| “ | Captain America: What do you want? The war is over. After all these years, is revenge on me really that important to you? Zemo: Yes. But now, Captain, I've been promised the world, and you will live just long enough to see me have it. |
„ |
| ~ Zemo, stating his plans for the world to Captain America. |
| “ | Let the Skull have Bucky. Your life is mine to take! | „ |
| ~ Zemo to Captain America. |
Baron Heinrich Zemo is a major antagonist of The Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes, serving as a major antagonist in Season 1 and a minor antagonist in Season 2.
He is one of the first leaders of the terrorist organization HYDRA and the leader of a group of supervillains known as the Masters of Evil. He is also one of Captain America's greatest enemies alongside the Red Skull.
He was voiced by Robin Atkin Downes.
What Makes Him Magnificent?[]
- For starters, he's given a soft-spoken, badass voice by Robin Atkin Downes.
- While still fairly petty and far from tragic, Zemo has an understandable reason to want Captain America dead: revenge for permanently disfiguring him with his own Virus X back in World War II. And even then, despite their differences, Zemo has a modicum of faux affable respect for Cap as his enemy, acknowledging him as a symbol of nobility for the USA, hence why he's able to deduce Cap's Skrull imposter in Season 2.
- Furthermore, while he did attempt to use Virus X against the Allies so that HYDRA would win the war, Zemo—as far as the audience knows—only ever joined HYDRA to take over the world rather than actually being a Nazi, as he's quick to leave HYDRA behind altogether once they're no longer useful to him. Not to mention he's in the same show as the Red Skull, an even more open Nazi whose own chemical weapons were actually used on a whole neighborhood of civilians, and the onscreen effects are definitely as disturbing as they are deadly.
- Throughout his appearances, Zemo has had numerous near wins in his own war against Captain America and the Avengers:
- In "Living Legend", he sends Doughboy to distract the Avengers on Ellis Island, using the element of surprise to nearly take out Cap and Wasp in the Avengers Mansion. And even though Zemo ultimately loses the fight when Black Panther shows up to throw Cap his shield, Zemo manages to escape by throwing a bomb at Wasp so that Cap would have to let him get away to save her.
- In "Masters of Evil", he and his titular team knock out Wasp and then steals her Avengers ID card to break into the Avengers Mansion, yet again using the element of surprise to take down Iron Man, Hulk, Captain America and Thor in their own home. And even though Hawkeye, Black Panther and Ant-Man show up and manage to free their captured teammates by the end of it, Zemo has Enchantress teleport the Masters of Evil away back to Arnim Zola's lab, thus they all live to fight another day.
- In "This Hostage Earth", while using the Norn Stones in an attempt to summon beings from all across the Nine Realms and thus conquer Earth, Zemo sends the Masters of Evil to seven different locations worldwide in the hopes that they'll be able to take down the Avengers individually. He even uses a mind control collar to betray Enchantress while rightfully suspecting that she'd have betrayed him first otherwise, ordering her to put the armies of Asgard under Zemo's control once they arrive. If it wasn't for an unforeseen complication (Thor summoning Mjolnir while it's trapped in a magic bubble), Zemo would've successfully one-upped Loki of all people by taking over the world first.
- Finally in "Acts of Vengeance", Zemo goes to the Avengers for help against Enchantress with the false promise of surrender, only to betray and nearly destroy all of his enemies at once when Iron Man uses a magic dampener to deactivate her powers. He also uses the last Norn Stone as a shield, having prepared ahead of time for Captain America's Skrull imposter breaking his promise to protect Zemo while he acted as bait for Enchantress.
- Although Zemo is unscrupulously pragmatic about betraying and endangering literally the universe and even his fellow Masters of Evil just to save his own life, he is by no means a coward. On top of being a fearless combatant against the likes of Captain America, Grim Reaper, Baron Strucker, Thor, and even Abomination when he attempts a coup on Zemo at one point, he faces his ultimate defeat with relative grace, sneering about how Cap's Skrull imposter nearly let him get killed by Enchantress. He also cracks jokes when the real Cap refuses to let Zemo out of his cell to help fight Annihilus in Prison 42.
- Furthermore, Zemo endangering the Nine Realms was technically self-defense since his only other option was to get brutally killed (or worse) by Enchantress, as shown by what she does to Chemistro, Living Laser and Arnim Zola. And at least in Crimson Dynamo's case, he went to fight Enchantress willingly to protect his boss. Not to mention he's in the same show as Surtur, an even worse boss and omnicidal maniac who enslaves Enchantress to the point where she's outright begging Thor to kill her out of mercy.
- He has a god complex; outright begging Thor, the Norse god of thunder, to kneel before his "master". However, as the rest of this page clearly shows, Zemo has shown more than once that he's able to back up his own boasts despite being terminally ill.
What Makes Him a Baddie?[]
- He is one of Captain America's worst enemies, spending decades trying to kill him and his teammates, the Avengers. He even created his own team of supervillains to combat the Avengers, who are literally called the "Masters of Evil" in-universe.
- Back in World War II, he planned to use the volatile Virus X against the Allies for HYDRA to win said war. And just judging what Virus X did to just Zemo when Cap splashed it on him in self-defense, the results would not have been pretty.
- He forces the dying Wonder Man to join the Masters of Evil with the (likely false) promise of a cure.
- He uses his fellow Masters of Evil as cannon fodder against Enchantress, resulting in Chemistro getting turned into a solid gold statue, Living Laser being frozen into a pillar of light, and Arnim Zola's death, the last of which Zemo even watches from a security camera. Even Iron Man is shocked and disapproving that Zemo sent his archenemy Crimson Dynamo to die (hence why he and Hawkeye then go to save Dynamo), to which Zemo responds by saying that's what a team is for.
- By using the last Norn Stone against Enchantress, Zemo endangers all the Nine Realms by freeing Surtur from Muspelheim, something even Loki apparently wouldn't do. And when called out on it, Zemo literally just doesn't care.
Trivia[]
- Apart from the MCU's version of Helmut, this is one of only two versions of Baron Zemo to qualify as a Magnificent Baddie.
External Links[]
- Baron Zemo at the Villains wiki
- Baron Zemo at the Pure Evil wiki
- Baron Zemo at the Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes wiki
- Baron Zemo at the Disney wiki