Red Skull
Encyclopedia
The Red Skull is a name shared by several fictional characters
, all supervillain
s from the Marvel Comics
universe. All incarnations of the character are enemies of Captain America
, other superhero
es, and the United States
in general.
The first two Red Skulls are Nazi
agents and the third is a Soviet
agent. The Red Skull was first introduced in Captain America Comics #1 in 1941. The first Red Skull (George Maxon) to appear in comics was an American industrialist turned Nazi saboteur. Maxon turned out to be an agent of the true Red Skull (Johann Schmidt), considered (according to S.H.I.E.L.D.
) as one of the greatest threats to humanity, and a long-time archenemy
of Captain America. The third Red Skull (Albert Malik) is best known for causing the deaths of the parents
of Peter Parker, and thus orphaning the boy who would become Spider-Man
. The Red Skull was ranked number 21 on Wizard Magazine's Top 100 Greatest Villains Ever list and was also ranked as IGN
's 14th Greatest Comic Book Villain of All Time.
' Captain America Comics #1 (cover-dated March 1941), written and drawn by the team of Joe Simon
and Jack Kirby
. The character was subsequently revived in the Silver Age of Comic Books
first in Tales of Suspense
#65 in the short-lived Captain America World War II period story run, and then established as a contemporary villain in #79.
For decades, the character's true face was hidden, but in Captain America vol. 1 #297 the Red Skull unmasked in front of the superhero with his face, albeit extremely aged, fully revealed. In the next issue, the Red Skull retells his story with his face fully visible in his various ages. When the character was revealed to be alive in issue #350, in a story called "Resurrection," by John Byrne, the face of Johann Schmidt's original body is hidden again, but the Skull's face is fully visible, albeit in his cloned copy of Captain America's body.
In 2011, the character's origin is being more fully illustrated in the limited series, Red Skull: Incarnate, with Schmidt's face fully visible again.
. He has been closely affiliated with HYDRA
and is an enemy of S.H.I.E.L.D.
, the Avengers
, and the interests of the United States
and the free world in general. He was physically augmented by having his mind placed into the body of a clone
of Captain America, the pinnacle of human perfection. He has been seemingly killed in the past, only to return time and time again to plague the world with schemes of world domination and genocide
.
agent who led a ring of spies and saboteurs. He faced Captain America during two of the latter's first missions. A formidable opponent in his own right, Maxon was thought killed during the last encounter, though he would reappear for one last encounter with Captain America in the Silver Age. Maxon was later revealed to be the agent of Johann Schmidt, the true Red Skull.
As a young man Schmidt was from time to time employed by a Jewish shopkeeper, whose daughter, Esther, was the only person who had treated Schmidt kindly up to that point. Seized with passion for Esther, Schmidt tried to force himself upon her, only to be rejected by her. In unthinking fury, Schmidt murdered her. Shmidt fled the scene in terror, but also felt ecstatic joy in committing his first murder. In killing Esther he had given vent to the rage at the world that had been building up in him throughout his young life.
After years as a menial laborer, Schmidt got his most prosperous job: a bellhop in a major hotel. This occurred during his late teens, around the same time that the Nazi Party gained power in Germany. Schmidt wound up serving the rooms of Adolf Hitler
himself. By chance, Schmidt was present by bringing refreshments when the Führer was furiously scolding an officer for letting a prisoner escape, during which Hitler pledged that he could create a better National Socialist out of the bellhop. Looking closely at the youth and sensing his dark inner nature, Hitler decided to take up the challenge and recruited Schmidt.
Dissatisfied with the standard drill instruction his subordinates used to train Schmidt, Hitler took over personally, and trained Schmidt as his right-hand man. Upon completion, Hitler gave Schmidt a unique uniform with a grotesque red skull
mask, and he emerged as the Red Skull (in literal German: Roter Totenkopf or Roter (Toten-)Schädel) for the first time. His role was the embodiment of Nazi intimidation, while Hitler could remain the popular leader of Germany. To that end, The Red Skull was appointed head of Nazi terrorist
activities with an additional large role in external espionage
and sabotage
. He succeeded, wreaking havoc throughout Europe in the early stages of World War II
. The propaganda
effect was so great that the United States government decided to counter it by creating their own equivalent using the one recipient of the lost Project Rebirth, Steve Rogers, as Captain America
.
In Europe during the war, the Skull took personal command of many military actions and personally supervised the takeovers and lootings of many cities and towns; in various cases the Skull ordered and supervised the eradication of the entire population of such communities. The Red Skull also organized a "wolf pack" of submarines which preyed upon shipping across the world, often under the Skull's personal command.
At first Hitler took great pride in his protégé's successes and let the Skull have anything he wanted. Hitler thus financed the construction of secret bases for the Skull in various locations throughout the world, many of which were equipped with highly advanced experimental weapons and devices developed by Nazi scientists. The Skull was particularly interested in procuring technological weapons that could be used for the purposes of subversion and warfare. During the war he stole plans for the "nullatron," a device that could control human minds, adapted a space-warping device developed by the cyborg scientist codenamed Brain Drain, and commissioned Nazi scientists to develop a projector which could encircle and suspend sections of cities within spheres of energy.
But while the Skull always admired Hitler for his ideological vision, he was never content with being Hitler's subordinate. The Skull kidnapped and killed many of Hitler's closest advisers and eventually rose to become the second most powerful man in the Third Reich. Now Hitler could no longer effectively control the Skull and came to fear him, especially since the Skull had made little secret of his ambition to supplant Hitler someday.
After the renowned military officer Baron Wolfgang von Strucker had a falling out with Hitler, the Red Skull sent Strucker to Japan to found an organization that would prepare the way for takeovers in the Far East under the Skull's leadership. In the Far East Strucker joined a subversive organization that came to be known as HYDRA, broke his ties with the Skull, became head of HYDRA and built it into a major threat to world peace.
As World War II raged on, Hitler vowed, that if he could not conquer the world, he would destroy it. To achieve this end, the Skull proposed the construction of five gigantic war machines, to be called the Sleepers, which would be hidden in various locations while they generated and stored the power they would need, and then be released at a future date, "Der Tag" ("The Day"), to destroy the Earth if the Allies won. Hitler enthusiastically instructed the Skull to construct the Sleepers, unaware that the Skull intended to use them to conquer the world himself if Hitler's Third Reich fell. In the closing days of the war in Europe, Allied intelligence received reports of a Nazi doomsday plan code-named "Der Tag" to be implemented after Hitler's defeat. However, the Allies had no idea what the plan entailed.
Captain America and his teenage partner Bucky Barnes fought against and thwarted the Skull and his plans many times during the war, both working on their own and operating as members of the Invaders. Once they were captured by him, and Captain America was placed under Nazi control by a drug and told to assassinte a high-ranking officer, but thanks to Bucky he broke free. During the final days of World War II in Europe, Captain America and Bucky were assigned to England to prevent desperate Nazi efforts at sabotaging Allied supply bases there. The Red Skull sent a number of his subordinates, who became known as the Exiles
, and a large contingent of loyal German soldiers and their wives to a secret island base ("Exile Island"), where they would organize an army for use in the future.
The two counterparts soon clashed for the first time. The Skull later temporarily brainwashed three of the Invaders
into serving him. The Red Skull and Captain America continued to engage in a series of skirmishes throughout the war. Now that the German defeat was becoming a reality, the Red Skull was more determined than ever to obtain vengeance for his numerous personal defeats by Captain America and Bucky. The Skull assigned Baron Heinrich Zemo to go to England, and, under the cover of stealing an experimental Allied drone plane, to capture or kill Captain America and Bucky. However, the Skull was unaware that the Allies had just secretly parachuted Captain America into beleaguered Berlin to investigate "Der Tag."
Finally, Captain America tracked the Skull down to his hidden bunker. The Skull was about to hurl an armed hand grenade at his nemesis when Captain America threw his shield at him. The grenade went off, but the Skull was not killed, thanks to his body armor. He was, however; seriously hurt and partially buried in debris. Thinking he was dying, the Skull defiantly told Captain America that the Sleepers would avenge the Nazis' defeat. Then, suddenly, an Allied attack on Berlin began. An Allied plane dropped a huge blockbuster bomb on the bunker, causing a cave-in that Captain America barely escaped. Captain America was picked up by the Allies and returned to England only to fall into Zemo's trap, which led to Captain America's falling into suspended animation for decades. Support pillars that crisscrossed over the Red Skull when the bunker caved in saved him from being struck by tons of rubble when the bomb hit. The cave-in released an experimental gas from canisters in the bunker which put the Skull into suspended animation during which his wounds slowly healed.
Russian
KGB
agent named Albert Malik set up his spy/criminal organization in Algeria
and assumed the identity of the Red Skull, pretending that he was the original, when he was actually serving Soviet interests. During the 1950s, he faced the then active version
of Captain America who was also using the identity of Steve Rogers, pretending to be the original. The two impersonators continued to battle each other throughout the decade. While the Captain and Bucky (Jack Monroe) were placed into suspended animation when his flawed replicate of the Super-Soldier formula seriously affected his and Bucky's minds, Malik continued his activities, and over time cut his links to the Soviet Union. Among other notorious deeds, he was responsible for the deaths of Richard Parker and Mary Fitzpatrick-Parker, the parents of Peter Parker (a.k.a. Spider-Man
), tipped off by the super-criminal Gustav "The Gentleman" Fiers.
Johann Schmidt's legacy continued to cause trouble in the years of his absence. This primarily came in the form of powerful destructive robots called Sleepers
which were intended to activate at preset times by his agents to devastate the Earth in the event of Nazi Germany's defeat. Captain America was able to neutralize all the machines in turn.
Johann was eventually rescued and revived from suspended animation in modern times by the terrorist organization, AIM
with his henchman. The Skull quickly subverted a cell to his own ambitions of world conquest and the death of Captain America. He stole the Cosmic Cube
after taking control of its Keeper's mind with a device he planted while shaking hands, and revealed that he gave Zemo
the order to steal the bomb plane that led to Bucky's death. He had had a rivalry with Zemo, and hoped to set his two foes against each other. Captain America found out from the dying pilot of a plane that had been following the Keeper's plane of the Cube, which had been used to destroy the plane. Schmidt told another AIM member of his plans after getting a mind control device on him, then caused him to shoot himself. He fought Captain America again for the first time in years after getting the Cube on an island, and created a superstrong humanoid monster to fight Captain America. Captain America began defeating it, so the Red Skull sent it away. He began sending Captain America to another dimension when Captain America offered to become his servant. The Red Skull encased himself in a golden suit of armor, and talked of creating a new order of knights. He planned to take over the world with the Cube, then create spaceships to conquer other worlds. Captain America defeated him by getting close to him while the Red Skull prepared to knight him. Captain America tried to get the Cube, and in the fight the island split apart due to the Cube's power, and the Skull fell off a cliff while trying to get the Cosmic Cube. When Johann reappeared, he and Malik, though his age was starting to catch up with him, started to antagonize each other while both claiming the identity of the Red Skull. Finally Albert was the victim of an assassination organized by Johann, at the hands of a rogue agent of the Scourge of the Underworld
.
Thus the two enemies resumed their war, with Captain America, among other opponents, frustrating the Skull's schemes. The Skull captured part of Manhattan Island, unleashed the fourth Sleeper, and captured Captain America on Exile Island
. The Skull then regained the reality-altering Cosmic Cube
and temporarily switched bodies with Captain America. He also used the Cube to alter the personality of "Snap" Wilson, the future Falcon
. Some time later, he first fought Doctor Doom
. The Red Skull then fomented racial hatred in New York, and was revealed as the true power behind the Las Vegas HYDRA faction, and first clashed with the Kingpin
.
