Jim Lemoine
Apr 26, 2004, 09:44 pm
<img src="http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/logos/dittol_logo.gif" align=left border=0 alt="Did I Think That Out Loud?!? logo">By Jim Lemoine, jimlemoine@comixfan.cjb.net
A Tale of Two Zemos (and Phoenix, Too!)
Baron Heinrich Zemo, the twelfth member of his family to hold the title, was one of the greatest villains of the Marvel side of the Golden Age of Comics. Ironically enough, he never actually appeared in the Marvel side of the Golden Age of Comics, but that's beside the point.
Baron Helmut Zemo, Heinrich's son and the thirteenth member of his family to hold the title, is one of Modern Marvel's greatest villains. He's had just about as many costumed identities as Henry Pym, and his marital issues make Pym's struggles look like bliss. One got the feeling that Helmut was never 100% comfortable with his father's legacy; sure, he was dedicated to the domination of his lessers and the destruction of Captain America, but there was always something about the younger Zemo that was a bit less self-assured than Heinrich.
Thanks to the efforts of Kurt Busiek and Fabian Nicieza over in Marvel's old Thunderbolts title, we as readers have received a greater understanding of Helmut Zemo than we have of just about any other modern comics villain, with the possible exceptions of mainstays like Doom, Magneto, Luthor, and the Joker. His various identities, his schemes that always seem to backfire at the last minute (in true comic-book villain fashion)… it's all added up to a man who's been very unsure of his place in the world.
As a matter of fact, I can only think of one time when we ever saw Zemo fully confident and assured of his purpose: when the fourth Masters of Evil (the group many of us consider the "true" Masters of Evil, for reasons I'll get to in a moment) assaulted Avengers Mansion. This was a Zemo in command, leading a veritable army, in a cause that there can be no doubt he believed in. This was Zemo at his finest, in his truest replication of the acts of his honored, hated father.
Helmut's father Heinrich was, in many ways, everything Helmut wanted to be but could never attain. As germanic royalty in the early twentieth century, Heinrich's life consisted of everything that was due a Zemo: power, fear, money, and most importantly, respect. The Baron Zemo of World War II was a powerful and brilliant Nazi scientist, one who invented the (don’t laugh) Death Ray – which would in modern layman's terms be called a "laser" – and the concoction he's most famous for, the formula of (again, don't laugh) Adhesive X – a powerful and completely indissoluble paste.
Now, if you're like me, when you read about a powerful paste called "Adhesive X", you think of Marvin the Martian fighting Duck Dodgers over the universe's last supply of the shaving cream atom on Planet X (If you don't know what I'm talking about here, just ignore this paragraph).
But really, think about it: this weapon had real military potential. Put a vat of this Adhesive X stuff on a Nazi bomber, drop it on an Allied army, and presto – the army can't move, can't make advances, can't adequately defend themselves from incoming fire. It may sound silly, but when you think about it, Adhesive X could have been the kind of invention to win a war.
World War II is considered by some to be the birth of modern propaganda, and for the Allies, Zemo was one of its biggest victims. Where Nazi operatives like the Red Skull (Zemo's archrival in the Reich) operated clandestinely, Zemo's "Death Ray" invention made him front-page material in the U.S. and Britain, especially after a squad of commandos led by one Nick Fury managed to destroy the prototype. Baron Heinrich Zemo became one of the most hated men in the world, and not just for his actions against the Allies; some of his experiments made his own people, the Germans, hate him just as much (to my knowledge, it's never been revealed exactly what Zemo did to make him so unpopular in his own country).
To protect himself and his family from his countrymen, Heinrich Zemo took to wearing a mask – an evil-looking hood, or as one Avenger would later call it, a "purple head-sock." While wearing that mask, he was attacked by a young Captain America, an attack which spilled Adhesive X over his head. Thus, (don't laugh) the mask was adhered to his face forever!
