Captain America

The Red Skull’s machinations were thrown into disarray when Captain America ambushed and killed him. This battle also vaporised Zola’s current synthetic body, leaving him without one for the time being. He therefore housed his employer’s consciousness in one of his spare ones, showing the Skull’s masked face on its chest screen.

Arnim Zola is a genius scientist who specialises in biology. He decodes Deviant technology and unlocks the secrets of artificial life-forms. He joins the Nazis during World War II, lending his genius yet ruthless experiments, androids and cloning technology to Hitler’s forces. He utilises his own technologies to extend his own lifespan, transferring his consciousness between new bodies on an almost-continuous basis. He is also the leader of Hydra’s corpse corp, a group of clone-like “proto-husks” animated by genetically engineered DNA and carrying out his bidding.

He is a core enemy of Captain America. Zola combines biology and technology to create genetically modified monsters and monstrous machines, including the Man-Fish. He also has the ability to evacuate his bio-synthetic body, though this is a dangerous and unpleasant process. He can also project his consciousness into new bodies he has built for himself, granting him some degree of mind control over them.

He has back-up copies of himself, which Natasha Romanoff and Clint Barton seek to transfer his consciousness into in order to defeat Ultron, who has killed all life in the universe. Zola has a tendency to be verbose and over-explain his plans, but this may be because of his sense of innate superiority.