Baron Von Strucker

Baron Wolfgang von Strucker

Baron Wolfgang von Strucker was a nobleman of German and Prussian ancestry who allied himself with HYDRA in order to help further their goals of world domination and the eventual restoration of the dark lord Alveus from its confines on Maveth. Ambitious, arrogant and harboring a particular distaste for the lower-class, Strucker quickly rose through HYDRA's ranks, becoming proficient in both combat and tactics.

During World War II, Strucker was put in charge of overseeing Dr. Arnim Zola's Project Master-Man, which would allow HYDRA to create new super-soldiers to increase their ranks. He eventually became obsessed with one of Zola's Tesseract-created weapons, the Infernal Gauntlet, and ordered it to be grafted onto his left hand, becoming nearly unstoppable in his confrontation with Captain America some time later. Nevertheless, he was defeated in battle, though he managed to escape and go into hiding after the fall of the Third Reich and the subsequent disappearance of the Red Skull, taking control over HYDRA's remnants alongside the imprisoned Zola.

Although he had been aging normally until he was an old man by the late '80s, Strucker managed to rejuvenate himself back to prime adulthood thanks to a generous donation of regenerative blood from the supposedly deceased Inhuman vampire Jiaying, taking on a false identity of F.T. Strang in order to get himself recruited within S.H.I.E.L.D., which by then had long been infiltrated by HYDRA's sleeper agents, many of which had been personally inducted into the organization on recommendation by the now-deceased Zola's computerized brain.

He had originally hoped that under the command of his subordinate Alexander Pierce, S.H.I.E.L.D. would have prospered and brought forth the perfect New World Order he and the Red Skull had long since desired. However, he soon began to realize that Pierce was more focused on waiting for the perfect opportunity to strike than acting immediately, and became unsatisfied by his continued waiting. Around the time of the Battle at the Triskelion, he openly deserted S.H.I.E.L.D. and revealed his true identity, taking full control of HYDRA after Pierce's death.

This proved to be his downfall as Nick Fury, his former partner within S.H.I.E.L.D.'s ranks, soon discovered his base of operations thanks to the help of Phil Coulson and Maria Hill, then sent the Avengers after him, leading to his capture. Shortly afterward, he was murdered in his NATO jail cell by the end-result of his experimentation, Ultron, after telling the android the location of one of his subordinates Ulysess Klaue. Nonetheless, Strucker's evil legacy continued to flourish within the organization's history, as thanks to the meddling of Grant Ward, Wolfgang's eldest son, Werner, was recruited into HYDRA as an agent, assigned to kill Dr. Andrew Garner so as to satisfy Ward's growing obsession with petty revenge on the Agents of SHIELD. But Werner's bungling of the job did lead to him asking Wolfgang's secret contact within the World Protection Council, Gideon Malick, for help, and thus have the two heads of HYDRA unite to complete the return plan of the Hive from Maveth, utilizing a fragment of the Monolith that Wolfgang kept hidden from the Avengers during his prior arrest.

Still, some time in between the coma-induction of his son and the fall of Gideon Malick's HYDRA cell thanks to Alveus' self-centered treachery, Strucker's body was recovered from his tomb-cell by several of his loyalist soldiers on orders from the Red Skull himself, who had long admired the devotion and cunning of his old servant and wanted him back to life so that he may serve as one of his generals for the coming Infinity War. It will take some time, but with Arnim Zola's prowess in cybernetic conversion using ancient Egyptian-Chitauri technology and a little more injections of the G.H. Kree Serum/remaining blood samples from Jiaying, Strucker may rise again to serve the Red Skull as he did in ages past.

Powers and Abilities

Abilities

• Expert Combatant: He is a masterful combatant, surpassing most in physical skill and prowess.
• Expert Swordsman: He is a world-class fencer portraying phenomenal skill ability with rapier, medieval broadswords, and possibly other weapons used in Medieval Europe.
• Expert Marksman: Strucker is an Olympic-level marksman with firearms.
• Expert Tactician: Strucker is a strategic and tactical genius, as well as a brilliant planner and organizer. He also has an impressive scientific and inventive ability. He is very skilled in field tactics, close range combat, and even turning the tide of any debate that he is involved in to his favor.

Equipment

Left Hand of Osiris: This metal gauntlet amplifies its strength and emits powerful electrical shocks. It has also been used to contain knives, plasma blasters, chain guns and teleportation technology.