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Quote1 Revenge is good. As good a fire to move forward as any. Remember those who stood on your fingers as you climbed the craggy cliffs. Remember their faces. Remember their families. Quote2
Arnim Zola[src]

Dr. Arnim Zola, Ph.D, was a Swiss scientist working for the Nazis during World War II.[2] He become the lead scientist of Project: Nietzsche, creating Super-Soldiers in the Nazi's quest for world domination. Zola was one of the first biochemists in history using notes left by the Deviants.[3] He was able to transfer his consciousness into a robotic body, allowing him to continue his experiments well into the next century.[4]

History

Early Life[]

Dr. Arnim Zola was born and raised in the Weisshorn Mountains of Switzerland in the early part of the 20th Century. He was a child prodigy excelling in all areas of science and was accepted into the best schools in Europe.[citation needed]

Studying Genetics[]

Dr. Zola studied under Wladyslav Shinski. In 1928, he attended a genetics conference along with Jonathan Drew, Herbert Edgar Wyndham, and Noah Black. Zola was the first human genetic engineer in history, basing his work on some papers from the Deviants. Later, Zola received secret aid from Phaeder and his son Maelstrom in developing genetic advancements.[3]

Nazi Party[]

After this, Dr. Zola found supporters in the Nazi party in Germany, who wanted to use his discoveries to assure the existence and triumph of a "master race".[citation needed]

World War II[]

During World War II; Dr. Zola aided the Nazi scientist Baron Heinrich Zemo in creating a series of androids which could expand from the size of a doll to over six feet tall.[citation needed]

Arnim Zola (Earth-616) from Captain America and Bucky Vol 1 622 001

Arnim Zola creating the "Ubermensch"

Dr. Zola kidnapped the allies team of heroes the Invaders and used the the DNA of Captain America, Sub-Mariner, Human Torch (Jim Hammond) and Toro to create his new super-soldier the Ubermensch. However Bucky arrived to save his friends and was able to hold off the Ubermensch long enough to free his friends from their captivity and they destroyed Zola's experiments.[5]

Arnim Zola (Earth-616) from Captain America Vol 1 209 001
Arnim Zola (Earth-616) from Captain America Vol 1 209 002

Accounts vary, but at some point Zola established a process by which a person could project their mind onto a cloned body (It is believed that it was one of his first projects). He presented this process to Adolf Hitler.[citation needed]

Dr. Zola later performed experiments of the town of Vliet, Netherlands. He turned the townsfolk into monsters who were killed by the Invaders. To save himself from the infections he transferred his mind to his robotic body.[6]

Hydra[]

Talking with the Red Skull he presented him with a pill to use to place himself in suspended animation. Zola then presented Hitler with a completed cloned body to which he could transfer his mind before death. After Hitler walked out, Baron Strucker, a fugitive, entered the room. Strucker invited Zola to take part in the establishment of Hydra.[citation needed]

Since around 1944, Strucker would think of Zola in his ESP-box body - this would support that Zola had switched bodies at this point.[citation needed]

However, while another account does show Zola in his ESP box on the day that Hitler's original body died, Hitler as the Hate-Monger would later recall Zola was still in his original body.[citation needed]

In any event, Zola prepared a series of bodies for Hitler to use in his new identity of the Hate-Monger. (Zola once told Captain America that surgeons had extracted Hitler's brain and that he had preserved it to create a new body for it. This story appears to be a ruse to hide the truth about the Hate-Monger. Since then, the truth behind the Hate-Monger has been discovered, and is known to Spider-Man, Silver Sable, and Nick Fury.)[citation needed]

Hitler, according to a soldier who was with him the day his original body died, supposedly recommended Zola's process to Baron Zemo. "like your Führer, Zemo", he said, "you will become... a God... Zola will see to that." It appears that Zemo did not for some reason undergo the process.[citation needed]

Post-War[]

In 1952, Zola was one many Nazi scientists brought to the states after the war. He helped on the US Nuclear program.[7]

Modern Era[]

Arnim Zola (Earth-616) from Captain America Vol 1 209 0001

Arnim Zola in Action

The Red Skull financed Zola's experiments since the end of World War II, allowing him to produce creations such as Primus and Doughboy - which would later help the Red Skull in his own schemes. Zola's association with the Red Skull led to their first fight against Captain America in the jungles of Central America following Captain America's encounter with Arnim Zola's creation Man-Fish. Captain America was captured, but he managed to escape.[8]