Yeah, I know, it's a cheesy old-fashioned comic book device to rid the villain of their basic humanity (or to hearken back to a great punishment i.e. The Man in the Iron Mask). But think about it: if it really did happen, what would this really do to somebody? To never have your face seen again, to always breathe air filtered by the cloth fibers of a mask, to hear everything slightly muffled… and to always be very, very stuffy. I even read once that since Zemo's mask had no opening for his mouth (and it couldn't simply be ripped open – it was too firmly adhered), he had to take all of his nourishment intravenously. All because he served his country. All because an enemy of his country had tried to stop him.
Did Zemo go a little insane? Maybe. But that didn't stop him from being ruthless, scheming, and above all, very clever. He was one of the few German agents to kill an American "hero" in combat (the first Citizen V), and he was probably the only one of Hitler's top lieutenants to stake out a comfortable post-war existence. Sure, other Nazi agents (like the Red Skull) made plans to enjoy life after the war, but only Zemo had a plan to survive until the war was over.
As the Reich crumbled around him, Zemo watched the best-laid plans of Hitler and the Red Skull go awry. (Side note: it's no wonder the rivalry between Heinrich Zemo and the Red Skull was so intense – Zemo was royalty, of pure blood, while the Skull was a common orphan who had once loved a Jew!) But while the Nazi careers of his two superiors ended in total defeat, Heinrich alone went on to profit from the war and live in safety. Just before the Skull's final WWII defeat at the hands of Steve Rogers, he sent Baron Zemo into a trap – a mission to steal an experimental plane, a mission that had been leaked to the Allies! Zemo knew it was a trap, and set his own trap for Captain America and his young partner. This trap was, of course, the one that killed Bucky and caused Cap's decades-long suspended animation.
So as Hitler and Bucky died, as Captain America and the Red Skull lay helpless in suspended animation, the twelfth Baron Zemo was left alone as, arguably, the big winner, the last man standing, of those major powers. He had planned for the moment when the Reich would fall, and he was prepared to live out the rest of his years comfortably in South America, lording it over the natives, continuing his scientific research, and eventually teaching his son the ways of the Zemo clan. Despite the loss of the war and his own behooded existence, Zemo's story probably would have had a happy ending (for him) if not for the news reports many years later that Thor, Iron Man, Giant-Man, and the Wasp had unearthed the frozen body of his longtime foe, Captain America.
Back in the halcyon days of 1964 or 1965, if you would have asked an early Marvel Zombie (or, more likely, a Member in Good Standing of the Merry Marvel Marching Society) who the greatest comic book villains were, they'd likely come up with three names. First and foremost, of course, there was Doctor Doom, the greatest villain of the greatest heroes. Second, they might mention the recurring arch-foe of Spider-Man, the devious Doctor Octopus. And finally, they'd mention a name from a relative fringe book called Avengers – the name of Doctor Heinrich Zemo. Sure, he'd never fought the Fantastic Four, Spider-Man, or the Hulk… but he was the force that singlehandedly brought together many of the company's greatest early villains like Radioactive Man, the Melter, and the Black Knight. What's more, he was the human… the normal, unpowered man… who could command Asgardian gods like the Executioner and Enchantress. In an age when everybody important seemed to have big super-powers, the sheer power of Zemo's leadership and his dominant willpower counted for a lot.
In order to defeat Captain America, and by extension, his family of Avengers, the twelfth Baron Zemo recruited his own group to stop them: the very first Masters of Evil. These were the greatest opponents of the early Avengers (much like Magneto's Brotherhood of Mutants were the constant opponents of the early X-Men, but with one exception: early comics readers actually read Avengers), and though the membership would often change, Zemo always remained single-mindedly in the forefront. Captain America was the one loose end left in his life, the one thing preventing the bliss he'd enjoyed for years in the South American jungle, so the villain was determined to bring him down. His obsession with his archfoe was his tragic flaw.
As a "super-villain," Zemo was visionary in the Marvel Universe – he was the first to bring together a team of villains to defeat a team of heroes; he created Wonder Man and commanded Asgardians; he pioneered the "army" concept that his son would later revisit in leading every past Master of Evil against the Avengers at once, in the fantastic, end-of-an-era Avengers #15. That issue was the last adventure of the founding Avengers, the final appearance of Zemo's Masters, and the final appearance of Zemo himself –Baron Heinrich Zemo, one of the last survivors of World War Two's elite, evil scientist and brilliant agent of terrorism, was killed in battle with Captain America.
