EvilWearsBlack dark]] one in the 80s.
* BeCarefulWhatYouWishFor: Nathaniel says that none of Hydra's main branches interested him, not sacrificing members for a squid alien or taking over the world, but seeing Daisy's powers made him research Inhumans, eventually wanting to gain powers of his own. He decides to take one of the most dangerous powers in existence, and has no idea how to control them, much as Daisy did when they first manifested. This culminates in him demolishing his hideout, and almost killing himself in the process (after he broke almost every bone in his body from the constant vibrations).
* BewareTheQuietOnes: Nathaniel is shown as the quieter of the Malick brothers, sitting alone during the S.H.I.E.L.D. celebration while Gideon tries to hit on Daisy. By the end of the episode, Nathaniel kidnaps Sousa and Daisy, and is planning on using Whitehall's methods to acquire her powers through vivisection.
* BigBadDuumvirate: He and Sibyl are the two main antagonists of the seventh season, Sibyl seeking him out and forging an alliance after his father's death. Malick provides Sibyl with muscle in exchange for knowledge of the future, and while he's little more than a useful pawn for the Chronicoms he gains much greater prominence and enmity with the agents, even serving as the FinalBoss.
* BigBadWannabe: Despite all of his grandiose posturing about balancing the scales by giving Inhuman powers to humans and averting deaths in the original timeline, as well as causing chaos for the sake of it, he actually just wants to TakeOverTheWorld and comes off as an immature [[PsychopathicManchild entitled brat]] who is treated by Sibyl and the other Chronicoms as a useful pawn at best. That said, he's a much more direct threat, and S.H.I.E.L.D. beats the odds so many times he eventually deems Sibyl useless as an oracle.
* BlatantLies: Most of what Nathaniel says to Kora in the penulitmate episode is a big fat lie, particularly his claims that before her death, Jiaying expressed her hatred for Kora and regretted that she'd ever been born (nothing could be further from the truth). Played with in regards to his claim that Daisy quaked the Earth apart in the original timeline; while it's implied to have been what happened before the team changed history, it was never firmly established whether Daisy or a Gravitonium-empowered Talbot was actually responsible, so Nathaniel's claim could be a deliberate lie (which would fit the narrative he's feeding Kora), or he could simply be misinformed. His insistent claims that Daisy is the villain and driven by ThePowerOfHate are unambiguously lies, though.
* BombThrowingAnarchist: His stated goals after being spared by a CosmicRetcon are chaos and anarchy, wanting nothing to with the structured societies HYDRA or S.H.I.E.L.D. would have, and going about what he calls a "redistribution of wealth" by stealing Inhuman powers and giving them to people history had previously seen as unfit to live.

* CombatPragmatist: As shown in the finale, Nathaniel deliberately confronts Daisy in the reactor room of the Chronicom ship so she won't be able to use her full power without destroying the entire ship. Daisy, however, anticipated this and actually intends to blow up the whole ship, only needing to stall until Sibyl's ground forces can be reprogrammed.
* TheCorrupter: Manipulates Jiaying's daughter Kora into joining him after managing to [[InterruptedSuicide interrupt her suicide attempt and destroy her gun]]. He also shows a young John Garrett his future which leads the latter to joining his team against SHIELD.
* CosmicRetcon: He originally died in 1970, but due to the Chronicoms' interference, he survived to at least 1983 in the resulting timeline.
* DesperatelyLookingForAPurposeInLife: Nathaniel states that he really had a hard time finding his place within HYDRA, going as far as to call the cult ridiculous for worshipping the space octopus Hydra, though he was somewhat intrigued by Whitehall's experiments. This is a stark contrast to how he was depicted in the flashbacks in Season 3, where he considered it an honor to be a part of the cult, and had no interest in joining Whitehall's faction of Hydra.
* DidntThinkThisThrough: Nathaniel takes Daisy's powers, only to realize too late just how powerful she is when his bones crack under constant vibrations he can't control. According to Sybil, his plan only had a 22% chance of working anyway. He does manage to survive though.
