Veronica Eden

Origin

Veronica Eden was an agent with the Office of Foreign Utilities (O.F.U.). Her main responsibility was tracking terrorist recruitment centers and neutralizing them with Bucky Barnes, who was working with her as part of his parole agreement. The best recruits she would pass on to Hydra to curry favor and possibly take over leadership.

Creation

Veronica first appeared in Falcon & Winter Soldier #1 by Derek Landy and Federico Vicentini

Major Story Arcs

Massacre at O.F.U.

While working with Hydra, Veronica recruited The Natural, a child prodigy of killing. Frustrated about being kept on the bench despite everyone telling him what a good killer he would be, The Natural decided to kill everyone in Veronica’s office. To reduce the fallout, Veronica also sent a hit squad after Bucky Barnes. The hit squad failed and ended up turning Bucky’s attention toward the massacre, along with Falcon, who was looking for a veteran support member who may have been recruited to Hydra.

She faked being a victim in front of Bucky and Sam to avoid their suspicions and sent them after Baron Zemo, so she at a clear shot at Hydra leadership. Unfortunately, they also ended up meeting The Natural, who claimed to be a big fan of Captain America. He blamed Veronica, putting them all (including Zemo) on a collision course in Nevada. The five fight each other while trying to convince each other to switch sides.

Ultimately, Veronica was arrested when she was shot by a Hydra agent who was the veteran Sam was looking.

Fugitive

While Eden was on trial, her prison transport was ambushed, and she was freed by some hired goons, including Fifty One. Luckily, she was being watched quietly by Iron Man (who was feeling guilty about recommending her to SHIELD in the past) and Captain America (who was briefed on her crimes by Falcon and Bucky). In exchange for her freedom, Eden helped Fifty One get into a secret SHIELD holding facility. Once there, Fifty One outfitted himself with Captain America’s Hydra Supreme armor, but the two Avengers caught up with them. They caught Eden, but Fifty One got away.

Eden was happy to cooperate for leniency. She had partnered with a Senator and Fifty-One’s former superteam, The Paladins to stage superhero battles and control public sentiment. When Eden’s arrest postponed the project, The Paladins activated The Overseer to confront publicly and keep them in the public eye. Fifty One had been trying to stop this plan knowing the team was ill-equipped to defeat The Overseer. Stark and Cap decide to help Fifty-One and reluctantly work with Eden, who equipped herself with Spider-Man rogue tech from SHIELD storage to fight the Myrmidon robots.

Cap and Stark were able to defeat the Paladins, and Fifty-One merged with The Overseer to control the Myrmidon robots. Fifty-One needed time to understand his new status quo and removed all the superhumans from the helicarrier he was controlling. Eden grabbed Cap and as many Paladins as she could to fly them on her goblin glider to the ground. After which, she went on the run, only to end up confronted by Baron Zemo.