And how this must have grated on young Helmut! Imagine it: the darling hero of the modern world is the man who killed your father, shamed your name, and destroyed your family. This so-called "hero of the masses" thwarted your father at every turn, mutilating his body, perverting and destroying his brilliant experiments, and even invading and ransacking his adopted homeland. All rationality aside, how would you feel if you were Helmut? What would you do?
It's a great setup for a powerful, tragic figure to become either a hero or a villain. In the beginning, this was probably a bit in doubt in Helmut's mind, as he had three relatively major weaknesses as compared to his father (at least, in this writer's opinion). First, Helmut Zemo was no brilliant inventor like Heinrich Zemo. Sure, he was an adequate engineer, more than capable of duplicating his father's experiments – but he wasn't really a visionary creator. Second, it quickly became apparent that the younger Zemo lacked the ruthless ambition of his father. And third, where the elder Zemo was mentally equipped to deal with setbacks and failures, Helmut's psyche wasn't originally quite strong enough to cope with loss and tragedy.
It's my opinion that upon discovering the full circumstances of his father's life and demise, Helmut Zemo went a little insane. How else can you explain the first time comic readers ever saw this character: in the guise of the Phoenix – not the cosmic avatar that X-fans are so enamored of, but a ridiculous villainous identity in a garish yellow costume? This laughable villain captured Captain America and his partner, the Falcon, and instead of just killing them (of course), he imprisoned them just above a boiling cauldron of Adhesive X. Of course, because this was a comic book, Cap and the Falcon escaped, had a dramatic confrontation with the Phoenix, and knocked him into the vat of Adhesive X, permanently disfiguring him.
With what we know now of the life and mindset of the younger Zemo, none of this makes sense, really. Would a Zemo really cast off his family name and lower himself to operate under a pseudonym? Would a Zemo really shame his family by dressing the part of a "super-villain"? Would a true Zemo feel the need to do something as melodramatic as taunting his nemesis while placing him in an easily escapable situation? Of course not. It's obvious when you look at it… and at least at one level, it was probably pretty obvious to Zemo himself, too.
If you look at "super-villains" from a real-world, psychological perspective, most of them have some pretty major hang-ups, and this "Phoenix" was no exception. It's probable that, at least subconsciously, Zemo knew that this was no way to continue his father's legacy – that his father would not be proud of him for this. Perhaps the young Zemo engineered his own defeat subconsciously, a defeat that would result in him being reborn a truer heir to Heinrich Zemo. Falling into a vat of his father's greatest creation, being forced to wear a hood for the rest of his life (just like his father), rechristening himself simply Helmut, Thirteenth Baron Zemo… it's all a son trying to follow in the footsteps of his patriarch (albeit in a very twisted and painful way).
Over the following years, Zemo struck out at Captain America many times – not often as part of any grand plan for global domination, but simply for revenge. This was a key difference from the plans of his father: the elder Zemo's greatest successes came from those ventures that had a clear power-oriented goal, not his repeated attempts at blind revenge at the end of his life. Heinrich was a great scientist, a clever schemer, a powerful combatant, and an overall great success – but he was not very good at the vengeance that was the center of his later years. Helmut Zemo, on the other hand, went in the opposite direction: he began his career by failing at vengeance and villainy, and would later be successful only when his goals were broader.
The only times the younger Zemo ever seemed truly content was when he was leading a force more powerful than he was. When he bossed around the Fixer (who really was smarter than him) or outfoxed Moonstone (who was always much, much more powerful than him) or abused Goliath/Atlas (who could easily beat Zemo to a bloody pulp), that was when Helmut was really living the life he wanted to live, following in his father's footsteps. Is it any wonder that it wasn't until he reformed the Masters of Evil that anyone really took Baron Helmut Zemo seriously?