He tried to steal the discoveries of Dr. Bruce Banner by sneaking into an observatory. The observatory was destroyed in an explosion and Zola was believed to have died in it.[9]

Inexplicably, Zola survived and fought Irish superheroine Shamrock. He did not count on Clover's probably-altering powers and his cybernetic body exploded. Zola threatened her in a parody-like tone - he made a reference to The Wizard of Oz and then insisted that he would came back, especially to a monthly series.[10]

After the devastation caused by Onslaught, Zola collected humans from the rubble of New York City and endowed a girl with superpowers, creating Jolt. Jolt would join the team Thunderbolts, who would eventually go on to stop Zola.[11]

Deadpool[]

Zola has continued with his experiments at various locations around the globe, although his crimes against humanity had brought him to conflict with different self-proclaimed heroes, including Captain America many times and Deadpool. When fighting Deadpool, Zola created proto-husks of dead villains using their DNA; many of these were destroyed by Deadpool, except for four Gwen Stacy clones.[12]

Kronas Corporation[]

Zola later reunited with the Red Skull and criminal psychiatrist Doctor Faustus. He was instrumental in a plan to capture and brainwash S.H.I.E.L.D. agent Sharon Carter and manipulate her into assassinating Captain America.[13] Following Captain America's death, Zola took great interest when he discovered that Carter was pregnant with Cap's child. During her imprisonment at the Red Skull's lair at the Kronas, Zola subjected her to many experiments. It is believed that Sharon Carter miscarried her child while prisoner, but this remains unverified. Carter escaped and avenged herself against the Red Skull by fatally shooting him in the chest. Arnim Zola downloaded the Skull's essence into a robotic body similar to his own.[14]

Reborn[]

Zola revealed to Norman Osborn that they were using a variation of Dr. Doom's Time Platform to retrieve Steve Rogers from the past before Sharon damaged it, causing Steve Rogers to become unstuck in time. Steve was shown bouncing from place to place and time to time throughout his past.[15] In Latveria Doctor Zola reassembled the device meant to bring back Captain America.[16][17]

Grandmaster[]

The Grandmaster developed a crush on the Mutant singer Dazzler. To get her attention he arranged a roller derby against a group of villain which included Arnim Zola. The villains lost and the Grandmaster left the Earth in peace.[18]

Spear of Destiny[]

The Spear of Destiny was later recovered by an elderly Dutch man from the town of Vliet whose was killed by the Invaders when the townsfolk were turned into monsters by Arnim Zola. Using the Spear he made a deal with with Shuma-Gorath to restore the town of Vliet to its former self in return for the Invaders' lives.[19] He granted his wish but along with the Nazi forces lead by Zola who once again prepared to mutate the townsfolk.[20] The Invaders arrived to help and found the man he attacked them with the spear.[21] After dealing with the Axis forces, the approached the man and offered to find a cure using modern medical science. They succeed and the townsfolk wished to return to the afterlife. He was determined to break his deal with Shuma-Gorath, but was stopped by Zola who killed him. Zola, now wielding the Lance, and the Axis attacked the Invaders just as Shuma-Gorath traveled to Earth.[22] They all battled together Captain America managed to capture it and throw it to Vision, who used it to stab Shuma-Gorath in the eye sending him back to his realm.[23]

Lost Clone[]

Edmund Heidler a clone of Adolf Hitler created by Dr. Zola to house the Hate-Monger's evolved Spirit. After a battle against Captain America left him free the clone wandered off.[24]

M-Day[]

After the events of M-Day in which most mutants lost their powers; Beast of the X-Men contacted some of the best minds in super-villain community including Zola. Surprisingly, few have offered to aid him in his quest to reverse the effects of M-Day.[25]

Dimension Z[]

He later escaped to a "Dimension Z", which he ruled and filled it with many of his creations. Eventually, Captain America found Zola hiding that alternate dimension, where time moved at an incredibly faster rate as compared to Earth, and Zola had built a massive fortress, dubbing his new land Zolandia. Zola was making a massive army of genetically altered soldiers with the intent of conquering Earth. In the initial assault, Cap rescued a genetically engineered infant boy.[26]