Some time later, the Skull killed the would-be Captain America, Roscoe, while Rogers had temporarily given up the role. He also revived the use of his "dust of death." The Skull later fought Doctor Doom on the moon but was defeated. With Arnim Zola
, the Skull sought to transplant Hitler's brain into Captain America's body. He transformed a number of S.H.I.E.L.D.
agents into his skull-faced slaves. The Skull teamed with the Hate-Monger
, a clone of Hitler, and trapped him in a flawed Cosmic Cube. The Skull led the Nihilist Order for a brief time. Establishing a Nazi colony on a deserted island, the Skull fathered a daughter who would eventually become known as Mother Superior.
The war between Captain America and Red Skull in the modern era reached a breaking point when Red Skull discovered that the gas that had placed him in suspended animation was wearing off and his body was rapidly aging to what would be Skull's normal age. Now physically in his mid-80s, a weak and feeble Red Skull planned for a final showdown with his arch-rival. Kidnapping Captain America's closest allies, he forced Captain America to surrender himself and forcibly undergo a medical treatment that aged Captain America's body to its rightful age. The two men, their bodies now ancient, fought one last battle to the death. Captain America refused to kill the Red Skull, who died cursing Captain America as his elderly body shut down. Dead at last, it seemed like the threat of the Red Skull had finally ended and The Avengers were able to restore Rogers' youth.
, who had obtained DNA samples of Captain America years earlier, arranged for Skull's mind to be transplanted into a clone body of Captain America at the moment of his death. Assuming the identity of "John Smith" (the English equivalent of his natural German name), Skull decided that he would reinvent himself and his quest for absolute power as a means to celebrate his cheating death. The Red Skull abandoned his longstanding beliefs in National Socialism and Hitler, on the belief that the Nazi philosophy made him look like a relic of the past. Skull instead turned towards American ideology for his new motivation. Skull saw much potential in the American dream of capitalism and self-determination and set about establishing his own foothold inside Washington DC, culminating in him gaining control over "The Commission
", a government body in Washington that monitored and regulated superhero activities.
Skull also changed his mode of operations: rather than "living from one grand scheme to the next", he began financing a score of evil organizations that reported directly to him, most notably the militia group the Watchdogs. He also employed one of the Scourges
, an organization who terrorized supervillains with a killing spree.
Despite all of this, Skull's biggest move would be his plot to remove Rogers from the position of Captain America and replace him with a jingoist
named John Walker
. Although Walker initially attempted to live up to his predecessor's ideals, The Skull arranged for the murders of Walker's parents, driving him insane and into a downward spiral of murder as part of his plan to blacken the name of Captain America.
Yet like all things, Skull's plans fell apart when Skull's chief pawn in the Commission was killed by Skull, right in front of Captain America. About to be exposed, Skull tried to manipulate Walker into killing Rogers. When Rogers defeated Walker, the Skull appeared to gloat at what he had done to Rogers and Walker and the reputation of Captain America. The Skull explained that this is part of his new operational method of engaging in multiple concurrent projects instead of investing consecutive grand schemes that his enemies could focus all their energies on stopping. Furthermore, these projects include killing Rogers at a time of his own choosing and that he could not touch Skull due to his status as a wealthy American businessman. Rogers, disturbed and puzzled by this mystery man with a face identical to his own and claiming to be his dead archenemy, noted that the Skull was not inhaling from the cigarette holder he had in his mouth. The cigarette turned out to be holding a lethal dose of the Skull's favorite poison, the Dust of Death, intended for Rogers - but the trap backfired against Schmidt when Walker suddenly hit him from behind with his shield. As a result, Schmidt suffered the facial disfigurement attributed to the Dust, as his face took on the appearance of a living red skull; his head is hairless and its skin has shriveled, clinging tightly to his actual skull, and has taken on a red discoloration. Skull did not die though, due to the effects of the Super-Soldier formula.
After this, the Skull masterminded a conflict between the United States and Symkaria
, the nation of Silver Sable
He joined the "Acts of Vengeance
" conspiracy, but was attacked by the mutant terrorist Magneto
, a Holocaust
survivor who wanted to punish him for his involvement in Hitler's regime. Magneto buried him alive with enough water for a few months. The Skull remained imprisoned, close to death and beginning to see the error of his ways, until he was rescued by his henchman Crossbones
.
The Red Skull's relationship with other villains was fraught with problems due to many villains shunning him because of his Nazi background. In the "Streets of Poison" storyline, the Skull proposes an alliance with the Kingpin
to bring a new designer drug to New York but the Kingpin refuses to ally with the Nazi and the two engage in a drug war. He then defeats a weakened Skull in hand to hand combat, sparing his life on the condition he never come near the Kingpin's territory again. In the "Acts of Vengeance
" crossover, the Skull demands the Wizard
apologize for an insult to which the Wizard replies "You'll see yourself welcomed into Heaven before I speak those words!" Not long after that, he was kidnapped by Magneto. One prominent exception is fellow Nazi, Baron Wolfgang von Strucker
, leader of the terrorist organization HYDRA. After the Skull's agents allow Strucker to be reborn, a grateful Strucker allows the Skull the use of HYDRA resources.
, and taken to Germany to stand trial for crimes against humanity, stemming from his days as an agent of the Third Reich. Skull narrowly escaped and was rescued by Arnim Zola
, and was forced to fake his death and go into hiding in a Rocky Mountain compound. He recruited the female sociopath "The Viper
", a move that alienated his minions and was further rocked when his chief henchman Crossbones kidnapped Captain America's girlfriend Diamondback
, resulting in Captain America finding Skull's new lair. Skull fired Crossbones, and went into hiding while the Viper, using funds she plied from Red Skull as part of a scheme to use televisions across America to blind TV viewers, was defeated by Captain America.
Skull resurfaced during "Operation: AIM Island", where Skull discovered that he was facing the same permanent paralysis that Captain America was facing due to their exposure to the Super-Soldier formula. When the evil scientist Superia
offered Captain America a cure, Captain America refused it because Superia said that Captain America would "owe her". Skull took the cure and apparently killed Superia, then arranged for Captain America to be kidnapped by his remaining forces and given a blood transfusion that cured him.
, who was posing as Kang the Conqueror
. He was sent to Galactus
' ship to steal more power (in particular the power of omniscience), which would remove all limits to Skull's reality warping powers. This led to Skull's undoing as he was ambushed by Korvac. Korvac stole Skull's cosmic powers and banished Skull back to Earth.
The Red Skull later manipulated his way into the position of Secretary of Defense as Dell Rusk (an anagram
for "red skull") to develop a biological weapon he tested at Mount Rushmore. He was exposed and defeated by the Avengers. The Black Panther
beat him so badly that he broke the Skull's jaw in half.
The Red Skull was assassinated by the mysterious Winter Soldier, under orders from the renegade former Soviet general Aleksander Lukin
, who wanted to possess the new Cosmic Cube the Skull had manufactured. When the Skull was shot, he attempted to use the Cube to switch bodies with Lukin to survive, but as the Cube was still weak he only managed to transfer his mind into Lukin's body, so that the two enemies are trapped together, waging a constant war for dominance which the Red Skull seems to be progressively winning. During a plot to lure out Captain America, Red Skull/Lukin recruited several German skinheads and made them the successors to the Master Man
. He then had these soldiers, dubbed the "Master Race," launch an attack on London, which was thwarted by Captain America, Spitfire
, and Union Jack
. Then, Red Skull/Lukin activated a Sleeper, a robot programmed for mass destruction, that was presumably created by Doctor Doom. The robot damaged a significant portion of the new London Kronas HQ, and was ultimately destroyed by Captain America and Bucky. In the aftermath, Red Skull sent a videotape, announcing to the world his return, followed by Lukin holding a press conference condemning the actions of both the Red Skull and Captain America, and supporting the Superhero Registration Act. Then, in his office, Red Skull introduced Lukin to his old/new associates, Crossbones
and Sin.
With America's superheroes divided over the act
, the Skull manipulates events to his own ends, with the aid of Doctor Faustus
, Doctor Doom
, and Arnim Zola
. His plans involved the reunion of Captain America and his former lover Sharon Carter
, who is being manipulated by Faustus.
In the immediate aftermath of the Civil War, the Skull puts his plans into action, arranging for Crossbones to shoot Captain America as he enters a courthouse in New York City; in the ensuing chaos, Carter, acting under Faustus' mental directive, assassinates Captain America. This is only the first phase of the Skull's evil plan. Upon the discovery of his identity as Lukin, the Skull fakes his death, and initiates the second part of his plan: using Kronas Corporation's vast holdings to economically cripple the United States, before having S.H.I.E.L.D. agents brainwashed by Doctor Faustus open fire on crowds of protesters in front of the White House
. The Red Skull continues his assault by engineering a riot by placing Kronas security troops and drugged water in a protest on the Lincoln Monument
.
All of this has apparently been to elevate his puppet politician, Gordon Wright, elevated in the public's eye with being credited as "resolving" the situations, as well as surviving a (staged) attack by the Serpent Squad
. Once elected, Wright will lead the country directly into a police state secretly controlled by the Red Skull. The Skull also plans to transfer his consciousness into Sharon's unborn child, apparently sired by Steve Rogers himself and potentially having inherited his Project Rebirth enhancements.
Both schemes fail because of the impatience and incompetence of the Skull's daughter - her near-fatal attack on Sharon Carter causes her to lose the baby, and she intentionally botches her pseudo-assassination of Gordon Wright by attempting to kill him for real.
As Faustus has surreptitiously tampered with Sharon's programming, she is able to rebel, and before escaping shoots Lukin to death. This is not the end of Red Skull, since Arnim Zola
had seconds earlier transferred his mind to one of his spare robotic bodies, but after having his current form damaged by the imposter Captain America
, he's unable to return back to Red Skull, essentially trapping him in his current robotic form for the time being.
decides to assist in completing his plan as Captain America leading his team of Avengers
would increase his popularity in his stolen Iron-Man suit
. Sin and Crossbones find him and take him to Latveria in order to place the Red Skull's mind in a living body. The Red Skull, Sin, and Crossbones land in Latveria and Doom confronts them, saying that he would kill them if he was not a man of his word. Doom and Zola complete the machine and, after Ms. Hand brings Sharon to them, they strap her in. They activate the machine and soon Steve Rogers' body returns. When Steve opens his eyes, they are shown to be red, signifying that the Red Skull is now in control. Steve Rogers still resides in the body, and during the Red Skull's invasion of Washington D.C., he and Steve battle in the mind of Steve's body. Steve eventually forces Red Skull out, placing him back into his robot body. To prevent him from escaping the immediate area, Sharon Carter hits the Red Skull with a shot of Pym Particles, making him a massive robot who cannot elude any pursuer's attention. While Rogers and the Avengers occupy this giant menace's attention, he is destroyed by a missile barrage fired by Sharon Carter on a hijacked AIM battleship. In the epilogue, it was shown that Sin was too close to the exploding robot, and her face was heavily scarred, leaving her looking just like her father.
While sharing Alexander Lukin's body, he lost his superhuman abilities. Since then he resides in one of the android bodies engineered by Arnim Zola, with enhanced endurance and resilience.
He typically armed himself with a trick cigarette that could fire fatal poison gas — his trademark "Dust of Death" — toward his victim. The "Dust of Death" is a red powder which kills a victim within seconds of skin contact. The powder causes the skin of the victim's head to shrivel, tighten, and take on a red discoloration, while causing the hair to fall out. Hence the victim's head resembles a "red skull". He also carries a large arsenal of conventional and advanced fire arms and explosives.
