The Red Skull Fully Revealed From CAPTAIN AMERICA: THE FIRST AVENGER

Image Credit: Jay Maidment/Marvel Entertainment

Thanks to the fine folks at Entertainment Weekly, we can finally get a full look at Johann Schmidt nemesis of Captain America. Last month a couple of seconds of the Skull flashed by in the Super Bowl commercial. Sherlock Holmes has Moriarty. Superman has Lex Luthor. For Cap, it’s the Skull. Introduced in Timely’s Captain America Comics #1 from 1941 the Red Skull was an elite Nazi assassin. When Captain America was introduced into the 60’s Marvel Universe, the Skull’s story was told in a World War II flashback , “The Fantastic Origin of the Red Skull” in 1965’s Tales of Suspense #66. Schmidt was an orphan working as a bellhop when he was personally chosen by Hitler to become the ultimate Nazi. A year later, the Skull became  part of the modern world in Tales of Suspense #79, “The Red Skull Lives”. Turns out he had inhaled an experimental gas and was in a state of suspended animation until awakened by agents of A.I.M. ( Advanced Idea Mechanics ). In the upcoming film, Hugo Weaving ( THE MATRIX ) plays Schmidt as a weapons expert operating as part of Hydra ( we can see the Hydra logo on his belt buckle ). Several reports are saying that he acquires a version of the ultimate weapon, the Cosmic Cube. We’ll learn everything when Paramount releases CAPTAIN AMERICA: THE FIRST AVENGER  to theatres on July 22, 2011.