

During World War II, Schmidt separated HYDRA from Nazi Germany to start his own conquest of the world, and it was during or before this time when HYDRA seemingly abandoned the cult's original beliefs. During this time, the cult took on the name HYDRA, which soon became the organization's most colloquial label. Over the centuries, the cult evolved taking many forms, with its most recent incarnation coming into existence shortly after the rise of Nazism in Germany under the leadership of Johann Schmidt as the scientific branch of the Nazi Schutzstaffel. Ever since his banishment, the cult had been determined to bring him back to Earth to commence a planetary takeover. It was founded in ancient times, formerly as a cult dedicated to the fanatical worship of Hive, a powerful Inhuman that was exiled to the planet Maveth by ancient Inhumans. HYDRA was an authoritarian-subversive paramilitary terrorist organization bent on world domination. "Cut off one head, two more shall take its place.
