HYDRA

## **History**

### **Early History**

In prehuman times, the Silurians ruled the Earth, though they departed either into space of underground, they left behind them technology which would later be used by Hydra. The Kree then arrived on this planet and began their experiments, resulting in the creation of the Inhumans. The Inhumans led by Alveus, rebelled, kicking the Inhumans off of Earth, but Alveus was seen as too ambitious and was exiled by a Monolith to the planet of Maveth.  A cult of worshippers of Alveus formed with the intent of trying to bring him back to Earth. Over time the cult would sacrifice people to the Monolith, where Alveus would feed on them.

### **The Spear: 2,620 B.C.E.**

In 2,620 B.C.E. the Brood attacked Egypt, killing the Pharaoh and were defeated by En Sabah Nur and Moon Knight. According to legend this led to the founding of the Brotherhood of the Shield, meant to protect Earth from alien threats, while the Spear, its counterpart was intended to strike back, only to break apart and leave for the East, allegedly under the Priest Imhotep.

### **The Spear: 114 A.D.**

The Spear ended up in the Han Dynasty under the ownership of Zhang Heng in 114 AD, who saved the Earth from consumption by a Celestial by suggesting it gestate within the Sun itself. The Spear was still used along with the Shield, but eventually broke apart as the worshippers of Alveus, also known as Hive, took over the Spear. The Shield initially called the new form of the Spear “The Beast”.

### **Hydra: 1347**

Amidst the Black Death, members of the Spear form a criminal network to rob devastated Cities. They form a secret society which comes to be known as Hydra.

### **Scorpia: 15th Century**

In the 15th Century, a group of pirates formed an organization known as Scorpia which would clash with the multiple lineages of the hero known as the Phantom. Members of Scorpia formed around a cult dedicated to the potential revival of Mathayus the Scorpion King. Scorpia began to be infiltrated by members aware of and believing in the connection to the Spear and to Alveus, leading to the formation of the cult of the Scorpion.

### **Scorpia: 1612**

Scorpia was believed to have been destroyed in 1612 by the mysterious man known as the Phantom. The Phantom killed Scorpia's leader Brunel de Gottschalk in mortal combat. The Phantom then destroyed Scorpia's castle by blowing up its gunpowder room and so destroyed the stronghold from which they had carried out their campaigns of terror. However Scorpia survived in secret and it established strongholds in East Africa in the early 1800s, a stronghold in the Suez in 1818, and one in China circa 1898.

### **Scorpia: 1839**

In 1839,In Gloucestershire England, the cult of Scorpia sacrificed Lord Manzini to the Monolith. Hydra scientists later tried studying the Monolith with no success. They accidentally caused it to liquify into a puddle. They found a way to split it into pieces with several members being granted each piece.

### **Hydra: 1850s**

The Phantom thwarted the schemes of Hydra and dismantled the organization(*The Phantom: The Hydra Monster*). Members of Hydra fall into joining Scorpia.

## **Scorpia under Baron Wolfgang Von Strucker**

Baron Wolfgang Von Strucker, the founder of the Modern Hydra, was born in the late 19th century to a Prussian noble family who moved to Strucker Castle in Bavaria, following the Franco-Prussian War. Wolfgang became a fencing champion, but received scars on his face in an accident. Wolfgang fought for Germany during World War I. On the battlefield he witnessed an appearance by the time traveling Monetary Princess, an object which appears at intervals through time and carries knowledge of human history. He touched it and saw his future as leader of Hydra.

Post War, Strucker worked to make his vision a reality. He seeked out Scorpia and willingly joined them, having inherited great wealth. He quickly rose in the ranks to the extent where he gained the title of leader as “The Scorpion”.

Another member of Scorpia was the daughter of Italian Criminal Mastermind and aristocrat Count Luchino Nefaria. Her mother died giving birth to her and Nefaria wanted her to lead a respectable life, so she gave the child to a wealthy financier and employee named Byron Frost and his wife Loretta Frost, who were walls tree financiers and members of Hydra. She was raised as Whitney Frost. An attack from an enemy of Hydra left her face paralyzed. She took to wearing a mask to both conceal the disfigurement, protect her identity as a wealthy socialite and(unknown to her), hide her identity from her powerful father Count Nefaria.

Strucker grew power by selling weapons to all sides in major conflicts such as the Bolsheviks in Russia, Fascists in Italy and Germany, Japan, and other wars.

When Adenoid Hynkel rose to power, Strucker joined the Nazi Party, providing the resources of Scorpia. He found allied in Japan’s Black Dragon, an infamous Yakuza group.

While staying at a hotel, Hynkel complained about the lack of effective soldiers. He pointed to a Bellhop and insisted he could transform him into a better soldier than any of his followers and set out to do just that with Strucker's help. The Bellhop Johann Schmidt would become an effective member of Hydra, even usurping control from Strucker as he focused on his activities as leader of Scorpia. Schmidt was ultimately chosen to be experimented on by the Super Soldier Serum, transforming him into the feared "Red Skull". Captain America would be created to counter the threat of Schmidt as the Red Skull.

### **Scorpia: 1934**

In 1934, Strucker encountered his first real obstacle in Don Winslow, a member of Naval intelligence. Strucker had been inducted to kill a man who happened to be a friend of his for his initiation into Scorpia.  Winslow’s research into the pirate crew which killed the new of a gunboat reveals the existence of Scorpia and Strucker as its leader, the Scorpion. Strucker captured and tortured Winslow’s friend, mentor and superior Michael Splendor as a warning, leaving him paralyzed waist down. This only incited Winslow to fight the Scorpion even harder.

Strucker fought Winslow throughout the 1930’s. Usually destroying any technology to avoid it providing an advantage to the allies. Strucker’s many assassins employed were often given codenames based on animals including the Sinister fakir, the Spider, the Hawk, the magician , the Crocodile(who used the floating sky City of Laputa as a base and had a grudge against Americans, which he killed in the South Pacific), Dr.Centaur, a mad scientist who invented a paralyzing ray. He also had Dr.Q, who tried to destroy the Isthmus Canal, and the criminal mastermind the Dwarf, and his main agents and assassins, the Duchess and Dr. Thor.

Scorpia agents stationed in Metropolis captured a man that they believed to be Don Winslow. To the Scorpion’s amazement, the individual who had been captured, although almost physically identical to Don Winslow, was not Don Winslow. Rather he was a European nobleman named Count Borg. The brain injury of Count Borg gave him partial amnesia. It also caused a personality change, although no one knew this at the time. The Scorpion took advantage of the Count’s amnesia and also used the black lotus drug to make Borg into a loyal member of Scorpia. The Scorpion was amused that someone who so closely resembled Don Winslow worked for Scorpia. The Scorpion found Count Borg invaluable as advisor and a strategist, and so used him accordingly; although he eventually planned to use Borg to discredit Winslow.

Baron von Strucker’s early support of Hynkel paid off when he was given a special status as part of the new German Intelligence service under Kemmler. Strucker persuaded the Reich to begin a super soldier program, to push for new technologies in armaments, and to award certain companies lucrative government contracts. Strucker used Hynkel and Kemmler’s fascination with the occult to lay the foundations for connections to various criminal organizations in the Middle East and East Asia with a nominal religious and occult façade.

