Falcon And Winter Soldier - Everything You Need To Know About Zemo
6. He Was A Hero... Kind Of
When the heroes of Earth seemingly died during the Onslaught saga, the world desperately needed a new superteam to fill the void. So, when a new squad of heroes called The Thunderbolts appeared out of nowhere as the self-proclaimed protectors of humanity, nobody questioned it.
Little did anyone realise that the team's leader, Citizen V, was Zemo in disguise and his cohorts were the latest incarnation of The Masters of Evil. Zemo intended to use his "superheroes" to build trust with the US government so he could take over the world.
After saving New York from multiple supervillains and teaming up with Spider-Man, the government was bending over backwards to help The Thunderbolts, even arming them with technology that belonged to the Avengers and the Fantastic Four.
With no major superheroes to stand in his way, Zemo's global takeover seemed inevitable. However, the Thunderbolts had grown accustomed to their super-heroics and so, mutinied against their master, causing him to go on the run. Much like his father, it's self-evident Helmut Zemo has a tendency to indirectly create superheroes that turn against him.