Zola is a HYDRA scientist who works with the Red Skull to harness the Tesseract's power. Plans for Zola's robotic body can be briefly seen while he is escaping from HYDRA's fortress during Captain America's liberation of several POWs. He is captured by Captain America and taken into custody.
After being captured, Zola was recruited to work for S.H.I.E.L.D. through Operation Paperclip, but he used this opportunity to plant seeds of HYDRA within S.H.I.E.L.D., thereby slowly taking over the organization. Before his death from an unnamed illness in 1972, his consciousness was transferred into a supercomputer located in a secret S.H.I.E.L.D./HYDRA facility in New Jersey. He is revealed to be the mastermind behind the 'Zola-algorithm' used by S.H.I.E.L.D.'s "Project Insight", which is used to identify and target potential threats to HYDRA's interests. Recently, the supercomputer housing his consciousness in New Jersey was destroyed by a missile meant for Captain America and Black Widow, which presumably destroyed Zola once and for all.
Current Version:
Arnim Zola (Computer Consciousness)
Former Version:
Arnim Zola (HYDRA Scientist)
