Arnim Zola

Arnim Zola - By: Josh Nizzi

**Arnim Zola** was a Nazi scientist who would later become part of the special research division HYDRA during the second World War. During the war, Zola created the weapons that would fuel HYDRA's rise to power, and directly served under the Red Skull himself. Zola would be captured by the Allied forces in 1945, and after the war would be apart of the new organization SHIELD as part of Operation Paperclip. He used his place within SHIELD to rebuild HYDRA from the ground up, recruiting many people to his cause. In 1972 his body died, but his mind was saved by being uploaded on numerous computers from that era. Zola later assisted the modern HYDRA in Project Insight, and in a failed attempt to kill Captain America and the Black Widow, resulting in his original "brain" being destroyed. To the fortune of Zola, HYDRA had already found a way to upload his mind onto a more current network, while leaving his original self destroyed as part of a plan to convince Captain America and his allies of Zola's apparent demise. Zola was equipped with a robotic body which had been improved over the years from designs that Zola had created from World War II. After the failure of Project Insight, and the major blows to HYDRA's operations, Zola remained in the shadows, leaving the world to believe he was dead, while he laid the foundation of scientific works that would bring about the return of the power HYDRA once knew, leading Zola to serve under HYDRA's true leader once again, the Red Skull.

## Biography

### World War II

A biochemist working for the Nazi deep science division during World War II, HYDRA, **Arnim Zola** was a man of many designs. However, unlike his fellow scientist Erskine, Zola's designs both ignored morality and were often impractical or impossible to design. This all changed when his commander, Johann Schmidt also known as the Red Skull, recovered the ancient artifact known as the Tesseract, which was in fact an Infinity Stone. While they didn't understand the full potential of the Stone, Zola's experiments on it allowed its use as a power source to create all of his designs, designs that would forever change the world.

With Zola's suits, weapons, vehicles and equipment, HYDRA became more powerful then ever, and they quickly abandoned the Nazi cause, using a Cosmic Cube powered turret to destroy the Nazi officers sent to inspect their progress. While Zola was conducting experiments on various captured American soldiers including Sergeant Bucky Barnes, to try and recreate the Super-Soldier Serum, the American Super-Soldier Captain America arrived at their base to rescue the soldiers. While Captain America rescued the prisoners and fought the guards, the Red Skull took off in a single man rocket, but not before giving Arnim Zola the keys to his specially modified automobile, mercifully allowing his top scientist to escape the facility.

Captain America and his Howling Commandos progressively managed to destroy most major HYDRA facilities and their operations, preventing Zola any real ability to work on his scientific projects. Eventually he had to be moved via a train, which Captain America and his sidekick Bucky attempted to invade. In the ensuing battle, Bucky was thrown from the train and Captain America was rendered mostly useless by armored soldiers wielding the Tesseract fueled weapons, though Zola was captured by Allied forces, and interrogated to the nature of HYDRA's plans and locations.

### Post World War II

The following year, still held captive after Rogers' final mission, Zola became cellmates with Doctor Johann Fennhoff. He approached him expressing interest in his work on psychological manipulation and asked for insight on a possible project, which would lead to the creation of the Faustus Method. As part of Project Paperclip, Zola was recruited to work for SHIELD, only to use his position to plant the seeds of HYDRA's rebirth within the organization. When he was diagnosed with a terminal illness in 1972, he transferred his consciousness into over two hundred computers from that time period located in a secret bunker at Camp Lehigh, the same facility where Rogers had undergone military training.

He developed the Zola Algorithm to be used by HYDRA in SHIELD's Project Insight, which was designed to identify and target potential threats to HYDRA's interests. He was eventually tracked down by the revived Rogers and his new associate Natasha Romanoff, and began relating to them much of what HYDRA had done in the years following World War II, as well as his own personal involvement. This was nothing more than a stalling tactic, and the deception was revealed as soon as Romanoff was alerted to an incoming missile targeted upon the base. Zola slammed the doors shut on the pair, but his attempt to have Captain America and Black Widow entombed with him failed. The missile ravaged the original equipment that sustained his mind while his visitors hid from the blast in a service duct in the floor. Arnim Zola however survived the blast as his consciousness was already downloaded into a mechanical body that was assembled in a SHIELD foundry using his original blueprint; and decided to keep a low profile since the Avengers thought he was destroyed.

## Powers and Abilities

* **Computer System:** With SHIELD's resources, Zola was able to build an entire computer system which his brilliant mind was uploaded into as an artificially intelligent user interface. Though Zola's body died in 1972, his mind continued to live in cyberspace. By the early 21st Century, Zola's system had evolved with the modern technology, while this original "brain" was still operational. Zola's mind was able to be transferred via the internet into robotic bodies, allowing him a form of immortality. If one of his bodies is destroyed, his mind is able to transfer into a spare body. As an Artificial Intelligence, Zola retains all his memories and skills as one of the greatest genetic engineers in history, as well as one of the worlds leading experts on robotics.