History | History of Baron Zemo

History of Baron Zemo 

What's up my comic comrad today we're breaking down the history of one of captain america's oldest villains baron zemo he made his mcu debut in captain america civil war and is finally making his return in the falcon and the winter soldier disney plus series so since we've never spotlighted him before this is the perfect time to see what this villain is all about if you didn't know there's been 13 different baron zemos over the course of the zemo family history and baron being the german title of nobility but the two most popular are hyrex zemo and his son helmut zemo but since helmut zemo is by far the most popular and the one that appears in the mcu that's the one we're going to be focusing on today he first appeared as the phoenix in captain america 168 in december of 1973. 

He made his first cameo appearance as baron zemo over 100 issues later in captain america issue 275 in november of 1982 and finally made his first full-blown appearance as baron zemo in captain america issue 276 in december of 1982 but it doesn't end there many years later he would become citizen v the leader of the thunderbolts making his first appearance as such in the incredible hulk issue 449. he was created by roy thomas tony isabella and sal bushema but now that you know who created him in all of his key issues let's learn about his comic origin like i said earlier baron helmut zemo was the 13th in line of the zemo barony he's the son of hyrex zemo a former nazi who fought captain america in the second world war when hyrick died fighting revived. 

Captain america several years after the second world war helmut zemo was like hell no i'm gonna get some revenge from my dad and with that helmet started planning revenge against captain america this ultimately came in the form of the phoenix his first super villain alias with this new persona he was set out to get his revenge by attacking both captain america and falcon phoenix is eventually able to corner captain america by tricking him with a robot lookalike that released sleeping gas at which point zemo took cap to a warehouse where he tied him up and suspended him over a vat of adhesive x the same substance that cap spilled on home's father all those years ago permanently bonding his mask to his face.

it's at this point that cap wakes up and phoenix or rather helmet tells cap who he is he tells him my father was baron zemo the man you destroyed what do you really know of the man you murdered captain you hated him for his work on behalf of the nazis but my mother and i we loved him he was a brilliant man working tirelessly and you americans condemned him for that denying his genius because your scientific knowledge was so puny in comparison to his and when he invented a marvelous laser device decades before your people even understood the principles involved your paper called it a death ray and started an insidious propaganda campaign against.

its inventor my father became the most hated man in germany and had to wear a mask to conceal his face from those who would harm him he was wearing it the day you attacked him he had just developed adhesive x the most powerful adhesive ever invented once applied nothing could remove it your shield crashed through the adhesive tank spilling its contents and in destroying the invention you also destroyed the inventor for the cursed mask he was forced to wear had become permanently fixed to his face never to be removed and that drove my father mad and madness changed him and then he raged and even took his hatred out on his own family his love was forever more lost to us my mother died soon after she didn't want to live without him but i survived thanks to the scientific skill i had inherited from my father but it was a lackluster life until one day i saw in the papers that you had found my father and murdered him at which point my path was clear. 

I then returned to my family's castle which i managed to hold on to after the war there i was surrounded by my father's greatest achievements i threw myself into a study his books his notes i was determined to recreate his greatest inventions adhesive x and the death ray and use them to destroy captain america he then tells cap and as you doubtlessly noticed my dear captain i succeeded but right as zema was about to make his move falcon comes in to save cap at which point cap throws his shield at zemo which knocks him into the tank full of adhesive x this seriously disfigured his face and he would return years later and assume the family identity as his birthright revealing himself as the next baron zemo at the end of captain america issue 276 but just like that my friends that is baron helmet zemo's origin.

So let's move on to story arcs and publication history helmet zemo's first story arc as baron is when he joined forces with armanzola's mutates zemo would team up with vermin to kidnap captain america's childhood friend arnold ross in order to lure captain america into a trap this of course led captain america to battling a crap ton of mutates at some point after this zemo tells cap you destroyed my life years ago as you did my father's but there was one minor problem captain america you see when i fell headfirst into that cauldron i wasn't wearing my mask revealing his horribly disfigured face zemo says you did this to me you ruined my life as you ruined my father's he goes on to say you couldn't just remain dead no you had to survive all those decades and suspended animation you had to return to haunt me to stand as a constant reminder of my family's.

