In the pantheon of truly ridiculous-looking comic book villains, Arnim Zola stands near the top. A Nazi scientist in WWII, Zola ended up creating a silly looking robot body for himself where his face was, for some reason, in the middle of his chest.
And now he’s going to be in Captain America: The First Avenger (they’ve swapped the title around), played by Toby Jones, who was – for my money – the better of the competing Truman Capotes a couple of years ago. What will Zola be doing in this movie? Unclear right now, but I wouldn’t be surprised if he is behind the Nazi experiments that create main villain The Red Skull.
The addition of Zola means a packed Captain America. We have Cap and Bucky, we have Peggy Carter as Cap’s love interest, we have the Red Skull and Arnim Zola. We have a group that will be made up of members of the Invaders and Nick Fury’s Howling Commandos. And that’s just who we know right now – casting is still underway for the film, which shoots this summer.
And by the way, if Arnim Zola is going to be appearing in the Marvel Movie Universe, this gives me hope that the silliest villain of all could one day make an appearance: MODOK, aka Mental Organism Designed Only for Killing. Honestly, the eventual appearance of MODOK is what will make all the previous comic movies worth it.
