Baron Zemo (Marvel Cinematic Universe)

* Masked
* Unmasked

### Goals

Acquire proof that the Winter Soldier assassinated Stark's parents to divide Steve and Tony and thus the Avengers, as revenge for the death of his family during the Battle of Sokovia (briefly succeeded; but ultimately failed later).
Eliminate all super-powered individuals and those associated with their rise (partially succeeded)

### Crimes

Mass murder
Psychological abuse
Bombing
Torture
Brainwashing
Incrimination
Theft
Regicide
Assault
Conspiracy
Kidnapping
Blackmail
Treason
Stalking
Smuggling
Jailbreak
Hacking
Terrorism
Corruption
Vandalism
Breaking and entering
Mass property damage

### Type of MB

Vengeful Mastermind

**Baron Helmut Zemo**, or simply **Baron Zemo**, is a major antagonist in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, serving as the main antagonist of the 2016 superhero film, *Captain America: Civil War*, a flashback antagonist in *Black Panther* and a supporting character in *Falcon & The Winter Soldier*. He is an Sokovian aristocrat and former military intelligence officer who blames the Avengers for the death of his entire family during the Battle of Sokovia. Zemo then frames the Winter Soldier as an international terrorist to orchestrate the Avengers Civil War that lead to its disbandment. Upon being informed by Falcon and the Winter Soldier about the rise of more super soldier terrorists called the Flag Smashers, Zemo allies with them upon Bucky breaking him out of prison to help them stop the terrorists and place n end to HYDRA's super soldier program.

He is portrayed by Daniel Brühl.

