Arnim Zola (Earth-616)

From Marvel Database

Arnim Zola

Gallery

Real Name

Arnim Zola

Aliases

The Bio-Fanatic

Identity

Public

Alignment

Bad

Affiliation

One-time ally of the Red Skull

Universe

Earth-616

Base Of Operations

*Exiles Island, Sargasso Sea, Atlantic Ocean;

• Weisshorn Mountain, Switzerland
  

Characteristics

Gender

Male

Height

5' 10" usually, but variable

Weight

200 lbs (91 kg) usually, but variable

Eyes

Brown

Hair

No Hair

Unusual Features

Zola has an ESP Box instead of a head. A three-dimensional hologram of his original face appears in a viewscreen on his chest. The ESP Box enables Zola to see and hear by psychic means, as well as to control his genetic creations telepathically.

Status

Citizenship

Swiss

Marital Status

Single

Occupation

Biochemist, Scientist

Origin

Origin

Mutate

Place of Birth

Weisshorn Mountain, Switzerland

First appearance

Captain America #208
(April, 1977)

History

A rogue geneticist, Zola studied under Wladyslav Shinsky. 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 in some papers from the Deviants.

Later, Zola received secret aid from Phaeder and his son Maelstrom in developing genetic advancements.

After this, 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".

Zola aided the Nazi scientist Baron Zemo in creating a series of androids which could expand from the size of a doll to over six feet tall.

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. One account shows that in 1944 Zola had already transferred his mind into his current, ESP box headed body.

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

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.

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.)

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, you will become... a God... Zola will see to that") . It appears that Zemo did not for some reason undergo the process.

The Red Skull has financed Zola's experiments since the end of WWII, 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. Captain America was captured, but he managed to escape.

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.

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 die in it.

Unexplicably, Zola survived and fought Irish super heroine 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.

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.

However, Zola is still at large, probably still performing his experiments.

Powers and Abilities

Powers

• 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
    

Abilities

Expert Biochemist and Android maker

Strength level

Arnim Zola possesses the normal human strength of a male athlete in his prime, despite the fact that he does not exercise and is almost a century-old.

Weaknesses

None known.

Paraphernalia

Equipment: Zola deploys mental commands to his creations in the form of energy bolts of approximately 100,00 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.

• 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)
  

Transportation: None known.
Weapons: None known.

Notes

• No special notes.
  

Trivia

• No trivia.

See Also

• Appearances of Arnim Zola (Earth-616)
• Character Gallery: Arnim Zola (Earth-616)
• Fan-Art Gallery: Arnim Zola (Earth-616)
• Quotations by Arnim Zola (Earth-616)

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Links and References

• None.