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| Gallery | |
 Real Name | Helmut J. Zemo |
| Current Alias | Baron Zemo |
| Aliases | Helmy, CV, Baron, Phoenix,Citizen V, Iron Cross, Mark Evanier |
| Relatives |
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| Affiliation | Masters of Evil, Hydra; formerly Leader ofThunderbolts; former ally ofRed Skull, Mother Superior; former partner of Primus; former Secret Empirefinancier; V-Battalion,Redeemers |
| Base Of Operations | Tower Zemo, Bagalia City,Bagalia; Formerly Mount Charteris, Colorado; Castle Zemo, Leipzig, Germany;Mexico |
| Status | |
| Alignment | Bad |
| Identity | No Dual Identity |
| Citizenship | German |
| Marital Status | Widowed |
| Occupation | Terrorist, ruler of Bagalia, 13th Baron of Zeulniz, adventurer, mastermind, would-be world savior with world conquest inclinations; former professional criminal, assassin, engineer |
| Education | College graduate |
| Characteristics[2] | |
| Gender | Male |
| Height | 5' 10" |
| Weight | 183 lbs (83 kg) |
| Eyes | Blue |
| Hair | Blond (mostly burned away) |
| Unusual Features | Helmut's face has in the past been disfigured, looking like molten wax. |
| Origin | |
| Universe | Earth-616 |
| Place of Birth | Leipzig, Germany |
| Creators | Tony Isabella, Roy Thomas,Sal Buscema |
| First Appearance | |
| Captain America #168 | |
HistoryEdit
Please pardon the intrusion, my name is Baron Zemo and I'll only take a moment of your time. I can imagine what you all must be thinking. I know how this looks. The dastardly villain seizes control of the global communication network. Pops up on screens across the globe. Threatening some unspeakable act of violence. Holding the world hostage from afar. But rest assured, that's not what this is. There is no Death Star. No Alderaan for me to blow up. Lord Vader I am not. You see, I didn't hack into your communications network... I hacked intoS.H.I.E.L.D.'s. An international military organization with more wealth and weapons at their disposal than half the nations on Earthcombined... Can track your cellphone G.P.S. and use it to burn a hole through your skull from space. And yet somehow they've convinced you all to be scared of me. S.H.I.E.L.D. monitors your telephone calls. What you watch on television. S.H.I.E.L.D. reads your emails and catalogues your late-night internet searches. Big brother is alive and well. He wears a white eagle on his chest, drives a flying aircraft carrierand keeps Earth's mightiest heroes in his back pocket. We've given these people far too much power over our lives for far too long. I say it's time we take the power back. I can cut big brother off at his knees with the press of a button. The question is, should I do it? That's the choice I leave to you. But before you decide, ask yourself one question... who is the real villain here? 
- -- Baron Helmut Zemo src
Early Life
Baron Helmut Zemo, the 13th Baron Zemo and the son of Baron Heinrich Zemo, the master Nazi scientist and enemy of Captain America duringWorld War II. Heinrich brought his son up to believe in the Nazi ideals of a master race, and that only the Zemo line should be ruling the world.[3]
Phoenix
Learning of his father's death, Helmut, now an engineer and strategist himself, blamed Captain America, and adopted the guise of the Phoenix in order to kill him in revenge. Zemo was defeated, however, falling in a vat of Adhesive X, horribly disfiguring him.[4]
Helmut Zemo as the Phoenix
He resurfaced years later as Baron Zemo, now working with Arnim Zola's monstrous creations. He allied with Primus, and kidnapped Steve Rogers childhood friend Arnold Roth in order to lure him into a trap.[5] He forced the Captain to fight hordes of mutates before revealing that he knew his secret identity.[6]
Mother Superior
Zemo later encountered Sinthea Shmidt who was known as Mother Superior at the time and her father the Red Skull.[7][8] Zemo underwent training by Sin and the Red Skull, and then kidnapped Captain America's David Cox and brainwashed him to fight the Cap.[9][10] Zemo then kidnapped Arnold Roth again, and directed a shared mental re-enactment of Heinrich Zemo's last World War II encounter with Captain America.[11][12][13] He turned against Mother Superior, but was overpowered by her psychic powers.[14] [15][16][17]
