Origin
Zorba was a Prince of the Latverian Royal Family until his father, King Vladimir, was overthrown by Dr. Doom. Before he was captured, King Vladimir had his sons Zorba and Rudolfo sent away with his two fastest horsemen so that they could escape Dr. Doom.
Unfortunately, Zorba was later captured and experimented upon by Dr. Doom's scientist, Gustav Hauptmann, as torture. Hauptmann ended up replacing Zorba's right eye with a cybernetic one.
When Rudolfo died, it fell upon Zorba to lead his older brother's underground movement of Latverian freedom fighters.
Creation
Zorba was created Marv Wolfman, Keith Pollard, Joe Sinnott.
Major Story Arcs
When Dr. Doom captured the Human Torch, Invisible Woman, and Thing of the Fantastic Four, Mr. Fantastic flew to Latveria to confront Dr. Doom and save his teammates. Before he could get near enough to Dr. Doom's castle however, his ship was shot down and he crashed into a small body of water. Mr. Fantastic ended up being found by Zorba and his men, and they soon teamed up to assault Castle Doom. Zorba and his men were able to make their way inside thanks in large to Mr. Fantastic, and they soon met Gert Hauptmann, the brother of the man who'd experimented on Zorba years ago. Zorba sought to repay Hauptmann for the suffering his brother had put him through, but Mr. Fantastic was instead able to calm Zorba down and coerce Hauptmann into helping them find Dr. Doom. Disguised as Hauptmann, Mr. Fantastic attempted to get close to Dr. Doom, but it turned out that he wasn't fooled by the disguise and incapacitated Mr. Fantastic. Zorba was luckily able to escape.
During the ceremony where Dr. Doom was to pass his power as ruler of Latveria onto his son, Zorba managed to sneak into the castle again and freed the Fantastic Four. They then confronted Dr. Doom during the ceremony and revealed to everyone that his son was actually his clone, and was part of a clever ruse of Dr. Doom's to make it appear to the United Nations that he was stepping down, even though he would still be technically ruling the country. Furious, Dr. Doom unleashed his robot army to slay his enemies and ended up having to kill his own clone when he turned against him. In the end, Dr. Doom was defeated, and Zorba acting King of Latveria until proper elections could be held.
Zorba was later officially elected to power, and quickly sought to reform Latveria's law. He was unfortunately met with resistance from the citizens due to his increase in taxes to fund these reforms, and his sudden revocation of Dr. Doom's laws ended up sending the country into a downward spiral of crime and poverty.
Things became even worse when it was revealed that an underground movement had managed to free Dr. Doom from his prison cell, and was planning to reinstate him as ruler. Zorba ended up firing his entire staff for fear of traitors and became increasingly paranoid and fearful of Dr. Doom's return. Eventually Zorba had enough of his country's insubordination, and he reprogrammed Dr. Doom's robot army to act as his secret police.
Hearing of Zorba's tyrannical rule, the Fantastic Four went to Latveria to help its people. Furious beyond measure, Zorba ordered his robots to give his citizens what he deemed the ultimate liberation: death. As the Fantastic Four battled the robots, Dr. Doom confronted Zorba.
Easily besting him, Dr. Doom grabbed Zorba by the neck, held him over the edge of a balcony, and accused him of treason. Zorba retorted that he was the only true heir to Latveria's monarchy and that Dr. Doom had no claim to the throne as long as he lived. Dr. Doom simply replied, "Precisely." He later approached the Fantastic Four, told them that the conflict had been resolved, and directed them to leave his country. Although never shown, it can be assumed that Dr. Doom killed Zorba.
Powers and Abilities
Zorba had a cybernetic eye capable of firing a powerful nega-beam blast. This eye had been unwillingly grafted onto him by Gustav Hauptmann under the orders of Dr. Doom.
He also had some experience with combat, paramilitary strategy, and leadership.
Other Media
Zorba's character in part inspired the character Catclops - a cyclops with a cat's face for an eye on the Adult Swim action-comedy Venture Bros.
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