With effectively unlimited authority in Nazi Germany, Schmidt began to build secret bases around the world, and create untraceable fiscal reserves. He built a "wolf-pack" of Nazi u-boats whose raids were used to fill Schmidt's personal coffers. Making contingency plans in case of the defeat of Nazi Germany, he established a secret headquarters on a small island (called "Exile Island"), and populated it with several top Nazi leaders, soldiers, and their families***.***

### **Scorpia: 1934-1935**

In 1934-1935, Baron von Strucker was not in Germany very often as he spent much of the time in the Far East*,* encouraging Japan’s imperial ambition and militarism. He also did his part to destabilize China, realizing that it would be fertile ground for conflict between Japan and Russia. To this end he supported various conflicting Chinese warlords while aiding Japanese conquests of Chinese territories. He found ways to profit from the chaos. One of his more famous exploits in China was when he supplied the ambitious Shiwan Khan with munitions in return for oil concessions. His main purpose was to supply Khan so that he would fight against other Chinese warlords and the Japanese, the oil money was gravy.

### **Scorpia: 1937**

In 1937 the secret of Scorpia’s existence as an organization currently operating in the modern world rather than a forgotten secret society was publicly exposed by a college student named Diana Palmer. Palmer had been an Olympic gold diver in the Games of 1936 and had been romantically linked with millionaire Christopher Walker. During an interview with a local newspaper in Westchester, Metropolis, Miss Palmer revealed that she had uncovered the existence of a secret criminal organization named Scorpia. She intended to write a paper on the history of this organization and also uncover the current activities of this organization.

Strucker assigned one of his best men, Karabi, to take care of the threat to Scorpia. Miss Palmer did not respond to intimidation. So the next step was to silence her. However Karabi was entranced by her beauty and so kidnapped her instead of arranging for her to die in an accident. Unfortunately for Scorpia, Diana Palmer was also loved by the man known as The Phantom, The Ghost Who Walks, whose ancestor had also fought against Scorpia. The Phantom defeated Karabi in single combat. The island fortress was invaded by the United States Marines. Karabi and several of the Scorpia agents were sent to prison; fortunately for Scorpia, Karabi had destroyed all documentation prior to the invasion.

### **Birth of Modern Hydra: 1938**

In 1938, Baron Von Strucker and Hydra funded Alexei Luthor and Ultra-Humanite's plot to start war in Europe which was halted by Superman. Baron Strucker’s long-range plans to plunge the world into a great conflict were reaching crescendo. Italy and Germany were building their military forces with the express purpose of acquiring “lost” territories. Japan was building its military forces to further their imperial ambition which they believed would be beneficial for all of Asia under the Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere.

Unfortunately during this period, Scorpia came under attack on several fronts. Because of the exposure of the Scorpia name and organization by Diana Palmer, Strucker resurrected an organization that had been an offshoot of Scorpia. Ironically it had been shut down by a man also known as the Phantom in the 1850’s. Although the Phantom was supposed to be immortal, Strucker rather doubted this, believing that the Phantoms were several people, probably part of an organization of similarly costumed men that gave credence to an idea of an immortal defender of justice. His realization of this fact gave him inspiration for his new organization, instead of one irreplaceable man, there would be many replaceable men. Madame Masque had become one the key personnel in his organization. She would travel around the world being a liaison between the various organizations of Scorpia.

Strucker took the original structure of Hydra and altered each section’s function, assigning a totemic animal to represent each section. He originally intended ten animals but the resources to fund them were lacking and so he created only five.

**Chameleon:** information gathering, espionage, and identity subterfuge. This section was led by Gustav Fiers, who held the alias of the Gentleman. Fiers worked well with the Red Skull despite lacking his beliefs. He instead believed the weak existed only to be useful to the strong. He was thwarted in his schemes by Dr. George Williams and responded by killing his wife with a bomb, making Williams pursue him even more. Fiers trained Dmitri Smerdyakov into becoming a master of disguise as the Chameleon. He also arranged his brother, the Finisher to kill SHIELD agents Richard and Mary Parker. He would later clash with Spider-Man and be killed as a result of a grand scheme involving the Sinister Six.

**Serpent:** assassination, strike force teams, and sabotage. The Serpent would eventually evolve into the Serpent Society, a group of Hydra loyal snake themed super villains before finally transforming once more into the terrorist organization Cobra.

**Scorpion:** enforcement, armed action, and invasion forces. In reality, the "Head" of the other parts and represented by Strucker as the Scorpion, and the rest of Scorpia.

**Octopus**: commercial criminal activities such as drugs, prostitution, and illegal arms sales. The head of this section was also dubbed "The Octopus" and remained a mysterious figure which fought the Spirit(though his name was evidently Chase and he was a banking magnate), until he was killed by the Flame, leaving only his gloves to recognize him. It would later evolve into Spectre under Ernst Stravo Blofeld.

**Vulture:** organized savaging such as looting, piracy, hijacking, and black market dealings. It was destroyed by the Phantom shortly after its creation but later revived as a crime cartel and eventually led by Marcos Xavier, who commanded the organization with a white robe and hood concealing his identity, due to the influence of hate groups it had allied with and with members belonging to such groups. It was dismantled by the Martian Manhunter in 1966.

**Falcon:** The Falcon was the head of the section dealing with aerial transportation/military action. Osterman was the leader of the Falcon, also called the Falcon himself. He resided in the Phillippines. Was later forced to flee to avoid capture when Don Winslow chased Strucker to his base in 1939.

Strucker allegedly tried to recruit other groups such as the Court of Owls, the Foot and the Hand with no success.

Shortly after the reformed Hydra began operations, a moment of carelessness by members of the Vulture section based in San Fransokyo led to the Phantom discovering that Hydra had been reborn. As he had with Scorpia, the Phantom took an interest in destroying Hydra. The Phantom’s efforts crippled the nascent Vulture section by disrupting its operations and exposing its members, causing them to commit suicide or become captured by the police; even the section head of Vulture was captured by the police. The section head or current “Vulture” had to be silenced in prison. The Phantom also hurt the Scorpia organization as a whole by this campaign against Hydra since Strucker was depending on the funds that Vulture would have provided. After this section was destroyed, Strucker altered the organization’s pledge from "You cannot defy us and live. We are all powerful. Destroy one branch, two will take its place" to “Immortal HYDRA! We shall never be destroyed! Cut off one limb and two more shall take its place!”

Strucker had set up Hydra to run independently of Scorpia, as one of the major sources of intelligence and financial resources for Scorpia. The separate sections of Hydra thrived autonomously from Scorpia. Scorpia’s main organization, however, was beleaguered.

One of the most persistent and damaging campaigns against Scorpia was Don Winslow’s obsessive efforts to destroy the organization.

