Helmut Zemo

"I admit it. This war is my doing. The Avengers destroyed my home. They stole my family from me. So what better revenge than to have them fight each other, and tear themselves apart?"

- Helmut Zemo

Colonel Helmut Zemo is a Sokovian citizen and a terrorist who sought revenge against the Avengers after losing his family during the Battle of Sokovia, becoming obsessed with defeating and destroying them. He set about his plan to tear apart the Avengers by first framing the Winter Soldier for the assassination of T'Chaka, causing Captain America to defend his friend from the world. This action caused the Avengers Civil War in which Iron Man led a man-hunt for the Winter Soldier and Zemo allowed Iron Man to discover that the Winter Soldier was also responsible for the deaths of his parents. With the Avengers in ruins, Zemo attempted to commit suicide but was stopped by Black Panther and handed over to Everett Ross' custody.

Early Life
"You're Sokovian, is that what this is about?" "Sokovia was failed state long before you blew it to hell. No. I'm here because I made a promise." "You've lost someone." "I've lost everyone. And so will you."

- Captain America and Helmut Zemo

Helmut Zemo is a former Sokovian soldier who lived a happy life with his family in Sokovia. However, his happiness was cut short when Ultron destroyed Sokovia, which tragically cost the lives of Zemo's family. Though Ultron was defeated and killed by the Avengers, Zemo angrily blamed them for causing his family's death, and vowed to destroy the team at all costs. Knowing he cannot hope to win by force, he sought to manipulate them into destroying each other instead.

Manipulating the Avengers
"HYDRA deserves its place on the ashtray, so your death would not bother me. But I have to use this book and other bloodier methods to get what I need."

- Helmut Zemo to Vasily Karpov

To that end, Zemo located Vasily Karpov, one of the former leaders of the Winter Soldier Program, who was in hiding with HYDRA having been wiped out. Zemo attacked and subdued Karpov before tying him upside down above a sink slowly filling with water. Zemo took the Winter Soldier Book from Karpov's HYDRA files and introduced himself demanding information about Howard and Maria Stark's assassination, but Karpov refused to speak so Zemo left, taking his belongings while Karpov drowned.

Using the information he had obtained, Zemo framed the former Winter Soldier Bucky Barnes into taking the fall for a bombing which killed the Wakandan king T'Chaka. The timing of events coincided with the signing of the Sokovia Accords, a framework that would place enhanced people under government oversight, and a burgeoning cause of friction between Captain America, who refuses the oversight and incidentally the best friend of Barnes, and Iron Man.

Re-Activating the Winter Soldier
"Longing, Rusted, Seventeen, Daybreak, Furnace, Nine, Benign, Homecoming, One, Freight Car. Soldier?" "Happy to comply."

- Helmut Zemo and Winter Soldier

Having been hunted across the world for his apparent involvement in T'Chaka's death, James Barnes was eventually caught and subdued due in part to the efforts of Everett Ross' men and War Machine and taken into the custody of the Joint Counter Terrorist Centre. Barnes was locked in a contained cell with his robotic arm tightly fixed down and Zemo posed as the psychiatrist Theo Broussard who was supposed to evaluate his mental well-being. To begin with, Zemo continued the evaluation until the power around the base were cut out, including the cameras. Zemo then reactivated Barnes' Winter Soldier Program training by using the HYDRA manual he procured from Barnes' former handler Vasily Karpov, which led to Barnes attempting to break free of his restraints to stop Zemo's plans, ripping his arms free and punching the glass to try and get away.

However Zemo was able to finish saying the codewords just as Barnes broke free and began his willing assassin. Zemo ordered the Winter Soldier to fight and kill anyone who attempted to stop him, which included Tony Stark, before getting in a helicopter and escaping to seemingly prove his guilt for the bombing. As the Winter Soldier obeyed his orders, Zemo was confronted by Captain America and Falcon who attempted to save Barnes.

