Baron Zemo's History
Baron Helmut Zemo, the 13th Baron Zemo and the son of Baron Heinrich Zemo, the master Nazi scientist and enemy of Captain America during World 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.
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.
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.[9] He forced the Captain to fight hordes of mutates before revealing that he knew his secret identity.
Zemo later encountered Sinthea Shmidt who was known as Mother Superior at the time and her father the Red Skull.[11][12] Zemo underwent training by Sin and the Red Skull, and then kidnapped Captain America's friend David Cox and brainwashed him to fight Cap.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.
He turned against Mother Superior, but was overpowered by her psychic powers.
elmut 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.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. Zemo was ultimately confronted by Captain America and was overpowered.
Zemo, with the help of Batroc's Brigade, tried to resurrect his father using the Bloodstone. He raises his father only to learn that his father was nothing but disappointed in him. 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. 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. Zemo and the Baroness picked 25 children whom they deemed worthy and adopted them into their home in Castle Zemo. 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. 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. Under Zemo's direction, the team, called 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 and Fantastic Four.The team worked alongside Spider-Man.They battled various villains in New York. 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.
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Helmut Zemo (Earth-616)
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Information-silk Real Name
Helmut J. Zemo
Information-silk Current Alias
Baron Zemo
Information-silk Aliases
Helmy,[1] CV,[citation needed] Baron,[citation needed] Phoenix,[2] Citizen V,[3] John Watkins III,[4] Iron Cross,[5] Mark Evanier,[citation needed] Jim[6]
Information-silk Relatives
Harbin Zemo (distant ancestor, deceased);
Hademar Zemo (distant ancestor, deceased);
Heller Zemo (distant ancestor, deceased);
Herbert Zemo (distant ancestor, deceased);
Helmuth Zemo (distant ancestor, deceased);
Hackett Zemo (distant ancestor, deceased);
Hartwig Zemo (distant ancestor, deceased);
Isla Zemo (distant ancestor, deceased);
Hilliard Zemo (distant ancestor, deceased);
Gretchen Zemo (distant ancestor, deceased);
Unnamed Kleinenshvitz (distant ancestor, deceased);
Hoffman Zemo (distant ancestor, deceased);[7]
Hobart Zemo (great-grandfather, deceased);
Herman Zemo (grandfather, deceased);
unnamed grandmother (deceased);
Baron Heinrich Zemo (father, deceased);
Hilda Zemo (mother, deceased);
Heike Zemo (wife, deceased);
The Kinder (various illegally adopted children);
Wendell Volker (distant relation);
Ms. Klein (distant relation);
Mr. Fleischtung (distant relation)
Information-silk Affiliation
Hydra, Masters of Evil; formerly Hydra's High Council, leader of Thunderbolts, Army of Evil, former ally of Red Skull, Mother Superior, former partner of Primus, former Secret Empire financier, V-Battalion, Redeemers
Information-silk Base Of Operations
Tower Zemo, Bagalia City, Bagalia; formerly Mount Charteris, Colorado; Castle Zemo, Leipzig, Germany; Castle Zemo, Sierra Madre Oriental Mountains, Mexico; Skull House, New York
Status
Information-silk Identity
No Dual Identity
Information-silk Citizenship
German
Information-silk Marital Status
Widowed
Information-silk Occupation
Terrorist, ruler of Bagalia, 13th Baron of Zeulniz, adventurer, mastermind, would-be world savior with world conquest inclinations; former professional criminal, assassin, engineer, wealthy criminal entrpeneur
Information-silk Education
College graduate
Characteristics[82]
Information-silk Gender
Male
Information-silk Height
5' 10"
Information-silk Weight
183 lbs (83 kg)
Information-silk Eyes
Blue
Information-silk Hair
Blond (mostly burned away)
Information-silk Unusual Features
Helmut's face has in the past been disfigured, looking like molten wax, and incinerated.
Origin
Information-silk Origin
Human
Information-silk Universe
Earth-616
Information-silk Place of Birth
Leipzig, Germany
Information-silk Creators
Tony Isabella, Roy Thomas, Sal Buscema
First Appearance
Captain America #168
(December, 1973)
Contents[show]
History
Quote1 Though it has the appearance of granite, justice is a pliable dough. Morality, shifting concept, bending to the will of the conqueror. It is the perspective of the victor that forms history, and defines the future. So long as you win, you claim the moral high ground--No matter the means you used to claim it. The Christians knew this when they launched their crusades. Napoleon and Alexander dreamed of a world united and understood the bloodshed it demanded. And the Americans knew this when they dropped their a-bombs. You and your progeny will know only opulence, wealth, and comfort, Lucas. You will not only save the world--You will be its king. The brave young man who brought an end to our crusade--And a beginning to the Age of Hydra! Quote2
-- 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 during World 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.[8]
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.[2]
Zola's Monsters
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.[9] He forced the Captain to fight hordes of mutates before revealing that he knew his secret identity.[10]
Mother Superior
Zemo later encountered Sinthea Shmidt who was known as Mother Superior at the time and her father the Red Skull.[11][12] Zemo underwent training by Sin and the Red Skull, and then kidnapped Captain America's friend David Cox and brainwashed him to fight Cap.[13] 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.[14] He turned against Mother Superior, but was overpowered by her psychic powers.[15]
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.[16] 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.[17] Zemo was ultimately confronted by Captain America and was overpowered.[18]
Resurrecting His Father
Zemo, with the help of Batroc's Brigade, tried to resurrect his father using the Bloodstone. He raises his father only to learn that his father was nothing but disappointed in him.[19]
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.[20] 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.[21] Zemo and the Baroness picked 25 children whom they deemed worthy and adopted them into their home in Castle Zemo.[22] 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.[23]
Thunderbolts Vol 1 105 page 09 Helmut Zemo (Earth-616)
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.[24][25][26] Under Zemo's direction, the team, called 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 and Fantastic Four.[27] The team worked alongside Spider-Man.[28] They battled various villains in New York.[29]
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.[30]
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). 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. 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 had embarked on a global takeover scheme, and killed him, wishing to conquer the world in his own right. 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.he 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.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. 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. 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.
In the present, Rogers returned to the mantle of Captain America and tracked down Baron Zemo when the villain had traveled to Bagalia in an attempt to recreate the Masters of Evil. Zemo was forced to flee after being ambushed by Captain America and his allies, Jack Flag and Free Spirit. Captain America managed to intercept Zemo's getaway plane[64] and faked both Selvig and Zemo's deaths.
Steve kept Zemo captive at his new secret base of operations, making Helmut his unwilling confidante. Over the course of the following months, Rogers managed to convince Zemo that the life he had lived without being by Steve's side was the false one.