Masters of Evil
Helmut returns and continued to either try to take over the world or gain revenge on Captain America, but was always defeated by his arch-enemy. One scheme in particular led him to recreate his father's team of super-villains known as the Masters of Evil.[18][19] Under his direction, the Masters of Evil succeeded in taking over the mansion headquarters for Captain America's super-team, the Avengers, in the Avengers' most serious defeat.[20][21] Zemo was ultimately confronted by Captain America and was overpowered.[22][23]
Resurrecting his Father
Zemo's with the help of the Batroc's Brigade tried to resurrect his father using the Bloodstone.[24][25][26][27][28][29]
Spider-Man
Zemo battled Spider-Man and Vermin, using Zola's Mutates.[30] [31]
Baroness Zemo
Helmut Zemo later married Baroness Heike Zemo, a woman who once claimed to be a reincarnation of Heinrich Zemo. The two lived together in the Castle Zemo ancestral home and organized the Kinder.[32] Named for the Nazi Wunderkinder (Wonder Kids, a.k.a. the Hitler Youth), the Kinder were a group of abducted children, who were originally captured as part of a white slavery ring by Damon Dran.[33] Zemo and the Baroness picked 25 children whom they deemed worthy and adopted them into their home in Castle Zemo.[34] These children were essentially brainwashed into developing a fanatical devotion to the Nazi Party in general, and Zemo and the Baroness in particular. Captain America and his partner Diamondback followed a lead on the missing children and defeated Zemo and the Baroness, freeing the children.[35]
Helmut Zemo's face
Thunderbolts
Zemo later put in motion plans to create a new Masters of Evil. During this time, however, Captain America and the Avengers were believed dead after seemingly sacrificing themselves to the psychic menace known as Onslaught. Baron Zemo was briefly despondent, devoid of purpose with the loss of his greatest foes. Instead, Zemo hit upon the idea of leading the Masters in masquerading as a new heroic super-team to replace the Avengers, accumulating public trust and resources until they were ready to strike. Zemo himself adopted the alias of Citizen V, a 1940's adventurer slain by his father.[36][37][38][39]
Helmut as Citizen V along with the Thunderbolts.
Under Zemo's direction, the team, called the Thunderbolts, was accepted as New York's newest heroes far easier than they would have expected, and were soon given access to equipment used by heroes such as the Avengers andFantastic Four.[40][41][42] The team worked alongside Spider-Man.[43] They battled various villains in New York[44][45][46][47][48]
Using this new-found trust and equipment, Zemo nearly succeeded in taking over the entire world, but the Thunderbolts, wanting to continue as heroes, mutinied and Zemo barely escaped, despite his use of the reborn Avengers as mind-controlled pawns. Zemo tried to affect his revenge on the Thunderbolts from his father's base in South America, but was ultimately unsuccessful. He was then confronted by a new Citizen V, claiming to be the true heir to the title, as Zemo never was. Zemo escaped capture, remained at large for several months.[49]
Zemo was later targeted by the mysterious Scourge (in reality, Nomad working on behalf of a government agent, Henry Gyrich, when both were mind-controlled), who stalked Zemo in his headquarters and beheaded him. However, Zemo survived due to a fail-safe device engineered by his robotic associate Techno, a fail-safe which transferred Zemo's consciousness to a computer at the moment of his death. Techno, out of a perverse sense of humor, then transferred Zemo's consciousness into the comatose body of adventurer John Watkins III, who had operated as the modern Citizen V with a covert group known as the V-Battalion. Once more hiding in plain sight as Citizen V, Zemo pretended to be the revived Watkins and assumed Watkins' former role as the leading agent of the V-Battalion, a role which brought him into contact with various members of the Avengers and the Thunderbolts again. For a time, Zemo, as Citizen V, was offered leadership over the Redeemers, a team of super-agents organized by the Commission for Superhuman Affairs (the same organization that was manipulated to make Scourge).[50]
