The Razor: Who is Baron Zemo?

The Razor

As I sip a good, cold beer and peek at the TV screen streaming through the images of The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, I just can't help but think about how useful it would be to use my razor sharp blade this month. cut off Baron Zemo's hood and finally take it off his head. Difficult undertaking, given the power of the super glue that makes it adhere to the skin, prohibitive indeed; why not? Let's try.

Actually, speaking of Baron Zemo we should use the plural because there are at least two, father and son (at least? Yes, there is a very long family tree on which even my razor would sprout!). The first of the two to clash with Cap is his father Heinrich (twelfth of the dynasty), not only with blue blood in his veins but also with salt in his gourd, as he is considered one of the most brilliant scientists of the third Reich. Born in 1900, the twelfth Zemo of his family manages to win the coveted title of "the most hated man in Europe", beating on the cutting edge of ninety pieces such as Adolf Hitler, M- Dussendolf's monster and Jar Jar Binks. The title was awarded in Avengers # 10 (November 1964), with the following motivation: "for using his fellow citizens as human guinea pigs in his crazy experiments". His costume, on the other hand, is rather embarrassing, equipped with a very questionable purple-red hooded mask and a jumpsuit with fur-lined cuffs.

Baron Zemo, Captain America's nemesis

One of his most brilliant inventions is the X-Adhesive, a glue that, once used, can no longer be removed; however, it will turn out to be his worst idea since, during the umpteenth fight against Captain America, a dose of this adhesive drips onto his mask, making it adhere permanently to his face. The baron does not lose his sensory abilities, as the hood is very thin, but he is no longer able to feed himself and has to use an IV. This fact - combined with the idea of ​​never being able to see himself reflected in the mirror like any Lady Gaga - makes him lose his mind. However, after a few years, Zemo finds his revenge by becoming the direct cause of the apparent death of both Captain America and Bucky when the two superheroes try, unsuccessfully, to stop the flight of a remote-controlled bomb plane by the baron. And then they say that modeling is a harmless hobby.

Zemo wants to bomb London, but Cap and Bucky disagree (who knows why: they are Americans, not Londoners, they could leave it to Dylan Dog) . Result: the plane explodes over the English Channel. Bucky explodes with him; Steve Rogers takes a dip in the ocean from a not bad height, getting an excellent grade of 8.8, and ending up in hibernation. In reality, Bucky does not die at all: he just loses his left arm and takes a trip to the Soviet Union aboard the Karpov submarine lines. He will return to us with no memory but with a new, shining onesie and the title of Ice Cossack: Winter Soldier. Stuff Elsa from Frozen dreams of at night!

Happy to have eliminated two mangy bitches like Cap and Bucky in one fell swoop, Zemo, after the war, takes refuge in South America along with a plethora of his comrades who will do then luck, politics and otherwise, in that corner of the world. The return of Captain America, or Captain "Icicle", as Iron Man rightly calls him, however, awakens all the ancient hatred of him. To counter Cap and the Avengers he joined, the baron creates a team that he then calls the "Lords of Evil", just so as not to leave room for doubt when they hand out the business card, but the result is not up to par. expectations. The duel with Cap ends tragically for Zemo: using Rick Jones as bait (he could have chosen better, let's face it, like Jessica Drew for example!), The baron lures Steve "Icicle" Rogers into a trap but, during the next battle , the villain is overwhelmed by an avalanche, caused by his death ray reflected from Cap's shield, and loses his life.

Family traditions

It is then up to his son Helmut to take over the challenge. Distraught by the death of his father, whom he idolized, Helmut allows himself to be suffocated by anger and desire for revenge by devising a daring plan that borders on success but which ends dramatically for him. Incredible! Such things never happen in comics. Hit in full by Captain America's shield (again? But he has already killed his father !!!), Helmut falls into a tank of Sticker X; in this way he shares the same fate as the parent but with an even worse outcome, because the bath in hot glue disfigures him completely, turning his face into an obscene mask with a melted wax appearance. Driven even more insane by the accident, Helmut wears the costume that belonged to his father and makes revenge against Cap the only purpose of his life. The years he spent fighting in vain against the Avengers, however, push him to meditate on a different plan from the classic one of "bait-trap-failure", that is to win the trust of the superheroes by pretending to be redeemed and transforming the super group of villains created by his father. in something like a league for justice, only to strike cruelly and hard all of a sudden. The new group takes the name of Thunderbolts: it would also be a good plan, if it were not that the villains take pleasure in carrying out hero tasks and betray the baron.

How does his mind pass, from time to time time, through increasingly embarrassing narrative artifices ... er, innovative and original, inside a dying hero, inside a hyper-technological gadget belonging to one of the Thunderbolts (Fixer, to be precise) and, finally, in one of his doppelgangers with a non-face defaced. Here, now Zemo can redeem himself and really play the hero: but nobody believes it. Could you blame these skeptics? Yes, because all the villains must be granted one, two, three, four ... ten opportunities to prove that they have repented!