Summary
- Red Skull is Captain America’s greatest enemy in the comics, representing hatred and evil.
- The MCU underutilized Red Skull and many other villains, failing to prioritize individual mythologies.
- The movies lacked continuity and development for Captain America’s rogues gallery.
The Marvel Cinematic Universe helped put several major Marvel heroes on the map, with some of the key Avengers receiving multiple movies. These helped to flesh out their world, supporting casts and rogues galleries, making each hero a brand unto themselves. However, these films faltered in some areas, especially when it came to a notable enemy of Captain America.
The Red Skull is easily the most iconic nemesis for the Sentinel of Liberty, and he debuted in the Golden Age of Comics alongside him. The two have tussled across decades and time periods, with Red Skull’s brand of hate burning as brightly as a thousand 4th of Julys. Sadly, he was only used in such a capacity in the MCU for one movie, and the result was that Captain America’s enemy didn’t have half of his presence from the comics.
The Red Skull Is Captain America’s Greatest Enemy In the Comics
Debut: Captain America Comics #1 by France Herron, Jack Kirby and Joe Simon
Major Red Skull Storylines | ||
|---|---|---|
Title | Issues | Creators |
“He Who Wields the Cosmic Cube” | Tales of Suspense #80 | Stan Lee, Jack Kirby, Gene Colan |
“The Life and Times of the Red Skull” | Captain America #298 | J.M. DeMatteis, Paul Neary |
“Captain America: Reborn” | Captain America: Reborn #1-#6 | Ed Brubaker, Bryan Hitch, Jackson Guice, Butch Guice |
“Red Skull: Incarnate” | Red Skull #1-#5 | Grek Pak, David Aja, Mirko Colak |
“The Red Shadow” | Uncanny Avengers #1-#5 | Rick Remender, John Cassady, Olivier Coipel |
“Das Ende!” | Captain America #300 | J.M. DeMatteis, Paul Neary |
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Red Skull debuted alongside his heroic counterpart in the Golden Age of Comics when the company that would become Marvel was known as Timely Comics. His backstory was revealed years after this first appearance with his real name, Johann Shmidt. A poor boy of little means (similarly to the civilian upbringing of Steve Rogers), he lived a life of poverty in early 1900s Germany, with his evil nature growing every day. He killed a woman simply for rejecting his amorous advances, and he greatly relished in this act.
Later, working as a bellhop, fate saw him cross paths with none other than Adolf Hitler, who quickly saw his dark potential and took him under his wing. Using him as a means of intimidation, Hitler gave him a red skull mask that he named himself after. Inspiring fear and embodying the Nazi cause, his presence in World War II forced America to respond with its own icon in the form of Captain America. Concocting various schemes and attacking his enemies on every front, he sought to topple the United States and bring the US government to its knees.
Red Skull grew to want to replace Hitler, something the fearful Fuhrer knew well. Shmidt seemingly met his end after countless battles with Captain America due to a cave-in. In reality, this event released experimental gas that kept the hateful man alive through suspended animation, giving him a similar fate to his archnemesis. Revived in the modern day by A.I.M., Red Skull remained a major enemy in the life of Captain America. Several fake Red Skulls were retconned as existing over the years, with one of these being a Communist version that faced one of the false Captain Americas.
His modern adventures involved commandeering the Cosmic Cube and becoming a rival to Baron Zemo as the true enemy of Captain America. He even worked alongside Hate-Monger, a clone of the original Hitler. Eventually, the gasses that maintained his youth wore off, turning him into an old man. Though he ironically died in the arms of Captain America (who refused to kill him), he was restored by Arnim Zola in a new body that was a cloned version of Captain America’s physically superior form.