Final Stages
Once the Avengers co-leaders have gathered forces for their factions and fought each other to a near-standstill Zemo traveled to Siberia ostensibly to reawaken from cryostasis the five remaining soldiers from the Winter Soldier Program. Zemo arranged for Captain America and Iron Man to meet there, where Stark finally learned that it was Bucky Barnes who murdered his parents in 1991.

Success and Defeat
"Justice will come soon enough." "Tell that to the dead." "The living are not done with you yet."

- Black Panther to Helmut Zemo

Zemo awaited the result of the ensuing battle in the snow, content that he had split the Avengers, and attempted suicide as he recounted his motivations to the Black Panther trailing Stark. The Black Panther stopped him in time, and subsequently turned him over to counter-terrorist agent Everett Ross, ultimately defeating him.

Personality
"Vengeance has consumed you."

- T'Challa

Helmut Zemo was a member of a death squad of the Sokovian Armed Forces that managed to build a happy family despite the nature of his job. However, the war between the Avengers and Ultron ended up with the death of his whole family, and he became filled with so much anger and hatred that he became a vengeful psychopath. Thus, Zemo only wished to destroy the Avengers from the inside, the same way he himself had been destroyed.

However, despite his relentless attempts at trying to destroy the Avengers, Zemo is ultimately not without a conscience. He sincerely apologized to T'Challa for accidentally killing his father T'Chaka, and even opened up to him about why he wanted the Avengers destroyed. This caused even T'Challa, a man who wanted Zemo's death the most, to sympathize with his current situation, and even spare him, as he realized that revenge would have completely destroyed him, as it did with Zemo.

Zemo intended to kill himself after avenging his family, as he had little else to live for. Only T'Challa's timely intervention stopped him from shooting himself.

Abilities
"I knew I could not kill them. More powerful men than me have tried. But, if I could get them to kill each other..."

- Helmut Zemo


 * Master Tactician: Zemo was able to mastermind a series of events in order to get his revenge against the Avengers for their role in the destruction of Sokovia and the death of his family. He was also smart enough to know that he has no hopes of killing the Avengers, even if he had raised an army. So then, Zemo decided that it would be better to manipulate them into destroying themselves instead, which he successfully does.
 * Multilingual: Zemo can speak his native Sokovian, as well as English, German, and Russian.
 * Manipulations: Zemo was able to manipulate sides from both HYDRA operative, Vasily Karpov and both the sides from his enemies, the Avengers. He was also able to torture Kaprov until the death ,and was able to manipulate more than once the Avengers themselves as he came into encounters and confrontations with them.

Family

 * Father †
 * Wife †
 * Son †

Enemies

 * Avengers
 * Steve Rogers/Captain America
 * Tony Stark/Iron Man
 * Sam Wilson/Falcon
 * James Rhodes/War Machine
 * Wanda Maximoff/Scarlet Witch
 * Natasha Romanoff/Black Widow
 * Clint Barton/Hawkeye
 * Vision
 * Bucky Barnes/Winter Soldier - Former Thrall
 * T'Chaka † - Victim
 * T'Challa/Black Panther
 * Everett Ross
 * Theo Broussard † - Victim
 * HYDRA
 * Vasily Karpov † - Victim
 * Winter Soldier Program † - Victims

Trivia

 * In the comics, Baron Helmut Zemo is a German noble and the son of Heinrich Zemo and Hilda Zemo, and by extension of this is a descendant of Harbin Zemo, Hademar Zemo, Heller Zemo, Hilliard Zemo and Herman Zemo and the thirteenth baron of the Zemo bloodline. Outside of having led some incarnations of the Masters of Evil, Helmut Zemo masqueraded as Citizen V when working as a member of the Thunderbolts. After have been severely disfigured, Zemo use a purple mask iconic of his family to cover his scars.
 * Zemo is the only main villain whose plans were successful to any extent; he managed to manipulate Iron Man into a battle with Captain America and his friends.