### **1939**

In 1939 Winslow dealt Scorpia a major blow by removing two of the Scorpion’s top lieutenants. First of all Winslow captured the Scorpion’s main advisor Count Borg. Count Borg was a dead ringer for Winslow. The Scorpion had always intended, when Borg’s usefulness as an advisor had ended, to use the Count to discredit Winslow. However a blow to the head during his capture undid most of Count Borg’s pro-Scorpia conditioning. Borg and Winslow turned the tables on the Scorpion, and Winslow impersonated Count Borg in order to infiltrate Scorpia. Cho-San, the head of Scorpia‘s Asian operations, which was based in San Fransokyo’s Chinatown, was forced to abandon his headquarters due to it being raided by San Fransokyo law enforcement forces and Naval Intelligence operatives. Winslow was abetted in this operation against the San Fransokyo headquarters by Count Borg and Lotus. Lotus was the “ward” of Cho-San, an orphaned Eurasian girl originally raised to be a friend and companion to Madame Masque. When she had blossomed into young womanhood, Cho-San had convinced The Scorpion to allow Cho-San to train her to become a valuable member of Scorpia. In reality he planned to make her his wife, but Lotus did not love Cho-San, she instead loved Count Borg. Despite her upbringing Lotus had never believed in the goals of Scorpia and when Count Borg recovered his lost morality, she planned to leave Scorpia with him.

Baron Strucker happened to be at Cho-San’s headquarters when it was raided, he barely escaped capture. However he took Lotus with him as a captive and possible hostage, kept in a form of mind control with the Black Lotus Plant. As it was, with Cho-san’s operation dismantled Strucker had to lay low in America for a few months. Meanwhile, without von Strucker’s advice, Hynkel was acting precipitously and begun his campaign of conquest before Germany was actually completely ready.

With Don Winslow hot on his trail, Strucker fled America, taking passage on an ocean liner named the *Transconia*. Strucker and his “ward” Lotus posed as a German paleontologist named von Hollenbeck and his daughter. Don Winslow became suspicious and revealed him(allegedly because his German accent was terrible, but this is false. He simply recognized him). As Winslow and his aide Red Pennington searched von Hollenbeck’s room, Strucker and Lotus disembarked from the ship onto Alola. The bodies of the real Dr. Hollenbeck and his daughter were discovered in a trunk in their stateroom.

Winslow and the Scorpion had a confrontation in Alola in which Don Winslow rescued Lotus but failed to capture the Scorpion. The Scorpion was aided by a woman whom Martinek called his top female operative, Tasmia. The Scorpion fled Alola, Lotus gave Winslow the information that the Scorpion would undoubtedly travel to the Philippines because the one of the Scorpions main sources of wealth was in the Philippines. Don Winslow and Red Pennington followed the Scorpion’s trail.

In Manila, Strucker used the alias Señor Rufo and once again confronted Winslow but avoided capture. However the trip to the Philippines was costly. Due to Winslow’s interference, the Scorpion was forced to divest himself of a lucrative gold mining venture, and Osterman, a.k.a. The Falcon, one of the Scorpion’s lieutenants, was forced to flee to avoid capture. The Falcon was the head of the section dealing with aerial transportation/military action.

### **1939-1940**

During 1939-40, Baron Strucker spent much of his time traveling back and forth between Germany, Japan, and the United States. His mission in the third nation was two-fold, to maintain the United States’ isolationist stance so that the United States would not interfere in the coming European and Asian war. Strucker knew that if the United States mobilized for a war effort, it would only be a matter of time before the war ended. He wanted the war to continue for a few years so that he could profit from it. Also he believed that the new Fascist states in Europe and Asia would provide years of steady income as Scorpia aided various rebel groups inside the totalitarian nations states.

Strucker discovered, to his dismay, that Madame Masque was infatuated with the Red Skull. Serina had adopted the name the Mask of Death as a compliment to the Red Skull’s Masque of the Red Death like comparison. Strucker loved her like a daughter and kept her far away from that psychopath by placing her in charge of the Scorpia operation based in the United States. She established a hideout near Vinewood.

However her efforts to have Scorpia steal a formula for an extremely potent poisonous gas went awry and she was captured by Don Winslow. Although she begged him not do so, Don Winslow removed her mask, earning her eternal enmity for exposing her paralyzed face.

Scorpia and the Japanese Navy sabotaged and attacked American vessels traveling between Philippines and Hawaii. Scorpia had contacts with the natives of this island who were part of the cult of the Feathered Octopus(Which had encountered Doc Savage). Members of Scorpia’s propaganda branch were able to convince the natives of a mystical connection with Scorpia's Octopus division as fellow worshippers.

Once again Don Winslow was dispatched to interfere in Scorpia’s plans. However this island base had served its purpose by then but the Japanese were unwilling to let go of their “conquered” territory so in fact by removing the Japanese influence Winslow was doing the Scorpion a favor.

### **1941-1945**

In 1941, Strucker kept shuttling back between Japan and Germany. His main failure was in influencing Japan’s wartime policy was delaying the attack on the United States, especially without a prior declaration of war. He knew that this would impel the United States into an immediate declaration of war and a following immediate mobilization. After failing to convince the Japanese to delay their attack on the United States, he also failed to convince them that they needed to follow this up with an immediate attack on the West Coast of the United States, especially in California, Alaska, and Washington to cripple the naval yards. He also wished to seal the Isthmus Canal and slow down trans-oceanic travel. However the Japanese military was divided on the question of the fortitude of the Americans and on their industrial capability. They were convinced that the attack on Pearl Harbor would both cripple and demoralize the Americans. Ironically, both Nicky Fury and Don Winslow were present at the attack.

Strucker convinced some of his Black Dragon allies that a direct attack on the West Coast of the United States could cripple America for years. This operation was thwarted, once again by Don Winslow. The failure of this operation made Baron von Strucker unwelcome for a time in Japan. He realized that the war was about to get hot and the best place for him to be was either in the United States or Germany. Since he was actively being sought by some very determined people in the United States, he opted for Germany, realizing he would be stuck there for the duration of the war. He assumed from the outset that the war would drag on for years and end with a stalemate between the United States, Russia, and Germany. He did not believe that Japan would be conquered but thought that it would lose all of its acquired territories. Since Madame Masque was out of harm’s way in a jail in the United States, Strucker opted to travel to Germany, believing he could avoid being personally involved in the actual conflict for some time.

Strucker discovered that when he returned to Germany that the Red Skull had gained a great deal of power and influence in the Third Reich—he was more feared than the Gestapo in some quarters. According to rumors that Strucker’s Scorpia agents in Germany had gathered, the Red Skull had gained his influence by terrorizing and blackmailing various Reich officials. Luthor had known that the Red Skull was a bit of a psychopath but had not known the extent of his madness.

Strucker was appalled by the Holocaust. Although he realized that hundreds, perhaps even thousands of people were killed during the wars he engineered, he considered this an unavoidable price to pay for man’s natural state of conflict. He believed that conflict was a form of natural selection that made mankind stronger by weeding out the weaker people. Conflict also spurred mankind’s technological advance. However the Final Solution as promulgated by Schmidt was something that even Strucker regarded with horror. Collateral damage as the consequence of war was one thing, but the methodical execution of millions of people was something else entirely, so far as Strucker was concerned. Von Strucker’s tacit disapproval of the policy of the Final Solution was used by the Red Skull to erode Baron von Strucker’s influence with Hynkel. The Red Skull had ambitions to succeed Hynkel and to rule the world under a National Socialist government. Although he harbored some gratitude for Baron von Strucker for having rescued him from his non-existence as a bellboy, he also regarded Strucker as a rival and a potential threat to his eventual domination of the Third Reich.