This renewed vigor saw him engage in numerous schemes, and he’s the reason for Steve Rogers giving up the Captain America mantle and being replaced by John Walker, the former U.S. Agent. Still obsessed with fighting Captain America and his allies in the present day, his most recent scheme involved an attempt to steal the telepathic powers of X-Men leader Charles Xavier and unleash a Red Onslaught on the world. Thankfully, this ultimately failed in the AXIS event. Despite his constant defeats, Red Skull is one of the most persistent villains in the Marvel Universe, something that wasn’t seen at all in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
The Red Skull Was Barely Present In the MCU
Hugo Weaving portrayed Johann Shmidt before Ross Marquand took over the role
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The Red Skull in the Marvel Cinematic Universe was familiar yet different. His skull-like face wasn’t a mask but his actual appearance, with this disfigurement resulting from his testing an early version of Professor Erskine’s Super Soldier serum on himself. This less-than-perfect form started a Nazi-splinter group known as Hydra that eventually struck out on its own under his leadership. Like his comic book counterpart, his ultimate goal was to harness the power of the Cosmic Cube, known as the Tesseract in the MCU. However, this ends up being his undoing as the cube caused him to disintegrate when he tried to use it against Captain America.
This wasn’t the end for the villain, though it was the end of his villainy. He was transported to the alien world of Vormir, as shown in the crossover movie Avengers: Infinity War. As punishment for his misuse of the Tesseract, Red Skull was forced to be the stonekeeper who protected and guarded the Soul Stone. This was due to his lust for the Cosmic Cube’s power and his lack of a loved one or ally to sacrifice to earn the Soul Stone for himself. He’s shown again in this capacity in Avengers: Endgame, but sadly, neither of these movies had him interacting with his old enemy, Captain America. This showcases a major issue with Red Skull in the Marvel Cinematic Universe and the MCU’s use of villains in general.
The MCU Failed Captain America’s Rogues Gallery
Red Skull was only the first of Cap’s foes to fall
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One major criticism of the Marvel Cinematic Universe involves how the movies kill off the villains at the end of each film. This wouldn’t be a big problem if the movies were more standalone. But given that Steve Rogers’ Captain America has three solo movies and he only interacted with Red Skull in one of them illustrates the problem more tangibly. It’s inarguable that many of the MCU heroes were much less popular than the likes of Batman, Superman, Spider-Man and the X-Men before the rise of the MCU. Even for those who were known, namely Avengers such as Iron Man and Captain America, little wasn’t much known about their supporting casts or villains. This sadly remained the case in the MCU, as these movies failed to prioritize individual mythologies.
Another complaint about Marvel Studios’ movies is that they’ve just become commercials for the next project, so to speak. This could be felt in how the individual heroes’ movies were sometimes handled, with villains and supporting cast members from the comics not receiving their due in certain Marvel movies. Captain America: The Winter Soldier had a fantastic iteration of Batroc the Leaper who was much cooler than the character was typically portrayed in the comics, yet he was only used in the intro of that movie before returning for a forgettable appearance on Disney+. Likewise, Crossbones (a villain who assassinated Captain America in the comics) was barely used, with the intro of Captain America: Civil War quickly killing him off to make way for a plot about the Avengers fighting each other. Actor Frank Grillo, who played Crossbones, complained about this terse usage, and it was a big part of why he “jumped ship” to the new DC Universe movies.
Overall, Captain America’s foes were much bigger deals in the comics, and that’s especially the case with Red Skull. He’s mostly focused on facing Cap, but his undying hate has vexed other heroes and villains. Daredevil and Spider-Man’s shared foe, The Kingpin, has had to contend with Red Skull’s machinations. Even X-Men enemy and Holocaust survivor Magneto once tried to personally take him out as revenge. Whereas The Joker from DC Comics embodies madness and chaos, Red Skull does the same for hatred, prejudice and evil. This wasn’t portrayed to the fullest extent on the big screen, and by the time Red Skull returned, he wasn’t even really attached to Cap as a character anymore.
Captain America: The First Avenger
Steve Rogers, a rejected military soldier, transforms into Captain America after taking a dose of a “Super-Soldier serum”. But being Captain America comes at a price as he attempts to take down a warmonger and a terrorist organization.
- Director
- Joe Johnston
- Release Date
- July 22, 2011
- Studio
- Marvel
- Cast
- Chris Evans , Haley Atwell , Sebastian Stan , Samuel L. Jackson , Hugo Weaving , Stanley Tucci
- Writers
- Christopher Markus , Stephen McFeely , Joe Simon
- Runtime
- 124 minutes
- Main Genre
- Superhero
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