The life of electronics expert Carlo Zota before he joined the Scientists Guild is unknown. In 1939, Zota, along with fellow Guild members Jerome Hamilton and Maris Morlak, was present for the public debut of Professor Horton's android Human Torch.
In 1940, the Guild operated as a team of scientific adventurers called Three X. Each member used an alias, with Zoya's being 2X. Zota was known as "a walking encyclopedia" for his vast knowledge. The Three X's were hired by the Baltimore police commissioner to find Maisie Leeds, a young lady who had been kidnapped by the Green Terror. The group managed to track Leeds to South Africa. Despite being outnumbered by the Green Terror and his men they defeated them all and saved Leeds.
The team visited private investigator Leslie Lenrow (a.k.a. the Ferret) and obtained the Eternity Mask, which they used the following year to empower Jerry Carstairs and turn him into the Thunderer.
Zota and his comrades met geneticist Wladyslav Shinski and the four of them eventually formed the Enclave, a new organization dedicated to the creation of life itself in hopes of creating a better Earth. Through the Enclave, Zota was directly involved in the creation of the artificial super-beings Adam Warlock and Ayesha.
Following the demise of Hamilton, Morlak, and Shinski, Zota began work on the Adam-IV project: which consisted in the restoration of the hyper-intelligent cybernetic amalgamation named Korvac. However, as soon as he came online, Korvac renounced the Enclave, dismissing Zota's desire to seek a better Earth to be selfish and arrogant, and opting instead to change the universe itself.
After losing Korvac, Zota was confronted by the Masked Raider, the latest wearer of the Eternity Mask, but before he could kill him Zota used a time-travel spell created by Sise-Neg to send himself back to the Sixth Cosmos. He located the world's planet eater Omnimax and desperate for more power, willingly became his herald, being imbued with the Power Cosmic. When the planet eater came to Taa, the homeworld of the present-day planet eater Galactus, Zota was confronted by the Silver Surfer who had traveled back in time with the Defenders. Zota thought he could easily beat the Surfer because Omnimax was significantly more powerful than Galactus but the Surfer tricked him into trying to steal his powers, allowing the Surfer to instead take away his power because although Zota had more power, the Surfer's very long life meant he had more experience with their power source than Zota could ever hope to achieve. After his defeat, Zota was sucked further into the Timestream and ended up in the Fifth Cosmos.
Zota was found and enslaved by Omnimax's past self, the world's Sorcerer Supreme, Moridun, who taught him a variety of things, including magic, but was also abusive and controlling. Zota told Moridun about the future and their fight with the Defenders so when they arrived in this Cosmos he was prepared for them. Fearing the potential of the Defenders as a living spell, Moridun tried to enslave them. However, Doctor Strange redirected all of his magic to Harpy, causing her to summon a Green Door on top of Moridun, thus banishing him from there and thwarting his plan. Doing so caused Zota to be sucked further into the Timestream.
Arriving in the Fourth Cosmos, Zota stole the mask of Doctor Doom's Archetype, Never-Open, and instigated a war between the Archetypes of Good and the Archetypes of Evil. Confronted by the Defenders, Zota summoned Galactus' Archtype, What-Must-Be, and attempted to control him using Never-Open's mask. The Masked Raider used the Eternity Mask to match What-Must-Be in power and free it from Zota's control, Zota using Never-Open's mask to jump back to the Third Cosmos. Arriving and witnessing the primordial clash between Lifebringer One and the Anti-All, Zota found himself cornered by the Defenders and summoned a force field to stop Red Harpy from ripping him apart. Realizing that the use of magic and science was weakening Lifebringer One, the Masked Raider phased through Zota's force field and pulled a revolver on him. When the Masked Raider refused to shoot him, Zota seized the gun and shot his enemy, unmasking him only to see his face. Connected to Eternity through the mask, Zota realized what he had to do and donned the mask, holding back the Anti-All long enough for the Defenders to infuse Lifebringer One with the essence of the Sixth, Fifth, and Fourth Cosmoses. Still grappling the Anti-All, Zota allowed himself to be impaled by Lifebringer One's sword to redeem himself. Sent forward in time by the Eternity Mask, Zota -- realizing he was now trapped in a time loop -- accepted the Eternity Mask from Blind Justice and became the Masked Raider, vowing to stop his past self's plans and find a way to break the time loop.