Shortly after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, before the United States had even mobilized towards their Europe First policy, a group of Allied commandos were causing havoc in the Greater Reich. Stationed in England, they were airdropped behind the lines to carry out sabotage missions. There were three such squadrons, all under the command of a Captain Sawyer. The group that irritated Hynkel the most was known officially as the 1st Attack Squadron. The 1st Attack Squadron was under the command of Sgt. Nicholas Fury. This squadron was unofficially dubbed The Howling Commandos.

Although The Howling Commandos were actually insignificant threats so far as the war efforts of the Reich was concerned for some reason Hynkel became obsessed with them. He felt that the true damage that they did was to make the Reich look ridiculous. The Red Skull agreed that they should be removed; however having them exterminated by expending a great deal of manpower to hunt them down would not serve the greater good of the Reich.  The Red Skull convinced Hynkel that it would be best to humiliate the Howling Commandos and their leader before the world before they were killed. He suggested that Baron von Strucker be given the assignment to destroy Nick Fury and his Howling Commandos. In this way the Red Skull was able to give the Baron an assignment that could end in failure and so bring about his disgrace, it would also put him in harm‘s way, so there was a chance that that the Baron could become a casualty of the war and so be removed in this fashion.

Unable to decline this assignment, Strucker issued a challenge to Nicholas Fury to meet with him on the island of Norsehaven in the English Channel. Fury accepted once he had been goaded into it although he defied orders to attend this meeting. Before their fight they drank a toast. Strucker had Fury’s cup filled with a narcotic to dull Fury’s senses. Strucker was able to defeat Nick Fury handily. Pictures were taken of the defeated Fury. Because of the location of the fight Strucker was unable to capture Fury for the Reich. Strucker barely escaped with his life as the Howling Commandos tracked down their leader. However films of the fight and still photos were circulated throughout Germany, giving Strucker a boost in popularity and giving the Reich a propaganda boon.

Strucker hoped that the humiliation of Fury coupled with Fury’s disobedience of direct orders would cause the United States military to remove Fury from duty and disband the Attack Squadrons. However his commander granted Fury the chance to redeem himself by challenging von Strucker to a rematch. Although Strucker had no desire to do so, Hynkel was insistent, as he believed that it would be a great show for the Baron to defeat the upstart American twice in a row.

The rematch was held in France and Fury refused to drink a toast, realizing that the wine had been drugged. He easily beat Strucker in hand-to-hand combat. Strucker had planned for this contingency, and a squadron of SS descended on the scene of the fight. However Fury and his men escaped capture and published their photos of the Baron’s defeat in various newspapers.

Infuriated with Baron von Strucker, Hynkel gave him the task of capturing Fury and his Commandos alive so that they could be made examples of before the world.

Fury and his crew were given an audacious assignment: to capture Adenoid Hynkel. Through Scorpia agents in England,Strucker learned of this and planned accordingly. One of Hynkel’s doubles was assigned to be a decoy. Fury and the Howling Commando’s took the bait. Strucker managed to capture Fury and his squad member Izzy Cohen. The other members of the Howling Commando’s captured the decoy Hynkel. Fury and Cohen managed to escape, once again humiliating von Strucker in Hynkel's eyes. Strucker really began hating Fury, even more than he hated Don Winslow. The Howling Commandos also discovered Strucker’s contingency plan; the decoy Hynkel had been equipped with a time bomb to detonate in England. The decoy was disarmed but killed himself with cyanide.

Strucker formed his own specially trained operatives to capture Fury and the Howling Commandos. They were selected from the SS and also from the ranks of German Scorpia agents. They were known as Baron von Strucker’s Blitzkrieg Squadron.

As the Blitzkrieg Squadron was training, Nick Fury and his Howling Commandos succeeded in proving that they were more than just nuisances, they were a true threat to the war effort. In a joint operation with the American costumed hero Captain America, Fury and the Howling Commandos stopped a major Nazi operation. There were plans for a tunnel from France to England under the Channel; this operation was completely destroyed by Captain America and the Howling Commandos.

Once the Blitzkrieg Squadron had been trained, Strucker plotted Fury’s capture. He constructed a false V-2 Rocket installation on the French coast, giving out that it was equipped with a new bombsight that would allow the German Army to land rockets in England with pinpoint accuracy. As Strucker had expected, Fury and his Commando’s were sent to destroy the base. The Blitzkrieg Squadron nearly captured Fury and his Commandos, but the Americans’ luck held true and they avoided capture and destroyed the false V2 base. It never occurred to Strucker that Fury, a man of little education, could out strategize him.

Since this failure further eroded Strucker’s standing with Hynkel, he offered to have his Blitzkrieg Squadron prove their worth to the Reich. They went into Scotland to free captured Luftwaffe pilots. Fury and his Commandos showed up to stop this jailbreak, but Strucker managed to free twenty-three of the prisoners and get away without being captured.

Von Strucker and the Blitzkrieg Squadron next encountered Fury and the Howling Commandos when the Commandos were sent to France to deal a severe blow to Nazi gun emplacements on the beaches of Normandy. The Commandos were not alone on this mission but had been jointed by another of the Strike Squadrons, nicknamed McGiveney’s Marauders. The Blitzkrieg Squadron managed to separate the Fury and McGiveney from their squads but failed to capture them. They did, however, prevent the American commandos from doing serious damage to the gun emplacements.

Because of his constant failure to capture Nick Fury, Hynkel doubted von Strucker’s commitment to the National Socialist cause and began to doubt that von Strucker had the will to do what was necessary to achieve victory over the enemies of the Reich. He ordered von Strucker to go to Cherbeaux in occupied France and, if the Resistance agents there refused to give themselves up, to execute every citizen of the town. Fury confronted Strucker and made a deal with him: Fury would fight in personal combat with Strucker once more if Strucker evacuated Cherbeaux before Hynkel had it destroyed. Strucker did so, but his battle with Fury ended in stalemate, and the two became separated. When Hynkel learned that Strucker had evacuated the citizens of Cherbeaux, he ordered the Gestapo to find and execute von Strucker.

Strucker had to flee Germany and turned to the most unlikely of allies. Strucker contacted the Red Skull and informed him that he was well aware of the Skull’s plans to rule a post-Hykel German Reich and offered to aid him in this. Strucker informed the Skull that he had very solid contacts with a Japanese organization that would shortly control all of Japan. Strucker could convince them to support the Skull when he made his move to become the Führer. The Skull would then be able to quickly consolidate his power base.

Schmidt, the Red Skull, agreed to help Strucker since he had a residual feeling of gratitude for him and because Schmidt believed that Strucker could eventually prove useful to the Red Skull’s postwar plans. Red Skull would assume control of Hydra in Germany and turns against Hynkel.

