Masked Raider

Masked Raider's History

Trapped in a time loop of his own making and displaced in time, Carlo Zota was entrusted the Eternity Mask by Jerome Hamilton, the vigilante known as Blind Justice, before he died by the hand of the Enclave, a secret cabal of scientists bent on ruling the world against whom Blind Justice had waged war and which Zota himself was a founding member of. Having realized that he needed to take responsibility for the power he had been given, Zota gathered several interviews with different superheroes, even doing a few on his own, in order to get into their mindset and mentally prepare himself to carry on Hamilton's fight as the new Masked Raider.

Following the death of the undercover Skrull Bel-Dann at the hands of the Cotati, the Eternity Mask nudged the Masked Raider to the location of his body. Having deduced that the body didn't involve the Enclave, the Masked Raider realized the Eternity Mask wanted someone else to see the corpse. Noticing that Daredevil and Elektra were sparring in a rooftop nearby, the Masked Raider called their attention and entrusted Daredevil to solve the mystery before leaving.

He later went to stop his past self from creating Adam IV but arrived too late and witnessed Korvak escaping, he went to confront Zota but he grabbed an old spell book and started to summon a time-travel spell. The Raider shot the spell book mid-spell causing magic to fill the room and Zota to disappear. He went to see Doctor Strange and told him of the crisis, Strange summoned a new team of Defenders to deal with this threat and sent them back in time after Zota to the Sixth Cosmos where they had to confront that universe's planet-eater, Omnimax. They teamed up with that world's hero, Taaia, who turned out to be the mother of Galactus, the present universe's current planet-eater. The Raider witnessed the Silver Surfer seemingly trying to kill the infant Galen but when he confronted him on it, the Surfer explained that he was just trying to teach him compassion so he may hold back more in the future. He asked the Surfer if he knew who he really was and he admitted he could read his aura, but expressed no desire to reveal his identity. The next day the team confronted Omnimax in space but the Raider had to stay on the sidelines because mimicking Omnimax's powers would also give him his hunger. Carlo Zota appeared as his herald but the Silver Surfer defeated him by stealing his powers while Doctor Strange and Taaia defeated Omnimax by combining his magic with her science. After it was over the team, as well as Zota were sucked further back in time to the Fifth Cosmos, leaving the Silver Surfer.

After arriving in the Fourth Cosmos and witnessing a battle between the Archetypes of Good and Evil - precursor to all the heroes and villains of the Seventh and Eighth Cosmos, the Masked Raider fought against What-Must-Be - the Archetype of Galactus - who had been corrupted by Zota using the Mask of Never-Open, the Archetype of Doctor Doom. Zota fled to the Third Cosmos, where he unwittingly aided the Old Dragon Anti-All in its battle against the primordial manifestation of Light, Lifebringer One. Confronting Zota, the Masked Raider allowed himself to be shot, but when Zota unmasked him he was horrified to see his face. Imbued with the cosmic power and knowledge of Eternity, Zota donned the Eternity Mask and sacrificed himself to help Lifebringer One slay Anti-All; the Eternity Mask saved him by sending him forward in time to become the Masked Raider.