. After the Red Skull killed Bernie Rosenthal and then hailed Captain America as the realization of the Nazi dream, Captain America decapitated the Red Skull using his trademark shield. As a result of his disillusionment from taking a life, Captain America retired from the Avengers, only to further spiral into depression after the Avengers were killed in Washington, D.C. Schmidt was later seen in the Land of the Dead, and then as one of those in Mar-Vell's Paradise waiting to live in his own personal version of Heaven.
Despite his death, the Red Skull's legacy lived on in the Earth X universe. Ben Beckley took on the identity of the Skull (not the Red Skull, as he had no idea who the Red Skull was) and set out to conquer the world, starting with a coast-to-coast drive across America. Using his power of control over the cerebrum (and thereby actions) of anyone, he gathered an army of thousands, only to come into conflict with Steve Rogers in his identity of Captain America. Insulting Captain America as old and out of date, the Skull spared him but took several of Captain America's allies as part of his army. After reaching New York City, the Skull was opposed by Captain America and other heroes, with Captain America breaking the Skull's neck in order to stop him. Beckley would later be seen in the Land of the Dead with his father, Comet Man
, and would help the heroes to convince the dead that they were deceased.
to steal an atomic bomb during World War II. Joker evades Batman, Cap, Bucky, and Robin and delivers it to the Skull, but is horrified when he learns that the Skull is a Nazi (saying "I may be a criminal lunatic but I'm an American criminal lunatic!"). When the Skull threatens to drop the bomb on Washington D.C., the Joker actually fights him in the plane's cargo bay. When Captain America and Batman take over the plane and bring it over the ocean, the two villains are dropped out with the bomb just before it explodes. Both Captain America and Batman are convinced the two are still alive somehow.
, Red Skull is an undead zombie with an unquenchable hunger for the flesh of the living. In issue #5, he finally manages to kill Colonel America, by ripping out the last of the Colonel's exposed brain before being decapitated by Spider-Man, and his head crushed by Giant Man's boot. His last words were "It was worth it, all of it, just for this."
where a final battle between the heroes and villains ended with the villains winning, the Red Skull is revealed as the mastermind of the villains' conquest and has made himself President of the United States. Living in the Nazi redecorated White House
, Red Skull had taken to wearing Captain America's old bloodstained uniform and collecting gruesome trophies from fallen heroes. When his men bring in a wounded Wolverine, Logan and the Red Skull fight in his trophy room. Unwilling to pop his claws during the fight, Wolverine decapitates the Red Skull with Captain America's shield, ending his villainous rule.
created by Mark Millar
. This Red Skull is the illegitimate son of Captain America and his girlfriend Gail Richards, conceived before the Captain's presumed death during WWII. Taken from Richards, the Red Skull is raised on an army base where he appears to be a well-adjusted, physically superior, and tactically brilliant young man who greatly resembles his father. His easy-going personality is a ruse. Around the age of seventeen, he kills over 200 men on the base, and then cuts off his own face, this last act being interpreted as part of his efforts to reject his father. As a final symbol of his rebellion against the system that created him, he assassinates President John F. Kennedy in 1963.
After decades of working as a professional assassin, the Red Skull joins A.I.M. He and his men steal the blueprints of the Cosmic Cube at the Baxter Building. There he finally meets his father in his helicopter and brutally attacks him. Before throwing Captain America out of the helicopter, Red Skull reveals his true identity. At the A.I.M. headquarters in Alaska, the Red Skull has his men kill the leading officer, and takes charge of the operation. With control of the Cosmic Cube he gains great power; as a sadistic display of his power he has the entire Alaskan A.I.M. team cannibalize each other. When the Avengers arrive on the scene they immediately try to destroy him but the Cube imbues him with nearly unlimited power, making him absolutely invulnerable. During the battle with the Avengers he beats them mercilessly. Captain America arrives in a stolen Teleporter Jet, but Skull forces the jet to crash. Cap survives the crash and teleports the jet to the Red Skull's exact coordinates, impaling him on one of the two rods that protrude from its nose.
The Red Skull is taken to a hospital and kept alive long enough for Gail Richards (his mother) to say her goodbyes. Skull explains to Nick Fury that all he wanted to do with the Cosmic Cube was to turn back time and prevent Steve Rogers (his father) from being lost during the war so that he could grow up with him and lead a normal life, rather than the one he was given. Petra Laskov (the woman whom he forced to kill her husband, then her infant son himself) enters the room dressed as a doctor and shoots the Red Skull in the head, killing him. When Gregory Stark asks Nick Fury
if he was responsible for calling out the Red Skull from his retirement and hiring him, in order to regain his position in S.H.I.E.L.D., Fury does not give an answer.
Unlike the flamboyant Nazi/military costume of the 616 counterpart, Ultimate Red Skull wears simple khaki pants and a white tee shirt.
Character (arts)
A character is the representation of a person in a narrative work of art . Derived from the ancient Greek word kharaktêr , the earliest use in English, in this sense, dates from the Restoration, although it became widely used after its appearance in Tom Jones in 1749. From this, the sense of...
, all supervillain
Supervillain
A supervillain or supervillainess is a variant of the villain character type, commonly found in comic books, action movies and science fiction in various media.They are sometimes used as foils to superheroes and other fictional heroes...
s from the Marvel Comics
Marvel Comics
Marvel Worldwide, Inc., commonly referred to as Marvel Comics and formerly Marvel Publishing, Inc. and Marvel Comics Group, is an American company that publishes comic books and related media...
universe. All incarnations of the character are enemies of Captain America
Captain America
Captain America is a fictional character, a superhero that appears in comic books published by Marvel Comics. The character first appeared in Captain America Comics #1 , from Marvel Comics' 1940s predecessor, Timely Comics, and was created by Joe Simon and Jack Kirby...
, other superhero
Superhero
A superhero is a type of stock character, possessing "extraordinary or superhuman powers", dedicated to protecting the public. Since the debut of the prototypical superhero Superman in 1938, stories of superheroes — ranging from brief episodic adventures to continuing years-long sagas —...
es, and the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
in general.
The first two Red Skulls are Nazi
Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany , also known as the Third Reich , but officially called German Reich from 1933 to 1943 and Greater German Reich from 26 June 1943 onward, is the name commonly used to refer to the state of Germany from 1933 to 1945, when it was a totalitarian dictatorship ruled by...
agents and the third is a Soviet
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
agent. The Red Skull was first introduced in Captain America Comics #1 in 1941. The first Red Skull (George Maxon) to appear in comics was an American industrialist turned Nazi saboteur. Maxon turned out to be an agent of the true Red Skull (Johann Schmidt), considered (according to S.H.I.E.L.D.
S.H.I.E.L.D.
S.H.I.E.L.D. is a fictional espionage and a secret military law-enforcement agency in the Marvel Comics Universe. Created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby in Strange Tales #135 , it often deals with superhuman threats....
) as one of the greatest threats to humanity, and a long-time archenemy
Archenemy
An archenemy, archfoe, archvillain or archnemesis is the principal enemy of a character in a work of fiction, often described as the hero's worst enemy .- Etymology :The word archenemy or arch-enemy originated...
of Captain America. The third Red Skull (Albert Malik) is best known for causing the deaths of the parents
Richard and Mary Parker
Richard and Mary Parker are fictional characters of Marvel Comics. They were the parents of Peter Parker, the boy who one day would become Spider-Man. They will appear in the 2012 reboot of the Spider-Man film franchise...
of Peter Parker, and thus orphaning the boy who would become Spider-Man
Spider-Man
Spider-Man is a fictional Marvel Comics superhero. The character was created by writer-editor Stan Lee and writer-artist Steve Ditko. He first appeared in Amazing Fantasy #15...
. The Red Skull was ranked number 21 on Wizard Magazine's Top 100 Greatest Villains Ever list and was also ranked as IGN
IGN
IGN is an entertainment website that focuses on video games, films, music and other media. IGN's main website comprises several specialty sites or "channels", each occupying a subdomain and covering a specific area of entertainment...
's 14th Greatest Comic Book Villain of All Time.
Publication history
The Red Skull was introduced in Timely ComicsTimely Comics
Timely Comics, an imprint of Timely Publications, was the earliest comic book arm of American publisher Martin Goodman, and the entity that would evolve by the 1960s to become Marvel Comics....
' Captain America Comics #1 (cover-dated March 1941), written and drawn by the team of Joe Simon
Joe Simon
Joseph Henry "Joe" Simon is an American comic book writer, artist, editor, and publisher. Simon created or co-created many important characters in the 1930s-1940s Golden Age of Comic Books and served as the first editor of Timely Comics, the company that would evolve into Marvel Comics.With his...
and Jack Kirby
Jack Kirby
Jack Kirby , born Jacob Kurtzberg, was an American comic book artist, writer and editor regarded by historians and fans as one of the major innovators and most influential creators in the comic book medium....
. The character was subsequently revived in the Silver Age of Comic Books
Silver Age of Comic Books
The Silver Age of Comic Books was a period of artistic advancement and commercial success in mainstream American comic books, predominantly those in the superhero genre. Following the Golden Age of Comic Books and an interregnum in the early to mid-1950s, the Silver Age is considered to cover the...
first in Tales of Suspense
Tales of Suspense
Tales of Suspense is the name of an American comic book series and two one-shot comics published by Marvel Comics. The first, which ran from 1959 to 1968, began as a science-fiction anthology that served as a showcase for such artists as Jack Kirby, Steve Ditko, and Don Heck, then featured...
#65 in the short-lived Captain America World War II period story run, and then established as a contemporary villain in #79.
For decades, the character's true face was hidden, but in Captain America vol. 1 #297 the Red Skull unmasked in front of the superhero with his face, albeit extremely aged, fully revealed. In the next issue, the Red Skull retells his story with his face fully visible in his various ages. When the character was revealed to be alive in issue #350, in a story called "Resurrection," by John Byrne, the face of Johann Schmidt's original body is hidden again, but the Skull's face is fully visible, albeit in his cloned copy of Captain America's body.
In 2011, the character's origin is being more fully illustrated in the limited series, Red Skull: Incarnate, with Schmidt's face fully visible again.
Fictional character biography
The Red Skull, Johann Schmidt (sometimes spelled Shmidt), was a former Nazi general officer and confidant of Adolf HitlerAdolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler was an Austrian-born German politician and the leader of the National Socialist German Workers Party , commonly referred to as the Nazi Party). He was Chancellor of Germany from 1933 to 1945, and head of state from 1934 to 1945...
. He has been closely affiliated with HYDRA
HYDRA
HYDRA is a fictional terrorist organization in the Marvel Universe.Despite the name's capitalization per Marvel's official spelling, the name is not an acronym but rather a reference to the mythical Lernaean Hydra...
and is an enemy of S.H.I.E.L.D.
S.H.I.E.L.D.
S.H.I.E.L.D. is a fictional espionage and a secret military law-enforcement agency in the Marvel Comics Universe. Created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby in Strange Tales #135 , it often deals with superhuman threats....
, the Avengers
Avengers (comics)
The Avengers is a fictional team of superheroes, appearing in magazines published by Marvel Comics. The team made its debut in The Avengers #1 The Avengers is a fictional team of superheroes, appearing in magazines published by Marvel Comics. The team made its debut in The Avengers #1 The Avengers...
, and the interests of the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
and the free world in general. He was physically augmented by having his mind placed into the body of a clone
Cloning
Cloning in biology is the process of producing similar populations of genetically identical individuals that occurs in nature when organisms such as bacteria, insects or plants reproduce asexually. Cloning in biotechnology refers to processes used to create copies of DNA fragments , cells , or...
of Captain America, the pinnacle of human perfection. He has been seemingly killed in the past, only to return time and time again to plague the world with schemes of world domination and genocide
Genocide
Genocide is defined as "the deliberate and systematic destruction, in whole or in part, of an ethnic, racial, religious, or national group", though what constitutes enough of a "part" to qualify as genocide has been subject to much debate by legal scholars...