In the decade stranded in Dimension Z, Cap raised the boy as his own son, Ian Rogers.[27] The two took up with the peaceful Phrox, and eventually led a rebellion to stop Zola's forces, now commanded by Zola's daughter, Jet Black. One of his creations, Captain Zolandia, was a mutated clone of Captain America, he had his memories and tried to kill both Cap and Ian.[28]

Ian was later captured by Zola, and brainwashed to accept Zola as his father again, but eventually broke out of his control, only to be shot by Sharon Carter. Eventually, Carter sacrificed herself to destroy Zola and his fortress, allowing Cap and a now reformed Jet to escape back to Earth.[29]

Zola was later revealed to be alive as he opened a portal in New York to lead an invasion from Dimension Z as a part of helping the Red Skull's newest plan.[30] After a battle across New York City with his mutants and Unvengers,[31] he departed with his daughter after driving a wedge between her and her new lover, Sam Wilson.[32]

Hydra's Resurgence[]

Zola was asked by the new Madame Hydra to join a new High Council of Hydra.[33] As a member of the High Council, he was there when Steve Rogers became the new head of Hydra after killing the Red Skull.[34] When Hydra took over the United States, he ruled the country along with the other members of the High Council.[35] Zola was sent to lead a Hydra force to invade the country of Wakanda to retrieve a remnant of sentient Cosmic Cube Kobik, but Zola and his forces were always thwarted.[36][37]

After the fall of the Secret Empire, Arnim Zola was forced to become an employee of Absolution Solutions and experiment on superhuman prisoners. Zola brainwashed Quicksand using a radioactive isotope and forced her to go after D-Cel, a mutant capable of slowing the kinetic movement of people and objects. With help from D-Cel and Damage Control, the Juggernaut was able to stop Quicksand and re-collect her granular body.[38]

Damage Control filtered the grains of Quicksand's body that contained Zola's mind-controlling isotope, and Juggernaut made Zola use what remains of Quicksand to help her reconstitute herself. Quicksand was about to kill Zola, but she was convinced to stand down by Juggernaut, who wanted her help in changing how superhuman prisoners were treated.[39]

Attributes

Power Grid[43]
:Category:Power Grid/Fighting Skills/Poor:Category:Power Grid/Energy Projection/None:Category:Power Grid/Durability/Enhanced:Category:Power Grid/Speed/Superhuman:Category:Power Grid/Strength/Peak Human:Category:Power Grid/Intelligence/Super-Genius

Abilities

  • Super-Genius Intelligence: Arnim Zola possesses a brilliant mind, with knowledge and technological understanding far beyond the standard of the time.[40]
  • Expert Biochemist: Arnim Zola is considered one greatest genetic engineers in history, a biochemist whose knowledge of genetics was enhanced by his study of Deviant science. He studied under Wladyslav Shinsky.[40]
  • Robotic Expert: He was able to build a functioning robot body with the limited technology of the 1940s.[40]

Paraphernalia

Equipment

  • Zola's Robotic Body: Zola's consciousness has been transferred in to a robotic body allowing him a form of immortality. If a body is destroyed his mind is downloaded to a spare body.[40]
    • ESP Box: Arnim Zola possesses the ability to mentally control his various genetic creations by means of the ESP Box mounted atop his torso and surgically attached to his central nervous system. Although most of the creatures possess limited intelligence and the capacity for creative thought, Zola can override their mental processes if he so desires. The ESP Box is a retractable device that can convert brain waves into electronic signals for transmission as telepathic commands within ordinary radio range. Normally, Zola is capable of controlling only his own organic creations, but if he remains linked to his support equipment, he can stimulate his own mental power to such a degree that he can create a psychokinetic network able to animate inorganic matter within radio range. Zola is unable to control natural organic life. The ESP Box also provides Zola with the following powers:
      • Mind Control
      • Mind Ray
      • Mind Transfer[40]
  • Zola deploys mental commands to his creations in the form of energy bolts of approximately 100,000 volts. Similar in purpose to the ESP Box, the prod is limited in range to 18 feet and can only work on his own organic creations.[40]
  • Zola uses exotic weaponry, androids, and genetically engineered lackeys in his schemes. His androids (or "bio-servants") can host Zola's mind and life-force.[40]

Trivia

  • While Zola doesn't need to sleep, he occasionally must shut down to perform server maintenance to uptade his data storage.[41]

See Also

Links and References

References

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