Real
Name: Baron Wolfgang von Strucker
Occupation: German intelligence agent, later wing commander
of Nazi German's Death's-Head Squadron, later leader of the
German army's Blitzkrieg Squad of commandos, later supreme leader
of HYDRA
Identity: Publicly known under his real name
Legal Status: Citizen of Germany wanted throughout the
world for crimes against humanity
Other Aliases: Supreme Hydra, Grand Imperator of THEM,
Don Antonio Caballero, Emir Ali Bey, John Bronson
Place of Birth: Strucker Castle, Bavaria, Germany
Place of Death: HYDRA Island
Marital Status: Married
Known Relatives: Andrea (daughter), Andreas (son)
Group Affiliation: Supreme leader of HYDRA
Base of Operations: Strucker Castle, Germany; later Hydra
Island and other locations
First Appearance: SGT. FURY AND HIS HOWLING COMMANDOS
#5
Final Appearance: STRANGE TALES #158
History: Baron Wolfgang von Strucker was
the last known member of a long line of Prussian noblemen,
all of whom had distinguished themselves as military leaders.
He was recruited in the 1930's by the Nazi government
intelligence services and sent on various secret missions.
With Germany at war, Strucker was transferred
to full time military service. He met with repeated successes
as a military leader, and rose to become wing commander
of Germany's special Death's-Head Squadron. The many defeats
inflicted upon German forces by the American Sgt. Nick
Fury and his "Howling Commandos" squad engaged
Adolf Hitler, who ordered Strucker to humiliate Fury in
such a way as to destroy his effectiveness. Strucker therefore
challenged Fury to personal combat on the island of Norsehaven
in the English Channel. Fury accepted and went in violation
of orders. Before beginning their duel, Strucker and Fury
drank a toast on the former's request; Fury did not know
that Strucker had had a powerful sleeping pill placed
in Fury's drink. Strucker won the duel with plywood swords
when the pill caused Fury to collapse. Still photographs
and films of Fury's defeat were circulated in Germany,
giving the Germans a great propaganda victory. Shortly
thereafter, the "Howling Commandos" encountered
Strucker, and Fury challenged him to another fight. Strucker
coolly agreed and proposed a toast, but one of the American
commandos, Dino Manelli, warned Fury that the drink was
probably drugged. The angry Fury refused to drink easily
defeated Strucker in a hand-to-hand fight. Commando Timothy
"Dum Dum" Durgan took photographs of Fury's
triumph, which were widely published.
However, the commandos had been forced to flee
without taking Strucker prisoner. After having another
encounter with Fury, Strucker was ordered by Hitler to
capture Fury and his commando squad. To this end Strucker
organized his infamous Blitzkrieg Squad of commandos,
whom he himself trained, and who were chosen to be a counterpart
in skill to one of Fury's commandos.
Finally, enraged by Strucker's many defeats by
Fury, Hitler ordered Strucker to go to Cherbeaux in occupied
France and, if the Resistance agents there refused to
give themselves up, to execute every citizen of the town.
Fury confronted Strucker and made a deal with him: Fury
would fight in personal combat with Strucker once more
if Strucker evacuated Cherbeaux before Hitler had it destroyed.
Strucker did so, but his battle with Fury ended in stalemate,
and the two became separated. When Hitler learned that
Strucker had evacuated the citizens of Charbeaux, he ordered
the Gestapo to find and assassinate Strucker.
Strucker would have had little hope of escaping
the Gestapo if he had not found an ally in the Red Skull.
The Skull intended to supplant Hitler eventually, or to
achieve world domination himself if Hitler lost the war.
To these ends, the Skull assigned Strucker to create a
power base in the Far East for him. Then, with the aid
of the Skull's men and some loyal men of his own, Strucker
was able to escape Germany. The embittered Strucker now
had no intention of serving anyone but himself, however,
and he severed all of his ties with the Red Skull upon
becoming Supreme Hydra.
On arriving in Japan, Strucker made contact
with Japanese subversives who informed him that they were
forming a secret society bent on world conquest. Strucker
rapidly became the mastermind behind this society's rise
to power This secret society became known as HYDRA. Upon
building HYDRA's army and arsenal to what he judged to
be maximum strength, Strucker slew the organization's
original leader, the first Supreme Hydra, and became Supreme
Hydra himself. While building HYDRA's arsenal, Strucker
had also recruited a staff of brilliant scientists, who
would later become the nucleus of the HYDRA branch called
the Advanced Idea Mechanics (AIM). HYDRA was close to
obtaining nuclear weaponry, and thus achieving the means
to conquer Earth, when its Pacific base, Hydra Island,
was invaded by Captain Simon Savage's U.S. Marine commandos
and their Japanese counterparts, the so-called Samurai
Squad. Hydra Island as destroyed, but Strucker escaped.
Strucker decided that it would be wise to win
his way back into Hitler's confidence, and thereby gain
access to German military secrets and funds, while planning
the revival and reorganization of HYDRA. Strucker sent
word to Hitler of his proposal to destroy Nick Fury as
a threat by subjecting him to a special hallucinogenic
drug. If Hitler was sufficiently impressed by the drug's
effect on Fury, then Strucker would sell him the drug
for a large sum of money that would secretly enter HYDRA's
treasury. Strucker captured Fury in Africa and subjected
him to the drug, but he was rescued by the Howling
Commandos and recovered.