Compared to the relatively feckless second and third generations of the Masters of Evil (led by the diabolical… ummm… Egghead…), Helmut Zemo's Masters were truly that: Masters. Instead of some hastily-thrown-together asinine plot to kill Captain America, Zemo assembled an army to do what had never been accomplished: to invade Avengers Mansion; to steal it from its inhabitants in broad daylight; to divide and conquer the Avengers. And leading his army, thinking strategically and tactically, less worried about poetic justice for Captain America and more concerned with a workable plan, Zemo was an amazing success. Sure, he and his Masters were eventually defeated… but name a villain besides Helmut or Heinrich Zemo who's hurt Steve Rogers so badly that he cried.
Zemo hurt Captain America; he didn't kill him, but he hurt him very badly. At least at some level, Zemo knew that this was the largest measure of vengeance he'd ever be able to exact from the Captain (not even killing Rogers would hurt him as much as ripping up the last picture of his mother did), and I believe that grated on him. Zemo's plans over the next few years couldn't compare to his grand Masters of Evil gambit, and even though he attacked Cap at his weakest, he wasn't able to make much of a dent ever again. It's my belief that he again went through a period of mental instability; how else could one explain his passionate marriage to the Baronness, a woman who claimed to be his father brought back to life in a new, sexier body? Just thinking about it gives me chills.
And of course, Zemo's second-most-famous gambit: his formation of the Thunderbolts when the world thought Captain America and the Avengers dead. It's no coincidence that Zemo's very first plot that had absolutely nothing to do with killing superheroes, was also his most successful. Once he got out of the "super-villain-thought-process," Zemo's brilliance was clear. And Zemo found his guise as Citizen V so enjoyable (though it took him a while to admit it) that he would later reclaim the heroic mantle, and still later, he would lead a team of truly heroic Thunderbolts.
Zemo's switch from master-villain to heroic-wanna-be is the subject of lots of debate, and rightfully so; after all, it happened very, very quickly. Why does Zemo want to be a hero? For the same reason that he (and his father before him) wanted to be a world-conquering super-villain. What Heinrich Zemo wanted was not money (he had that) or slaves (he could buy those) or even power (he was quite happy to tinker in his lab): it was prestige and respect. He joined the Third Reich to gain respect and a position of authority, for his peers to think well of him, to be considered among the world's elite. When he became one of the most famous men in Germany, he was ashamed of his own unpopularity, so much so that he not only wore a mask to hide, but that he always wore the mask, even in privacy.
As Helmut Zemo would discover after the Thunderbolts turned traitor on him (which was the only reason that particular scheme failed), he wasn't in it for the power either: he just wanted respect. And like the other Thunderbolts, he found that heroes get the exact same kind of adoration, respect, fame, prestige, and authority that most world-conquering super-villains are after. Super-villains fight so that people will know and fear them – magazines run cover stories on the Fantastic Four. Super-villains try to take over the world – Captain America and the Avengers are asked by the U.N. to lead the nations of the planet! The people loved Zemo as Citizen V, and he liked the way that felt. Now, in the pages of Avengers/Thunderbolts, the Baron seems intent on saving the world in spite of itself and regardless of what others think; merging his need for acceptance and respect with a touch of his old diabolic megalomania.
Ever-haunted by the specter of his father, smarter and more successful, Baron Helmut Zemo seeks to find his own place in the world by villainy or heroism; whatever gets him there faster. Had he never known his father, had he never learned of his legacy, he undoubtedly would have gone on to live a normal life as a relatively undistinguished engineer – he would have had a wife, two and a half kids, a picket fence, and the like. Driven by the past, though, Zemo has caused a lot of suffering in the world, and a little bit of good… but he's never really been comfortable with most of it.
So here's to the future, and all those waiting to see where the Thirteenth Baron ventures next.
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A few months ago, Jim Lemoine (ComiX-Fan's Columns Editor) completed the manuscript for his first book, an examination of business leadership. Oddly enough, his second book is being published this summer, while his first book is still delayed by guys in expensive suits. He thinks there's nothing better than a Modern Age retelling of a Golden Age story that makes sense of the Silver Age.
