Red Skull
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Red Skull is a Marvel Comics supervillain who is the archenemy of Captain America. The character's first modern appearance was in Tales of Suspense #66, although the Red Skull was impersonated by a Nazi agent, George John Maxon in Tales of Suspense #65 (via retcon).
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[edit] Character biography / Publication history
The Red Skull, Johann Schmidt, was a former Nazi general officer and confidant of Adolf Hitler. 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 of America and of the free world in general. He was physically augmented by having his mind put in the body of a clone of Captain America; giving him a body that is the pinnacle of human perfection. He has been seemingly killed in the past only to return to plague the world with schemes of world domination and genocide, time and time again.
[edit] World War II Era
Chronologically, the first Red Skull to appear in the 1940s comics was George John Maxon, an American businessman and Nazi 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 killed during the last encounter, though he would reappear during the Modern Age. However, in the later Silver Age period, writers decided that Maxon had simply been a decoy for another Red Skull who was still living, named Johann Schmidt. This Red Skull, through retconning, would now be considered the earliest Red Skull according to the continuing stories. This led to the Maxon incarnation of the Red Skull being sometimes labelled as the Red Skull II and the Schmidt incarnation (a character which appeared chronologically later in the books) as the Red Skull I.
As with many supervillains, Johann Schmidt had a traumatic childhood that warped his mind paving the way for villainy in his adult life. Schmidt's mother died in childbirth and his father blamed Johann for it and tried to murder him, only to be stopped by the attending doctor. The father later committed suicide and Johann was orphaned. He grew up on the streets struggling to survive and his hatred of humanity grew with each day. A key episode was when he fell for a local Jewish girl, but when she spurned his clumsy advances, he murdered her, finding a release for his frustrations. With that, his depravity grew still more.
In his late teens during the rise of the Third Reich, Schmidt got his most prosperous job, a bellhop in a major hotel. There he served the rooms of Adolf Hitler himself. By chance, he was present when the Führer was furiously berating an officer and swore he could train Johann himself, a simple bellhop, to be a better National Socialist. 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. Upon completion, Hitler gave Schmidt a unique uniform with a grotesque red skull mask, and he emerged as the Red Skull 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. To the end, he was spectacularly successful, 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.
The two counterparts soon clashed in what would be a series of engagements throughout the war, ending with a final battle that left the Skull buried under the rubble of a bombed building. Because he was immediately exposed to an experimental gas there, he remained in suspended animation for decades.
[edit] Post-World War II Era
With Schmidt's disappearance after 1945, the reputation of the Skull still was formidable enough to prove useful. In 1953 a Communist 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. But while the Captain, referred to as Captain America IV in some sources, was placed into suspended animation when his flawed replicate of the Super Soldier treatment seriously affected his mind, Albert continued his activities, over time cutting his links to the Soviet Union. He was among other things 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.
In addition, Schmidt's legacy still caused trouble in the years of his absence. This primarily came in the form of powerfully 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. However, Captain America was able to neutralize all the machines in turn.
[edit] Modern Era
Johann was eventually rescued in modern times by the terrorist organization, HYDRA. The Skull quickly subverted a cell to his own ambitions of world conquest and the death of Captain America. When Johann reappeared, he and Albert, 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 Scourge of the Underworld. Some sources refer to Albert as Red Skull II and others as Red Skull III depending on their counting of George John Maxon or not.
Thus the two enemies resumed their war, with Captain America, among other opponents, frustrating the Skull's schemes; not even when the Skull possessed the reality-altering Cosmic Cube could he claim victory. 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 one day discovered that the gas that had placed him in suspended animation was now wearing off and that 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 to Skull 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. But at the last minute, Captain America refused to kill the Red Skull and Skull himself 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 while The Avengers were able to restore Rogers' youth.
[edit] Resurrection
But the Red Skull would not stay dead for long; Nazi geneticist Arnim Zola, 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" (ironically, 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 America and its ideological idealisms for his new motivation. Skull saw much potential in America in the 1980s and set about establishing his own foothold inside Washington DC, culminating in him gaining control over "The Commission", a government body that monitored and regulated super-hero activies in Washington.
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 corrupted one of the Scourges, an organization who terrorized super-villains with a killing spree.
