Origin

Baron Helmut Zemo was thirteenth in the line of the Zemo Barony. When his father Heinrich died in battle Helmut Zemo assumed the family business as his birthright. However he was not as successful as the previous Barons. He failed time after time with his many ridiculous schemes. He did however find success in his new scheme, which was to disguise his Masters of Evil as heroes, and the Thunderbolts were born. Eventually this plan even failed because the Masters of Evil started to enjoy being heroes and actively tried to achieve redemption.

Thunderbolts

Zemo had abandoned Heike prison and organized a new team of Masters of Evil when the Avengers and Fantastic Four disappeared during the Onslaught crisis and were though of as dead. These Masters of Evil took false identities and had named the,selves as the Thunderbolts. Leading them under the alias Citizen V, Zemo planned to have the Thunderbolts gain the world's trust in order to conquer it. The public took a liking to the team much quicker than Zemo or any of the other Thunderbolts expected and soon most of the team began to actually take interest and liking in being a hero.

When the missing heroes returned, Zemo had their true identities leaked, forcing them to flee with him into deep space to assist his plan to conquer the world through mind control. However, most of the Thunderbolts rebelled and foiled Zemo's plan. Zemo went into hiding and plotted revenge on his former teammates (who were trying to win back the public's trust by being true heroes). After another of Zemo's plans was foiled by Captain America and a new Citizen V (Dallas Riordan), Helmut was killed by the new Scourge of the Underworld, though his mind was transferred via bio-modem technology into the body of a comatose John Watkins III, grandson of the original Citizen V. Now in possession of Watkins' body, Zemo again played the role of Citizen V, this time as a member of the V-Battalion until the Thunderbolts' final battle with Graviton, in which, his consciousness was removed from Watkins' body and transferred in electronic form, into his ally Fixer's mechanical "tech-pack".

On the artificial world Counter-Earth - the same world to which the Avengers and Fantastic Four had previously vanished - the Thunderbolts encountered Zemo's counterpart in that world, Iron Cross. Fixer transferred Zemo's mind into his double's unmutilated body. Zemo then took up leadership of the Thunderbolts who were on Counter-Earth; when this group was reunited with their teammates who had remained on the normal Marvel Universe Earth, Hawkeye briefly resumed leadership but then left the team to return to the Avengers.

For a while Zemo remained the leader of the Thunderbolts. In 2004's "Avengers/Thunderbolts" limited series he attempted to take over the world again -- this time with the belief that he could save the world by taking it over. Zemo now seems to be motivated by a twisted altruism rather than his original selfish desires; he feels he has grown beyond his father in that regard. However, the Avengers foiled his scheme, his teammate Moonstone went berserk, Zemo's new body was blasted while he attempted to protect Captain America, and he left the team and went into hiding after obtaining Moonstone's twin alien gems, two artifacts of great power.

Then it appeared that Baron Helmut Zemo saved the world by fighting an alien threat to the world. He fought with the stolen cosmic powers of twin gemstones. It was thought that this fight had saved the world, but had cost Baron Helmut Zemo his life. This was not true because instead of dieing the Baron had been sent back in time by the power of the twin gemstones. He would travel back in time to the home of his ancestors, or near his blood. He would slowly make his way back to the present because he would make jumps from one period of time to the next; always going back to his ancestors.

He traveled through several centuries. He witnessed the lives and deaths of his forefathers. He saw how the people lived in the Hamlet that was controlled by his family. He learned many things about his family and about himself. He found answers to questions he had about what caused his family to be the way it was.

In his next to last jump through time he came face to face with his father. Heinrich was an intelligent scientist who worked for Nazi Germany in World War II. He preformed barbaric experiments on human subjects while trying to invent a death ray. Helmut Zemo confronted his father and a fight broke out. Helmut beat his father and started to turn away when his father called out to the German guards that protected him. However before they could kill Helmut he jumped to his last place in time, back to the present.

When Helmut arrived in the present he was greeted by a distant cousin named Wendell Volker. Wendell intended to kill Helmut. However when he was confronted by the Baron he could not go through with it. He then tried to kill himself, but the Baron stopped him. Wendell asked the Baron why he saved him and the Baron told him that enough Zemo blood had already been spilled. The Baron wanted Wendell at his side as he tried to prove his point.

Powers

The moonstones grants a multitude of abilities such as energy/gravity/light manipulation, phasing, flight and more.