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The opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the writer, and are not reflective of ComiX-Fan or its other staff in general.
A Tale of Two Zemos (and Phoenix, Too!)
Baron Heinrich Zemo, the twelfth member of his family to hold the title, was one of the greatest villains of the Marvel side of the Golden Age of Comics. Ironically enough, he never actually appeared in the Marvel side of the Golden Age of Comics, but that's beside the point.
Baron Helmut Zemo, Heinrich's son and the thirteenth member of his family to hold the title, is one of Modern Marvel's greatest villains. He's had just about as many costumed identities as Henry Pym, and his marital issues make Pym's struggles look like bliss. One got the feeling that Helmut was never 100% comfortable with his father's legacy; sure, he was dedicated to the domination of his lessers and the destruction of Captain America, but there was always something about the younger Zemo that was a bit less self-assured than Heinrich.
Thanks to the efforts of Kurt Busiek and Fabian Nicieza over in Marvel's old Thunderbolts title, we as readers have received a greater understanding of Helmut Zemo than we have of just about any other modern comics villain, with the possible exceptions of mainstays like Doom, Magneto, Luthor, and the Joker. His various identities, his schemes that always seem to backfire at the last minute (in true comic-book villain fashion)… it's all added up to a man who's been very unsure of his place in the world.
As a matter of fact, I can only think of one time when we ever saw Zemo fully confident and assured of his purpose: when the fourth Masters of Evil (the group many of us consider the "true" Masters of Evil, for reasons I'll get to in a moment) assaulted Avengers Mansion. This was a Zemo in command, leading a veritable army, in a cause that there can be no doubt he believed in. This was Zemo at his finest, in his truest replication of the acts of his honored, hated father.
Helmut's father Heinrich was, in many ways, everything Helmut wanted to be but could never attain. As germanic royalty in the early twentieth century, Heinrich's life consisted of everything that was due a Zemo: power, fear, money, and most importantly, respect. The Baron Zemo of World War II was a powerful and brilliant Nazi scientist, one who invented the (don’t laugh) Death Ray – which would in modern layman's terms be called a "laser" – and the concoction he's most famous for, the formula of (again, don't laugh) Adhesive X – a powerful and completely indissoluble paste.
Now, if you're like me, when you read about a powerful paste called "Adhesive X", you think of Marvin the Martian fighting Duck Dodgers over the universe's last supply of the shaving cream atom on Planet X (If you don't know what I'm talking about here, just ignore this paragraph).
But really, think about it: this weapon had real military potential. Put a vat of this Adhesive X stuff on a Nazi bomber, drop it on an Allied army, and presto – the army can't move, can't make advances, can't adequately defend themselves from incoming fire. It may sound silly, but when you think about it, Adhesive X could have been the kind of invention to win a war.
World War II is considered by some to be the birth of modern propaganda, and for the Allies, Zemo was one of its biggest victims. Where Nazi operatives like the Red Skull (Zemo's archrival in the Reich) operated clandestinely, Zemo's "Death Ray" invention made him front-page material in the U.S. and Britain, especially after a squad of commandos led by one Nick Fury managed to destroy the prototype. Baron Heinrich Zemo became one of the most hated men in the world, and not just for his actions against the Allies; some of his experiments made his own people, the Germans, hate him just as much (to my knowledge, it's never been revealed exactly what Zemo did to make him so unpopular in his own country).
To protect himself and his family from his countrymen, Heinrich Zemo took to wearing a mask – an evil-looking hood, or as one Avenger would later call it, a "purple head-sock." While wearing that mask, he was attacked by a young Captain America, an attack which spilled Adhesive X over his head. Thus, (don't laugh) the mask was adhered to his face forever!
Yeah, I know, it's a cheesy old-fashioned comic book device to rid the villain of their basic humanity (or to hearken back to a great punishment i.e. The Man in the Iron Mask). But think about it: if it really did happen, what would this really do to somebody? To never have your face seen again, to always breathe air filtered by the cloth fibers of a mask, to hear everything slightly muffled… and to always be very, very stuffy. I even read once that since Zemo's mask had no opening for his mouth (and it couldn't simply be ripped open – it was too firmly adhered), he had to take all of his nourishment intravenously. All because he served his country. All because an enemy of his country had tried to stop him.
