I published a new In the Frame piece at The Escapist this evening. As The Falcon and the Winter Soldier winds down its season, it seemed like a good opportunity to consider the show’s approach to the character of Baron Helmut Zemo. The villain was introduced in Captain America: Civil War, but the streaming series offered something of a soft reboot of the character.
On paper, Helmut Zemo is the most compelling villain imaginable for a superhero story. He is a man who has suffered at the hands of these super-powered individuals who act without respect or consideration for due process or collateral damage. Zemo is comparable to a character like Billy Butcher from The Boys, a man with a reasonable and grounded critique of a culture built around the unquestioning fetishisation of power.
However, Civil War could never explore Zemo’s perspective, because that would mean asking uncomfortable questions about the power fantasies of superheroism. More to the point, Zemo’s motivations were very much at odds with the purpose of a movie where a large part of the appeal was watching these supermen cause untold property damage. The MCU could not support Zemo as an antagonist, so Civil War marginalises and minimises him. In contrast, The Falcon and the Winter Soldier cannily reinvents the character.
You can read the piece here, or click the picture below.
Filed under: Television | Tagged: Baron Zemo, captain america: civil war, Civil War, comic relief, deconstruction, the falcon and the winter soldier, wealth | 2 Comments »
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