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Carlo Zota (Earth-616)

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This all started with the Human Torch, but it'll end with the Masked Raider.

—The Masked Raider III[source]

History

Scientists Guild[]

The life of electronics expert Carlo Zota before he joined the Scientists' Guild is unknown. In 1939 Zota, along with fellow Guild members Jerome Hamilton and Maris Morlak, was present for the public debut of Professor Horton's android, the Human Torch.[3][2]

In 1940, the Guild operated as a team of scientific adventurers called the Three Xs. Each member used an alias, with Zota's being 2X.[2] Zota was known as "a walking encyclopedia" for his vast knowledge. The Three Xs were hired by the Baltimore Police Commissioner to find Maisie Leeds, a young lady who had been kidnapped by the Green Terror. The group managed to track Leeds to South Africa. Despite being outnumbered by the Green Terror and his men, they defeated them all and saved Maisie.[4]

Carlo Zota (Earth-616) from Iron Man Vol 6 2 001

Without the Eternity Mask

The team visited private investigator Leslie Lenrow (a.k.a. the Ferret) and obtained the Eternity Mask, which they used the following year to empower Jerry Carstairs and turn him into the Thunderer.[2]

Zota and his comrades met geneticist Wladyslav Shinski and the four of them eventually formed the Enclave, a new organization dedicated to the creation of life itself in hopes of creating a better Earth. Through the Enclave, Zota was directly involved in the creation of the artificial super-beings Adam Warlock and Ayesha.[5][6]

Following the deaths of Hamilton, Morlak, and Shinski, Zota began work on the Adam IV project, which consisted in the restoration of the hyper-intelligent cybernetic amalgamation named Korvac.[2] However, as soon as he came online, Korvac renounced the Enclave, dismissing Zota's desire to seek a better Earth to be selfish and arrogant, and opting instead to change the universe itself.[7]

Traversing the Cosmoses[]

After losing Korvac, Zota was confronted by the Masked Raider III, the latest wearer of the Eternity Mask, but before he could kill him, Zota used a time-travel spell created by Sise-Neg to send himself back to the Sixth Cosmos.[8] He located that cosmos's World-Devourer Omnimax and, desperate for more power, willingly became his Herald, being imbued with the Power Cosmic. When the World-Devourer came to Taa, the homeworld of the present-day World-Devourer, Galactus, Zota was confronted by the Silver Surfer, who had traveled back in time with the then-latest incarnation of the Defenders. Zota thought that he could easily beat the Surfer because Omnimax was significantly more powerful than Galactus was, but the Surfer tricked him into trying to steal his powers, allowing the Surfer to instead take away his powers because, although Zota had more power, the Surfer's very long life meant that he had more experience with their power source than Zota could ever hope to achieve. After his defeat, Zota was sucked further into the timestream and ended up in the Fifth Cosmos.[9]

Zota was found and enslaved by Omnimax's past self, that cosmos's Sorcerer Supreme, Moridun, who taught him a variety of things, including magic, but was also abusive and controlling. Zota told Moridun about the future and their fight with the Defenders, so when they arrived in this cosmos, he was prepared for them. Fearing the potential of the Defenders as a living spell, Moridun tried to enslave them. However, Doctor Strange redirected all of his magic to the Red Harpy, causing her to summon a Green Door on top of Moridun, thus banishing him from there and thwarting his plan. Doing so caused Zota to be sucked further into the timestream.[10]

Arriving in the Fourth Cosmos, Zota stole the mask of Doctor Doom's Archetype, Never-Open, and instigated a war between the Archetypes of Good and the Archetypes of Evil. Confronted by the Defenders, Zota summoned Galactus' Archtype, What-Must-Be, and attempted to control him using Never-Open's mask. The Masked Raider used the Eternity Mask to match What-Must-Be in power and free it from Zota's control, with Zota using Never-Open's mask to jump back to the Third Cosmos.[11] Arriving there and witnessing the primordial clash between Lifebringer One and the Old Dragon named the Anti-All, Zota found himself cornered by the Defenders and summoned a force field to stop the Red Harpy from ripping him apart. Realizing that the use of both magic and science was weakening Lifebringer One, the Masked Raider phased through Zota's force field and pulled a revolver on him. When the Masked Raider refused to shoot him, Zota seized the gun and shot his enemy, unmasking him only to see his own face. Connected to Eternity through the mask, Zota realized what he had to do and donned the mask, holding back the Anti-All long enough for the Defenders to infuse Lifebringer One with the essences of the Sixth, Fifth, and Fourth Cosmoses. Still grappling with the Anti-All, Zota allowed himself to be impaled by Lifebringer One's sword in order to redeem himself. Sent forward in time by the Eternity Mask, Zota - realizing that he was now trapped in a time loop - accepted the Eternity Mask from Blind Justice and became the Masked Raider, vowing to stop his past self's plans and find a way to break the time loop.[1]