Freed of his confinement in Germany, Strucker once again took control of the Scorpia organization. Although he still believed that conflict was man’s natural state, he had come to believe that war was too precious a commodity to be left in the hand of maniacs. Maniacs such as Adenoid Hynkel and Fearless Leader misused their military might and carried out crimes against humanity, in effect squandering the benefits that conflict brought to humanity.

Strucker had come to realize that in order for conflict to be used most effectively, it needed to be managed by sane, rational people. It is to this end he decided to guide Scorpia to become the organization that would control conflict in the world. To ensure that ultimate control would rest in the hands of Scorpia, he knew he needed the ultimate weapon. He was determined to create an atomic bomb before the United States or Germany. To this end he transformed one of the more modern of the Scorpia island fortresses into a scientific complex. He recruited scientists from around the world by telling them what they wanted to hear, to pacifistic scientists he claimed he was working to end the war, to others he said he was working to crush forces of fascism, communism or democracy.

Strucker created a special think tank for scientists with innovative ideas called Advanced Idea Mechanics or A. I.M. He believed that this could be a way to create super weapons, giving Scorpia the upper hand in the coming arms race and so being able to dictate to nation states such as the United States, post war Europe or Russia. A.I.M. would eventually grow a branch similar to Hydra's forces called H.I.V.E.

The complex was shielded from aerial sightings by camouflage but to maintain the secrecy of Scorpia Island, some of the more zealous members of Scorpia’s security forces sank any vessel coming near the island and prevent any possibly landings. The sunken vessels were from the United States and also from Japan, despite of Scorpia’s close association with the Yakuza sponsored secret societies in Japan. Both Japan and the United States sent squadrons to investigate what was sinking their vessels, believing that their particular enemy had established a beachhead on this island.

The United States sent Captain Simon Savage and his group of commandos nicknamed the Leatherneck Raiders. Japan sent a special squadron called the Samurai Squadron. Both groups made it to Scorpia Island unscathed.

On the island, each group were set upon by and slowed by traps set up to discourage visitors. Eventually the main bodies of both groups fell into pitfalls that ended up in a series of tunnels which would eventually lead to a Scorpia imprisonment center. The leaders of the two groups Captain Simon Savage and Sgt. Joe Morita were separated from their men as they remained free of the pitfalls and avoided other traps. Each made their solitary way towards the Scorpia complex. Within the underground passages, the two groups of soldiers eventually met up and fought each other, with the Raiders gaining the advantage, but eventually they were both captured and imprisoned by the forces of Scorpia

On the surface, Savage and Morita squared off. Though an even match, Savage managed to knock Morita down long enough to convince him that without their squadrons, they would need to team up against the common enemy.

After another brief scuffle between the two squad leaders, Strucker forced them both to run a gauntlet to decide whether they could be worthy additions to Scorpia (after some brainwashing, of course). Despite several disagreements, Morita and Savage were forced to work together to survive the series of attacks. Meanwhile, the members of the Samurai Squadron and the Leatherneck Raiders joined forces to break free from their prisons, though tensions remained high. The two groups managed to confront Strucker himself, but not before he could send a squadron of Scorpia agents to attack their exhausted leaders.

Savage and Morita managed to regain their wits and fight off their attackers, but Strucker managed to trap the two groups, summon reinforcements, and line them up in front of a firing squad. Before Strucker could give the order, however, Savage and Morita broke in and freed their soldiers. Rather than let his research be captured by the Allies or the Japanese, Strucker set up the self-destruct sequence on the island and escaped in his own private submarine. The Raiders and Samurai Squadron managed to make it to another submarine and escape as well, though not without some fighting over who was in command of the vessel.

Ultimately, the two groups parted in peace, as the Americans brought the Samurai Squadron back to their rendezvous ship. Savage and Morita shook hands, hoping that they'd one day meet again as friends and allies.

Following the destruction of Scorpia Island, Strucker was in a state of depression for a while and let various factions inside of Scorpia fragment and splinter off into new groups. One of these was led by Baron Zemo, who took control of Advance Idea Mechanics. Scorpia’s war-time profits had peaked as mobilization in the various countries involved in WWII also peaked. Scorpia’s traditional commerce—piracy—was also rather lean since merchant vessels now tended to be escorted by heavily armed naval vessels.

Strucker realized that this war had reached the zenith of its usefulness, there was little more profit to be made from it and little more technological achievement that would be wrought since Germany was on the defensive. He made a decision to end the war as rapidly as he could. To this end he negotiated with Hynkel to return to Germany. Strucker believed that if he were in Germany he could give Hynkel military advice that would bring about an even quicker Allied victory.

However, Hynkel was still obsessed with Nick Fury and insisted that Baron von Strucker take care of this unfinished business. Strucker located Nick Fury and put in place a plan to destroy Nick Fury by subjecting him to a special hallucinogenic drug. Strucker captured Fury in Africa and subjected him to the drug, but he was rescued by the Howling Commandos and recovered.

Hynkel sent von Strucker to investigate weird lights in the village of Gruenstadt. Hynkel believed that the weird lights were part of a treacherous plan to signal the Allies. Hynkel had Arnim Zola, one of the Red Skull’s trusted men accompany von Strucker. What they discovered astounded them. A small group of aliens had crash-landed outside the village. The aliens were parasitic in nature and had infected a good portion of the village. They were also predators and had devoured those people that they were unable to infect. Strucker’s Blitzkrieg Squadron and the contingent that Arnim Zola had brought with him fought against the parasitic aliens. Despite the aliens’ superior technology, Strucker’s and Zola’s men won out because of superior numbers, although they took great losses. While unidentified, these were likely Goa'Ulds.

As they were moping up the operation, Nick Fury and his Howling Commandos showed up. Hynkel was correct about one thing, Gruenstadt had indeed been signaling the Allies. Fury believed that von Strucker had exterminated the town because of their treachery to the Third Reich. The Howling Commandos attacked. Baron von Strucker and Arnim Zola barely escaped with their lives. Professor Wilhelm Schmidt, one of the scientists who had accompanied the Germans was left behind. He became infected with the last remaining parasitic creature.

Strucker arranged for Fury and his men to be lured into attacking a hard water plant in France. Fury was separated from his men and hunted by the Blitzkrieg Squadron. Fury was chased into a mine field. A mine exploded, severely injuring him. Strucker was certain he was dead but did not want to risk any of his men retrieving the body. Fury was found by french partisans and brought to a Dr.Sternberg, who provided him with an experimental version of the super soldier Serum dubbed the Infinity Formula,

Once Strucker had convinced Hynkel that Fury had been killed, he was also able to convince the Fuehrer that the war was all but lost. He began urging him to carry out a limited scorched earth policy of destroying arms and fortifications so that the enemy could not turn them against the Reich. He convinced Hynkel that the war was nearly over by revealing the plans of the Red Skull, Arnim Zola, Baron Zemo, and others to flee Germany in its final hours.

He also began playing up the fact that the other nations such as the United States and England would not understand the need for the Final Solution. They would treat the Fuehrer and his high command like common criminals. Luthor was, in essence, persuading Hitler to destroy his own military infrastructure which would allow the Allies to win easier. He also was persuading Hitler to take his own life rather than be captured by the Allies. A living Hitler could have become a symbol to rally the unrepentant Germans and so continue the war.