.
George Maxon
Chronologically by publication date, the first Red Skull to appear in the 1940s comics was George John Maxon, an American businessman and NaziNazism
Nazism, the common short form name of National Socialism was the ideology and practice of the Nazi Party and of Nazi Germany...
agent who led a ring of spies and saboteurs. He faced Captain America during two of the latter's first missions. A formidable opponent in his own right, Maxon was thought killed during the last encounter, though he would reappear for one last encounter with Captain America in the Silver Age. Maxon was later revealed to be the agent of Johann Schmidt, the true Red Skull.
Johann Schmidt, the true Red Skull
Johann Schmidt was born in a village in Germany to Hermann and Martha Schmidt. His mother died in childbirth and his father blamed Johann for her death. Johann's father tried to drown the baby, only to be stopped by the attending doctor; he later committed suicide, leaving Johann an orphan. The doctor took Johann to an orphanage, where the child led a lonely existence. Johann ran away from the orphanage when he was seven years old and lived on the streets as a beggar and a thief. As he grew older he worked at various menial jobs but spent most of his time in prison for crimes ranging from vagrancy to theft.As a young man Schmidt was from time to time employed by a Jewish shopkeeper, whose daughter, Esther, was the only person who had treated Schmidt kindly up to that point. Seized with passion for Esther, Schmidt tried to force himself upon her, only to be rejected by her. In unthinking fury, Schmidt murdered her. Shmidt fled the scene in terror, but also felt ecstatic joy in committing his first murder. In killing Esther he had given vent to the rage at the world that had been building up in him throughout his young life.
After years as a menial laborer, Schmidt got his most prosperous job: a bellhop in a major hotel. This occurred during his late teens, around the same time that the Nazi Party gained power in Germany. Schmidt wound up serving the rooms of Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler was an Austrian-born German politician and the leader of the National Socialist German Workers Party , commonly referred to as the Nazi Party). He was Chancellor of Germany from 1933 to 1945, and head of state from 1934 to 1945...
himself. By chance, Schmidt was present by bringing refreshments when the Führer was furiously scolding an officer for letting a prisoner escape, during which Hitler pledged that he could create a better National Socialist out of the bellhop. Looking closely at the youth and sensing his dark inner nature, Hitler decided to take up the challenge and recruited Schmidt.
Dissatisfied with the standard drill instruction his subordinates used to train Schmidt, Hitler took over personally, and trained Schmidt as his right-hand man. Upon completion, Hitler gave Schmidt a unique uniform with a grotesque red skull
Human skull
The human skull is a bony structure, skeleton, that is in the human head and which supports the structures of the face and forms a cavity for the brain.In humans, the adult skull is normally made up of 22 bones...
mask, and he emerged as the Red Skull (in literal German: Roter Totenkopf or Roter (Toten-)Schädel) for the first time. His role was the embodiment of Nazi intimidation, while Hitler could remain the popular leader of Germany. To that end, The Red Skull was appointed head of Nazi terrorist
Terrorism
Terrorism is the systematic use of terror, especially as a means of coercion. In the international community, however, terrorism has no universally agreed, legally binding, criminal law definition...
activities with an additional large role in external espionage
Espionage
Espionage or spying involves an individual obtaining information that is considered secret or confidential without the permission of the holder of the information. Espionage is inherently clandestine, lest the legitimate holder of the information change plans or take other countermeasures once it...
and sabotage
Sabotage
Sabotage is a deliberate action aimed at weakening another entity through subversion, obstruction, disruption, or destruction. In a workplace setting, sabotage is the conscious withdrawal of efficiency generally directed at causing some change in workplace conditions. One who engages in sabotage is...
. He succeeded, wreaking havoc throughout Europe in the early stages of World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
. The propaganda
Propaganda
Propaganda is a form of communication that is aimed at influencing the attitude of a community toward some cause or position so as to benefit oneself or one's group....
effect was so great that the United States government decided to counter it by creating their own equivalent using the one recipient of the lost Project Rebirth, Steve Rogers, as Captain America
Captain America
Captain America is a fictional character, a superhero that appears in comic books published by Marvel Comics. The character first appeared in Captain America Comics #1 , from Marvel Comics' 1940s predecessor, Timely Comics, and was created by Joe Simon and Jack Kirby...
.
In Europe during the war, the Skull took personal command of many military actions and personally supervised the takeovers and lootings of many cities and towns; in various cases the Skull ordered and supervised the eradication of the entire population of such communities. The Red Skull also organized a "wolf pack" of submarines which preyed upon shipping across the world, often under the Skull's personal command.
At first Hitler took great pride in his protégé's successes and let the Skull have anything he wanted. Hitler thus financed the construction of secret bases for the Skull in various locations throughout the world, many of which were equipped with highly advanced experimental weapons and devices developed by Nazi scientists. The Skull was particularly interested in procuring technological weapons that could be used for the purposes of subversion and warfare. During the war he stole plans for the "nullatron," a device that could control human minds, adapted a space-warping device developed by the cyborg scientist codenamed Brain Drain, and commissioned Nazi scientists to develop a projector which could encircle and suspend sections of cities within spheres of energy.
But while the Skull always admired Hitler for his ideological vision, he was never content with being Hitler's subordinate. The Skull kidnapped and killed many of Hitler's closest advisers and eventually rose to become the second most powerful man in the Third Reich. Now Hitler could no longer effectively control the Skull and came to fear him, especially since the Skull had made little secret of his ambition to supplant Hitler someday.
After the renowned military officer Baron Wolfgang von Strucker had a falling out with Hitler, the Red Skull sent Strucker to Japan to found an organization that would prepare the way for takeovers in the Far East under the Skull's leadership. In the Far East Strucker joined a subversive organization that came to be known as HYDRA, broke his ties with the Skull, became head of HYDRA and built it into a major threat to world peace.
As World War II raged on, Hitler vowed, that if he could not conquer the world, he would destroy it. To achieve this end, the Skull proposed the construction of five gigantic war machines, to be called the Sleepers, which would be hidden in various locations while they generated and stored the power they would need, and then be released at a future date, "Der Tag" ("The Day"), to destroy the Earth if the Allies won. Hitler enthusiastically instructed the Skull to construct the Sleepers, unaware that the Skull intended to use them to conquer the world himself if Hitler's Third Reich fell. In the closing days of the war in Europe, Allied intelligence received reports of a Nazi doomsday plan code-named "Der Tag" to be implemented after Hitler's defeat. However, the Allies had no idea what the plan entailed.
Captain America and his teenage partner Bucky Barnes fought against and thwarted the Skull and his plans many times during the war, both working on their own and operating as members of the Invaders. Once they were captured by him, and Captain America was placed under Nazi control by a drug and told to assassinte a high-ranking officer, but thanks to Bucky he broke free. During the final days of World War II in Europe, Captain America and Bucky were assigned to England to prevent desperate Nazi efforts at sabotaging Allied supply bases there. The Red Skull sent a number of his subordinates, who became known as the Exiles
Exiles (Red Skull allies)
-Publication history:The Exiles first appeared in Tales of Suspense #41 and were created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby.The group subsequently appears in Captain America #102-104 , in Captain America #115-118 , Astonishing Tales #4-5 and Avengers #16 .-Fictional organization history:The Exiles were a...
, and a large contingent of loyal German soldiers and their wives to a secret island base ("Exile Island"), where they would organize an army for use in the future.
The two counterparts soon clashed for the first time. The Skull later temporarily brainwashed three of the Invaders
Invaders (comics)
The Invaders is the name of two fictional superhero teams in the . The original team was created by writer Roy Thomas and artist Sal Buscema in The Avengers #71 . A present-day incarnation was introduced by writer Chuck Austen and artist Scott Kolins in The Avengers vol...
into serving him. The Red Skull and Captain America continued to engage in a series of skirmishes throughout the war. Now that the German defeat was becoming a reality, the Red Skull was more determined than ever to obtain vengeance for his numerous personal defeats by Captain America and Bucky. The Skull assigned Baron Heinrich Zemo to go to England, and, under the cover of stealing an experimental Allied drone plane, to capture or kill Captain America and Bucky. However, the Skull was unaware that the Allies had just secretly parachuted Captain America into beleaguered Berlin to investigate "Der Tag."
Finally, Captain America tracked the Skull down to his hidden bunker. The Skull was about to hurl an armed hand grenade at his nemesis when Captain America threw his shield at him. The grenade went off, but the Skull was not killed, thanks to his body armor. He was, however; seriously hurt and partially buried in debris. Thinking he was dying, the Skull defiantly told Captain America that the Sleepers would avenge the Nazis' defeat. Then, suddenly, an Allied attack on Berlin began. An Allied plane dropped a huge blockbuster bomb on the bunker, causing a cave-in that Captain America barely escaped. Captain America was picked up by the Allies and returned to England only to fall into Zemo's trap, which led to Captain America's falling into suspended animation for decades. Support pillars that crisscrossed over the Red Skull when the bunker caved in saved him from being struck by tons of rubble when the bomb hit. The cave-in released an experimental gas from canisters in the bunker which put the Skull into suspended animation during which his wounds slowly healed.
Albert Malik
With Schmidt's disappearance after 1945, the reputation of the Skull was still formidable enough to prove useful. In 1953, a SovietSoviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
Russian
Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic
The Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic , commonly referred to as Soviet Russia, Bolshevik Russia, or simply Russia, was the largest, most populous and economically developed republic in the former Soviet Union....
KGB
KGB
The KGB was the commonly used acronym for the . It was the national security agency of the Soviet Union from 1954 until 1991, and was the premier internal security, intelligence, and secret police organization during that time.The State Security Agency of the Republic of Belarus currently uses the...
agent named Albert Malik set up his spy/criminal organization in Algeria
French Algeria
French Algeria lasted from 1830 to 1962, under a variety of governmental systems. From 1848 until independence, the whole Mediterranean region of Algeria was administered as an integral part of France, much like Corsica and Réunion are to this day. The vast arid interior of Algeria, like the rest...
and assumed the identity of the Red Skull, pretending that he was the original, when he was actually serving Soviet interests. During the 1950s, he faced the then active version
Grand Director
The Grand Director , also known as the Captain America of the 1950s is a fictional character in the Marvel Comics Universe...
of Captain America who was also using the identity of Steve Rogers, pretending to be the original. The two impersonators continued to battle each other throughout the decade. While the Captain and Bucky (Jack Monroe) were placed into suspended animation when his flawed replicate of the Super-Soldier formula seriously affected his and Bucky's minds, Malik continued his activities, and over time cut his links to the Soviet Union. Among other notorious deeds, he was responsible for the deaths of Richard Parker and Mary Fitzpatrick-Parker, the parents of Peter Parker (a.k.a. Spider-Man
Spider-Man
Spider-Man is a fictional Marvel Comics superhero. The character was created by writer-editor Stan Lee and writer-artist Steve Ditko. He first appeared in Amazing Fantasy #15...
), tipped off by the super-criminal Gustav "The Gentleman" Fiers.
Johann Schmidt's legacy continued to cause trouble in the years of his absence. This primarily came in the form of powerful destructive robots called Sleepers
Sleeper (Marvel Comics)
Sleeper is a fictional character in the Marvel Universe.-Fictional character biography:The Sleeper was the most powerful of four robots designed in Berlin by Nazi Germany as agents of destruction. After World War II, the Sleeper was entombed within a crypt that was sunk into the sea...
which were intended to activate at preset times by his agents to devastate the Earth in the event of Nazi Germany's defeat. Captain America was able to neutralize all the machines in turn.
