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Description
Baron Zemo
First Appearance: Captain America #168 (December 1973)

They called themselves the "Masters of Evil." Led by the man in the purple mask who referred to himself only as Zemo, they considered themselves the diametric opposite of everything the Avengers stood for. Zemo told the world that if SHIELD wanted to have their Avengers police the world without borders or interference, his Masters would give them something to police. Recruiting criminals and superhumans the Avengers had 'wronged' in the past, they staged terrorist attacks all throughout the planet to hold it ransom. The message was clear--as long as the Avengers continued to operate as they did, no one on Earth was safe.

The name "Zemo" was a curious one, a line of German barons leading back to the middle ages that had ceased existence after the fall of the Third Reich, its legacy tainted after the last baron's role in the Nazi empire. The man now leading the Masters of Evil was no Zemo himself, but rather an ordinary man whose family was caught in the crossfire of a widely criticized Avengers led campaign in eastern Europe to recover something called the Zodiac Key. The Zodiac Key was supposedly an artifact of great power that Nick Fury had failed to obtain from the Zodiac Cartel when he helped in its dismantling, but the Key ended up being an object of little worth. The Zodiac campaign was widely criticized as a tale of unnecessary revenge by Nick Fury, and this man's family had paid the price. Frustrated with a world gone mad in seeking black vs. white, good vs. evil justice, he adopted the Zemo name and began the "Masters of Evil" in a cynical attempt to show the Avengers just how warped the world had become.

----

The Masters of Evil is something of an underground paramilitary force, and Zemo is its leader and is absolutely willing to do whatever it takes to play the part.

Basically he's a mixture of the film Zemo and the comics' Zemo. He's not *really* a Zemo, it's a name he adopts to play the part of just this absurdly evil baron. You can assume the last Zemo was Heinrich Zemo, but this Zemo and the last Zemo have no relation to each other in my universe. He's just a normal man who's become really, really obsessed with the Avengers. I liked that aspect of Zemo in the films, someone who goes from nobody to one of the Avengers' greatest foes. I'd imagine when they finally get to Zemo they'd be quite disappointed to find a nobody behind the mask.

So this concept of the Masters of Evil being this cynical name he adopts kinda bled into the full design here, like he's full committed to the role of an evil paramilitary leader. So he's got the traditional purple mask, but little else has been retained from his traditional designs. His clothes are plain to make him seem like someone who could really be anyone if it weren't for the mask. And then he's got a sword at his side, which is traditional Zemo, but it's really a symbolic thing. The gun he's got is for actual usage.

UPDATE 07/25/2019

After uploading my original design I got a lot of comments that it was rather dull, and looking back on it, I agreed. It was an older design I got too attached to I think, I didn't really kick my design ideas into high enough gear on my second pass, so I decided that I wasn't going to just let this one sit and instead decided to do a quick turnaround on a partial redesign. So instead of a basic black shirt he's got some sort of high tech body armor that his mask links to and a coat with a fur lining of sorts, kinda reminds me of Bane's from The Dark Knight Rises. Basically just an all around upgrade to make him seem more regal and in command and make him look more like Zemo overall.

See here for my original: i.imgur.com/1Z5aNWX.png

Description
Baron Zemo
First Appearance: Captain America #168 (December 1973)

They called themselves the "Masters of Evil." Led by the man in the purple mask who referred to himself only as Zemo, they considered themselves the diametric opposite of everything the Avengers stood for. Zemo told the world that if SHIELD wanted to have their Avengers police the world without borders or interference, his Masters would give them something to police. Recruiting criminals and superhumans the Avengers had 'wronged' in the past, they staged terrorist attacks all throughout the planet to hold it ransom. The message was clear--as long as the Avengers continued to operate as they did, no one on Earth was safe.

The name "Zemo" was a curious one, a line of German barons leading back to the middle ages that had ceased existence after the fall of the Third Reich, its legacy tainted after the last baron's role in the Nazi empire. The man now leading the Masters of Evil was no Zemo himself, but rather an ordinary man whose family was caught in the crossfire of a widely criticized Avengers led campaign in eastern Europe to recover something called the Zodiac Key. The Zodiac Key was supposedly an artifact of great power that Nick Fury had failed to obtain from the Zodiac Cartel when he helped in its dismantling, but the Key ended up being an object of little worth. The Zodiac campaign was widely criticized as a tale of unnecessary revenge by Nick Fury, and this man's family had paid the price. Frustrated with a world gone mad in seeking black vs. white, good vs. evil justice, he adopted the Zemo name and began the "Masters of Evil" in a cynical attempt to show the Avengers just how warped the world had become.

----

The Masters of Evil is something of an underground paramilitary force, and Zemo is its leader and is absolutely willing to do whatever it takes to play the part.

Basically he's a mixture of the film Zemo and the comics' Zemo. He's not *really* a Zemo, it's a name he adopts to play the part of just this absurdly evil baron. You can assume the last Zemo was Heinrich Zemo, but this Zemo and the last Zemo have no relation to each other in my universe. He's just a normal man who's become really, really obsessed with the Avengers. I liked that aspect of Zemo in the films, someone who goes from nobody to one of the Avengers' greatest foes. I'd imagine when they finally get to Zemo they'd be quite disappointed to find a nobody behind the mask.

So this concept of the Masters of Evil being this cynical name he adopts kinda bled into the full design here, like he's full committed to the role of an evil paramilitary leader. So he's got the traditional purple mask, but little else has been retained from his traditional designs. His clothes are plain to make him seem like someone who could really be anyone if it weren't for the mask. And then he's got a sword at his side, which is traditional Zemo, but it's really a symbolic thing. The gun he's got is for actual usage.

UPDATE 07/25/2019

After uploading my original design I got a lot of comments that it was rather dull, and looking back on it, I agreed. It was an older design I got too attached to I think, I didn't really kick my design ideas into high enough gear on my second pass, so I decided that I wasn't going to just let this one sit and instead decided to do a quick turnaround on a partial redesign. So instead of a basic black shirt he's got some sort of high tech body armor that his mask links to and a coat with a fur lining of sorts, kinda reminds me of Bane's from The Dark Knight Rises. Basically just an all around upgrade to make him seem more regal and in command and make him look more like Zemo overall.

See here for my original: i.imgur.com/1Z5aNWX.png