Helmut Zemo
Helmut Zemo is a male comic supervillain who features in Marvel Comics.
Contents |
Biography
Origin
Helmut Zemo was the son of Hilda Zemo and the son of Heinrich Zemo who worked for the Nazi's as a scientist during World War II where he worked to advance the cause of the Third Reich. Both him and his mother loved his father who operated as Baron Zemo who was condemned by the Americans. Upon becoming the most hated man in Germany, Baron Zemo began to wear a mask to conceal his identity with one of his actions being the development of Adhesive X. During the war, Captain America arrived and fought with Baron Zemo with the tank containing the adhesive being shattered which fell on Heinrich Zemo that permanently fixed his mask to his face. The event caused Heinrich Zemo to be driven mad as a result and left him in a rage where he took out his anger on his own family with him striking his son Helmut. The love shown to Helmut was gone forever with Heinrich leaving his wife Hilda with Helmut's mother believed dying shortly afterwards as she did not want to live without him. (Captain America v1 #168)
Seeking revenge, he took on the masked identity of the Phoenix as he sought to kill Captain America. (Captain America v1 #168)
Baron Zemo
Despite the fall, he survived with Helmut's costume protecting him but as he was not wearing a mask the chemicals badly disfigured his face. As a result, this intensified his vendetta against Captain America with Helmut deciding to embrace his fathers legacy by becoming the new Baron Zemo. (Captain America v1 #277)
Under his facemask, he continued to live a normal life until he was approached by the Mother Superior. She made Zemo remember his past and his goals at revenge where he resumed the mantle of Baron Zemo. Sinthea Schmitt then took him to meet her father the Red Skull in order to begin his training. (Captain America v1 #290)
Thunderbolts
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, remaining at large for several months. (Thunderbolts v1 #17)
Helmut was later targeted by the mysterious Scourge 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. (Thunderbolts v1 #48)
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 were 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 through the portal and the P'Tah back with him. 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. (Thunderbolts v1 #58)
Return
He was secretly operating in New York where he sought to establish a secret weapon cache for Hydra. This saw him arrange for Agence Byzantine transport highly advanced weapons to him but the shipment was intercepted by S.H.I.E.L.D. Baron Zemo was forced to abandon the operation when S.H.I.E.L.D. deployed the Hulk against the cache who worked alongside Daredevil with Helmut departing the scene through a teleporter. (Indestructible Hulk v1 #10)
Secret Empire
In reality, Helmut had not died with Ghost having revived him with the only loss being Zemo's hand. He then retreated into the shadows in order to build his strength and develop his powerbase. During this time, Hydra had fallen into factionism with Zemo being challenged by a hidden rival that wanted to be more aggressive in their operations against the world. Helmut opposed this leading to a civil war erupting within Hydra with this spilling out somewhat into society. This attracted the attention of the Winter Soldier and Falcon who were attacked by the rival's key agent known as the Natural. In search of the Natural, the two heroes discovered Baron Zemo on a Hydra train with the villain revealing the behind the scenes conflict in Hydra. He offered an alliance which would secure him Hydra that would go into the shadows in exchange for the heroes aid in defeating his rival. Reluctantly, Barnes and Wilson agreed in order to stop any greater conflict from the rival's actions with them sent on their next clue in finding the Natural. (Falcon & Winter Soldier v1 #2)
Overview
Personality and attributes
At first, he took the name Phoenix when he wanted revenge against Captain America for the death of his father. (Captain America v1 #168) He later decided to take his fathers mantle and go by the name of the new Baron Zemo. (Captain America v1 #277)
Helmut saw his childhood as being idyllic with his mother being a kind woman and his father was a god to him. He believed that the bonding of Adhesive X to his face had driven him insane which transformed his gentle nature to rage and his love to blind hatred. (Captain America v1 #277)
He had said that he knew of the anguish of a man trying to curry their father's favour. Zemo had learnt that the only way for the son to be better than the father was them wanting more than their parent. (New Thunderbolts v1 #17)
Powers and abilities
Among his creations included Adhesive X where he had managed to replicate the compound that was originally invented by his father. (Captain America v1 #168)
At one point, he used the Moonstones to help in the creation of his headquarters that he called his Folding Castle. The power of the Moonstones was used to create openings in space where patches of real places from the real world came to be connected between folded spaces. This allowed quadrants to be made for occupants all of which had direct access to the real world. It was said to had been designed to be the perfect headquarters for him and any team that operated beside him. (Thunderbolts v1 #101)
With the Baroness, he at one point had a group of abducted 25 children named the Kinder (German: Children) that were brainwashed into valuing family values, love and honor for their adoptive parents. Thus, they were trained to hate those that they perceived would take that away from them allowing him to direct their actions. These children tended to refer to the Baroness as Mater and Helmut as Vater that were the German words for mother and father. During this time, they resided at his home in Castle Zemo and willingly followed his commands. (Captain America v1 #431)
Notes
- Helmut Zemo was created by Tony Isabella and Sal Buscema where he first appeared as Phoenix in Captain America v1 #168 (December, 1973) then made a cameo appearance as Baron Zemo in Captain America v1 #275 (November, 1982) before fully appearing in Captain America v1 #276 (December, 1982).