** He also didn't consider whether transferring the powers of Inhumans with deformities might also transfer the deformities, and Garrett didn't think to ask about side-effects until he was already undergoing the procedure. Luckily for Garrett, it turns out that doesn't happen (at least in his case).
* DirtyCoward: A recurring trait in the Malick family. When he realizes that he doesn't have the upper hand on Daisy anymore, Nathaniel starts backing away in fear, and when May arrives and shoots him in the arm, he turns tail and runs.
* EffectiveKnockoff: Nathaniel may have stolen his powers from Daisy, but thanks to an effective gap of several years due to him taking TheSlowPath, he has much finer control over her power than she does. He demonstrates this by firing off a quake blast that also has rotational force, which hits much harder with the same amount of effort. However, he recoils in fear when Daisy threatens to let loose, hinting that despite his greater control, he may lack the raw power she can unleash.
* EvenEvilHasLovedOnes: Despite previously claiming to have had little reaction to his father's death, Nathaniel cares enough about the late Wilfred Malick to assault Deke for killing him.
* EvilCannotComprehendGood: He rebuffs Coulson's attempts to convince him that the Chronicoms are using him as a means to conquer the planet, and that whatever they are promising him is a lie. He is also confident that Daisy won't kill him in their final confrontation since she would die as well. Daisy proves him wrong by [[TakingYouWithMe unleashing a huge quake blast that detonates the reactor spheres around them]], consuming Nathaniel in a massive explosion, [[DisneyDeath though Daisy survives]].
* EvilCounterpart: Becomes this to Daisy after stealing her powers.
* EvilIsPetty: Perhaps the pettiest villain on the show.
** Telling Jiaying all about her future FaceHeelTurn and death is cruel enough, but doing it all in front of Daisy is a whole new low.
** Slapping Jemma for mocking his failure to extract Fitz's location. When his efforts fail one last time, he offers her and Deke front-row seats to "the greatest show on Earth": the Chronicoms' massacre of S.H.I.E.L.D. and subsequent invasion.
** Later, he needlessly kills one of his men for calling him "sir" one too many times while he's in a bad mood.
* EvilerThanThou: When compared to his brother and father, he is by far the most dangerous and mentally unstable member of his family.
* {{Expy}}:
** He bears some similarities to the clone of Red Skull in the main Marvel Comics universe. He was affiliated with HYDRA, was a different version of his main counterpart, stole the powers of another by taking their body parts, and assembled a team of other enhanced villains. Also, both wore similar attire.
** His plan of cultivating and redistributing powers from Inhumans to those he deems worthy is quite similar to X-Men villain Mister Sinister, who used the same method on mutants. The two even share the same first name.
* FakeUltimateHero: Nathaniel's plan for world domination amounts to this: as he sees it, after the Chronicom invasion, there will be chaos and anarchy, so when he and Kora swoop in and start saving people, they'll easily be able to take over for [[BlatantLies the benefit of all]]. How well thought-out this plan actually is a bit [[MissingStepsPlan debatable]], since he doesn't seem to have a plan for dealing with the Chronicoms if they don't let him have the Earth.
* FauxAffablyEvil: Covers his sadism with a thin veneer of humor.
* FinalBoss: He is the very last antagonist in ''Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.'', trying to destroy S.H.I.E.L.D. once and for all with the help of Sybil. He even [[LampshadeHanging lampshades]] it in the finale, and claims to feel honoured to be their last opponent after researching S.H.I.E.L.D.'s past victories.
* FromNobodyToNightmare: Was originally a blip on the radar of history, nothing but a pawn in Gideon Malick and Hive's story. Now, he's stolen the powers of one of the most powerful known Inhumans, aligned himself with the Chronicoms, and is out to cause chaos.
* GreenEyedMonster: "After, Before" hints that Nathaniel has some jealousy towards Inhumans, who were naturally gifted with their powers while he and other baseline humans were not. Whether this also held true in the original timeline is unknown.