Strucker may not have known of Hynkel's various plans to avoid death, such as transferring his consciousness to a mechanical brain, having embryos created from his cells to be implanted in women, and planting his own successor in the United States.

### **Post-War**

Strucker escaped from Germany as it fell and took up residence in the United States. Re-connecting with the American and South American branches of Scorpia, he spent the next few years re-building Scorpia into a world-wide organization. As part of the restructuring of Scorpia, Strucker took over the organization of the Controllers, which was now in the hands of Arnold Brown. Arnold Brown and many of his generation of the Controllers were racists and had made alliances with white supremacy groups in the United States and Africa. Luthor let Brown become the titular head of Scorpia. Arnold Brown molded the public face of Scorpia into an organization with some resemblance to a Knights of Nordica with advanced technology. Strucker was, however, able to bend Brown’s inclination to use the advance weaponry on the uppity minorities towards the greater goal of the advancement of humanity through conflict. With the Fascist European states defeated, Strucker realized that the conflict between Soviet totalitarianism and Western democracy would the ideological basis for the next major conflict. He devoted Scorpia to the goal of creating the Cold War, believing that an actual conflict between the two superpowers would be of short and deadly duration. The extended undeclared war would be more profitable for Scorpia in the long run, especially if the two superpowers could be convinced to fight proxy battles using other nations as their chess pieces.

Strucker used the resources of the Fraternite Internationale de la Resistance Contre l’Oppression as one means to track down Scorpio agents who had gone underground with the fall of the Fascist states in Europe. FIRCO was run by Ernst Stravo Blofeld, one of Scorpia’s former agents who had splintered away during the war. FIRCO was a front for a criminal organization that Blofeld had formed named the Special Executive for Counterintelligence, Terrorism, Revenge and Extortion. SPECTRE was formed along the lines of Scorpia. Strucker intended to watch this organization closely with an eye towards annexing it into Scorpia when the time became right. To set up the take over, he dispatched his daughter Andrea to infiltrate FIRCO. Strucker failed to realize the resentment that his daughter held for him because he had allowed her to spend the war years in prison. He also failed to realize that she was very lonely and longed to have a relationship with a man. Using the name Irma Bunt, she joined FIRCO and became entranced by Ernst Stravo Blofeld. Although she did not betray her origins to Blofeld, mainly out of self preservation, she also resisted her father’s intrigues.

She became romantically involved with Ernst Stravo Blofeld and bore him a daughter named Nena in 1950. Blofeld and Irma Bunt hired a former prostitute named Angelique Calvert to be the girl’s nanny.

In the first few years directly after the Second World War, military production geared down and Scorpia needed an infusion of capital. Luthor had heard of several caches of gold hidden away by the Nazi high command and spent a few years looking for some of them. He heard that the location one such cache was locked away in the memory of a concentration camp victim, one Gabrielle Haller. Although she had not been a conventionally pretty girl she had been used as a prostitute by the officers of the camp. Her sexual exploitation shattered her mind, and a protégé of Dr. Vogel took advantage of her ruined but receptive state to hypnotically implant her mind with the location of the Nazi gold. She retreated from the trauma of the hypnosis into a defensive catatonia. The officers and the doctor who had been entrusted with the location of the gold had been killed when the camp was liberated.

The catatonic Gabrielle Haller had been transported to Sharzad after the war. No doubt some humanitarian group felt that she would be safe in the British-held territory. While she was at the sanitarium, a brilliant young doctor named Charles Xavier, who had just completed a psychiatric internship, was allowed to use a new form of hypnosis to bring her out of her catatonic state. Xavier was actually a telepathic mutant, which was not known at the time. Charles Xavier had recently met a European refugee named Erik Magnus Lensherr, who was an orderly at the psychiatric hospital. Dr. Xavier’s treatment proved most effective and Gabrielle Haller came out of her catatonic state. She became fast friends with Xavier and Lensherr.

Gabrielle was kidnapped from the hospital. Xavier, and Lensherr tracked her kidnappers. Gabrielle had been kidnapped by Baron von Strucker. Agents of Scorpia in Israel, fomenting Israeli nationalism and also Arab hostility against Sharzad had learned of Gabrielle Haller’s miraculous recovery. Knowing that the secret of the gold cache was locked in her mind, Strucker kidnapped her to make her reveal the location. Xavier and Lensherr defeated Strucker and his Scorpia agents. Xavier made them forget about the location of the gold but otherwise let the men go. Xavier took a portion of the gold but left the rest of it with Lensherr.

During the 1950’s, Strucker concentrated on expanding the power and influence of Scorpia while heightening tensions between East and West in the Cold War. Russia expanded its influence in Eastern Europe through the Warsaw Pact and in Asia by aiding China. Proxy wars between communism and democracy were fought in Eastern Europe starting with Grestin, in Hun Chiu, and Sarkhan. Smaller proxy wars, often instigated as anti-colonial independence movements, sprung up through Africa and the South Pacific. Proxy wars were fought in Latin America under the guise of class struggle.

One of Strucker’s main lieutenants Karabi had been had been disgraced by being captured by the Phantom. However Karabi showed his loyalty by not exposing any of the secrets of Scorpia despite his arrest and imprisonment. His reward when he was released from prison was to be allowed to rejoin Scorpia as part of the Serpent section of its underling organization, Hydra. Ambitious, Karabi soon came to Strucker with a plan to create another semi-autonomous organization that would be indirectly tied to the Scorpia organization. This organization would be created out of the Serpent section of Hydra by taking over an existing organization. This was a small but highly influential Asian organization in the late 1930’s that had formed when the followers of the late Sen Gat(The Doc Savage Story, the Thousand Headed Man), had joined up with a small cult of Naga worshipers.

The Nagas were beings associated with Hindu and Buddhist mythology, usually represented as gigantic cobras with several hoods or with a human head and serpent body. In addition to representing fertility, they also symbolized eternity and destruction. The King of the Nagas, Adisesha*,* was believed to have a thousand heads. Generally Adisesha was worshipped as a Manifestation of Vishhu who spews a venomous fire that destroys all creation at the end of each *kalpa*. This particular Naga cult, however, associated Adisesha with Siva the Destroyer rather than Vishnu the Infinite. The cult also practiced a form of Thuggism, strangling victims for Kali-Durga who they depicted as being in the form of a King Cobra. They possessed strangling cords made of braided snakeskin and also poisoned victims from afar by means of a blow dart treated with cobra venom. Prior to Karabi’s plan to annex them this cult had been occasionally contracted by were Scorpia to carry out assassinations and terrorist acts.

The cult was already grooming a child that they believed was the incarnation of Siva. The child, Jeffrey Burr had been part of pair of conjoined twins that had been successfully separated. The conjoined twins were the sons of a member of the United States consulate staff stationed in India, Jerome Erskine Burr II. The Kali Yuga cult had stolen Jeffrey from Jermome and Mootama Burr and hidden the child successfully. Karabi determined that the child could not safely be returned to its parents without compromising the organization. Nor could the child be eliminated without raising the ire of the cultists. Karabi therefore continued the child’s indoctrination as the cultists wished. Jeffrey Burr would grow up to become Lord Naga, the head of the Cobra Cult.