- The character operated as Citizen V in Thunderbolts Annual #1997 (August, 1997).
- He was the second Baron Zemo with him being based on the first that was created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby.
Alternate Versions
- In Old Man Hawkeye v1 #7 (2018), an alternate version of the character was shown to inhabit the world of Old Man Logan that was designated as Earth-807128. This one was shown to had infiltrated the Thunderbolts by taking the identity of Citizen V where he worked alongside the heroes whilst working to bring them down. Through his new position, he gained the weaknesses of Earth's heroes and helped organise the planet's supervillain community to stage a devastating ambush that murdered most of them. During the betrayal, the Thunderbolts turned against the Avengers with Zemo revealing his true identity and that this ploy was part of his revenge against Hawkeye for ousting him in the past. Rather than kill Barton, he left him to live out of spite allowing the villains to dominate the planet in the next 45 years. At some point, he suffered strokes that left him in a crippled state where he could only move in a wheelchair and could communicate by typing words on a keyboard. His condition was kept a secret from his rivals as he ruled the Weapon X facility as he devoted his resources in recreating he Super-Soldier Serum and also watching the life of Clint Barton where he enjoyed seeing the former Hawkeye become a failure in life. He was ultimately killed by Hawkeye when he sought revenge for the death of his friends where he discovered Zemo's true condition and shot his body with numerous arrows to avenge the death of Natasha Romanova.
In other media
Television
- In The Avengers: United They Stand, the younger Baron Zemo appeared in the animated television series in the episode "Command Decision" where he was voiced by actor Phillip Shepherd. It was shown that he admired his father and was with him when the villain was attempting to flee from Captain America. His son hid in the bushes whilst his father battled the superhero where stray shots triggered an avalanche which buried Baron Zemo under rocks thus killing him. His son vowed revenge and blamed Captain America for his fathers demise whereupon he assumed the mantle of Baron Zemo. He later formed the Masters of Evil with the intention of destroying Captain America.
- In Avengers Assemble: Ultron Revolution, Helmut Zemo appeared in the animated television series where he was voiced by actor David Kaye who provided him a German accent whereas he provided an American accent in his guise as Citizen V. In "Sneakers", he took over the security systems in Wakandan to turn the defensive drones against the population as he followed Black Panther and Ant-Man into the underground catacombs to the chamber holding the Amulet of the Crocodile Spirit. Helmut intended to claim the relic and succeed where his own father failed by taming its power for himself.
- In The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, Helmut Zemo returned for the setting of the 2021 Disney live-action television series where he was portrayed by actor Daniel Brühl.
Films
- In Captain America: Civil War, Colonel Helmut Zemo appeared in the 2016 live-action film set in the Marvel Cinematic Universe where he was portrayed by actor Daniel Brühl.
Video games
- In Marvel: Avengers Alliance, the Helmut Baron Zero appeared as a character in the Facebook video game with his own Dossier.
- In Marvel: Future Fight, Baron Zemo appeared as a ubscription-exclusive playable character in the mobile game as part of the Secret Empire Update.
- In Marvel Strike Force, Baron Zemo appeared as a playable character in the setting of the mobile video game.
Appearances
- Captain America v1: (1973)
- Thunderbolts v1:
- New Thunderbolts v1:
- Indestructible Hulk v1:
- Captain America: Steve Rogers v1:
- Old Man Hawkeye v1:
- Falcon & Winter Soldier V1: (2020)
External Links
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