30 Greatest Marvel Movie Villains
16. Arnim Zola - Toby Jones (Captain America 1 & 2)
Though he may ultimately have only been a sidekick villain, Toby Jones' delightfully sniveling performance as Red Skull's right-hand man made Arnim Zola nothing if not memorable.
Zola is a cut above the usual lackey role because he works for Red Skull not out of duty but because the alternative is death. Don't feel too sorry for him, though: he's still a Nazi scientist and attempted to have Captain America and Bucky killed.
Zola re-appears in The Winter Soldier, having performed experiments upon Bucky while a new offshoot of HYDRA developed covertly within S.H.I.E.L.D. In one of the MCU's most ridiculous moments, Zola has his consciousness transferred into an old computer mainframe, allowing his mind to exist over 40 years after a terminal illness destroyed his physical body.
It's an interesting if short-lived transformation, of course, as Zola's electronic form is soon enough blown to shreds. Still, with his distaste for Red Skull's sadism yet clear desire to keep HYDRA alive, he's one of the more compellingly ambiguous Marvel movie villains.