Did Zemo go a little insane? Maybe. But that didn't stop him from being ruthless, scheming, and above all, very clever. He was one of the few German agents to kill an American "hero" in combat (the first Citizen V), and he was probably the only one of Hitler's top lieutenants to stake out a comfortable post-war existence. Sure, other Nazi agents (like the Red Skull) made plans to enjoy life after the war, but only Zemo had a plan to survive until the war was over.
As the Reich crumbled around him, Zemo watched the best-laid plans of Hitler and the Red Skull go awry. (Side note: it's no wonder the rivalry between Heinrich Zemo and the Red Skull was so intense – Zemo was royalty, of pure blood, while the Skull was a common orphan who had once loved a Jew!) But while the Nazi careers of his two superiors ended in total defeat, Heinrich alone went on to profit from the war and live in safety. Just before the Skull's final WWII defeat at the hands of Steve Rogers, he sent Baron Zemo into a trap – a mission to steal an experimental plane, a mission that had been leaked to the Allies! Zemo knew it was a trap, and set his own trap for Captain America and his young partner. This trap was, of course, the one that killed Bucky and caused Cap's decades-long suspended animation.
So as Hitler and Bucky died, as Captain America and the Red Skull lay helpless in suspended animation, the twelfth Baron Zemo was left alone as, arguably, the big winner, the last man standing, of those major powers. He had planned for the moment when the Reich would fall, and he was prepared to live out the rest of his years comfortably in South America, lording it over the natives, continuing his scientific research, and eventually teaching his son the ways of the Zemo clan. Despite the loss of the war and his own behooded existence, Zemo's story probably would have had a happy ending (for him) if not for the news reports many years later that Thor, Iron Man, Giant-Man, and the Wasp had unearthed the frozen body of his longtime foe, Captain America.
Back in the halcyon days of 1964 or 1965, if you would have asked an early Marvel Zombie (or, more likely, a Member in Good Standing of the Merry Marvel Marching Society) who the greatest comic book villains were, they'd likely come up with three names. First and foremost, of course, there was Doctor Doom, the greatest villain of the greatest heroes. Second, they might mention the recurring arch-foe of Spider-Man, the devious Doctor Octopus. And finally, they'd mention a name from a relative fringe book called Avengers – the name of Doctor Heinrich Zemo. Sure, he'd never fought the Fantastic Four, Spider-Man, or the Hulk… but he was the force that singlehandedly brought together many of the company's greatest early villains like Radioactive Man, the Melter, and the Black Knight. What's more, he was the human… the normal, unpowered man… who could command Asgardian gods like the Executioner and Enchantress. In an age when everybody important seemed to have big super-powers, the sheer power of Zemo's leadership and his dominant willpower counted for a lot.
In order to defeat Captain America, and by extension, his family of Avengers, the twelfth Baron Zemo recruited his own group to stop them: the very first Masters of Evil. These were the greatest opponents of the early Avengers (much like Magneto's Brotherhood of Mutants were the constant opponents of the early X-Men, but with one exception: early comics readers actually read Avengers), and though the membership would often change, Zemo always remained single-mindedly in the forefront. Captain America was the one loose end left in his life, the one thing preventing the bliss he'd enjoyed for years in the South American jungle, so the villain was determined to bring him down. His obsession with his archfoe was his tragic flaw.
As a "super-villain," Zemo was visionary in the Marvel Universe – he was the first to bring together a team of villains to defeat a team of heroes; he created Wonder Man and commanded Asgardians; he pioneered the "army" concept that his son would later revisit in leading every past Master of Evil against the Avengers at once, in the fantastic, end-of-an-era Avengers #15. That issue was the last adventure of the founding Avengers, the final appearance of Zemo's Masters, and the final appearance of Zemo himself –Baron Heinrich Zemo, one of the last survivors of World War Two's elite, evil scientist and brilliant agent of terrorism, was killed in battle with Captain America.
