There have been several groups in the Marvel Universe that have been recurring enough to be considered the greatest enemies of the heroes. Unlike groups like Magneto’s mutants or some other faction, HYDRA is an entire organisation that operates with the code that they are bringing order to the world.

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In order to complete their goals, HYDRA has done some truly savage things. However, in this list, we’re considering “savage” to apply to terrible acts, as well as the mentality that HYDRA agents apply to themselves. Their manner of thinking can be considered as savage as they don’t put reason before their loyalty to HYDRA, and here are 10 things for you to see that for yourself.

10 Brainwashing The Winter Soldier

Captain America is the biggest enemy HYDRA has had. So, what was their approach in hurting him emotionally? They had him face off against his best friend. In the comics, Bucky Barnes had been dead for decades before Marvel brought him back, and it only made fans despise HYDRA even further.

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Not only did they brainwash him, they had the Winter Soldier commit atrocities far and wide all across history. HYDRA even had him kill Wolverine’s wife and child back in 1946, and we know how things went in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

9 Making Weapons Out Of The Tesseract

You should never play with things that you don’t understand. In the MCU, whenever anyone has attempted to play around with the Infinity Stones, it has always backfired back on them. HYDRA was responsible for throwing the human race into global war by using the Tesseract to further their gains.

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As we know, the Space Stone was intended to travel the cosmos in an instant, but HYDRA manipulated this into creating weapons that would disintegrate someone hit by a blast. It was way further than a crime against humanity.

8 Manipulating S.H.I.E.L.D. For Nearly A Century

A lot of things made sense when put into the context that HYDRA had been controlling things in S.H.I.E.L.D., as many questionable actions could be explained. As it happened, HYDRA was not only within S.H.I.E.L.D., it had been active for almost a century.

In Captain America: The Winter Soldier, set in 2014, it was revealed that HYDRA was active in making itself a parasite within shield since the beginning of World War II at the very least. It was also successful in turning a lot of formerly loyal S.H.I.E.L.D. agents into HYDRA spies.

7 Hailing HYDRA Even At Death

Strangely, you can’t help but have a little begrudging respect for the HYDRA guys, as they do go out swinging for their missions. We’ve seen this happen in both comics and films, where HYDRA agents utter “Hail HYDRA” in their final moments.

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Alexander Pierce was shot point blank by Nick Fury, but his only thoughts were in confessing his loyalty to HYDRA at the very end. Even eerier was the man Helmut Zemo murdered in Captain America: Civil War, who remained loyal to such a degree that he uttered his devotion before drowning to HYDRA, which had been dismantled by that point. Say what you want but there was definitely a sense of savage pride these agents took for this faction.

6 Having Its Own Civil War

HYDRA boasts about having stability and order within its ranks, but when the question of power is up for grabs it is time for true savagery to kick in. In the comics, the death of leader Baron Wolfgang von Strucker elicited a civil war within HYDRA itself, as every faction within the group wanted to seize control.

To further their position, HYDRA agents would target themselves in an attempt to cement their power, leading to the war escalating out of control. Even after Strucker was resurrected, the war continued as many HYDRA members didn’t want him back in charge.

5 Creating Scarlet Witch And Quicksilver

Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch in Avengers- Age Of Ultron

We spoke of crimes against humanity above, but this might be even worse than that point as HYDRA were known to conduct experiments on humans to test the Infinity Stones’ potential. There were hundreds of other people HYDRA experimented over, only for all those guys to die because they couldn’t sustain the stone’s enormous power.

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Eventually, the Maximoff twins seemed to be the first pair to unlock supernatural powers, but they were kept in confined spaces and tested upon as if they were lab rats. Who knows what sort of conditions they and the other experiments were kept in.

4 Enlisting The Punisher

We know the Punisher loves using lethal means to achieve his missions, but some part of him was still accepted as a good guy who was just too tortured mentally to see what was ethical and what wasn’t.

In this story, though, HYDRA managed to bring the Punisher to their ranks by outright lying to him. They promised him they would use the Cosmic Cube (Tesseract) to bring his family back, and even managed to get him to try and kill Black Widow when she intervened. Lying to a man about bringing his deceased loved ones is just low on another level.

3 Placing Their Faith On Two Words

In this instance, our “savagery” condition is how archaic HYDRA’s methods are. In this regard, they’re savages who don’t think for themselves once a certain clause is fulfilled. In Avengers: Endgame, we saw the agents of HYDRA being morons by handing over their main weapon over to Captain America.

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As this version of Cap was a time traveler, he knew the agents were HYDRA members and uttered “Hail HYDRA” to them, instantly getting him the scepter containing the Mind Stone with no questions or double-checks by any of the agents.

2 Brainwashing Captain America

You’d think the one exception to HYDRA’s teachings would always remain Captain America, who was so pure in personality that he could never be corrupted. And yet, HYDRA managed to go as low as they could in their methods and brainwash Captain America himself.

They went so deep into his psyche that Captain America ended up having fake memories of having always been a HYDRA agent. He would go onto commit atrocities in HYDRA’s name, and that’s something he can never erase from his conscience - all thanks to HYDRA, who wanted to shred their rival of every bit of his respect.

1 Ordering A Nuclear Attack On New York

It seemed very much out of character for the World Security Council to commission a nuclear bomb onto a state that had millions of inhabitants and on whom a major part of the world relied upon as far as the stock market was concerned. This was explained as having been the machinations of HYDRA, who were acting as part of S.H.I.E.L.D.

The man at the helm of this was Gideon Malick, who we saw give the order to Nick Fury in The Avengers. Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. elaborated upon him by showing Malick as the head of HYDRA and the nuclear bomb idea was his to commission. It’s a wonder how he and HYDRA were fine with killing millions in one swift motion.

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