* HateSink: Perhaps rivaling that of Daniel Whitehall. A SmugSnake who tortures and kills innocent Inhumans to steal their powers while gloating over it, justifying his sadism with an obviously thin story about 'redistributing powers'. It's implied that even the love for his family he had in the original timeline is gone, as he makes no mention of any desire to avenge his father and is heavily implied to have had his brother killed when he gave the command to the Chronicoms to start blowing up S.H.I.E.L.D. bases. He arranges for Gordon to have his powers transferred into Garrett, the former being an innocent man unlike Gordon.
* TheHeavy: While most definitely a BigBadWannabe being played like a fiddle by the Chronicoms, Nathaniel is nevertheless the de facto main antagonist of the season, as he does all of the work in assaulting Afterlife, corrupting Kora, and hunting Fitz. He even serves as the FinalBoss, with Sibyl being anticlimactically knocked out and killed offscreen.
* HoistByHisOwnPetard: In "Adapt or Die", he almost ends up killing himself when he is unable to control the quaking powers he had stolen from Daisy.

* {{Hypocrite}}:
** He claims that he wants nothing to do with Hydra, yet continues to use Hydra connections for his own goals. Notably, he has nothing but contempt for Daniel Whitehall, but is content with using his theory of transferring enhanced abilities for his own means.
** He criticizes the leaders of Afterlife for picking and choosing who gets to undergo Terrigenesis. His solution is to forcibly drain power from Inhumans so that he can pick and choose who really deserves them, reserving such power for his own allies.
** For all his rants about chaos, he gets violent whenever people don't do as he says, striking Jemma when she refuses to give up Fitz's location and killing one of his henchmen for calling him "sir".
** He feels justified in abusing Deke as payback for killing his father, when he himself needlessly had just killed Jiaying for trying to stop him from killing Daisy.
* InferioritySuperiorityComplex: Given that he is introduced as a meek young man who could never find his place in Hydra, and the fact that his brother was seemingly being groomed to take their father's place as a head of Hydra, it's possible that Nathaniel's arrogant and entitled personality stems from low-self esteem issues.
* ItsAllAboutMe: The final episode reveals that he doesn't really want to make the world with no order, but rather rule it himself.
* IWillPunishYourFriendForYourFailure: Nathaniel has Deke beaten up in front of Jemma to make her comply. When that doesn't work, he instead starts quaking Jemma's brain to make Deke talk, but he then discovers her implant on his own.
* KickTheDog:
** While Li is an Asshole Victim, draining the goodhearted Gordon is far less defensible.
** He reveals, in gruesome detail, Jiaying's bleak future in the original timeline, up to and including her attempt to murder Daisy and her own death. After killing Jiaying, he mockingingly says that it looks like Jiaying won't live forever, and Daisy won't live at all.
* MakeWrongWhatOnceWentRight: The people he's recruited for his team were all already dead or fated to die under ignominious circumstances in the original timeline, himself included, and he specifically recruited them to ScrewDestiny. But at the end of the day, none of them were good people.
* {{Manchild}}: He is prone to almost throwing a tantrum when things don't go his way. He even mentions that he is used to getting whatever he wanted.
* MilesGloriosus: He taunts Daisy's quaking powers after she uses them on him, before boasting how he is better at using them than her before quaking her against the wall. After he kills Jiaying and Daisy starts to go berserk, he almost immediately turns tail and runs.
* NiceJobFixingItVillain
** Nathaniel boasts that he has better control over Daisy's powers than Daisy herself, on account of having had them longer than she has in relative terms. When he snaps Jiaying's neck, however, Daisy loses her temper and the entire building begins to quake, with Nathaniel clearly terrified. Lucky for him, in a sense, May shoots him in the arm and cuts that potential battle short.
** Dispatching Kora to kill Daisy results in Sibyl's plan being ruined and Kora pulling a HeelFaceTurn.
** Preventing Kora's suicide is ultimately what allows the Chronicoms to be defeated once and for all in the finale.
* NotInThisForYourRevolution: Come 1976 in the altered timeline, he's not terribly interested in HYDRA's machinations, but is still willing to use his access to their resources (namely Daniel Whitehall) to further his own goals in stealing Daisy's powers for himself. By 1983, his stated goals are pure [[BombThrowingAnarchists anarchy]], putting him squarely at odds with [=HYDRA's=] totalitarian vision. That said, he is content using Hydra loyalists and technology to help further his goals.
