Satan's Aristocrat

Can YOU

Name This Marvel Villain??

For a guy who was in his late 40s/early 50s during World War II, Baron Strucker has preserved himself pretty well, given his past as a Nazi collaborator as well as his aggressive activities to take over the world during a span of over twenty years. Strucker, part of the Bavarian aristocracy, occasionally took jobs for the German high command--including a propaganda assignment aimed at disgracing then-Sgt. Nick Fury, who was making quite a rep for himself and the Howling Commandos in Europe:

Fury, of course, snapped at Strucker's bait, though he ruffled a few feathers with his superiors in accepting Strucker's challenge:

Unknown to Fury, his portion of the drink both men downed in a ceremonial preamble to the fight was drugged--and so, while Fury did credit to himself, he eventually succumbed, seeming to collapse from battling Strucker. With pictures being snapped, it was all the Germans could hope for:

Later, though, Fury and the Commandos, while on a mission, crossed paths with the Baron once again--and this time, another fight between the two took place. But this time, one of Fury's men warned him not to down the toast--and Strucker instead went down under Fury's angry fists.

Twenty years later, Strucker met Fury again, only this time as the head of the criminal organization pitted against Fury's espionage agency, S.H.I.E.L.D.:

In this encounter, Strucker unleashed the dreaded Satan Claw--an armored, high-voltage glove which the unarmed Fury seemed hard-pressed to defend against:

But the one thing any opponent of Nick Fury's learns the hard way is to never count the man out until he's dead (and, just to be on the safe side, not even then).

Strucker has shown up in various other plots throughout other Marvel titles, giving grief to Captain America, Fury, et al. As to how a guy hovering around 70 is in the fighting shape he's in, apparently he benefited from age-retarding serum given to him by his scientists after the war--and a good thing, too, because he's found new life in Marvel movies, briefly appearing in Captain America: The Winter Soldier and scheduled to appear in Avengers: Age of Ultron.

(With a nod to Jin Saotome for our customized action figure of the good Baron!)