The Masked Raider[]

Trapped in a time loop of his own making and displaced in time, Zota realized that he needed to take responsibility for the power that he had been given. He gathered several interviews with different super-heroes, even doing a few on his own, in order to get into their mindset and mentally prepare himself to carry on Hamilton's fight as the Masked Raider III.[2]

Following the death of the undercover Kree agent Bel-Dann at the hands of the Cotati, the Eternity Mask nudged the Masked Raider III to the location of his corpse. Having deduced that the corpse did not involve the Enclave, the Masked Raider III realized that the Eternity Mask wanted someone else to see the corpse. Noticing that Daredevil and Elektra were sparring on a rooftop nearby, the Masked Raider III got their attention and entrusted Daredevil to solve the mystery before leaving.[12]

He later went to stop his past self from creating Adam IV, but arrived too late and witnessed Korvac escaping; he then went to confront the past Zota, but he grabbed an old spell book and started to summon a time travel spell. The Masked Raider III shot the spell book in mid-spell, causing magic to fill the room and Zota to disappear. He went to see Doctor Strange and told him of the crisis; Strange, in response, summoned a new team of Defenders to deal with this threat and sent them back in time after Zota to the Sixth Cosmos, where they had to confront that universe's World-Devourer, Omnimax.[8] They teamed up with that cosmos's hero, Taaia, who turned out to be the mother of Galan, who would later become Galactus. The Masked Raider witnessed the Silver Surfer seemingly trying to kill the infant Galan, but when he confronted him on it, the Surfer explained that he was just trying to teach him compassion so that he may hold back more in the future. He asked the Surfer if he knew who he really was and he admitted that he could read his aura, but expressed no desire to reveal his identity. The next day, the team confronted Omnimax in space, but the Masked Raider III had to stay on the sidelines because mimicking Omnimax's powers would also give him his cosmic hunger. His past self appeared as Omnimax's Herald, but the Silver Surfer defeated him by stealing his powers while Doctor Strange and Taaia defeated Omnimax by combining his magic with her science. After it was over the team, as well as Zota, were sucked further back in time to the Fifth Cosmos, leaving the Silver Surfer behind.[9]

After arriving in the Fourth Cosmos and witnessing a battle between the Archetypes of Good and Evil - precursors to all of the heroes and villains of the Seventh and Eighth Cosmoses - the Masked Raider III fought against What-Must-Be, who had been corrupted by the past Zota using the Mask of Never-Open. Zota fled to the Third Cosmos, where he unwittingly aided the Old Dragon named the Anti-All in its battle against the primordial manifestation of Light, Lifebringer One. Confronting his past self, the Masked Raider III allowed himself to be shot, but when Zota unmasked him, he was horrified to see his own face. Imbued with the cosmic power and knowledge of Eternity, Zota donned the Eternity Mask and sacrificed himself to help Lifebringer One slay the Anti-All; the Eternity Mask saving him by sending him forward in time to become the Masked Raider.[1]

Attributes

Powers

  • Advanced Longevity: Sometime before 1958 Zota, along with Hamilton and Morlak, was given a longevity treatment by Wladyslav Shinski that kept him youthful for decades.[13]
  • Magic: Zota has experience using magic.[8]
    • Time Travel: Zota can travel in time using a time travel spell.[8]
Former Powers
The Power Cosmic: Zota was previously endowed with the Power Cosmic, which presumably gave him similar powers to the Silver Surfer, although he claimed that he was much more powerful than the Surfer because Omnimax had more power than Galactus did.[9]

Abilities

Genius Level Intellect

Paraphernalia

Equipment

The Eternity Mask: The Masked Raider is an ordinary human, but while wearing the Eternity Mask he can use the following powers:

  • Power Mimicry: The main power that the Eternity Mask bestows on the Masked Raider III, as long as his intentions are good, is the ability to become equal in power and skills to anyone that he faces, unless they are below the Masked Raider III's natural abilities.[12]
  • Cosmic Awareness: The Masked Raider III possesses enhanced consciousness, giving him the sensation of oneness with the universe. He was able to sense space and time distorting.[14] The Eternity Mask makes the Masked Raider III know when something of importance is happening, and it is capable of exerting a "pull" on him, making him go wherever it wants to take him in order to show him something of interest.[12]

Weapons

  • Two Revolvers

See Also

Links and References

References

Italiano
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