Arming The Axis Powers: Dr. Armin Zola
by Samara Osburn
Born in the early 20th century, Dr. Armin Zola is a biochemist who frequently explores genetic engineering. A famous villain in the Marvel Universe, Zola is arguably Marvel's most nefarious mad scientist character. As World War II began, dividing the Western World into the Axis Powers and The Allied Powers, Zola found a home among the Nazi Party who believed that his genetic experiments would help them ensure the future of the "Master Race". While working for the Axis Powers, Zola is allowed to create various machines and inventions but needs a large energy source to power them.
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| Yeah...I don't like looking at him either. |
In 1942 Nazi Officer Johann Schmidt, who would later be known as Hitler's protege Red Skull, uncovers an artifact called the Tesseract and later uses it to fuel Zola's creations. During this time Allied Powers scientist Dr. Abraham Erskine creates Captain America. Steve Rogers (aka Captain America) would eventually capture Armin Zola after HYDRA, a secretive Nazi division headed by Red Skull and Zola, attacks the army unit of Sergeant James Buchanan 'Bucky' Barnes, Captain America's childhood friend. HYDRA's attack was originally planned in order to spark a new project of Zola's, using Sergeant Barnes as the test subject.
In the movie
Captain America: The First Avenger Zola is portrayed as a short slightly fidgety man. He wears large framed glasses and, typical to a mad scientist, his hair is slightly messy. However, throughout the Captain America movie trilogy Zola's appearance actually changes quite drastically, emphasizing his desire for innovation and creation, and his insanity. By 2014, the setting and release date of
Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Armin Zola is revealed to have 'downloaded' his consciousness into a supercomputer following a terminal illness in 1972. Although he lost his human body, Dr. Zola's obsession with survival allows him to become a machine and continue to work for HYDRA.
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| Not exactly the 'face of evil' I had in mind but okay. |
As a geneticist, Dr. Armin Zola's work is already a widely debated topic but Zola takes it to the extreme. Already crossing the line of morality as a Nazi scientist, Dr. Zola frequently experiments with super-soldiers, attempting to create a powerful army for HYDRA. However, since the only successful attempt at creating a super soldier lies in the DNA of Captain America, Zola's work begins to revolve around Steve Rogers. Zola's insanity and desperation to create the perfect HYDRA agent is apparent with the kidnapping and torture of Bucky Barnes after Bucky is lost in battle.
Having already experimented on Sergeant Barnes before, Zola oversees the project that turns Captain America's greatest ally into a killing machine known as the Winter Soldier. After his supposed death in the 40's from a large fall, Bucky Barnes was discovered by HYDRA agents who replaced his severed left arm, brainwashed him, and rewired/erased his memories. Over the years, from the late 40's to the present day, he was constantly under HYDRA's influence under the moniker of the Winter Soldier. Sergeant Barnes was forced to carry out various missions for his handlers, HYDRA, including terrorist attacks. Afterwards, his memory would be wiped and he'd be cryogenically frozen until the next mission.
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| Repeat after me: "Bucky Barnes Is Not A Villain" |
As the overseer of this project, Armin Zola willingly contributes to the torture of one man in order to achieve his goal of not only creating the perfect soldier, but also in ensuring the survival of the Nazi Party ideals. Using the Winter Soldier as a tool, Zola is indirectly responsible for hundreds of deaths, including the deaths of Tony Stark's parents, revealed in
Captain America: Civil War. Even after Captain America is defrosted and begins to uncover decades worth of HYDRA missions and infiltrations, Zola doesn't back down. Eventually the Winter Soldier is ordered to kill Steve Rogers. Dr. Armin is so confident in his project he, wrongly, believes that nothing will break his soldier or stop him from fulfilling HYDRA's dream of world domination.
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| So how does he get around? Flash drives? |
Zola is so absorbed by his goals and his desires that he throws away what little humanity he has. His interaction with others is mostly negative, involving nightmarish medical experiments. Whether he is unaware or simply doesn't care about the impact or consequences of his work is unclear but his lack of morality leads him to aid one of the biggest, and arguably the most evil, organization in the Marvel Universe: HYDRA. Throughout the Captain America trilogy Zola shows little remorse or recognition for his crimes, even continuing to commit them when given a second chance!
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Zola's ideal world + Spencer's writing=
A comic monstrosity that should have
never seen the light of day |
It is evident that Armin Zola is a mad scientist not only for his type of work, brainwashing and torture related experiments, but also because of his lack of responsibility or guilt. Although we can hardly expect a Nazi sympathizer and ally to have a strong moral standing, Zola is willing to do anything, hurt anyone, to become
the scientist who created the perfect soldier. He's so focused on if he
can do something he doesn't even consider if he
should, failing to recognize the company he keeps. Should he brainwash innocent people? Should he control the minds of his victims? Should Zola be allowed to create soldiers capable of mass destruction? Unfortunately the only question on his mind is "How will this help me bring HYDRA to power?" Zola's desire for destructive innovation is, in essence, the ideology of a deranged scientist.
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