Baron Zemo XIII
Shortly afterward, the Redeemers were confronted by the Thunderbolt's archenemy, Graviton, who proceeded to slaughter the heroes before attempting to reshape the world in his own image. Zemo escaped and decided to reactivate his former Thunderbolt teammates, MACH-3 and Songbird, as the Thunderbolts had disbanded at the time. The remaining founding Thunderbolts, Meteorite and the Fixer, initially agreed to serve Graviton in order to be spared, but they soon switched allegiances. Through a mixture of surprise tactics and negotiation, the Thunderbolts managed to fight Graviton to a standstill and revealed that the aliens known as the P'Tah were using Graviton's energies to open a portal to the P'Tah's dimension. The Thunderbolts fought back the P'Tah invasion, but it took Graviton's dying effort to cause the portal to implode, sending himself and the P'Tah back. At the same time, the V-Battalion tried to teleport Zemo out of the area. The combination of energies interfered with Zemo's presence in Citizen-V's mind, and Zemo's presence was shunted to the mechanical systems of the Fixer.[51]
Graviton saved the Thunderbolts by using his powers to send them to the planet known as Counter-Earth, a duplicate of Earth orbiting the opposite side of the sun where Captain America and the Avengers were after seemingly sacrificing themselves. Although, Fixer knew he contained the disembodied consciousness of Zemo, Zemo purposely kept his presence a secret from the other Thunderbolts. Surreptitiously, Zemo and Fixer confronted Zemo's counterpart on Counter-Earth, the German hero Iron Cross, and Fixer placed Zemo's mind within his counterpart. Zemo confronted his counterpart's father, who was embarked on a global takeover scheme and killed him, wishing to conquer the world in his own right.[52]
Zemo then invited the Thunderbolts to join him in conquering Counter-Earth. The rest of the team, however, wanted to save the troubled world rather than conquer it. Zemo began aiding them in their efforts, initially to win over converts to his cause of ruling civilization, but found himself coming to regard the business of world-saving as an intriguing avenue to achieve the same goals.[53]
The Thunderbolts went on to revive the flying city of Attilan and populate it with refugees and survivors of the war-torn and nearly-destroyed world. The Thunderbolts became renowned for their heroism and efforts to solve the world's problems. They were hailed by many to be the world's saviors, often leaving Zemo flushed with unexpected feelings.[54]
Eventually, the team encountered a spacecraft whose engines emitted a radiation that began eating the Earth from the inside and confronted a being born of that very radiation, Anomaly. The teen rebel soldiers called the Young Allies arrived to show the Thunderbolts that the void created by the machine was linked to the other Earth and claimed only one planet could survive. Zemo was ready to use Anomaly to pull the real Earth into the void, destroying it. The rest of his Thunderbolts, however, embarked on a plan to combine their powers to punt the alien ship off the Earth and sever the link between the worlds. However, in order to complete this plan, the Thunderbolts needed to be inside the void in order to keep it clear of the real Earth as it closed. By so doing, they would reemerge from the void on the real Earth, forfeiting their roles and place on Counter-Earth.[55]
Immediately upon exiting the void, the Thunderbolts confronted their former teammates, Hawkeye and Songbird, who had formed another version of the Thunderbolts on Earth and were also trying to plug the real Earth's counterpart to Counter-Earth's spacecraft. The two teams of Thunderbolts combined forces to plug the void and shunt the alien ship from Earth.