And how this must have grated on young Helmut! Imagine it: the darling hero of the modern world is the man who killed your father, shamed your name, and destroyed your family. This so-called "hero of the masses" thwarted your father at every turn, mutilating his body, perverting and destroying his brilliant experiments, and even invading and ransacking his adopted homeland. All rationality aside, how would you feel if you were Helmut? What would you do?
It's a great setup for a powerful, tragic figure to become either a hero or a villain. In the beginning, this was probably a bit in doubt in Helmut's mind, as he had three relatively major weaknesses as compared to his father (at least, in this writer's opinion). First, Helmut Zemo was no brilliant inventor like Heinrich Zemo. Sure, he was an adequate engineer, more than capable of duplicating his father's experiments – but he wasn't really a visionary creator. Second, it quickly became apparent that the younger Zemo lacked the ruthless ambition of his father. And third, where the elder Zemo was mentally equipped to deal with setbacks and failures, Helmut's psyche wasn't originally quite strong enough to cope with loss and tragedy.
It's my opinion that upon discovering the full circumstances of his father's life and demise, Helmut Zemo went a little insane. How else can you explain the first time comic readers ever saw this character: in the guise of the Phoenix – not the cosmic avatar that X-fans are so enamored of, but a ridiculous villainous identity in a garish yellow costume? This laughable villain captured Captain America and his partner, the Falcon, and instead of just killing them (of course), he imprisoned them just above a boiling cauldron of Adhesive X. Of course, because this was a comic book, Cap and the Falcon escaped, had a dramatic confrontation with the Phoenix, and knocked him into the vat of Adhesive X, permanently disfiguring him.
With what we know now of the life and mindset of the younger Zemo, none of this makes sense, really. Would a Zemo really cast off his family name and lower himself to operate under a pseudonym? Would a Zemo really shame his family by dressing the part of a "super-villain"? Would a true Zemo feel the need to do something as melodramatic as taunting his nemesis while placing him in an easily escapable situation? Of course not. It's obvious when you look at it… and at least at one level, it was probably pretty obvious to Zemo himself, too.
If you look at "super-villains" from a real-world, psychological perspective, most of them have some pretty major hang-ups, and this "Phoenix" was no exception. It's probable that, at least subconsciously, Zemo knew that this was no way to continue his father's legacy – that his father would not be proud of him for this. Perhaps the young Zemo engineered his own defeat subconsciously, a defeat that would result in him being reborn a truer heir to Heinrich Zemo. Falling into a vat of his father's greatest creation, being forced to wear a hood for the rest of his life (just like his father), rechristening himself simply Helmut, Thirteenth Baron Zemo… it's all a son trying to follow in the footsteps of his patriarch (albeit in a very twisted and painful way).
Over the following years, Zemo struck out at Captain America many times – not often as part of any grand plan for global domination, but simply for revenge. This was a key difference from the plans of his father: the elder Zemo's greatest successes came from those ventures that had a clear power-oriented goal, not his repeated attempts at blind revenge at the end of his life. Heinrich was a great scientist, a clever schemer, a powerful combatant, and an overall great success – but he was not very good at the vengeance that was the center of his later years. Helmut Zemo, on the other hand, went in the opposite direction: he began his career by failing at vengeance and villainy, and would later be successful only when his goals were broader.
The only times the younger Zemo ever seemed truly content was when he was leading a force more powerful than he was. When he bossed around the Fixer (who really was smarter than him) or outfoxed Moonstone (who was always much, much more powerful than him) or abused Goliath/Atlas (who could easily beat Zemo to a bloody pulp), that was when Helmut was really living the life he wanted to live, following in his father's footsteps. Is it any wonder that it wasn't until he reformed the Masters of Evil that anyone really took Baron Helmut Zemo seriously?