As Karabi was reorganizing the Kali Yuga cult, Strucker expanded the activities of Scorpia into South America and the Middle East, establishing identities specific to those regions, in South America he was known as Don Caballero and in the Middle East as Emir Ali Bey.

Arnold Brown ran the American branch of Scorpia under the Hydra label. In the fifties and early sixties Brown acquired adherents due to the racist attitudes that permeated this American branch of Hydra-Scorpia. This was the time when the Civil Rights struggle was at its peak. Brown was also a fascist at heart and so molded the American branch of Hydra-Scorpia to be an odd blend of Knights of Nordica and Nazi costuming and rituals. It was Brown who added the stiff-arm salute and “Hail Hydra” to the organization’s chant.  Brown had also raised his daughter Laura to be a racist and a loyal member of Hydra-Scorpia, and she became a leading member in early 1960. Strucker did not care about Brown’s politics or methods so long as his organization achieved the goals that Strucker outlined.

### **1959-1961**

In 1959, Strucker’s son-in-law, Ernst Blofeld made an enemy of the premier British Secret Service agent, James Bond, during the Thunderball incident. Bond kept an eye out for any sign of Blofeld and when Blofeld surfaced in 1961 using the cover of a health spa, Bond infiltrated Blofeld’s operation. Blofeld had planned to use the health spa to turn the patients into sleeper agents of SPECTRE using a powerful method of hypnotism. Strucker had funneled money into SPECTRE after its virtual destruction in the aftermath of the Thunderball Incident and aided Blofeld in this operation by giving him a serum derived from the Black Lotus.

The first phase of the operation that SPECTRE planned would destroy the poultry and cattle production of Britain. The second phase would be to eliminate various crops and livestock on an international scale. SPECTRE then could manipulate the international commodities markets and also use extortion on a global scale to prevent further incidents of agricultural terrorism. The first test cases in England showed promise and so the second phase of the operation went forward. Although James Bond’s impersonation of Sir Hilary Bray, an expert on heraldry was discovered Bond successfully escaped from Blofeld’s facility and thwarted the fulfillment of the plan in England. Despite this setback Blofeld decided to go forward with the international phase of the plan. To prevent Bond’s interference his fiancée kidnapped by SPECTRE operatives. Bond’s government also commanded him not to interfere with Blofeld’s operation, for fear of reprisal on English agriculture. This is at least was the stated cause, however it seems that Blofeld had struck a deal with certain influential members of the English Parliament to target various rival agricultural nations in return for a free hand. Bond however took a leave of absence from the Secret Service and returned to Blofeld’s sanitarium with an army of men from the Unione Corse, a Corsican crime syndicate of which Bond’s prospective father-in-law was the leader. Blofeld and Irma Bunt escaped but their operation was shattered.

Blofeld took vengeance against Bond by killing Bond’s bride but allowing Bond to live. However this plan of vengeance backfired. Instead of paralyzing Bond with grief the killing of his bride caused Bond to become obsessed with destroying Blofeld and SPECTRE. Because of Bond and the British Secret Service’s crusade against SPECTRE, Blofeld could not re-establish his power base.

In 1960, for a price, Strucker aided his son-in-law and daughter. Strucker used his connections with the Yakuza to help establish Blofeld, under the guise of Dr. Shatterhand, on the Japanese island of Kyushu. They established a garden stocked with many varieties of poisonous plants and animals. Blofeld offered his garden as a place for those Japanese who wished to commit suicide in peaceful and comfortable surroundings. To make this more lucrative and still seem legitimate, his agents used a combination of Black Lotus drugs and nihilistic propaganda to deepen the depression or disaffection felt by many people in Japan in this post-war era. The stunning defeat of the Second World War was still fresh in the minds of the Japanese people, many of whom felt betrayed by their loss, by the predominance of Western culture, and by the loss of traditional Japanese culture and values. When a great many people began traveling to Kyushu to commit suicide, the Japanese intelligence service took an interest.

Unable to find Blofeld and depressed over the loss of his wife, James Bond transferred to the diplomatic service. He became acquainted with Tiger Tanaka, the head of Japanese Intelligence. Britain wanted a secret ciphering method that the Japanese had devised called Magic 44. The Japanese agreed to give Britain the ciphering method if James Bond would assassinate Dr. Shatterhand who they felt was a grave danger to Japanese society. Bond and his superiors agreed to the exchange. When Bond learned that Dr. Shatterhand was actually his enemy Blofeld, his mission transformed into an act of vengeance.

In 1961, Bond killed Blofeld and rigged his castle to explode.

Bond left Irma Bunt behind to perish in the blast. She escaped, however, only to be arrested by the Japanese authorities. However despite the Japanese and British authorities trumping up charges against her, she had not really committed any serious crimes in Japan. She was released after two years.

Although in the aftermath of Blofeld’s death Scorpia absorbed most of the remaining SPECTRE organization, one of Blofeld’s lieutenants, a Dr. Evil, seized control of part of SPECTRE and used it as the basis of his own organization. Rather than crush it, Strucker let it continue, he reasoned that Dr. Evil’s SPECTRE organization could be used to take the blame for some of his Scorpia and SPECTRE operations.

### **1964**

One of the first joint Scorpia-SPECTRE operations was thwarted by the costumed vigilante Batman. Karabi was in charge of the operation, which was a test run of an operation set up to gauge various governments’ reactions to nuclear blackmail. However the Batman stopped Karabi from setting up the missile launch center and so prevented Karabi from getting to the point where the organization could blackmail any government. Karabi was once again captured but Strucker could not, for the good of the organization, tolerate failure twice and so Karabi was killed before he could go to trial. Strucker placed an interim person in charge of Karabi’s organization but knew that eventually the child who had been groomed by the cultists would eventually take over this operation(Batman #167, 1964, which depicts Karabi and Hydra).

### **1965**

In 1965, Brown’s organization, Hydra-Scorpia, assassinated the Director of SHIELD.

As fate or Murphy’s law would have it, the person tapped to become the new head of SHIELD was Strucker’s old World War Two nemesis, Nicholas Fury. Although Brown had his Scorpia agents attempt to assassinate Fury, they failed at every turn. Brown launched an attack on the known headquarters of CIALD but his men were repelled and several Scorpia agents were taken into custody.

Despite not being able to eliminate Fury, Arnold Brown went ahead with plans to launch a betatron bomb.  This caught Strucker off guard since Brown had carried out this part of the operation without Strucker’s permission. Strucker felt that it was too premature to launch the betatron weapon because it could not be duplicated. A different scientific team had created each section and Brown had eliminated each team once the completed weapon was constructed. The betatron was one of several superweapons that Strucker had conceived to check the arms race; this weapon would be so powerful and so unique that it would put an immediate end to the arms race and would make Scorpia the superpower of the world. The Scorpia council would then be able to steer the social evolution and technological progress of mankind through the judicious use of directed conflict.

