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 who sought revenge against the Avengers after losing his family during the Battle of Sokovia. 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
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.

To that end, 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.

Barnes was eventually caught and subdued, and Zemo posed as the psychiatrist who was supposed to evaluate his mental well-being. Zemo then reactivated Barnes' Winter Soldier conditioning using the HYDRA manual he procured from Barnes' former handler, which led to Barnes breaking free of his restraints and rampaging before disappearing with Captain America and Falcon.

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 Tony Stark and Steve Rogers to meet there, where Stark finally learned that it was Barnes who murdered his parents in 1991. 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.

Personality
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, 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.

Abilities

 * 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 instead be better to manipulate them into destroying themselves instead.
 * Multilingual: Zemo could speak English, German, Russian and Sokovian.

Family

 * Father †
 * Wife †
 * Son †

Allies
To be added

Enemies

 * Avengers
 * Steve Rogers/Captain America
 * Tony Stark/Iron Man
 * Bucky Barnes/Winter Soldier
 * T'Chaka † - Victim
 * T'Challa/Black Panther
 * Everett Ross
 * Theo Broussard † - Victim
 * HYDRA
 * Karpov † - Victim

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.