Compared to the relatively feckless second and third generations of the Masters of Evil (led by the diabolical… ummm… Egghead…), Helmut Zemo's Masters were truly that: Masters. Instead of some hastily-thrown-together asinine plot to kill Captain America, Zemo assembled an army to do what had never been accomplished: to invade Avengers Mansion; to steal it from its inhabitants in broad daylight; to divide and conquer the Avengers. And leading his army, thinking strategically and tactically, less worried about poetic justice for Captain America and more concerned with a workable plan, Zemo was an amazing success. Sure, he and his Masters were eventually defeated… but name a villain besides Helmut or Heinrich Zemo who's hurt Steve Rogers so badly that he cried.
Zemo hurt Captain America; he didn't kill him, but he hurt him very badly. At least at some level, Zemo knew that this was the largest measure of vengeance he'd ever be able to exact from the Captain (not even killing Rogers would hurt him as much as ripping up the last picture of his mother did), and I believe that grated on him. Zemo's plans over the next few years couldn't compare to his grand Masters of Evil gambit, and even though he attacked Cap at his weakest, he wasn't able to make much of a dent ever again. It's my belief that he again went through a period of mental instability; how else could one explain his passionate marriage to the Baronness, a woman who claimed to be his father brought back to life in a new, sexier body? Just thinking about it gives me chills.
And of course, Zemo's second-most-famous gambit: his formation of the Thunderbolts when the world thought Captain America and the Avengers dead. It's no coincidence that Zemo's very first plot that had absolutely nothing to do with killing superheroes, was also his most successful. Once he got out of the "super-villain-thought-process," Zemo's brilliance was clear. And Zemo found his guise as Citizen V so enjoyable (though it took him a while to admit it) that he would later reclaim the heroic mantle, and still later, he would lead a team of truly heroic Thunderbolts.
Zemo's switch from master-villain to heroic-wanna-be is the subject of lots of debate, and rightfully so; after all, it happened very, very quickly. Why does Zemo want to be a hero? For the same reason that he (and his father before him) wanted to be a world-conquering super-villain. What Heinrich Zemo wanted was not money (he had that) or slaves (he could buy those) or even power (he was quite happy to tinker in his lab): it was prestige and respect. He joined the Third Reich to gain respect and a position of authority, for his peers to think well of him, to be considered among the world's elite. When he became one of the most famous men in Germany, he was ashamed of his own unpopularity, so much so that he not only wore a mask to hide, but that he always wore the mask, even in privacy.
As Helmut Zemo would discover after the Thunderbolts turned traitor on him (which was the only reason that particular scheme failed), he wasn't in it for the power either: he just wanted respect. And like the other Thunderbolts, he found that heroes get the exact same kind of adoration, respect, fame, prestige, and authority that most world-conquering super-villains are after. Super-villains fight so that people will know and fear them – magazines run cover stories on the Fantastic Four. Super-villains try to take over the world – Captain America and the Avengers are asked by the U.N. to lead the nations of the planet! The people loved Zemo as Citizen V, and he liked the way that felt. Now, in the pages of Avengers/Thunderbolts, the Baron seems intent on saving the world in spite of itself and regardless of what others think; merging his need for acceptance and respect with a touch of his old diabolic megalomania.
Ever-haunted by the specter of his father, smarter and more successful, Baron Helmut Zemo seeks to find his own place in the world by villainy or heroism; whatever gets him there faster. Had he never known his father, had he never learned of his legacy, he undoubtedly would have gone on to live a normal life as a relatively undistinguished engineer – he would have had a wife, two and a half kids, a picket fence, and the like. Driven by the past, though, Zemo has caused a lot of suffering in the world, and a little bit of good… but he's never really been comfortable with most of it.
So here's to the future, and all those waiting to see where the Thirteenth Baron ventures next.
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A few months ago, Jim Lemoine (ComiX-Fan's Columns Editor) completed the manuscript for his first book, an examination of business leadership. Oddly enough, his second book is being published this summer, while his first book is still delayed by guys in expensive suits. He thinks there's nothing better than a Modern Age retelling of a Golden Age story that makes sense of the Silver Age.
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The opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the writer, and are not reflective of ComiX-Fan or its other staff in general.