The organization made its live action debut in the Marvel Cinematic Universe film Iron Man 3 (2013), in which it was headed by Aldrich Killian.

It is later revealed in Strange Tales #149 (October 1966) that THEM is also a parent organization to the Secret Empire and is a new incarnation of the previously dissolved HYDRA.

is described as an organization of scientists and their hirelings dedicated to the acquisition of power and overthrowing of all the world's governments through science and technology.

's reach is worldwide and it operates various front organizations such as Targo Corporation, International Data Integration and Control, Cadenza Industries, Koenig and Strey, Pacific Vista Laboratories, Allen's Department Store, and Omnitech.

It has had a number of bases of operations, including a nuclear submarine mobile in the Atlantic Ocean; bases in the Bronx, New York; Black Mesa, Colorado; West Caldwell, New Jersey; Asia, Canada, Europe, Haiti, India, Sudan and Boca Caliente (also known as A.I.M.

Their second achievement is the Super-Adaptoid, an android capable of mimicking the appearance and superpowers of other beings, which is made possible by incorporating a sliver of the Cosmic Cube into its form.

's third major achievement is the creation of MODOK (Mental Organism Designed Only for Killing), an artificially mutated human with an enormous head accompanied by a massive computational brain and psionic abilities.

's leader at the time, the Scientist Supreme, to be the subject of the bionic and genetic experiments that turn him into MODOK.

's origins begin late in World War II with Baron Wolfgang von Strucker's creation of HYDRA.

Under the code name THEM, he creates two HYDRA branches called Advanced Idea Mechanics and the Secret Empire.

It is close to developing and attaining nuclear weapons when HYDRA Island is invaded by American and Japanese troops.

android factory in a Florida swamp is raided by S.H.I.E.L.D., which also involves Count Bornag Royale due to a weapons deal negotiation.

employs Batroc the Leaper to recover an explosive compound called Inferno 42[17] and dispatches a chemical android against Nick Fury and Captain America.

[23] For a time, a schism develops within A.I.M., causing it to split into Blue and Yellow factions (the former loyal to MODOK, the latter independent from him).

is responsible for a jet attack on the West Coast Avengers compound[30] and then takes over Boca Caliente[31] and unleashes a microbe aboard the Stark space satellite.

which consists of Andrew Forson, Graviton, Jude the Entropic Man, Mentallo, Superia, and Yelena Belova.

Agents accompanied Madame Masque and a mind-controlled Shotgun, Count Nefaria, Silvermane, and Owl in fighting Janice Lincoln's group in Central Park.

[49] During the Time Runs Out storyline, Sunspot reveals that he bought A.I.M and used their resources to investigate incursions threatening reality.

Heroes working as part of Avengers Idea Mechanics include Hawkeye, Squirrel Girl, Songbird, Wiccan, Hulkling, White Tiger, Power Man and Pod.

and Hydra first appeared in the 1960s as analogues for the threat of Communism,[citation needed] but are also associated with Nazism and resemble organizations fought by Captain America in World War II.

Political science professor Matthew J. Costello has pointed out that this conflation of communism and Nazism removes ambiguity from the threat and thus from America's moral superiority in the comics.

[122] A future (2020) version of A.I.M is featured heavily in the Marvel UK limited series Death's Head II.

is re-imagined as a human resistance movement led by Monica Rappacini to oppose Exodus, ruler of Australia, and his cohorts.

[123] In the Marvel Adventures version of Iron Man, A.I.M., through the use of dummy companies, acquires Stark International's hover platform and uni-beam technology in their invasion of Madripoor, a fictional country.

Similar to Iron Man's main Marvel Universe origin, Yinsen and Stark both build armor to escape.

Tarleton and his team attempt to take control of a Gah Lak Tus module that is left behind in orbit after the swarm is driven away.

Being unable to do so on their own, they lure Vision to the station to help them by claiming they will use the knowledge to order the Gah Lak Tus swarm to self-destruct.

Tarleton then incorporates the Gah Lak Tus' circuitry into his own body, but it takes him over, transforming him into a machine with a monstrous appearance.

He takes over the entire station remotely and sets it to plummet out of orbit, along with the Gah Lak Tus module, which he says has "unfinished business on Earth.

terrorists steal advanced technology (revealed to be blueprints for a Cosmic Cube)[127] from the Baxter Building and have some associations with the Red Skull.