## What Makes Him Magnificent?

* Zemo has no powers and advanced weaponry in *Civil War* and yet became the toughest foe the Avengers faced, and the first MCU main villain to even win in the end, having pitted the Avengers against each other and orchestrating the Civil War that causes them to disband.
* Arguably the biggest master of Xanatos Speed Chess in both of his appearances.
	+ In *Civil War*, he was unrelated to the formation of the Sokovia Accords and yet, through his sheer use of the environment upon failing to retrieve information for Vasily Karpov, pits the Avengers against each other and it is very clear they wouldn't have disbanded for 7 whole years had it not been for Zemo's machinations.
	+ This is made even more clear in *Falcon and The Winter Soldier* as in *Civil War*, he still at least caused most of the conflict. Here, he is thrust into a conflict which he had nothing to do with, and while escaping with ease, it wasn't even an opportunity he predicted at the end of the day, and yet, by manipulating both heroes and villains, manages to succeed in destroying the entire Super Soldier program twice while behind bars through his butler, Oeznik, to bomb an armored car upon predicting his capture or death.
* Zemo has a legitimately tragic excuse. He lived a happy life with his father, wife and son, and lost them all during the Battle of Sokovia when Iron Man blew up Novi Grad to thwart Ultron's scheme to wipe out all life on the planet. It made worse that Iron Man himself created Ultron and he was a test gone horribly wrong. It is understandable where he is coming from.
* Upon Black Widow releasing the encrypted files HYDRA has upon the death of Alexander Pierce, Zemo manages to decrypt them. To show how impressive it is, Zemo himself states that such encryptions are very hard to decode.
* It is hard to hate Zemo for killing Vasily Karpov when he, like the rest of the agents and leaders of HYDRA, are pretty much disgraces of a human being who basically began the film forcing Bucky to endure tortuous mindwipes to brainwash and enslave him to his will and orders him to assassinate Howard and Maria Stark.
	+ Zemo also states his standards and disgust over HYDRA, telling them it deserves its place on the ash heap.
	+ Similar situation happens again when he kills Dr. Nagel, a former HYDRA scientist, as just seconds before killing him, Nagel was gloating about being a god about recreating the Super Soldier serum through unethical human experimentation he holds no remorse for.
* He himself admits he never looked forward to his far bloodier methods and the death of innocent people upon failing to get information from Karpov, having genuinely apologized to T'Challa for killing his father to the point of even offering T'Challa to take his revenge and kill him.
* When someone doesn't pose a threat nor needs to be killed for his plan, Zemo is genuinely affable. He was genuinely nice to Dr. Broussard's landlady, he even respects Steve for being very incorruptible even upon gaining the Super Soldier serum and genuinely respects Sam and Bucky, only hating the Avengers as a symbol, not as individuals.
* Uses prosthetics to disguise himself as the Winter Soldier to frame him as an international terrorist to use Captain America's desire to protect himself, put himself at odds with other Avengers and get him, Sam Wilson and Bucky captured.
* Disguises himself as Dr. Broussard to hide himself in Germany and interview Bucky and then uses the EMP bomb he sent to a power plant to cause a power outage to trigger the Winter Soldier inside him and interview him on the location of HYDRA's Serbian base, before unleashing him as a distraction to escape, having him reveal the location of the HYDRA base to Cap to end up putting himself more against the Avengers' odds.
* He deliberately leaves evidence to prove Bucky's innocence to lure Iron Man to not be on friendly terms with Cap when going to the Serbian base.
* He uses a fake goal to release the Winter Soldier to a trap to reveal to Iron Man the truth about his parents' death and make the grief-stricken and enraged billionaire attack and fight Captain America, forcing many to leave the team. When it fails, he gracefully accepts his capture.
* Upon returning in *The Falcon and The Winter Soldier*, Zemo is revealed to be a wicked cultured connoisseur of art and music, like the music of Martin Gaiyes, and is seen reading the book of Italian philosopher Niccolò Machiavelli.
* Also, upon his return, Zemo in general has become all the more hilarious with comedic banter and interactions with Sam and Bucky that it was pretty much consented by most that he is one of the best characters in the show due to this.
* The moment he saw a chance to escape thanks to a prison riot orchestrated by Bucky, Zemo employed clever tactics all on his own to escape prison without being noticed, disguising himself as a guard, tripping the fire alarm to cause a distraction, hiding his face from the cameras, etc.
* He escapes to join the heroes' fight against the Flag Smashers, a group of super-soldier terrorists, becoming a good ally to them.
* He does dislike the idea of Super Soldiers and believes they should not exist. It was, for pretty reasonable gripes, considering the serum does amplify the person's traits, including the worst ones, with guys like Red Skull being more depraved thanks to the serum, and it is very clear that Karli and the Flag Smashers were becoming too radicalized to the point of being beyond redemption due to the serum influencing their desires to change the world, and that they end up becoming symbols of supremacists and cases of god's amongst men, placed as pedestals by society with their flaws ignored that lead to . This is proven even more when taking the Super Soldier serum leads to having John Walker, the new Captain America, have a murderous breakdown to bludgeon a Flag Smasher to death upon Battlestar's death and then losing his mantle as Captain America, so really, Zemo really does have a point in his distaste for them. And even despite this, he knows exceptions like Steve and Bucky still exist that don't go mad upon taking the serum and genuinely respect him as well.
	+ Considering this was his main motive in *Falcon and The Winter Soldier*, Zemo is a well-intentioned-extremist as he genuinely wants to protect the world from the threat Super Soldiers could pose, having told Bucky to go on and kill Karli as he believes she is too radicalized and can't be reasoned and not doing so would result in the deaths of more innocent people.
* Zemo uses his love for Turkish delight to gain information about Donya Madani's funeral, holding most of it hostage to prevent Sam and Bucky from handing him over to the Wakandans and paying the girl who gave him money for the family to her family in gratitude.
* Uses a secret hole in his residence in Riga to escape while Sam, Bucky, John, Lemar and the Dora Milaje are battling in a scuffle to arrest Zemo.
* When Bucky points a gun at his head to kill him, Zemo happily accepts it and encourages him to do it because it all did. When Bucky used this as a distraction to hand him over the Dora Milaje to be imprisoned for life in the Raft, Zemo holds no grudge against Bucky for this decision, having told him he took the liberty to cross out his name on the book Bucky uses to note names on who he hurt or was used by, before bidding Bucky farewell.

## What Makes Him a Baddie?

* He lures Dr. Broussard to his hotel and murders him in order to take his place.
* He bombs the UN and kills multiple innocent people, including the Wakandan King T'Chaka.
* Having used the Red Book and uttered the trigger words to brainwash Bucky into becoming the Winter Soldier again, which itself was a painful process.
* Bombs an armored car to wipe out the remaining Super Soldiers left except for Bucky, which would've caused the deaths of some more innocent people.

## Trivia

* Both he and Alexander Pierce are the only *Captain America* villains to be a Magnificent Baddie so far.

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