Does anyone else think that Zemo and Thanos actually have a lot of parallels? In particular, while sooo many Marvel villains are driven by greed or power, they are driven by a (misguided) sense of duty. After completing their tasks and in their view 'saving' the world they are ready to die, after destroying the Infinity Stones, Thanos essentially just retires and when he is killed doesn't even put up a fight, he is ready to die. Zemo actively tries to kill himself after fulfilling his goal. Both obviously are misguided and do awful things, but are forged by a traumatic loss and they see their 'duty' as preventing it from happening again. If anything, Zemo's plan is more internally consistent. If you kill half the universe, in all likelihood it will recover and be in the same place. Zemo views the Avengers and superheroes as an unchecked existential threat to humanity, and the way he executes his plan he destroys the Avengers from within, and undermines the public perception and acceptance of superheroes writ large. In the Winter Soldier so far we are seeing a similar dedication, he is driven to stop more supersoldiers from being made not matter the cost. He kills Doctor Nagel because he has the knowledge to continue creating more serum, even if captured the US or whoever controls him could and there is a good chance WOULD create more (with good intentions or evil, either way he views as dangerous). Of course he does awful things, but in his twisted mind it is the only way to avenge and honor his family. And to be fair, the Avengers and superheroes do bring up a LOT of issues and questions about control and accountability. He may be murderous and twisted, but at the root there is a legitimate grievance. Just in his case, unlike most people who lost family or loved ones related to the Avengers, he had intelligence and death-squad experience, a boatload of money and probably some previous mental tendencies.

TLDR: Zemo and Thanos are both driven by personal loss and a sense of duty to 'save' the world; but want to do in a twisted manner