But Skull's biggest move would be his plot to remove Rogers from the position of Captain America and replace him with a jingoistic extremist 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 murderer as part of his plan to blacken the name of Captain America.
But 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. Skull bragged that he would kill Rogers at a time of his own choosing and that Rogers could not touch Skull due to his newfound status as a wealthy American businessman. Rogers, disturbed by this mystery man with Rogers' face 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 favourite 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 turned into a literal red skull. Skull did not die though, presumably due to him having developed a level of immunity to his personal poison.
After this, the Skull was attacked by the mutant terrorist Magneto, a Jewish 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 there until he was rescued by his henchman Crossbones.
The Red Skull's relationship with other villains in the 1990s was fraught with problems due to many villains shunning Skull because of his Nazi background. In the 1989 "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. He then defeats the Skull in hand to hand combat, sparing his life on the condition he never come near the Kingpin's territory again. In the 1989 crossover "Acts of Vengeance," 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!" It was 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. Anonther notable exception was a team-up with the Joker in a Batman/Captain America crossover book set during World War II (though this is considered non-canon, possibly part of DCs Elseworlds series; when he discovered he was working for a Nazi, the Joker actually took moral outrage: "I may be a criminal lunatic, but I'm an American criminal lunatic!"). In this same story, The Joker and the Skull attempted to murder one another with their trademark poisons, but both emerged immune to the effects because their compositions were so similar.
[edit] On the run
Skull's tenure in Washington came to an end when Skull was kidnapped 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 forced to fake his death in order go back into hiding in a compound in the Rocky Mountains. 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 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 Serum. When the evil scientist Superia offered Captain America a cure, Captain America refused it on account of Superia proclaiming that Captain America would "owe her". Skull took the cure and killed Superia, then arranged for Captain America to be kidnapped by his remaining forces and given a blood transfusion that cured him.
[edit] Reluctant Allies
Captain America's recovery would segue into a reluctant team-up between him and Skull; a Nazi cult that worshipped Adolf Hitler as a God had discovered a cosmic cube that contained Hitler's mind, put there in the cube 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 and allow him to imprison Captain America in the cube while he used its power to conquer humanity. But 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.
[edit] Cosmic Resurrection
But like most evil, Skull's evil was not truly dead. Trapped in a hellish nightmare dimension, 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 Kang the Conqueror, who sought an alliance with Skull to ensure his future dynasty would stay intact. He was sent to Galactus's ship to steal more power from it, in particular, steal the power of omniscience, which would remove all limits to Skull's reality warping powers. Unfortunately, this led to Skull's undoing as Kang and Skull were ambushed by Korvac, who stole Skull's cosmic powers for his own and banished Skull back to Earth.
The Red Skull later manipulated his way into the position of Secretary of Defense as Dell Rusk (an obvious reference to Dean Rusk, but also an anagram for "red skull") to develop a biological weapon he tested at Mount Rushmore. He was exposed and defeated by the Avengers, and the Black Panther beat him so badly that he literally broke the Skull's jaw in half.
[edit] Aleksander Lukin and the Winter Soldier
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. 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 Superhero Registration Act, the Skull is manipulating events to his own ends, with the aid of Doctor Faustus and Doctor Doom. His plans have involved the reunion of Captain America and his former lover Sharon Carter.
Shortly after this, the Skull had his newest ally, the believed dead Arnim Zola moved to his Kronas facility to continue work disrupted by HYDRA agents. Zola appears to be working on a special project for the Skull, who had his own sources and knew of the HYDRA attack. It is hinted that he called in Cape-Killer soldiers to try to apprehend Captain America at the scene. When Zola asked what the Skull's plans were, he replied that it was a new variation on a familiar theme: To destroy Captain America and everything he held dear...