Modern era
Advanced Idea Mechanics
A.I.M. is a fictional terrorist organization in the . The organization first appeared in Strange Tales #146 and was created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby.-Publication history:...
with his henchman. The Skull quickly subverted a cell to his own ambitions of world conquest and the death of Captain America. He stole the Cosmic Cube
Cosmic Cube
The Cosmic Cube, called the Tesseract in the film Captain America: The First Avenger, is the name of a fictional object that appears in the Marvel Universe. The concept was created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby and first appeared in Tales of Suspense #79 .-Publication history:The first Cosmic Cube...
after taking control of its Keeper's mind with a device he planted while shaking hands, and revealed that he gave Zemo
Baron Zemo
Baron Zemo is the name of two fictional characters, both supervillains, in various Marvel Comics comic books, notably Captain America and the Avengers...
the order to steal the bomb plane that led to Bucky's death. He had had a rivalry with Zemo, and hoped to set his two foes against each other. Captain America found out from the dying pilot of a plane that had been following the Keeper's plane of the Cube, which had been used to destroy the plane. Schmidt told another AIM member of his plans after getting a mind control device on him, then caused him to shoot himself. He fought Captain America again for the first time in years after getting the Cube on an island, and created a superstrong humanoid monster to fight Captain America. Captain America began defeating it, so the Red Skull sent it away. He began sending Captain America to another dimension when Captain America offered to become his servant. The Red Skull encased himself in a golden suit of armor, and talked of creating a new order of knights. He planned to take over the world with the Cube, then create spaceships to conquer other worlds. Captain America defeated him by getting close to him while the Red Skull prepared to knight him. Captain America tried to get the Cube, and in the fight the island split apart due to the Cube's power, and the Skull fell off a cliff while trying to get the Cosmic Cube. When Johann reappeared, he and Malik, though his age was starting to catch up with him, started to antagonize each other while both claiming the identity of the Red Skull. Finally Albert was the victim of an assassination organized by Johann, at the hands of a rogue agent of the Scourge of the Underworld
Scourge of the Underworld
The Scourge of the Underworld is the name of a series of fictional characters that have appeared in various series set in the Marvel Comics universe....
.
Thus the two enemies resumed their war, with Captain America, among other opponents, frustrating the Skull's schemes. The Skull captured part of Manhattan Island, unleashed the fourth Sleeper, and captured Captain America on Exile Island
Exiles (Red Skull allies)
-Publication history:The Exiles first appeared in Tales of Suspense #41 and were created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby.The group subsequently appears in Captain America #102-104 , in Captain America #115-118 , Astonishing Tales #4-5 and Avengers #16 .-Fictional organization history:The Exiles were a...
. The Skull then regained the reality-altering Cosmic Cube
Cosmic Cube
The Cosmic Cube, called the Tesseract in the film Captain America: The First Avenger, is the name of a fictional object that appears in the Marvel Universe. The concept was created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby and first appeared in Tales of Suspense #79 .-Publication history:The first Cosmic Cube...
and temporarily switched bodies with Captain America. He also used the Cube to alter the personality of "Snap" Wilson, the future Falcon
Falcon (comics)
The Falcon is a fictional comic book superhero in comic books published by Marvel Comics.Created by writer-editor Stan Lee and artist Gene Colan, and introduced in Captain America #117 , the character is mainstream comics' first African-American superhero...
. Some time later, he first fought Doctor Doom
Doctor Doom
Victor von Doom is a fictional character who appears in Marvel Comics publications . Created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby, the character first appeared in Fantastic Four #5 wearing his trademark metal mask and green cloak...
. The Red Skull then fomented racial hatred in New York, and was revealed as the true power behind the Las Vegas HYDRA faction, and first clashed with the Kingpin
Kingpin (comics)
The Kingpin is a fictional character, a supervillain in the . Kingpin is one of the most feared and powerful crime lords in the Marvel Universe. The character is a major adversary of Daredevil, the Punisher, and Spider-Man...
.
Some time later, the Skull killed the would-be Captain America, Roscoe, while Rogers had temporarily given up the role. He also revived the use of his "dust of death." The Skull later fought Doctor Doom on the moon but was defeated. With Arnim Zola
Arnim Zola
Arnim Zola is a fictional character a supervillain appearing in the Marvel Comics universe. He is a master of biochemistry, and frequent foe of Captain America and the Avengers.-Publication history:...
, the Skull sought to transplant Hitler's brain into Captain America's body. He transformed a number of S.H.I.E.L.D.
S.H.I.E.L.D.
S.H.I.E.L.D. is a fictional espionage and a secret military law-enforcement agency in the Marvel Comics Universe. Created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby in Strange Tales #135 , it often deals with superhuman threats....
agents into his skull-faced slaves. The Skull teamed with the Hate-Monger
Hate-Monger
The Hate-Monger is the name of different characters from Marvel Comics.-Publication history:The original character first appeared in Fantastic Four vol...
, a clone of Hitler, and trapped him in a flawed Cosmic Cube. The Skull led the Nihilist Order for a brief time. Establishing a Nazi colony on a deserted island, the Skull fathered a daughter who would eventually become known as Mother Superior.
The war between Captain America and Red Skull in the modern era reached a breaking point when Red Skull discovered that the gas that had placed him in suspended animation was wearing off and his body was rapidly aging to what would be Skull's normal age. Now physically in his mid-80s, a weak and feeble Red Skull planned for a final showdown with his arch-rival. Kidnapping Captain America's closest allies, he forced Captain America to surrender himself and forcibly undergo a medical treatment that aged Captain America's body to its rightful age. The two men, their bodies now ancient, fought one last battle to the death. Captain America refused to kill the Red Skull, who died cursing Captain America as his elderly body shut down. Dead at last, it seemed like the threat of the Red Skull had finally ended and The Avengers were able to restore Rogers' youth.
Resurrection
The Red Skull would not stay dead for long; Nazi geneticist Arnim ZolaArnim Zola
Arnim Zola is a fictional character a supervillain appearing in the Marvel Comics universe. He is a master of biochemistry, and frequent foe of Captain America and the Avengers.-Publication history:...
, who had obtained DNA samples of Captain America years earlier, arranged for Skull's mind to be transplanted into a clone body of Captain America at the moment of his death. Assuming the identity of "John Smith" (the English equivalent of his natural German name), Skull decided that he would reinvent himself and his quest for absolute power as a means to celebrate his cheating death. The Red Skull abandoned his longstanding beliefs in National Socialism and Hitler, on the belief that the Nazi philosophy made him look like a relic of the past. Skull instead turned towards American ideology for his new motivation. Skull saw much potential in the American dream of capitalism and self-determination and set about establishing his own foothold inside Washington DC, culminating in him gaining control over "The Commission
Commission on Superhuman Activities
The Commission on Superhuman Activities is a fictional government group from the Marvel Universe.-Publication history:...
", a government body in Washington that monitored and regulated superhero activities.
Skull also changed his mode of operations: rather than "living from one grand scheme to the next", he began financing a score of evil organizations that reported directly to him, most notably the militia group the Watchdogs. He also employed one of the Scourges
Scourge of the Underworld
The Scourge of the Underworld is the name of a series of fictional characters that have appeared in various series set in the Marvel Comics universe....
, an organization who terrorized supervillains with a killing spree.
Despite all of this, Skull's biggest move would be his plot to remove Rogers from the position of Captain America and replace him with a jingoist
Jingoism
Jingoism is defined in the Oxford English Dictionary as extreme patriotism in the form of aggressive foreign policy. In practice, it is a country's advocation of the use of threats or actual force against other countries in order to safeguard what it perceives as its national interests...
named John Walker
U.S. Agent
U.S. Agent is a fictional comic book superhero appearing in books published by Marvel Comics, usually those starring Captain America and the Avengers. He was created by Mark Gruenwald and Paul Neary in Captain America vol...
. Although Walker initially attempted to live up to his predecessor's ideals, The Skull arranged for the murders of Walker's parents, driving him insane and into a downward spiral of murder as part of his plan to blacken the name of Captain America.
Yet like all things, Skull's plans fell apart when Skull's chief pawn in the Commission was killed by Skull, right in front of Captain America. About to be exposed, Skull tried to manipulate Walker into killing Rogers. When Rogers defeated Walker, the Skull appeared to gloat at what he had done to Rogers and Walker and the reputation of Captain America. The Skull explained that this is part of his new operational method of engaging in multiple concurrent projects instead of investing consecutive grand schemes that his enemies could focus all their energies on stopping. Furthermore, these projects include killing Rogers at a time of his own choosing and that he could not touch Skull due to his status as a wealthy American businessman. Rogers, disturbed and puzzled by this mystery man with a face identical to his own and claiming to be his dead archenemy, noted that the Skull was not inhaling from the cigarette holder he had in his mouth. The cigarette turned out to be holding a lethal dose of the Skull's favorite poison, the Dust of Death, intended for Rogers - but the trap backfired against Schmidt when Walker suddenly hit him from behind with his shield. As a result, Schmidt suffered the facial disfigurement attributed to the Dust, as his face took on the appearance of a living red skull; his head is hairless and its skin has shriveled, clinging tightly to his actual skull, and has taken on a red discoloration. Skull did not die though, due to the effects of the Super-Soldier formula.
After this, the Skull masterminded a conflict between the United States and Symkaria
Symkaria
Symkaria is a fictional Eastern European country created by Stan Lee for the Marvel Universe.-Nation Information:Location: The Balkans, near Transylvania and Latveria...
, the nation of Silver Sable
Silver Sable
Silver Sable is a fictional character from Marvel Comics, a female mercenary, hunter of war criminals, the leader of the Wild Pack, and CEO of Silver Sable International...
He joined the "Acts of Vengeance
Acts of Vengeance
"Acts of Vengeance" is a comic book crossover storyline that ran through several titles published by Marvel Comics from December 1989 to February 1990.-Publication history:...
" conspiracy, but was attacked by the mutant terrorist Magneto
Magneto (comics)
Magneto is a fictional character that appears in comic books published by Marvel Comics. He is the central villain of the X-Men comic, as well as the TV show and the films. The character first appears in X-Men #1 , and was created by writer Stan Lee and artist Jack Kirby...
, a Holocaust
The Holocaust
The Holocaust , also known as the Shoah , was the genocide of approximately six million European Jews and millions of others during World War II, a programme of systematic state-sponsored murder by Nazi...
survivor who wanted to punish him for his involvement in Hitler's regime. Magneto buried him alive with enough water for a few months. The Skull remained imprisoned, close to death and beginning to see the error of his ways, until he was rescued by his henchman Crossbones
Crossbones (comics)
Crossbones is a fictional character, a supervillain in the Marvel Comics universe. He was created by writer Mark Gruenwald and artist Kieron Dwyer in Captain America #359-360 . Crossbones usually appears as a henchman of the Red Skull...
.
The Red Skull's relationship with other villains was fraught with problems due to many villains shunning him because of his Nazi background. In the "Streets of Poison" storyline, the Skull proposes an alliance with the Kingpin
Kingpin (comics)
The Kingpin is a fictional character, a supervillain in the . Kingpin is one of the most feared and powerful crime lords in the Marvel Universe. The character is a major adversary of Daredevil, the Punisher, and Spider-Man...
to bring a new designer drug to New York but the Kingpin refuses to ally with the Nazi and the two engage in a drug war. He then defeats a weakened Skull in hand to hand combat, sparing his life on the condition he never come near the Kingpin's territory again. In the "Acts of Vengeance
Acts of Vengeance
"Acts of Vengeance" is a comic book crossover storyline that ran through several titles published by Marvel Comics from December 1989 to February 1990.-Publication history:...
