50 Greatest Super Villains In Comic Book History
By FanSided
43. Baron Zemo
(Write-up by Roger Lee, Bam Smack Pow Staff Writer)
Making the list of the 50 Top Super-Villains of all time at #43 is Baron Zemo! One of Captain America’s top enemies, Baron Heinrich Zemo was a Nazi scientist during World War Two. He served Hitler and was considered in the same league as the evil Red Skull, with whom Zemo competed against. Zemo is a key villain in the history of Captain America and of the Avengers.
Baron Zemo was created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby as one of the first truly retconned characters (inserted retroactively into Marvel continuity), when he was first mentioned in Avengers #4 as the bad guy whose evil plot put Captain America on ice (in the movies it was the Red Skull, but we all know the REAL story!), and supposedly killed Cap’s teen sidekick Bucky Barnes.
Zemo also survived World War Two, and upon learning of Captain America’s re-appearance, he brought together the first version of the infamous Masters of Evil, a band of super villains that form one of the primary villain groups to battle the Avengers.
Zemo-as-the-bad-guy stories dominated the first couple years of Captain America’s (and the Avengers) stories in the 1960s after Cap joined the Avengers. While Zemo died in Avengers #15, his legacy is significant. His actions during and after the war formed the basis for all of Captain America’s career from 1945 onward. Zemo was responsible for Cap being on ice until the modern day. He also caused Bucky’s presumed death (which greatly affected Cap emotionally), and indirectly led to the creation of Bucky as the Winter Soldier. And, of course, the Masters of Evil continue to this day and also led to the formation of the Thunderbolts.
That leads us to the other major legacy of Baron Heinrich Zemo: his son, Helmut Zemo, who took up the mantle of Baron Zemo and sought revenge on Captain America and the Avengers for his father’s death. The younger Zemo also formed the Thunderbolts, which was a very cleverly disguised iteration of his dad’s Masters of Evil masquerading as a team of super heroes.
For a guy who has been dead for a long time (and, despite occasional appearances as a zombie, living dead guy, or time-displaced Nazi, he has mostly stayed dead), the first Baron Zemo in Marvel Comics continuity has impacted the course of Marvel for decades.
Next: No. 42: Simply unstoppable