S.H.I.E.L.D. (Supreme Headquarters International Espionage Law-enforcement Division) is an extra-government intelligence and security organization dedicated to protecting the nations and peoples of Earth from all threats, terrestrial or extraterrestrial. S.H.I.E.L.D. was organized in a little over a decade ago to meet the threat of the highly technological subversive organization called
Hydra. The identities of the organizations founders, its Executive Board, have never been revealed. S.H.I.E.L.D.s first known Executive Director was Rick Stoner, who was replaced after his apparent demise by
Colonel Nicholas Fury, an ex-World War II commando and C.I.A. operative. S.H.I.E.L.D.s Supreme Headquarters is the huge mobile
Helicarrier, but there are also regional offices in all the major cities of the free world and several secret bases in Communist countries. Although most of S.H.I.E.L.D.s operations are covert, the organizations existence is known to general public. S.H.I.E.L.D. even maintains public offices in several cities. Only a few of the several thousand S.H.I.E.L.D. operatives active throughout the world are known.
In the wake of
Colonel Nicholas Fury's "Secret War" the position of director was passed to
Maria Hill and later she has passed the role to
Tony Stark (Iron Man) after the "
Civil War". Recently, after the Skrull Invasion,
Norman Osborn became director of S.H.I.E.L.D. only to close down S.H.I.E.L.D. and replace it with his own organization known as
H.A.M.M.E.R..
Retrieved from "
http://marvel.com/universe/S.H.I.E.L.D."
