During season 1 of The Falcon and The Winter Soldier, Baron Helmut Zemo (Daniel Brühl) proves he could be a smarter Batman than DC Comics' Bruce Wayne within the MCU Phase 4 due to his ruthless and immutable ideology. While past MCU superheroes, from Iron Man to Black Panther, have been held up as Marvel's version of DC’s Batman because of their wealth, status, and technological gadgets, Zemo’s background revealed in Captain America: Civil War suggested it might be him instead. Furthermore, his status as a Baron, disclosed in The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, shows that Zemo is Marvel’s real version of Batman but with a few advantages.
While Zemo is in no way an exact imitation of Batman, the two comic characters bear some striking similarities. Just as Bruce Wayne is motivated to become a vigilante after his parents are killed in front of him by a mugger, Zemo similarly decides to turn the Avengers against each other in Civil War after they caused the deaths of his family during the events of Avengers: Age of Ultron. In The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, it’s revealed that Baron Zemo’s family is part of the aristocracy in Sokovia, which bestows Zemo with Bruce Wayne’s level of wealth, social status, and even a loyal, resourceful butler whose relationship with Zemo mirrors Alfred Pennyworth’s close bond with Bruce. The two antiheroes also have similar strengths, since Zemo gained combat skills during his time as a member of the Sokovian Armed Forces and is a master of strategy. In comparison, Zemo actually has one other asset that Bruce Wayne doesn’t have: he isn’t beholden to a self-imposed moral code.
Unlike Bruce Wayne, Zemo has no qualms about killing his enemies, which makes him more efficient at achieving justice than Batman, especially when it comes to tracking down and killing those with super-soldier powers, like John Walker. Bruce is governed by his own moral code that forbids him from killing his enemies for multiple reasons: he only wants to attain justice rather than revenge; he believes killing will make him become more like the villains he's hunting; he believes criminals can be rehabilitated; and a great many more reasons. However, that moral code ironically provides violent criminals and maniacs like the Joker the opportunity to return again and again, which further endangers innocent lives. In comparison, Zemo wants to kill individuals with superpowers, such as the Avengers and the Flag-Smashers, because their increased power is tied in with their existence and by nature can’t be reformed, which is why Zemo attempts to kill Karli in episode 4 and orders his butler Oeznik to murder the remaining Flag-Smashers in an explosion in episode 6. While Zemo’s methods are ruthless, death is certainly a more effective way of stopping your enemies for good.
Since Zemo isn’t restricted by any such moral code, it also makes him less likely to be exploited by his enemies. Batman’s no-killing rule is often used against him or factors into the Joker’s manipulation of Batman in multiple adaptations. To challenge Batman’s fundamentals, the Joker targets many of Batman’s allies in Scott Snyder’s comic book arc Batman: Death of the Family to see if Batman will choose to kill him in order to save his friends. Also, Joker reveals much about Batman in The Dark Knight during the scene in which the villain stands in the middle of the road yelling at the titular hero to hit him with his motorcycle, showing how much Joker tests Batman’s ethical limits. Since Zemo doesn’t have a moral code that governs his actions, he doesn’t appear to have any known weaknesses or vulnerabilities that his enemies can take advantage of, which ensures a greater likelihood that his plans will succeed.
However, Zemo’s ideology in the MCU Phase 4 could be challenged in the future. Throughout The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, it’s evident through Zemo’s manipulation of Bucky in Madripoor, his critique of super soldiers, and his pursuit of the Flag-Smashers that Zemo believes rehabilitation is impossible for super-powered individuals. During episode 5, however, Bucky challenges Zemo’s claim that he’s “programmed to kill” when he decides to hand Zemo over to the Dora Milaje instead of killing him. Since Thunderbolts appears to be the most natural next step for Zemo within the MCU, Zemo’s concept of morality will likely be tested as well if he teams up with Thunderbolts’ variety of criminals-turned-heroes.
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