" crossover, the Skull demands the Wizard
Wizard (Marvel Comics)
The Wizard , also known as the Wingless Wizard, is a fictional character, a comic book supervillain in the Marvel Comics universe...
apologize for an insult to which the Wizard replies "You'll see yourself welcomed into Heaven before I speak those words!" Not long after that, he was kidnapped by Magneto. One prominent exception is fellow Nazi, Baron Wolfgang von Strucker
Baron Strucker
Baron Wolfgang von Strucker is a fictional character created for Marvel Comics by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby, first appearing in Sgt. Fury and his Howling Commandos #5...
, leader of the terrorist organization HYDRA. After the Skull's agents allow Strucker to be reborn, a grateful Strucker allows the Skull the use of HYDRA resources.
On the run
Skull's tenure in Washington came to an end when Skull was captured by Hauptmann DeutschlandHauptmann Deutschland
Hauptmann Deutschland , also known as Vormund, is a fictional character in the Marvel Comics universe.-Fictional character biography:...
, and taken to Germany to stand trial for crimes against humanity, stemming from his days as an agent of the Third Reich. Skull narrowly escaped and was rescued by Arnim Zola
Arnim Zola
Arnim Zola is a fictional character a supervillain appearing in the Marvel Comics universe. He is a master of biochemistry, and frequent foe of Captain America and the Avengers.-Publication history:...
, and was forced to fake his death and go into hiding in a Rocky Mountain compound. He recruited the female sociopath "The Viper
Viper (Madame Hydra)
Viper, formerly known as Madame Hydra, is a fictional character in the Marvel Comics universe who is a foe of the Avengers and the X-Men...
", a move that alienated his minions and was further rocked when his chief henchman Crossbones kidnapped Captain America's girlfriend Diamondback
Diamondback (comics)
Diamondback is the name of four fictional characters appearing in comic books published by Marvel Comics.-Publication history:Diamondback first appeared in Captain America #310 , written by Mark Gruenwald and illustrated by Paul Neary.-Willis Stryker:The first Diamondback was a foe of Luke Cage...
, resulting in Captain America finding Skull's new lair. Skull fired Crossbones, and went into hiding while the Viper, using funds she plied from Red Skull as part of a scheme to use televisions across America to blind TV viewers, was defeated by Captain America.
Skull resurfaced during "Operation: AIM Island", where Skull discovered that he was facing the same permanent paralysis that Captain America was facing due to their exposure to the Super-Soldier formula. When the evil scientist Superia
Superia
Superia is a fictional character, a misandrist supervillain and criminal scientist in the Marvel Universe. She was created by writer Mark Gruenwald and artist Rik Levins in Captain America Superia (Dr. Deidre Wentworth) is a fictional character, a misandrist supervillain and criminal scientist in...
offered Captain America a cure, Captain America refused it because Superia said that Captain America would "owe her". Skull took the cure and apparently killed Superia, then arranged for Captain America to be kidnapped by his remaining forces and given a blood transfusion that cured him.
Reluctant allies
Captain America's recovery would segue into a reluctant team-up with the Red Skull; a Nazi cult that worshiped Adolf Hitler as a god had discovered a Cosmic Cube that contained Hitler's mind, put there by Skull himself. The two sought to stop the cult from fully powering the Hitler Cosmic Cube but Skull opted instead to send Captain America (against his will) into the cube to kill Hitler, imprisoning Captain America in the cube while he used its power to conquer humanity. Captain America escaped and in the process used his shield to sever one of Skull's arms, causing him to drop the cube. The Cube then became unstable, destroying Skull.Cosmic resurrection
Yet as evil itself never dies, the same was true for the Red Skull. Trapped in a hellish nightmare dimension and forced to serve as a bellhop to a world of immigrants, Skull's evil ultimately was so great that he was able to escape his prison. As a result, Skull now possessed limited reality warping powers that made him a truly cosmic threat. He was further aided by KorvacKorvac
Michael Korvac is a fictional character that appears in comic books published by Marvel Comics. The character first appears in Giant-Size Defenders #3 Michael Korvac (often called Korvac or The Enemy) is a fictional character that appears in comic books published by Marvel Comics. The character...
, who was posing as Kang the Conqueror
Kang the Conqueror
Kang the Conqueror is a fictional character that appears in comic books published by Marvel Comics. The character first appears in Avengers #8 , and was created by writer Stan Lee and artist Jack Kirby...
. He was sent to Galactus
Galactus
Galactus is a fictional character appearing in comic books and other publications published by Marvel Comics. Created by writer-editor Stan Lee and artist and co-plotter Jack Kirby, the character debuted in Fantastic Four #48 , the first of a three-issue story later known as "The Galactus...
' ship to steal more power (in particular the power of omniscience), which would remove all limits to Skull's reality warping powers. This led to Skull's undoing as he was ambushed by Korvac. Korvac stole Skull's cosmic powers and banished Skull back to Earth.
The Red Skull later manipulated his way into the position of Secretary of Defense as Dell Rusk (an anagram
Anagram
An anagram is a type of word play, the result of rearranging the letters of a word or phrase to produce a new word or phrase, using all the original letters exactly once; e.g., orchestra = carthorse, A decimal point = I'm a dot in place, Tom Marvolo Riddle = I am Lord Voldemort. Someone who...
for "red skull") to develop a biological weapon he tested at Mount Rushmore. He was exposed and defeated by the Avengers. The Black Panther
Black Panther (comics)
The Black Panther is a fictional character in the Marvel Comics universe. Created by writer-editor Stan Lee and penciller-co-plotter Jack Kirby, he first appeared in Fantastic Four #52...
beat him so badly that he broke the Skull's jaw in half.
Aleksander Lukin and the Winter Soldier
Aleksander Lukin
Aleksander Lukin is a fictional character, owned by Marvel Comics who exists in the Marvel Universe. He first appeared in Captain America #1, and was created by Ed Brubaker and Steve Epting.-Fictional character biography:...
, who wanted to possess the new Cosmic Cube the Skull had manufactured. When the Skull was shot, he attempted to use the Cube to switch bodies with Lukin to survive, but as the Cube was still weak he only managed to transfer his mind into Lukin's body, so that the two enemies are trapped together, waging a constant war for dominance which the Red Skull seems to be progressively winning. During a plot to lure out Captain America, Red Skull/Lukin recruited several German skinheads and made them the successors to the Master Man
Master Man (Marvel Comics)
Master Man is the name of three fictional characters that appear in comic books published by Marvel Comics. The original Master Man first appears in the title Giant-Size Invaders #1 and was created by Roy Thomas and Frank Robbins. The second version , first appears in Namor the Sub-Mariner #11 ...
. He then had these soldiers, dubbed the "Master Race," launch an attack on London, which was thwarted by Captain America, Spitfire
Spitfire (comics)
Spitfire is a fictional character, a superhero in the Marvel Comics universe and was introduced as a member of the World War II era Invaders superhero team.-Fictional character biography:...
, and Union Jack
Union Jack (comics)
Union Jack is the name of three fictional characters that appear in comic books published by Marvel Comics.-James Montgomery Falsworth:The original Union Jack, James Montgomery Falsworth, first appears in comics in The Invaders #7. He was created by writer Roy Thomas and artist Frank Robbins. He...
. Then, Red Skull/Lukin activated a Sleeper, a robot programmed for mass destruction, that was presumably created by Doctor Doom. The robot damaged a significant portion of the new London Kronas HQ, and was ultimately destroyed by Captain America and Bucky. In the aftermath, Red Skull sent a videotape, announcing to the world his return, followed by Lukin holding a press conference condemning the actions of both the Red Skull and Captain America, and supporting the Superhero Registration Act. Then, in his office, Red Skull introduced Lukin to his old/new associates, Crossbones
Crossbones (comics)
Crossbones is a fictional character, a supervillain in the Marvel Comics universe. He was created by writer Mark Gruenwald and artist Kieron Dwyer in Captain America #359-360 . Crossbones usually appears as a henchman of the Red Skull...
and Sin.
With America's superheroes divided over the act
Civil War (comics)
Civil War is a 2006-2007 Marvel Comics crossover storyline built around a self-titled seven-issue limited series written by Mark Millar and penciled by Steve McNiven, which ran through various other titles published by Marvel at the time...
, the Skull manipulates events to his own ends, with the aid of Doctor Faustus
Doctor Faustus (comics)
Doctor Faustus is a fictional character, a Marvel Comics supervillain.An Austrian by birth, he is most commonly associated with Captain America, first appearing in issue #107 of his first series.-Creative origins:...
, Doctor Doom
Doctor Doom
Victor von Doom is a fictional character who appears in Marvel Comics publications . Created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby, the character first appeared in Fantastic Four #5 wearing his trademark metal mask and green cloak...
, and Arnim Zola
Arnim Zola
Arnim Zola is a fictional character a supervillain appearing in the Marvel Comics universe. He is a master of biochemistry, and frequent foe of Captain America and the Avengers.-Publication history:...
. His plans involved the reunion of Captain America and his former lover Sharon Carter
Sharon Carter
Sharon Carter, alias Agent 13, is a fictional character, a secret agent in the Marvel Comics universe. She is an ex-field agent of S.H.I.E.L.D...
, who is being manipulated by Faustus.
In the immediate aftermath of the Civil War, the Skull puts his plans into action, arranging for Crossbones to shoot Captain America as he enters a courthouse in New York City; in the ensuing chaos, Carter, acting under Faustus' mental directive, assassinates Captain America. This is only the first phase of the Skull's evil plan. Upon the discovery of his identity as Lukin, the Skull fakes his death, and initiates the second part of his plan: using Kronas Corporation's vast holdings to economically cripple the United States, before having S.H.I.E.L.D. agents brainwashed by Doctor Faustus open fire on crowds of protesters in front of the White House
White House
The White House is the official residence and principal workplace of the president of the United States. Located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW in Washington, D.C., the house was designed by Irish-born James Hoban, and built between 1792 and 1800 of white-painted Aquia sandstone in the Neoclassical...
. The Red Skull continues his assault by engineering a riot by placing Kronas security troops and drugged water in a protest on the Lincoln Monument
Lincoln Monument
The Lincoln Monument is a bronze statue of Abraham Lincoln that commemorates his 1832 service in the Black Hawk War. Located in President's Park in Dixon, Illinois, the bronze statue was sculpted by Leonard Crunelle and was dedicated on September 24, 1930...
.
All of this has apparently been to elevate his puppet politician, Gordon Wright, elevated in the public's eye with being credited as "resolving" the situations, as well as surviving a (staged) attack by the Serpent Squad
Serpent Squad
The Serpent Squad is a fictional mercenary group composed of snake-themed criminals in Marvel Comics. Most often antagonists of Captain America, the roster has changed through various incarnations...
. Once elected, Wright will lead the country directly into a police state secretly controlled by the Red Skull. The Skull also plans to transfer his consciousness into Sharon's unborn child, apparently sired by Steve Rogers himself and potentially having inherited his Project Rebirth enhancements.
Both schemes fail because of the impatience and incompetence of the Skull's daughter - her near-fatal attack on Sharon Carter causes her to lose the baby, and she intentionally botches her pseudo-assassination of Gordon Wright by attempting to kill him for real.
As Faustus has surreptitiously tampered with Sharon's programming, she is able to rebel, and before escaping shoots Lukin to death. This is not the end of Red Skull, since Arnim Zola
Arnim Zola
Arnim Zola is a fictional character a supervillain appearing in the Marvel Comics universe. He is a master of biochemistry, and frequent foe of Captain America and the Avengers.-Publication history:...
had seconds earlier transferred his mind to one of his spare robotic bodies, but after having his current form damaged by the imposter Captain America
Grand Director
The Grand Director , also known as the Captain America of the 1950s is a fictional character in the Marvel Comics Universe...