Strucker escaped to quietly rebuild HYDRA
in the years following World War II, this time using as
its nucleus the best remaining men of the Nazi Schutz-Staffel
(S.S). However, after nearly being killed in a conflict
with the young Charles Xavier and Magneto, Strucker decided
to remain behind the scenes from then on. He moved HYDRA's
principal base to America, and created a new central committee
code-named THEM within HYDRA, which would supervise the
operations of HYDRA and its sister societies. Strucker
made himself Grand Imperator of THEM, its highest position,
and masqueraded under a number of aliases in public life.
In his false identities Strucker wore astonishly convincing
face masks created by HYDRA's "epiderm-mask"
machine. Only a small fraction of HYDRA knew of the Grand
Imperators existence, and only an even smaller number
knew that he was Baron Strucker
THEM appointed businessman named Arnold Brown
to be Supreme Hydra, but while Brown managed HYDRA's day-to-day
operations, ultimate power remained in Strucker's hands.
Under Brown's management, HYDRA became a force powerful
enough to threaten the world. However, after the failure
of HYDR's attempt to blackmail the world with its Betatron
Bomb, Brown was assassinated by his own men.
With the defeats of AIM and another arm of HYDRA,
the Secret Empire, HYDRA reemerged as an open opponent
of S.H.I.E.L.D. and the world. Strucker in effect abolished
THEM by again making himself Supreme Hydra and by making
the other members of THEM into HYDRA's new central committee,
who were still completely subject to himself. Strucker
launched the Overkill Horn, which would have set off every
nuclear explosive device on Earth; HYDRA's legions, supposedly
safe in their special shelters, were to emerge later and
take control of the devastated planet. S.H.I.E.L.D. and its
Public Director, who was Colonel Nicholas Fury, Strucker's
longtime foe, thwarted this scheme. Impersonating captured
S.H.I.E.L.D. agent John Bronson. Strucker smuggled the so-called
Death-Spore bomb aboard S.H.I.E.L.D.'s helicarrier headquarters.
When the bomb exploded, it would destroy the helicarrier
and release deadly spores, which air currents would carry
throughout the world. By now Strucker had built a new
Hydra Island, a "synthetic atoll" on the site
of the original. Here was gathered HYDRA's leadership
and elite guard, since the new fortress's impenetrable
dome would afford maximum protection from the Death Spore.
In a telecast from the island, Strucker demanded that
the world surrender to HYDRA, for only those nations,
which surrendered, would be supplied with antidotes for
the spores.
However, Fury had found the Death Spore bomb on
the helicarrier, singly invaded Hydra Island, and planted
the bomb there. Fury and Strucker confronted each other
and fought. Fury knocked Strucker unconscious and rapidly
used the epiderm-mask machine to make a Strucker mask
for himself and both a Strucker mask and a Fury mask for
Strucker. Fury placed both the latter two masks on Strucker,
who revived almost immediately. HYDRA guards then inevitably
burst in, only to find what appeared to be two Struckers
fighting one another, each of whom claimed that the other
was actually Fury in disguise. Fury then pulled the Strucker
mask off the real Strucker, revealing a Fury mask beneath.
The HYDRA guards began firing at the real Strucker who,
in utterly confused panic, fled through the nearest doorway
to escape. He found himself in a nuclear reactor chamber
and was immediately incinerated. Fury fled the island
just before the Death Spore bomb, which had been trigged
by the unsuspecting Strucker, detonated, virtually sinking
the island. The dome prevented any of the spores from
escaping to the outside world. Hence, all HYDRA members
present on the island were killed. HYDRA fragmented after
Strucker's death and has yet to regain the power it had
under his leadership.
Two androids in the form of Baron Strucker have
since appeared. One was built by the Machinesmith, and
the other by HYDRA. Both androids have been destroyed.
Baron Wolfgang von Strucker is survived by his
two twin children, Andrea and Andreas von Strucker. Strucker
had HYDRA scientists genetically alter Andrea and Andreas
so as to bestow superhuman powers upon them. Andrea and
Andreas now head their own subversive organization, which
bears the same name the twins use in their costumed identities,
Fenris.
Height: 6 ft. 2 in.
Weight: 225 lbs.
Eyes: Blue
Hair: Bald
Unusual physical features: Baron Strucker had a dueling
scar over his face. He wore a monocle over his right eye to
correct its vision.
Abilities: Baron Strucker was an Olympic
level athlete. Strucker took special serums developed
by HYDRA scientists, which maintained his physical vitality
and strength as he aged.
Strength Level: In his prime Baron Strucker
possessed the normal human strength of a man of his age,
height, and build who engaged in intensive regular exercise.
Strucker took special serums developed by HYDRA scientists
which retarded his aging process and thus maintained his
physical vitality and strength at this level.
Known Superhuman Powers: None
Abilities: Baron Strucker was a consummate
military strategist and leader. He was brilliantly skilled
in hand-to-hand combat, swordsmanship, and the use of
firearms and a wide variety of other hand weapons.
Weapons: Baron Strucker's most notorious
personal weapon was the Satan Claw, developed by HYDRA scientists.
This metal gauntlet, worn on Strucker's right hand, not
only magnified that hands strength while he wore it, but
also emitted powerful electrical shocks (from which the
Claw insulated its wearer).
NOTE: Played by Campbell
Lane in the made for TV movie "Nick
Fury: Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D."