* NotSoWellIntentionedExtremist: Nathaniel paints his goals as a noble defiance of the future fate laid out for people, but given that the people he's saving include mercenaries like Durant and future HYDRA leader John Garrett, his good intentions start proving more than a little shaky. He is also more than willing to facilitate the Chronicom invasion as long as he benefits from it. In the finale, it is clear he doesn't actually want to "balance the scales" of giving Inhuman powers to regular humans to create pure [[BombThrowingAnarchists anarchy]]. He really just wants to TakeOverTheWorld.
* ObviouslyEvil: Starting in After, Before, Nathaniel's starts wearing in an all-black Hive-esque outfit, talking about power setting people above the rules and bringing chaos.
* OhCrap: When Daisy is getting ready to unleash her full power against Nathaniel after he kills Jiaying, he defensively raises his hands and starts backing off, clearly terrified of what she'll do if she's not holding back. ​
* PowerIncontinence: After successfully stealing Daisy's powers, he immediately has to suffer the same consequences she initially did as he quakes uncontrollably, shattering his own bones and bringing the roof down on his own head, allowing Daisy and Sousa to escape. He's gotten his powers under control by his next appearance.
* PsychopathicManchild: He's extremely short-tempered and after he violently throws a fit, he says it's because he's "used to getting what he wants". Given that he was born into and capitalized on (even if ultimately rejecting) a powerful HYDRA legacy, it's not too surprising.
* PsychologicalProjection: A lot of Nathaniel's lines about Afterlife and the people there (that it's a cult, that those in charge did nothing to deserve their powers, and that ancient rules are the only thing governing it), although not entirely off the mark, hint that he's projecting issues he has with his old HYDRA ties onto the place.
* TheQuisling: The Chronicoms are out to conquer Earth and terraform it as the new Chronyca-2, and they've found a willing human ally in Nathaniel. [[AmbiguousSituation However]], it's also not clear if he fully knows of their plans.
* ScrewDestiny: Nathaniel's new anarchic beliefs revolve around averting what fate had been previously laid out; having avoided his own death (by Hive's assimilation), he intervenes to prevent Kora's, and he voices an intention of "redistributing wealth" from Inhumans who he feels did nothing to deserve their power.
* SelfDisposingVillain: He seemingly does this to himself in Adapt or Die, courtesy of his own PowerIncontinence after trying to harvest Daisy's powers for himself. The following episode reveals that he survived.
* SmugSnake: Nathaniel believes that the Chronicoms are either his willing minions or [[UnwittingPawns Unwitting Pawns]]. The reality is that Sibyl barely listens to him and his only accomplishment in the episode is screwing up his ally's plan.
** In the finale, Nathaniel boasts that he's studied Daisy's past battles and that he'll be her last opponent, but even with both Daisy and Kora's powers at his disposal, he and Daisy are more or less evenly matched, and even that is at least partly because Daisy is drawing out the fight to ensure the success of the team's plan and because Nathaniel has confronted her in a location that limits her ability to use her powers to their fullest. Once she can stop holding back, she annihilates the ship (and Nathaniel) with one attack.
* SmugSuper: He is almost always wearing a smug look on his face whenever he is using his powers against Daisy.
* SoftSpokenSadist: Nathaniel acts almost cordial when he is about to cut Daisy up.
* SpeakIllOfTheDead: Nathaniel shamelessly smears Jiaying's memory to manipulate Kora into staying on his side, claiming that before she died, she regretted that Kora was ever born.
* StrawHypocrite: All of Nathaniel's previous talk of anarchy (at least the implication that it was his end goal) is unsurprisingly revealed to be a pack of lies; his actual plan is to take advantage of the chaos to TakeOverTheWorld.
* StupidEvil: He is so delusional thinking that the Chronicoms are working for him, when in fact they are using him as a pawn so they can take over the Earth, him included. He scoffs when the heroes try to bring this up, mocking them for trying to give him the "good guy pitch, appeal to his better nature" speech.