After much discussion, Hawkeye agreed to leave the Thunderbolts to Zemo's leadership, reluctantly coming to agree that Zemo had proved he had potential to be a hero. Zemo congratulated his team, claiming to be embarking on a new mission, based on his experiences on Counter-Earth, to serve the best interests of the world at large, even though it would mean they would have to rule it in order to save it.[56]
Zemo led the Thunderbolts in many acts of questionable heroism, where the ends justified the means. In fact, Zemo’s ultimate plan involved the creation of "The Liberator", a device that would drain abnormal uses energy throughout the world. He hoped this would reduce global threats, eliminate superhuman terrorism, and stabilize the world’s status quo. The Thunderbolts succeeded in launching the Liberator, only to be challenged by the Avengers. Feeling betrayed, Moonstone absorbed the powers that The Liberator had harnessed, combining them with her already-increased powers. As she battled the Avengers, however, her emotional state combined with her near-cosmic power began to threaten the entire planet. The Thunderbolts and the Avengers teamed up to confront Moonstone. During the battle, Zemo blocked Moonstone’s blast of energy from striking Captain America, which left him hideously scarred once more. Ultimately, the teams defeated Moonstone by removing the alien gems that gave her powers. Zemo grabbed the two moonstones, shouting to the Avengers that they had made a mistake in destroying his vision, and he teleported away.[57]
New Thunderbolts
Born Better
Zemo was sent back in time, traveling through the centuries, and encountering every key events of his forefathers of the Zemo lineage. In 1503, Zemo inspired the young Heller Zemo to kill his corrupt father, Hademar, and fulfilling his role as the third Baron Zemo.[60] During the Seven Years' War, Zemo saved the life of Elsbeth Kleinenshvitz, the Jewish fiancée of Hilliard Zemo, from an anti-Semitic execution.[61] In 1879, Zemo secretly became the traveling guard of Hobart Zemo; however, he failed to save Hobart's life during a civilian uprising. During World War I, Zemo met his grandfather Herman Zemo and witnessed him utilizing chemical warfare against British forces which were led by Union Jack.[62] Finally in his journey, Zemo came face to face with his father during his tenure as a Nazi. This resulted in a violent fight between father and son before the younger Zemo escaped back to his time. Upon arriving in the present, Zemo was greeted by his distant cousin Wendell Volker, who was responsible for bringing Zemo to his correct timeline by killing distant relatives of Helmut Zemo and intended on killing the baron himself. But Volker hesitated and could not go through with it. He then attempted to kill himself, but Zemo stopped him and chose to offer his tutelage to Volker.[63]
Heroic Age
Baron Zemo recruited the Iron-Handed Jurgen Hauptmann of Red Skull's Exiles, as well as a new female version of the Beetle and Fixer to expose Bucky's sins to the world.[64]Zemo was responsible for revealing to the public that Barnes had originally been the Winter Soldier.[65] As he seemingly died in the explosion that left the original Captain America, Steven Rogers, insuspended animation, until Tony Stark asked him to replace the, then, dead Rogers.[66][67] Zemo stated that Barnes was simply given his role as Captain America and that he would have to prove his worth to wear the mantle. [68]
Fear Itself
Baron Zemo and Sin are travelled to Egypt to locate her father's hidden vault. They are trapped in the cave but were able to escape. However, Sin then turned on Zemo, destroying his teleportation device and stealing his hovercraft to escape. Zemo comments that Sin played the game well and just made a new enemy.[69]
Hawkeye
Zemo blamed Hawkeye for usurping control of the Thunderbolts. Zemo made a deal with Trick Shot (Buck Chisholm) who was suffering from cancer to train Barney Barton to become a master archer in exchange for medical care.[70] When the training was complete, Zemo reneged on the deal. Trick Shot was delivered to Avengers Tower to serve as a message to Hawkeye. Before he died in his former pupil's arms, Trick Shot warns Hawkeye of the threat he will soon face.[71][72]
The Thunderbolts battled Zemo's aquatic army.[73][74][75] They also faced Thunderbolts from when they first formed which including Zemo as Citizen V. [76][77][78] [79]
Codename: Bravo
Zemo made an alliance with Codename: Bravo to kill Captain America.[82][83][84][85][86][87][88] After Bravo failed, he allied the Hydra Queen to found a new Hydra.[89]
Hulk & Daredevil
A rogue gun runner sells Zemo a experimental weapon.[90] Back a the Hydra armory Hulk and Daredevil barged in. As Hulk and Daredevil fought the Hydra agents, Zemo fired a particle beam that blocked photons blinding everyone allowing him to escape. Evidently it had no effect on Daredevil, but the same could not be said for Hulk. Because Hulk was blinded he panicked, swinging at everything; friend or otherwise. [91]
Shadow Council
Zemo became the new leader of the Shadow Council's Masters of Evil following the death of Max Fury.[94][95][96][97][98][99][100][101]
Leader of the New Hydra