Strucker realized after Arnold Brown had launched the Betatron bomb that Brown was truly insane. He intended to unleash the weapon and fill the atmosphere with deadly radiation. Brown believed that those with superior racial stock would survive and perhaps even thrive from the radiation. When SHIELD instigated measures to stop the Betatron bomb and bring down Brown and his Hydra organization, Strucker prevented the main bulk of Scorpia from interfering with the destruction of Brown’s organization.

SHIELD joined forces with Stark International to create a counter weapon to the Betatron called the Brainosaur. Hydra agents broke into Tony Stark’s laboratory and captured Nick Fury. The Supreme Hydra attempted to interrogate Fury to learn how to stop the Brainosaur. The Supreme Hydra’s daughter, Laura Brown, released Fury to stop her father’s mad scheme. Fury and the Supreme Hydra‘s daughter took out the Hydra base.

As Fury and Madame Hydra carried out their attack on the Hydra base, the Brainosaur was launched. It destroyed the Betatron bomb. The Supreme Hydra disrobed in an attempt to escape. Because Brown was a short, scrawny man who used an amplified voice box, padded suit and shoe lifts, other members of Hydra did not believe that he was the Supreme Hydra and killed him.

As Baron Strucker, made preparations to deploy the next super weapon developed by Advanced Idea Mechanics, Nicholas Fury and SHIELD became aware of the existence of AIM under Baron Zemo. One of Luthor’s lieutenants in AIM dispatched an experimental android to kill Nick Fury and Captain America at one of SHIELD’s command posts where a captured AIM device as being examined. Fury and Captain America repelled the attack, but Captain America rejected Fury’s offer to place him in the command structure of SHIELD.

SHIELD began using Life Model Decoys or LMDs. The process required someone to remain perfectly still to be duplicated.

### **1966**

As fate would have it an event of mixed blessings for Hydra occurred, one that would further foment chaos and keep SHIELD occupied but would also cause Strucker many problems in the long run. The Red Skull was found alive.

The revived Red Skull was perhaps even more of a menace than he had been during World War II. His hatred for most of humanity had intensified as had his dedication to the principles of racial purity and perfection of the human form. This latter was a reaction to his own self-loathing at the hideous creature he had become.

In the waning days of World War II, the Red Skull arranged for top-level government officials, scientists, and military men and their families to leave the Third Reich and set up residence in a place called Exile Island. The location of Exile Island was unknown except to the Red Skull and the crew of the submarine that transported the exiles. The Red Skull knew that Hynkel’s Third Reich was doomed and planned to set up a Fourth Reich after he had manipulated the victorious Western powers into war with Russia.

However as the Red Skull was planning on departing, Captain America discovered his secret Bunker outside of Berlin. They fought each other in hand-to-hand combat. Although the Red Skull was a superlative fighter with enhanced strength, in the end he was not a match for Captain America. He triggered his failsafe devices, which were remote controlled gas canisters containing a combination of mustard gas and red death dust. As the chamber filled with gas, a barrage of Allied bombs fell on the bunker, burying the Red Skull and the chamber with the deadly gas.

The Red Skull choked and finally passed out from lack of oxygen. He did not die, but went into hibernation. He believed that the gas had preserved him; he further believed that the combination of the gas and death dust had affected him. Although he had made himself immune to the effects of the death dust, he believed that in combination with the gas that the dust had partially affected him. Although it had not killed him, it had caused his head to take on the aspect of a skull.

A team of Advance Idea Mechanics scientists who were excavating the recently discovered bunker, believing that it might contain some of the Red Skull’s advanced weapons found and revived the Red Skull. Having found the Red Skull in a hibernating state, AIM received orders from Baron Strucker to offer the Red Skull a position in the organization. Strucker was careful to make certain that the Skull did not learn that “Baron Strucker” was still alive and in charge of Scorpia and ultimately in charge of AIM.

Strucker did make certain that the Skull knew that his great nemesis Captain America was still alive. Strucker hoped that the Skull would keep Captain America occupied so that he could not aid Fury in his vendetta against Hydra.

The Skull kept Captain America occupied for a short time, but he became obsessed with obtaining the Cosmic Cube that gave him unlimited power.

### **1967**

The Kobra group, under a regent, made a deal with the government of North Sarkhan to provide it with a captured nuclear weapon. North Sarkhan wished to use the nuclear threat to make the South and their American sponsors capitulate. The United States government could not take any sort of official action, including sending in a covert SHIELD team. However any civilians who wished to visit North Sarkhan, the United States could plausibly deny any connection, so Nick Fury and his two former commando squad members Gabe Jones and Dum Dum Dugan, who were also SHIELD operatives, took a leave of absence from SHIELD. They assembled their old commando squad and went into North Sarkhan to destroy the nuclear weapon. Strucker monitored this mission with interest, noting the way in which the United States government handled this crisis by circumventing diplomatic protocol.

As fate would have it an event of mixed blessings for Hydra occurred, one that would further foment chaos and keep SHIELD occupied but would also cause Strucker many problems in the long run. Strucker's protégé and sometime ally, The Red Skull was found alive.

The revived Red Skull was perhaps even more of a menace than he had been during World War II. His hatred for most of humanity had intensified as had his dedication to the principles of racial purity and perfection of the human form. This latter was a reaction to his own self-loathing at the hideous creature he had become.

In the waning days of World War II, the Red Skull arranged for top-level government officials, scientists, and military men and their families to leave the Third Reich and set up residence in a place called Exile Island. The location of Exile Island was unknown except to the Red Skull and the crew of the submarine that transported the exiles. The Red Skull knew that Hynkel’s Third Reich was doomed and planned to set up a Fourth Reich after he had manipulated the victorious Western powers into war with Russia.

However as the Red Skull was planning on departing, Captain America discovered his secret Bunker outside of Berlin. They fought each other in hand-to-hand combat. Although the Red Skull was a superlative fighter with enhanced strength, in the end he was not a match for Captain America. He triggered his failsafe devices, which were remote controlled gas canisters containing a combination of mustard gas and red death dust. As the chamber filled with gas, a barrage of Allied bombs fell on the bunker, burying the Red Skull and the chamber with the deadly gas.

The Red Skull choked and finally passed out from lack of oxygen. He did not die, but went into hibernation. He believed that the gas had preserved him; he further believed that the combination of the gas and death dust had affected him. Although he had made himself immune to the effects of the death dust, he believed that in combination with the gas that the dust had partially affected him. Although it had not killed him, it had caused his head to take on the aspect of a skull.

A team of Advance Idea Mechanics scientists who were excavating the recently discovered bunker, believing that it might contain some of the Red Skull’s advanced weapons found and revived the Red Skull. Having found the Red Skull in a hibernating state, AIM received orders from Baron Strucker to offer the Red Skull a position in the organization. Strucker was careful to make certain that the Skull did not learn that he was still alive and in charge of Scorpia and ultimately in charge of AIM.

Strucker did make certain that the Skull knew that his great nemesis Captain America was still alive. Luthor hoped that the Skull would keep Captain America occupied so that he could not aid Fury in his vendetta against Hydra.