called "THEM", in which he was Grand Imperator. In this role, he assigned Arnold Brown to be his Imperial Hydra, supposedly the true master of Hydra. Brown's rule of Hydra ended when he was overcome by S.H.I.E.L.D., an espionage organization led by Nick Fury and designed to thwart Hydra, and the unmasked Brown was mistakenly shot by his own men as Hydra crumbled about him. THEM also found and revived the long-lost Red Skull, but Strucker finally abandoned THEM when the scientific research arm of Hydra and another branch splintered away to become A.I.M. and the Secret Empire, respectively. Death Strucker continued to conceal his identity, acting as Don Antonio Caballero, Emir Ali Bey, and S.H.I.E.L.D. agent John Bronson. He finally revealed himself as Hydra's true leader when he prepared to unleash the Death Spore bomb from Hydra Island. Invading the island, Nick Fury used masks to trick Strucker's men into shooting their leader. In a panic, Strucker ran into a chamber where nuclear processes were taking place, and was immediately incinerated. Soon afterwards, Fury set the Death Spore bomb to explode within Hydra Island's protective dome designed to keep the island safe from the spores, eradicating all Hydra personnel within. Life Model Decoy In the ensuing years, the roboticist Machinesmith built a robot duplicate of Strucker, using it to test the abilities and morality of Captain America. The robot fooled even S.H.I.E.L.D. into thinking they had captured the real Strucker. Strucker also lived on in the form of several different android LMDs (Life Model Decoy) based on his mind; one was activated on Hydra Island after Strucker's death and believed itself to be the true Strucker, finally meeting its doom battling Captain America, Fury, and the one-time Howling Commandos. Another tricked Canada's Department H into selling Hydra the battle-suit worn by their hero Guardian. The most destructive was the Deltite, an LMD Strucker had planted within S.H.I.E.L.D. to tear the organization apart, and ultimately wound up running S.H.I.E.L.D. and Hydra simultaneously, playing the two against each other. By the time the Deltite was finally revealed and destroyed, it had managed to sow distrust throughout S.H.I.E.L.D., and killed many agents, leading Fury to disband the organization. Resurrection Hydra suffered without Strucker's leadership, and the Red Skull championed an effort to bring the Baron back, providing a distraction to occupy Fury's newly-rebuilt S.H.I.E.L.D. while Hydra scientists found Strucker's body and sacrificed