After the Terrigen Mist hitted planet Earth, creating new Inhumans in the process, Baron Zemo, with the help of other super-villains affiliates of the Hydra started recruiting some of this new Super-Human beings. One of them, a kid named Lucas, had a particular feature: his blood was like the Terrigen Mist itself, having the same property of contagion. Beleving he was going to create a pure and brand new world with Hydra ruling over it, Helmut recruited the kid. When All-New Captain America Sam Wilson and his comrade Nomad tried to neutralize Ecuador's Hydra basement, Lucas was found by them attacked to a machine that was draining his blood, believing him to be a victim of Hydra. Sam and Ian rescued him and then, running away from Hydra agents, they were teleported by an elevator to Zemo's main basement in Bagalia. There, Helmut and others super-agents of the New Hydra were waiting for them. [102] The two heroes engaged a war against Zemo and the others, with Falcon getting out of the palace with Lucas and Crossbones following him, and Ian fighting against the others: he was easily defeated. Then, Lucas revealed himself to Falcon, shooting him in the shoulder and leaving him in the hands of Crossbones, only to return back and watch his boss killing Ian Zola, cutting his throat. Zemo, knowing that Ian was Steve Rogers' adopted son, decided to tell him his whole plan and then to kill him and send the photo of his corpse to the former Captain himself. [103] Zemo appeared again after Sin apparently forced Sam Wilson to commit suicide, also recording his final moments before dying to defame him. The Baron told Sin to detonate something linked to their plan utilizing Lucas' blood, with the Red Skull doing it after shouting "Hail Hydra!" in front of him. Wilson, rescued by Redwing, came back and defeated Sin, but the plan seemed to have started, with nothing able to stop it. [104]
Powers and AbilitiesEdit
Powers
- Slowed Aging: Like his father, Zemo makes use of the Compound X serum to retain his youth and vitality, despite his considerable chronological age.[105][106][107][108][109][110][111][112][113][114]
| Power Grid [115] | |||
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Abilities
- Genius-level intellect: Helmut is a strategic and tactical genius, as well as a brilliant planner and organizer. He also has an impressive scientific and inventive ability, but not at the level his father was.[105][106][107][108][109][110][111][112][113][114]
- Expert Combatant: He is a masterful combatant, surpassing his late father in physical skill and prowess, but is only slightly under the level of Captain America.[105][106][107][108][109][110][111][112][113][114]
- Expert Swordsman: He is a world-class fencer portraying phenomenal skill ability with rapier, medieval broadswords, and possibly other weapons used in Medieval Europe.[105][106][107][108][109][110][111][112][113][114]
- Expert Marksman: Helmut is an Olympic-level marksman with firearms.[105][106][107][108][109][110][111][112][113][114]
- Expert Tactician: He is very skilled in field tactics, close range combat, and even turning the tide of any debate that he is involved in to his favor.[105][106][107][108][109][110][111][112][113][114]
- Master of Deception: Although he can be truthful in simple conversations with his peers, it is hard to deduce what Helmut is really thinking or planning in his mind. He can appear and appeal as an ally to any felon or hero, but may simply be using he or she do his bidding; it can vary from using them as a shield against another foe, or even getting him past security inside a highly secure structure such as the U.N. He has gone as far to earning respect and acceptance from former enemies such as Captain America to ensure the success of any scheme he hatches. Helmut Zemo is truly a dangerous individual who will travel any distance to achieve his goals.[105][106][107][108][109][110][111][112][113][114]
- Influential Expert: He is a dangerous influence to any individual he meets. He has used his ability to morally change persons with even the greatest of good intentions to ruthless human beings. His tactics have sometimes even caused individuals to question their own morality, and judgment towards other individuals.[105][106][107][108][109][110][111][112][113][114]
Strength level
- Normal human male with Intensive regular exercise.[105][106][107][108][109][110][111][112][113][114]
ParaphernaliaEdit
Equipment
- He sometimes wears circuitry in his hood guarding against psychic assault, and occasionally uses weapons or traps incorporating his father's Adhesive X, which forms an unbreakable bond with any substance unless it is subjected to a special solvent. [105][106][107][108][109][110][111][112][113][114]
- Moonstone: Zemo has usurped Karla Sofen's moonstones, alien power gems which enable him to manipulate energy on a massive scale for effects such as strength/durability augmentation, space warp creation, gravity manipulation, light manipulation, molecular phasing, and more.[105][106][107][108][109][110][111][112][113][114]
Weapons
- Zemo makes use of much of the same devices invented by his father, including particle, formula, and adhesive X, as well as his dad's disintegrator gun and anti-psychic headband. In close-combat, he prefers an Adamantium sword. He also makes use of various energy weapons and mind-control devices.[105][106][107][108][109][110][111][112][113][114]
NotesEdit
- Baron Zemo's early appearances a reprinted various comics.[116]
