***This post contains SPOILERS for CAPTAIN AMERICA: CIVIL WAR.***
Zemo is first seen as a guy who is on a mission to recover the mysterious book that has notes on how to control the Winter Soldier. He is shown as being aggressive while in Cleveland entering the residency of a former Hydra officer who has kept the book hidden away within the walls of his home. Zemo barges in and overpowers the former Hydra officer while knocking him out. Then, he is shown with the officer hanging upside down about to be drowned. Ambiguously showing Zemo tying him upside implied Zemo could have some kind of super strength.
After a U.N. task force detains the Winter Soldier, since he was set-up by Zemo as the bomber and assassin behind a U.N. attack, which kills T'Chaka the King of Wakanda, Zemo is seen infiltrating the highly secure U.N. facility posing as the doctor who mentally evaluates Bucky Barnes. Concurrently, Zemo scheduled the delivery of an E.M.P. to knock out the power to the facility while he is in the same room as Bucky. He then activates the Winter Soldier. Zemo makes his escape during the building evacuation while the Winter Soldier is on his rampage fighting his way out of the facility.
All of these events show a wit and ability of a highly motivated person who lacks super powers and relies on his personal motivation to tear down an empire of super heroes from within themselves.
Several times you see Zemo sitting on his phone listening to his wife, who left a voice message, and she is talking about their son, too. It's not until the end of the movie when you find out that Zemo is a normal human using revenge as his power. Having revenge shown as something equally as powerful as those who have enhanced abilities and super suits is a great way to improve the villainy in the Marvel Cinematic Universe because most of them have had some form of enhanced power or suit as a movie antagonist.
But not Zemo. This is just a guy who lost his family in Sokovia while the Avengers were battling Ultron and he is a direct result of the fallout and casualties which made world governments realize the Avengers need oversight with the Sokovia Accords.
Zemo doesn't die either, although not without trying himself, as well as Zemo is the one who makes the Black Panther realize that revenge can be consuming. By helping him to recognize this, Zemo has a special place in the world of MCU villains because while they usually die by the end of these movies, Zemo does not and he is a villain who actually had character development.
At the end, Zemo is in captivity with Everett Ross. But Zemo seems like he has done exactly what he intended. And while he wasn't able to join his family in the afterlife, as he hoped to do before Black Panther intervened, he has plenty of time to use his cunning mind to develop his next evil plan. Assuming he escapes, of course, but the future for Zemo seems intentionally left for speculation for good reason.
Marvel Studios' villain problem, which has been a lack of character development or just killing them off, in past movies definitely got a boost from Zemo in CAPTAIN AMERICA: CIVIL WAR. So if you were hoping to see Zemo in his purple comic book-inspired suit, there might be time down the road to see that become a reality.
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