, he's unable to return back to Red Skull, essentially trapping him in his current robotic form for the time being.
Captain America: Reborn
It has been revealed that Red Skull did not actually kill Steve Rogers, but trapped his body in a fixed position in space and time. He was planning on using Sharon and a machine created by Doctor Doom to return his body back to their time, but since Sharon destroyed the machine, his body is now drifting through time and space. Apparently, it is presumed that the Red Skull intended to transfer his mind into Rogers' body. Norman OsbornGreen Goblin
The Green Goblin is a fictional character, a supervillain who appears in the comic books published by Marvel Comics. The character was created by writer Stan Lee and artist Steve Ditko, and first appeared in The Amazing Spider-Man #14 ....
decides to assist in completing his plan as Captain America leading his team of Avengers
Dark Avengers
Dark Avengers was an American comic book series published by Marvel Comics. It is part of a series of titles that have featured various iterations of the superhero team the Avengers...
would increase his popularity in his stolen Iron-Man suit
Iron Man's armor
Iron Man's armor is the fictional powered exoskeleton worn by the fictional Tony Stark when he assumes his superhero role of Iron Man. The first version of the armor was created by Stark with the help of Ho Yinsen....
. Sin and Crossbones find him and take him to Latveria in order to place the Red Skull's mind in a living body. The Red Skull, Sin, and Crossbones land in Latveria and Doom confronts them, saying that he would kill them if he was not a man of his word. Doom and Zola complete the machine and, after Ms. Hand brings Sharon to them, they strap her in. They activate the machine and soon Steve Rogers' body returns. When Steve opens his eyes, they are shown to be red, signifying that the Red Skull is now in control. Steve Rogers still resides in the body, and during the Red Skull's invasion of Washington D.C., he and Steve battle in the mind of Steve's body. Steve eventually forces Red Skull out, placing him back into his robot body. To prevent him from escaping the immediate area, Sharon Carter hits the Red Skull with a shot of Pym Particles, making him a massive robot who cannot elude any pursuer's attention. While Rogers and the Avengers occupy this giant menace's attention, he is destroyed by a missile barrage fired by Sharon Carter on a hijacked AIM battleship. In the epilogue, it was shown that Sin was too close to the exploding robot, and her face was heavily scarred, leaving her looking just like her father.
Powers and abilities
Although the Red Skull has no superhuman abilities, he possesses an intellect and inventive genius on the level of supervillains such as Doctor Doom, and is a highly gifted subversive strategist and political operative. At one point, the Red Skull's mind inhabited a body cloned from Captain America's, and hence possessed the mutagenic alterations induced by the Super-Soldier formula. He was thus endowed with a body that was in perfect physical condition, with strength, speed, durability, agility, dexterity, reflexes, coordination, balance, and physical endurance that exceeded that of any Olympic athlete who ever performed. Despite the scar tissue covering his face and head, his senses were still above-average. He has been shown as a superb martial artist, though he was never on par with Captain America himself; he was originally trained by German athletes appointed by Hitler, and is heavily trained as a skilled marksman with various forms of handguns, and well-versed in the use of fire arms and explosives. The Red Skull is commonly portrayed as one of the Marvel Universe's most genuinely frightening major villains.While sharing Alexander Lukin's body, he lost his superhuman abilities. Since then he resides in one of the android bodies engineered by Arnim Zola, with enhanced endurance and resilience.
He typically armed himself with a trick cigarette that could fire fatal poison gas — his trademark "Dust of Death" — toward his victim. The "Dust of Death" is a red powder which kills a victim within seconds of skin contact. The powder causes the skin of the victim's head to shrivel, tighten, and take on a red discoloration, while causing the hair to fall out. Hence the victim's head resembles a "red skull". He also carries a large arsenal of conventional and advanced fire arms and explosives.
Earth-110
Red Skull allied with Doctor Doom, Hulk, Magneto, Namor, and Ultron in order to take over Manhattan.Earth X
Johann Schmidt was killed by Captain America some time previous to Earth XEarth X
Earth X is a 1999 comic book limited series written by Jim Krueger with art by John Paul Leon and published by Marvel Comics. Based on Alex Ross' notes, the series features a dystopian future version of the Marvel Universe....
. After the Red Skull killed Bernie Rosenthal and then hailed Captain America as the realization of the Nazi dream, Captain America decapitated the Red Skull using his trademark shield. As a result of his disillusionment from taking a life, Captain America retired from the Avengers, only to further spiral into depression after the Avengers were killed in Washington, D.C. Schmidt was later seen in the Land of the Dead, and then as one of those in Mar-Vell's Paradise waiting to live in his own personal version of Heaven.
Despite his death, the Red Skull's legacy lived on in the Earth X universe. Ben Beckley took on the identity of the Skull (not the Red Skull, as he had no idea who the Red Skull was) and set out to conquer the world, starting with a coast-to-coast drive across America. Using his power of control over the cerebrum (and thereby actions) of anyone, he gathered an army of thousands, only to come into conflict with Steve Rogers in his identity of Captain America. Insulting Captain America as old and out of date, the Skull spared him but took several of Captain America's allies as part of his army. After reaching New York City, the Skull was opposed by Captain America and other heroes, with Captain America breaking the Skull's neck in order to stop him. Beckley would later be seen in the Land of the Dead with his father, Comet Man
Comet Man
Comet Man is a fictional character in the Marvel Comics universe.-Publication history:Comet Man was the subject of a limited series in 1987, created by Bill Mumy, Miguel Ferrer, and Kelley Jones...
, and would help the heroes to convince the dead that they were deceased.
Elseworlds
In the 1997 DC/Marvel special "Batman/Captain America", the Skull hires the JokerJoker (comics)
The Joker is a fictional character, a comic book supervillain published by DC Comics. He is the archenemy of Batman, having been directly responsible for numerous tragedies in Batman's life, including the paralysis of Barbara Gordon and the death of Jason Todd, the second Robin...
to steal an atomic bomb during World War II. Joker evades Batman, Cap, Bucky, and Robin and delivers it to the Skull, but is horrified when he learns that the Skull is a Nazi (saying "I may be a criminal lunatic but I'm an American criminal lunatic!"). When the Skull threatens to drop the bomb on Washington D.C., the Joker actually fights him in the plane's cargo bay. When Captain America and Batman take over the plane and bring it over the ocean, the two villains are dropped out with the bomb just before it explodes. Both Captain America and Batman are convinced the two are still alive somehow.
Marvel Zombies
In Marvel ZombiesMarvel Zombies
Marvel Zombies is a five-issue limited series published from December 2005 to April 2006 by Marvel Comics. The series was written by Robert Kirkman with art by Sean Phillips and covers by Arthur Suydam. It was the first series in the Marvel Zombies series of related stories...
, Red Skull is an undead zombie with an unquenchable hunger for the flesh of the living. In issue #5, he finally manages to kill Colonel America, by ripping out the last of the Colonel's exposed brain before being decapitated by Spider-Man, and his head crushed by Giant Man's boot. His last words were "It was worth it, all of it, just for this."
Old Man Logan
In a possible futureOld Man Logan
Wolverine: Old Man Logan is an eight-issue storyline from the Wolverine ongoing series by writer Mark Millar and artist Steve McNiven, published by Marvel Comics...
where a final battle between the heroes and villains ended with the villains winning, the Red Skull is revealed as the mastermind of the villains' conquest and has made himself President of the United States. Living in the Nazi redecorated White House
White House
The White House is the official residence and principal workplace of the president of the United States. Located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW in Washington, D.C., the house was designed by Irish-born James Hoban, and built between 1792 and 1800 of white-painted Aquia sandstone in the Neoclassical...
, Red Skull had taken to wearing Captain America's old bloodstained uniform and collecting gruesome trophies from fallen heroes. When his men bring in a wounded Wolverine, Logan and the Red Skull fight in his trophy room. Unwilling to pop his claws during the fight, Wolverine decapitates the Red Skull with Captain America's shield, ending his villainous rule.
Ultimate Red Skull
The Ultimate Red Skull first appears in Ultimate Comics: AvengersUltimate Comics: Avengers
Ultimate Comics: Avengers is a comic book published by Marvel Comics that began in August 2009 as part of the relaunch of the Ultimate Universe under the "Ultimate Comics" imprint...
created by Mark Millar
Mark Millar
Mark Millar is a Scottish comic book writer, known for his work on books such as The Authority, The Ultimates, Marvel Knights Spider-Man, Ultimate Fantastic Four, Civil War, Wanted, and Kick-Ass, the latter two of which have been adapted into feature films...
. This Red Skull is the illegitimate son of Captain America and his girlfriend Gail Richards, conceived before the Captain's presumed death during WWII. Taken from Richards, the Red Skull is raised on an army base where he appears to be a well-adjusted, physically superior, and tactically brilliant young man who greatly resembles his father. His easy-going personality is a ruse. Around the age of seventeen, he kills over 200 men on the base, and then cuts off his own face, this last act being interpreted as part of his efforts to reject his father. As a final symbol of his rebellion against the system that created him, he assassinates President John F. Kennedy in 1963.
After decades of working as a professional assassin, the Red Skull joins A.I.M. He and his men steal the blueprints of the Cosmic Cube at the Baxter Building. There he finally meets his father in his helicopter and brutally attacks him. Before throwing Captain America out of the helicopter, Red Skull reveals his true identity. At the A.I.M. headquarters in Alaska, the Red Skull has his men kill the leading officer, and takes charge of the operation. With control of the Cosmic Cube he gains great power; as a sadistic display of his power he has the entire Alaskan A.I.M. team cannibalize each other. When the Avengers arrive on the scene they immediately try to destroy him but the Cube imbues him with nearly unlimited power, making him absolutely invulnerable. During the battle with the Avengers he beats them mercilessly. Captain America arrives in a stolen Teleporter Jet, but Skull forces the jet to crash. Cap survives the crash and teleports the jet to the Red Skull's exact coordinates, impaling him on one of the two rods that protrude from its nose.
The Red Skull is taken to a hospital and kept alive long enough for Gail Richards (his mother) to say her goodbyes. Skull explains to Nick Fury that all he wanted to do with the Cosmic Cube was to turn back time and prevent Steve Rogers (his father) from being lost during the war so that he could grow up with him and lead a normal life, rather than the one he was given. Petra Laskov (the woman whom he forced to kill her husband, then her infant son himself) enters the room dressed as a doctor and shoots the Red Skull in the head, killing him. When Gregory Stark asks Nick Fury
Ultimate Nick Fury
General Nicholas Joseph "Nick" Fury is a fictional character published by Marvel Comics. A reinterpretation of the character Nick Fury, one of the most notable differences between the two is that the mainstream Nick Fury is an Italian American colonel with graying brown hair, while this Nick Fury...
if he was responsible for calling out the Red Skull from his retirement and hiring him, in order to regain his position in S.H.I.E.L.D., Fury does not give an answer.
Unlike the flamboyant Nazi/military costume of the 616 counterpart, Ultimate Red Skull wears simple khaki pants and a white tee shirt.
Animation
- The Red Skull appears in several episodes of the Captain America segment of The Marvel Super Heroes 1960s animated series, voiced by Paul KligmanPaul KligmanPaul Kligman was a Canadian actor.Born in Romania, he emigrated to Canada where he spent his youth in Winnipeg and studied at the University of Manitoba. He moved to Toronto in 1950 and established his career there...
. - He appears in the 1981 Spider-ManSpider-Man (1981 TV series)Spider-Man is a syndicated animated TV series based on the popular Marvel Comics character of the same name.-Production background:The series was created to launch Marvel Productions, successor of DePatie-Freleng Enterprises, who had previously produced the 1978 New Fantastic Four and 1979...
animated series, in the episode "The Capture of Captain America", voiced by Peter CullenPeter CullenPeter Claver Cullen is a Canadian voice actor, known as the voice of Eeyore in the Winnie-the-Pooh franchise, Optimus Prime and Ironhide in the original Transformers series, and the narrator in both of the original American Voltron series...