[edit] Incomplete Red Skull comic book checklist
- Captain America (Volume1) 3,7,
- Tales of Suspense 65-66,68,79-81,89-90
- Captain America (Volume 2) 102-103,107,115,129,143,148,184,186,
- Captain America (Volume 5) 1,6,14,18-24
- Captain America 65th Anniversary Special
[edit] Earth X
In the Earth X Universe, the Red Skull is dead, and a new boy with the ability to control tens of thousands of people at once has taken his place. Captain America and his new Sidekick Red Wing, investigate the situation, and find the new Red Skull has an army in the tens of thousands that are going to take over New York. This new Red Skull also controls many different heros: Namor, Iron Maiden, and later Red Wing and Spider-Girl. It is later revealed that Red Skull has a special celestial seed that gives him this special power, and that he was intended to rule the earth until the Celestial Seed was ready, so when Captain America killed him, the Celestials come down to wipe all the inhabitants of Earth.
[edit] Powers and abilities
The Red Skull had no superhuman abilities. He was a highly gifted strategist and political mastermind. When The Red Skull acquired the cloned body of Steve Rogers he was endowed with a body that was in perfect physical condition, with strength, agility, 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 was trained in the use of most conventional firearms and was a good hand-to-hand combatant.
He typically armed himself with a trick cigarette that could fire fatal poison gas — his trademark "Dust of Death" — toward his victim that distorts the victims face into a "red skull".
[edit] Marvel Zombies
In issue #5 of Marvel Zombies, Red Skull finally gets his revenge on "Colonel" America, by ripping out the last of the Colonel's exposed brain before being vaporized.
[edit] Appearances in other media
- In the 1991 low-budget film, Captain America, Scott Paulin portrayed Red Skull. The character's background was different from the comics villain's origin as he was an Italian Fascist officer called Tadzio de Santis who had been kidnapped by the Italian army storm troops for their experiments when he was a child; his family was murdered immediately afterwards. Co-operating with German scientists, they succeeded in creating their first (and only) "übermensch", and then only after could the Americans replicate the serum and test it in a polio stricken adult man (not kid). Though it keeps the continuity of the chronology of the comics series, the purpose why the events are happening are widely different. He was last seen battling against Captain America and America eventually uses his shield to fling the Skull off a ledge and to a presumed death.
- In Spider-Man: The Animated Series , Red Skull made an appearance with a cameo at the second episode of Season 4 and later on, during the Six Forgotten Warriors story arc in Season 5, it was explained that after Red Skull and Captain America fought, they were trapped in a vortex. 50 years later, his son, Rhineholt, frees the Skull and, incidentally, Captain America, from the vortex. Once again, the Skull and Captain America fight, and get stuck in the vortex again. In Secret Wars, the Skull was sent by Beyonder to the alien planet to fight Spider-Man and his team of superheroes but when Dr. Doom absorbed the powers of the Beyonder, he used the powers to get Dr. Octopus, Alistair Smythe and the Red Skull back to where they came from with no changes and amnisea. Red Skull was voiced by Earl Boen.
- In X-Men: The Animated Series (episode 73), the Red Skull appears in a flash back.
- The Red Skull was the final boss of the video game Captain America and the Avengers.
[edit] Trivia
- In German, the Red Skull's name would be 'Roter Totenschädel', 'Roter Schädel' or 'Roter Totenkopf'.
- Red Skull is one of several Silver Age Marvel character not to have an Ultimate Marvel counterpart. In an interview given shortly after the launch of "The Ultimates", Mark Millar had singled out Red Skull, along with Doctor Doom, as the only "traditional" Marvel villains he would be willing to use in the pages of the series. However, neither Doctor Doom(although he did appear in Ultimate Fantastic Four why he was never used is unknown) or Red Skull materialized as Millar has opted to create a new "rival" for Captain America in the form of The Colonel, an Arab youth whose village was destroyed by the Ultimates and who was verbally abused when he refused to cower away in fear from Captain America. The character later was given the Super Soldier serum by the Norse God Loki and was given a haphazardly assembled costume similar to Captain America's though with a red helmet.
- Red Skull also appered in the DC/Marvel crossover comic book where he teams up with the Joker to defeat Batman and Captain America.
[edit] Quotes
- Red Skull: (While diving at a man firing a gun at him) A gun is useless!
- Hatemonger: So Red Skull, you show up an hour late and smelling like a stable.
- Red Skull: This is the smell of aryan sweat. Let fops and dandies bridle at the smell of a real man.
- Hatemonger: Arrrr...Red Skull, you are a true Nazi.
- Red Skull: "One use is all I need to ensure that this Civil War is just the beginning of my enemy's suffering!
