Maya Hansen

A Genetic Re-programmer who is responsible for creating the Extremis Enhancile; a powerful bio-weapon which is utilized by Iron Man.

Name:

Maya Hansen

Publisher:

Marvel

Real name:

Maya Hansen

Aliases:

Birth date:

None

Gender:

Female

Powers:

Intellect

First issue:

Iron Man #1 Extremis, Part 1

See at ComicVine

Origin

Although a relatively new character, it is established through back-story that Maya Hansen met, and befriended Tony Stark in his early twenties at an emergent tech conference.

Creation

Maya Hansen was created by Warren Ellis and Adi Granov, and first appeared in Iron Man #1 (2005).

Mayor Story Arcs

Extremis

Years after their first meeting, Maya calls Tony when a sample of the Extremis Enhancile she's working on is apparently stolen by domestic terrorists. Tony is able stop the Extremis enhanced terrorist with Maya's help by becoming Extremis enhanced himself. Tony then reveals Maya was responsible for allowing the terrorists to get their hands on Extremis to prove that Extremis worked, and to receive federal funding. Maya is then sent to prison where she receives a scar on her left cheek.

Later on Tony gets Maya out of jail when he needs her help to figure out how he's being controlled to assassinate specific people. Afterwards Maya is placed under Tony's custody and works under him for SHIELD, where they become romantically involved for a brief period.

After an incident where Maya and Tony's close friend Sal is killed by a biological threat that could have been stopped had Maya been allowed to continue her research on Extremis, Maya fakes her own death and accepts an offer to work for a secret government organization called Prometheus. Unknown to the government or Maya, the man in charge of Prometheus was actually the Mandarin. Mandarin planned on using an airborne version of the Extremis Enhancile to wipe out a majority of the human race, but before he could Tony had the Prometheus facility nuked with him and Maya still in it.

After the explosion Maya awoke believing she was in SHIELD custody and was deceived by the Mandarin into giving him the weaponized form of the Extremis Enhancile that he was after all along.

Other Media

Iron Man 3

In the 2013 movie Iron Man 3, Maya Hansen is portrayed by actress Rebecca Hall. Her role in the movie is slightly different to her role in the Extremis story arc. She meets Tony Stark at a party in 1999, and sleeps with him that very night. Later on, she assists Aldrich Killian with the creation of the Extremis treatment, but decides to turn against him when he reveals his true motives. Despite her claim that she is too valuable to be killed, Aldrich disposes of her with a single shot to the head.