The Masters of Evil

The Masters of Evil are a team of super-human criminals and terrorists banded together by Baron Zemo for the sole purposes of serving as Loki's attack squad in his opening strikes against the Avengers during the events of "The Journey". Later on, after Zemo is abandoned by HYDRA's leadership, he goes off to work independently of the Empire and reforms the team with all new members to serve as a last ditch back-up plan to get rid of Captain America and Iron Man should they fail to kill each other during the Avenger Civil War in "The Fantasmic Dreamtime".