* SuperhumanTransfusion: Nathaniel has refined Daniel Whitehall's process of transferring powers to the point that all it takes is about a half-hour of sitting in a machine which transfers blood and other fluids from the source to the recipient.
* TalkingDownTheSuicidal: Nathaniel convinces Kora to join him instead of taking herself out.
* TantrumThrowing: After being told that the implant extraction device won't work unless Jemma herself uses it, Nathaniel throws it through a window, then remarks that he did that because he's used to getting whatever he wants.
* TookALevelInBadass: Starting out a normal powerless human, he steals Daisy's powers but immediately suffers from PowerIncontinence and is left for dead. Except he didn't die, and in turn had years to master the powers before S.H.I.E.L.D. encountered him again, longer than even Daisy had herself.
* TookALevelInJerkass: His first appearance in the flashbacks of Season 3 depict him as being a somewhat affably young man, who respected Whitehall enough to not disobey his invitation to meet at the Rat. Come, Season 7 he is shown to be extremely rude to the authorites, describing Whitehall as having "Mein Kampf" vibe.
* UnwittingPawn: While he's willingly working with Sybil and the Chronicoms, it's implied he's not fully aware of their plan to conquer and terraform Earth as their new homeworld, as his own plans of redistributing Inhumans' powers and causing chaos for the sake of chaos would likely be at direct odds with it. However, the team bring this fact up to him several times, and he simply ignores their claims, suggesting that he is so full of himself that he thinks that the Chronicoms are going to help him with his plans.
* UsedToBeASweetKid: The version of him shown in Season 7 is more hot-tempered and outwardly antagonistical compared to Season 3.
* VillainousLineage: His father started off a NobleDemon, but getting worse as the years went by while running HYDRA. His brother likewise is introduced in the present day as a major HYDRA leader. Given his familial ties to an awful NebulousEvilOrganization, it's unsurprising he turned out to be at least as bad as them if not even worse, despite his own rejection of HYDRA.
* WalkingSpoiler: Pretty much impossible to talk about his role in season 7, where he cheats death thanks to a CosmicRetcon and becomes a BigBad, without spoilers.
* WouldHitAGirl: Nathaniel slaps Jemma for defying him, then threatens to quake her into a coma to coerce Deke. He also feels no qualms about experimenting on both Daisy and Kora for their powers, and of course, killing Jiaying.

* HorribleJudgeOfCharacter: [[spoiler:His 2012 variant in ''Film/AvengersEndgame'' was foolish enough to believe that someone like [[IncorruptiblePurePureness Captain]] [[IdealHero America]] would pledge allegiance to [[ANaziByAnyOtherName HYDRA]] and immediately hands him the Mind Stone without second thought.]]

* FriendlyEnemy: To Cap. They're on opposite sides of the S.H.I.E.L.D.-HYDRA conflict, but according to the DVD commentary, he actually has a degree of admiration for Cap. This suggests that his attack on Cap may have indeed been NothingPersonal, despite what Cap believes. In the opening sequence, when Cap jumps out of a plane with no parachute, Rumlow doesn't show any envy or anything other negative emotions when he confirms that fact to a surprised associate. He seems to really like and admire the guy. Averted in ''Civil War'', however, as noted below. [[spoiler: Even in ''Endgame'', an alternate timeline version of him is pretty impressed when he believes that Cap is a HYDRA supporter. He has a look that all but says "Sweet! Cap is on our side."]]

* StupidEvil: He prepares to execute Cap in public after capturing him. Rumlow has to rein him in to maintain the illusion that they're legitimate law enforcement officials. [[spoiler: In ''Endgame'' he's the ''only'' STRIKE agent to immediately lose his cool during the elevator scene when Cap steps aboard.]]

[[center:[-[[Characters/MarvelCinematicUniverse Main Character Index]] > Villainous Organizations > '''HYDRA''' > [[Characters/MCUHYDRALeadership Leadership]] | ([[Characters/MCURedSkull Red Skull)]] | ([[Characters/MCUGrantWard Grant Ward]]) | [[Characters/MCUHYDRAOperatives Operatives]] -]]]