. - Cullen reprises his role of the Red Skull in the animated series Spider-Man and His Amazing FriendsSpider-Man and His Amazing FriendsSpider-Man and His Amazing Friends is an animated series produced by Marvel Productions starring established Marvel Comics characters Spider-Man and Iceman and an original character, Firestar...
, in the episode "Quest of the Red Skull". - The Red Skull appears in a flashback in the "Old Soldiers" episode of the animated series X-MenX-Men (TV series)X-Men, also known as X-Men: The Animated Series, is an American animated television series which debuted on October 31, 1992, in the United States on the Fox Network as part of its Fox Kids Saturday morning lineup...
, voiced by Cedric SmithCedric Smith (actor)Cedric Smith is a British-Canadian actor and musician. He played Alec King in the CBC television series Road to Avonlea and was the voice of Professor X in the X-Men TV series.-Music:...
. - The Red Skull appears in the 1994 Spider-ManSpider-Man (1994 TV series)Spider-Man, also known as Spider-Man: The Animated Series, is an American animated series starring the Marvel Comics superhero, Spider-Man. The show ran on Fox Kids from November 19, 1994, to January 31, 1998. The producer/story editor was John Semper, Jr. and production company was Marvel Films...
animated series, voiced by Earl BoenEarl BoenEarl Boen is an American actor and voice actor. He is perhaps best known as criminal psychologist Dr. Peter Silberman in the Terminator series...
. He first makes a cameo in the episode "The Cat". Later, he appears during the "Six Forgotten Warriors" story arc, which reveals that after Red Skull and Captain America fought, they were trapped in a time vortex. Fifty years later, his son Rheinholt Schmidt and stepson Chameleon free him from the vortex, only for one of the captive scientists to also free Captain America. He also appears in the "Secret Wars" arc. - The Red Skull appears in the "Wrath of the Red Skull" episode of the children's animated series The Super Hero Squad ShowThe Super Hero Squad ShowThe Super Hero Squad Show is an American cartoon series by Marvel Animation. It is based on the Marvel Super Hero Squad action figure line from Hasbro, which portray the characters of the Marvel Universe in a cartoonish super-deformed-style...
, voiced by Mark HamillMark HamillMark Richard Hamill is an American actor, voice artist, producer, director, and writer, best known for his role as Luke Skywalker in the original trilogy of Star Wars. More recently, he has received acclaim for his voice work, in such roles as the Joker in Batman: The Animated Series, Firelord...
. He also appears in the episode "World War Witch". - The Red Skull appears in The Avengers: Earth's Mightiest HeroesThe Avengers: Earth's Mightiest HeroesThe Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes is an American animated television series by Marvel Animation in cooperation with Film Roman based on the Marvel Comics superhero team the Avengers. The show debuted on Disney XD in Fall 2010 starting with a 20 part micro-series. A second season has been...
episode "Meet Captain America", voiced by Steven BlumSteven BlumSteven Jay Blum is an American voice actor known primarily for his work in anime dubs and video games, using his distinctive deep voice. Among his credits include the voice of Spike Spiegel of the anime series Cowboy Bebop and Mugen of the anime series Samurai Champloo...
. In this show, he is depicted as HYDRAHYDRAHYDRA is a fictional terrorist organization in the Marvel Universe.Despite the name's capitalization per Marvel's official spelling, the name is not an acronym but rather a reference to the mythical Lernaean Hydra...
's founder and it's super-soldier. He plans to win the war by unleashing the armies of AsgardAsgardIn Norse religion, Asgard is one of the Nine Worlds and is the country or capital city of the Norse Gods surrounded by an incomplete wall attributed to a Hrimthurs riding the stallion Svadilfari, according to Gylfaginning. Valhalla is located within Asgard...
to destroy the allies.
Film
- In the 1990 low-budget film, Captain America, Scott PaulinScott PaulinScott Paulin is an American actor and television director.-Career:His work includes appearances in well-known television series like House M.D., ER, Cold Case, 24 and CSI: Crime Scene Investigation...
portrayed Red Skull. In this adaptation, the character is an Italian FascistItalian FascismItalian Fascism also known as Fascism with a capital "F" refers to the original fascist ideology in Italy. This ideology is associated with the National Fascist Party which under Benito Mussolini ruled the Kingdom of Italy from 1922 until 1943, the Republican Fascist Party which ruled the Italian...
officer called Tadzio de Santis, who had been kidnapped by the Italian army stormtroopers for their experiments when he was a child; his family is murdered immediately afterward. Cooperating with German scientists, they succeed in creating their first (and only) "übermenschÜbermenschThe Übermensch is a concept in the philosophy of Friedrich Nietzsche. Nietzsche posited the Übermensch as a goal for humanity to set for itself in his 1883 book Thus Spoke Zarathustra ....
", albeit deformed with scarred red skin and no hair by the process. After the war, he receives elaborate plastic surgery to gain a more normal appearance, albeit still badly scarred. He is still nearly as strong and agile as Captain America in 1993 when the film takes place, despite being well into his 70s. The scientist responsible for the super-soldier procedure is disgusted by the Axis using a child as its subject and escapes to America, creating a greatly improved version of the serum and testing it on a polioPoliomyelitisPoliomyelitis, often called polio or infantile paralysis, is an acute viral infectious disease spread from person to person, primarily via the fecal-oral route...
stricken adult volunteer named Steve Rogers.
- The Red Skull is featured in Captain America: The First AvengerCaptain America: The First AvengerCaptain America: The First Avenger is a 2011 American superhero film based on the Marvel Comics character Captain America. It is the fifth installment of the Marvel Cinematic Universe...
, portrayed by Hugo WeavingHugo WeavingHugo Wallace Weaving is a Nigerian born, English-Australian film actor and voice artist. He is best known for his roles as Agent Smith in the Matrix trilogy, Elrond in the Lord of the Rings trilogy, "V" in V for Vendetta, and performances in numerous Australian character dramas.-Early...
. He is the commander of the Nazi Research Division HYDRAHYDRAHYDRA is a fictional terrorist organization in the Marvel Universe.Despite the name's capitalization per Marvel's official spelling, the name is not an acronym but rather a reference to the mythical Lernaean Hydra...
. Johann Schmidt was an ex-SchutzstaffelSchutzstaffelThe Schutzstaffel |Sig runes]]) was a major paramilitary organization under Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party. Built upon the Nazi ideology, the SS under Heinrich Himmler's command was responsible for many of the crimes against humanity during World War II...
Officer with the rank of ObergruppenführerObergruppenführerObergruppenführer was a Nazi Party paramilitary rank that was first created in 1932 as a rank of the SA and until 1942 it was the highest SS rank inferior only to Reichsführer-SS...
who was closely affiliated with Adolf HitlerAdolf HitlerAdolf Hitler was an Austrian-born German politician and the leader of the National Socialist German Workers Party , commonly referred to as the Nazi Party). He was Chancellor of Germany from 1933 to 1945, and head of state from 1934 to 1945...
. The two shared a passion for Norse MythologyNorse mythologyNorse mythology, a subset of Germanic mythology, is the overall term for the myths, legends and beliefs about supernatural beings of Norse pagans. It flourished prior to the Christianization of Scandinavia, during the Early Middle Ages, and passed into Nordic folklore, with some aspects surviving...
according to Abraham Erskine, a German scientist developing the super soldier serum. Schmidt had supervised Erskine's initial work, and injected himself with an unfinished prototype of the serum. The prototype had the desired effect of making him physically superior, but burned much of his flesh away, leaving his face a disfigured red skull. Adopting a synthetic mask that resembles his former appearance to disguise the deformity, Schmidt steals the tesseractCosmic CubeThe Cosmic Cube, called the Tesseract in the film Captain America: The First Avenger, is the name of a fictional object that appears in the Marvel Universe. The concept was created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby and first appeared in Tales of Suspense #79 .-Publication history:The first Cosmic Cube...
, a powerful artifact believed to be of Asgardian origin, from a monastery in TønsbergTønsbergis a city and municipality in Vestfold county, southern Norway, located around north-east of Sandefjord. The administrative centre of the municipality is the city of Tønsberg....
, NorwayNorwayNorway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic unitary constitutional monarchy whose territory comprises the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, Jan Mayen, and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard and Bouvet Island. Norway has a total area of and a population of about 4.9 million...
and uses its energy to power his armaments and weaponry. With the tesseract's energy, he makes HYDRA into a powerful and terrifying army, but is unprepared for the guerilla tactics waged by Captain AmericaCaptain AmericaCaptain America is a fictional character, a superhero that appears in comic books published by Marvel Comics. The character first appeared in Captain America Comics #1 , from Marvel Comics' 1940s predecessor, Timely Comics, and was created by Joe Simon and Jack Kirby...
and his forces. After a final fight with Rogers, Red Skull is vaporized when he attempts to imbue himself with the tesseract's power.
Video games
- The Red Skull is the final boss of the video game Captain America and the AvengersCaptain America and the AvengersCaptain America and the Avengers is an arcade game released by Data East in 1991. It features the Marvel Comics characters The Avengers in a side-scrolling brawling and shooting adventure to defeat the evil Red Skull.-Gameplay:...
.
- Red Skull appears in the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 versions of Marvel Super Hero Squad: The Infinity GauntletMarvel Super Hero Squad: The Infinity GauntletMarvel Super Hero Squad: The Infinity Gauntlet is a continuation of the video game Marvel Super Hero Squad and it was released on November 16, 2010. Similar to the first game, it features cartoonish Super-deformed versions of the Marvel Comics characters, as seen in the Marvel Super Hero Squad toy...
, voiced by Mark HamillMark HamillMark Richard Hamill is an American actor, voice artist, producer, director, and writer, best known for his role as Luke Skywalker in the original trilogy of Star Wars. More recently, he has received acclaim for his voice work, in such roles as the Joker in Batman: The Animated Series, Firelord...
.
- Red Skull appears in the video game, Captain America: Super SoldierCaptain America: Super SoldierCaptain America: Super Soldier is a third person single player video game loosely based on the film Captain America: The First Avenger...
(based on the feature filmCaptain America: The First AvengerCaptain America: The First Avenger is a 2011 American superhero film based on the Marvel Comics character Captain America. It is the fifth installment of the Marvel Cinematic Universe...
), voiced by Keith FergusonKeith FergusonKeith James Ferguson is an American voice actor, well known as the voice of Blooregard Q. Kazoo on the Cartoon Network animated series Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends...
.
- Red Skull appears as a villain character in Marvel Super Hero Squad OnlineMarvel Super Hero Squad OnlineMarvel Super Hero Squad Online is a MMOG for younger audiences based on the Marvel Super Hero Squad franchise.The MMOG officially was released as a open beta on April 29, 2011 and a closed beta was released in early 2011. The first debut trailer for Marvel Super Hero Squad Online was released on...
.
- Red Skull appears as a non-playable in Marvel Super Hero Squad: Comic CombatMarvel Super Hero Squad: Comic CombatMarvel Super Hero Squad: Comic Combat is the first Marvel Comics video game to use the uDraw GameTablet. The game was developed by Griptonite Games, and published by THQ. With the cartoonish super-deformed characters returning, Marvel Super Hero Squad: Comic Combat will be the third video game in...
returns, voiced by Mark Hamill.
External links
- Red Skull (disambiguation) at Marvel.com
- Red Skull (Johann Shmidt) at Marvel.com
- Red Skull (Albert Malik) at Marvel.com