Loss of shame after this armanzola has the shapeshifting mutate doughboy transform into steve rogers revealing that zola and zemo know his secret identity and zemo is going to send this fake into the world to destroy captain america's reputation but of course captain america does his thing and it ends with him defeating zemo and zola a little bit after that zemo would undergo the tutelage of red skull and mother superior but more notably he would create a new incarnation of the masters of evil this would be the fourth iteration of the masters of evil and they were formed to take down captain america through the avengers you see zemo had them invade avengers mansion taking out such avengers like hercules and even their butler jarvis long story short zemo was able to capture captain america and the black knight but it all came to a head when zemo battled captain america on top of a roof before falling off this leads us to the bloodstone hunt yes helmut bear and zemo became obsessed with bringing his father back from the dead so he teamed up with mercenaries for hire the bat rock.

Brigade together they would travel across the world trying to collect fragments of the powerful bloodstone as the bloodstone would be able to bring his father back to life but if batman always shows up to stop the joker you can bet that captain america always shows up to stop baron zema and that's exactly what happened but not before baron zemo momentarily raises his father back from the dead but when he does zemo finds out that his father is actually disappointed in him which of course only makes things worse for him it's also worth noting that zemo has a neck brace throughout the story arc because of the previous story arc i just mentioned where he fell off the roof of avengers mansion while battling captain america but as the saying goes.

if first you don't succeed try again a motto that zemo wholeheartedly lives by so he organized a new team of masters of evil when the avengers of fantastic four disappeared during the onslaught crisis and were thought to be dead except this time the masters of evil took up false identities and named themselves the thunderbolts at which point zemo would lead them under the new persona or alias citizen v his plan was to gain the world's trust through the thunderbolts at which point he would use that trust to take over the world the problem is the thunderbolts actually liked being heroes and when the avengers said fantastic four returned zemo was like yeah i don't care if you want to be heroes you work for me so he leaked their true identities forcing them to flee with them to space to help him conquer the world through mind control however a good chunk of the thunderbolt still didn't care.

so they ruined his plan zemo being pissed went into hiding plotting his revenge on his former teammates who are now trying to gain the trust of the public a little bit after this zemo would be killed by scourge but don't worry this is comics of course he didn't stay dead in fact his mind was transferred into another body but it didn't stay on that body because on the artificial world known as counter earth there existed zemo's counterpart on that world at which point the fixer transferred zemo's mind into his double's body not only putting him back in his own body but a non-disfigured version of his body after the zemo would obtain the moon stones which are two alien gems or artifacts of great power with these zemos would do the thing zemo does continue to try to kill captain america and take over the world at one point zema would even become the new leader of hydra which is pretty cool and fitting if you ask me but with all that said it's time to move on to powers and abilities first off much like his father helmut is in possession of the exam which helps him retain his youth and vitality meaning he ages at a much slower rate he also has a genius level intellect he's a brilliant planner and organizer and is a genius with tactical and strategic thinking and he's a pretty good scientist but nothing near his father's level he's also a master combatant just falling.

A little under the level of captain america zemo is an expert swordsman marksman as well as being a master tactician but most dangerous of all at least i think so he's a master of deception meaning he uses his genius to manipulate people and things to get what he wants now normally zemo doesn't have any superpowers but when in possession of the moonstones that i mentioned earlier they grant him such powers like being able to manipulate energy they also give him strength durability augmentation powers the power of flight manipulation and more but on that note it's time for reading recommendations check out avengers issue 270 through 277 the thunderbolt series from 1987 captain america 275 and 276 and the thunderbolts presents zemo born better those should be enough to get you all started and just like that that brings today's episode to a close my comic conrads but if you enjoyed this video be sure to check out this one right here and if you like all of our content as always be sure to subscribe like and comment it helps the channel out but i'll see you guys next time when i talk about all things comics