Having finally gone to watch Far From Home on the weekend, one character who stayed on my mind was Maria Hill; thinking that most of the time we get Nick Fury we get Maria, yet no-one really seems to talk about her… So here’s my little article about why she’s so great, and deserves more recognition. This is also just to point out how Marvel do so much with smaller side characters, but when you add up all of their appearances in various movies, they actually have a lot of important screen time – Another example would be Happy Hogan who has been such a crucial character since film 1! The MCU does such a fantastic job of dropping these characters in where they’re needed, not using them too much or too little.

Since her role in Avengers, Maria Hill has popped up at a lot of crucial moments in the MCU and has actually been a key player in a lot of the big storylines. Cobie Smulders is a really great casting for this character, and this possibly goes unnoticed – In the comics Maria Hill has always been a fairly attractive, powerful woman who doesn’t take a lot of shit, and this is exactly how she’s played on screen – It’s like I’d like to take her on a date but she’d tell me where we’re going. You also get this sense that something has happened to her and she’s a little… Forlorn… But she is always there by Fury’s side to help with saving his life, and the small task of running S.H.I.E.L.D.

Another thing that Marvel do really well (On the long long list of things they do well) is ensure she’s not just thrown in the action, as she isn’t in the comics. Maria ultimately exists to keep a tight lid on things, make sure things are run well and to ensure things are running smoothly, only getting involved in the action when she must, such as the helicarrier attack or when she saves Captain America (Disguised as Hydra), and what you’ll notice is her attacks are always quick and effective as she’s clearly been trained to solve a problem quickly. A key thing to note about her is that she seems to be the only one who always knows Fury’s plan (Which is ultra-important from after credits scene number 1 for getting the Avengers together), she’s been there by his side, saving his life and always an apparent step ahead of everyone; it’s arguable that if she wasn’t around and so closely working with Fury, he could be dead or compromised by now. 

Over the years she’s helped keep the heli carrier in the sky, and ultimately form the Avengers, freed Cap and friends from execution whilst saving Fury’s ass, and then goes on to help take down Hydra, has a big role in Ultron leading to her placement in the new Avengers facililty (Gets dusted) comes back, introduces Spidey to Mysterio, and then helps in the final battle of that film – She also has roles in Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. during all of this of which I dip in and out of!) – The only thing they really did wrong was not put her in the final battle when they had the ‘girl power’ moment – Even though she doesn’t have powers she really should have been there considering how crucial she’s been throughout. 

I hope that she’s put to more use, or even gets her own series (Maybe an offshoot of Agents of…) and continues to make these important appearances. It’s another great casting by Marvel that’s subtle, but effective, and as I’ve said really important when you think about it! Join me next time when i go into more depth on Happy Hogan!

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