Red Skull

"Great power has always baffled primitive men. HYDRA is assembling an arsenal to destroy my enemies in one stroke, wherever they are, regardless of how many forces they possess, all in a matter of hours."

- Johann Schmidt Johann Schmidt, also known as the Red Skull, is the founder and commanding officer of HYDRA, a special weapons division of the Nazi Schutzstaffel. A brilliant scientist in his own right, his ambition to become the superior man and conquer the world led him to test the Super Soldier Serum on himself and turn his back to the leaders of the Third Reich.

Early life
"What if the old Norse tales Wagner adopts into his operas are more history that myth, mein Führer?"

- Johann Schmidt to Adolf Hitler Schmidt was born in Berlin, Germany and was a smart student. Eventually, he became a physicist. Over the time, he became interested in Norse mythology. He developed a theory that Norse gods and their magic could be more than myth.

Joining the SS
"Now Schmidt is a member of the inner circle and he is ambitious. He and Hitler share a passion for occult power and Teutonic myth. Hitler uses his fantasies to inspire his followers, but for Schmidt, it is not fantasy. For him, it is real."

- Abraham Erskine on Johann Schmidt In February 1934, at the Duetsches Operhaus in Berlin, Schmidt met Adolf Hitler, the Führer of Nazi Germany, the Third Reich. With him were Heinrich Himmler, head of the Schutzstaffel, and Ernst Kaufmann, head of the Sturmabteilung (SA)'s Special Weapons Division. Schmidt revealed them his theory that magic could be “the oldest science ever known”. Hitler was intrigued by Schmidt's ideas, but Kaufmann was less impressed. Schmidt offered to conduct research in Kaufmann's unit, but was violently rejected. However, Himmler was more interested in Schmidt's ideas, and took him under his wing.

At the head of HYDRA
"Herr Himmler shares my interest in the old ways. And the Schutzstaffel is more than happy to oblige."

- Johann Schmidt

In June 1934, as part of the Night of the Long Knives, Schmidt assassinated Kaufmann and seized control of his weapons program. A week later, Schmidt and his SS troops attacked the SA Weapons Testing Ground at Kummersdorf (46km south of Berlin). After killing almost the entire personnel of the base, Schmidt found and recruited Arnim Zola, a scientist who worked on the advanced exo-skeleton battle armour. Eventually, Schmidt rose to the rank of Obergruppenführer (Lieutenant general), and formed his own branch of the SS, HYDRA.

In September 1935, the German biochemist Abraham Erskine attempted to flee Germany with his family. His wife's father was a Jew and Erskine wanted to take his family to safety. They were stopped at the German/Swiss border by Schmidt and his men. Schmidt wanted Erskine's work on ways to increase molecular density of cellular fibers through synthetic proteins. In order to ensure Erskine's cooperation, Schmidt sent Erskine's wife Greta and his children Klaus and Marlene to the Dachau concentration camp. Arnim Zola was allowed to resume his work on exo-skeleton battle suits and various high-tech weaponry. Two years later, Erskine's wife and children died in the camp, but Schmidt never revealed that information to Erskine.

Becoming the Red Skull
"We know that the superior man will not be born, Professor Erskine. He will not be a member of any "master race". He will be a race unto himself. And you are going to help me make him." "You...work with Nazis even though you do not follow their ideology?"

- Johann Schmidt and Abraham Erskine

In 1940, the first, unstable version of Erskine's Super Soldier Serum was finished. At castle Kaufmann in the Bavarian Alps, Schmidt injected himself with the serum. The serum was supposed to make him faster, stronger, and more agile. It worked but not without cost. His face was burnt and deformed, making it red, looking like skull. Though he adopted a synthetic mask that resembled his former appearance to disguise the deformity, he gained the nickname "Red Skull". Erskine ran away to America with the help of Peggy Carter and joined the Strategic Scientific Reserve.

As a small reward for his injuries, Hitler gave Schmidt a military base in Austrian Alps. Schmidt turned the base into the headquarters of HYDRA, where his scientists worked on developing new weapons for the Third Reich. However, Schmidt saw his new post more as an exile than the reward.

1942
"The Tesseract was the jewel of Odin's treasure room. It's not something one buries. But I think it is close, yes?"

- Johann Schmidt After researching history Schmidt learned about the mythical Tesseract, which was lost on Earth. Believing it to be real he began searching for it, knowing it would give him power. Schmidt and his army invaded Tønsberg, Norway, looking for the Tesseract. After entering a church, he encountered the church keeper who refused to tell him where the object was. However, Schmidt found the Tesseract in the wall and shot the church keeper with his gun.

After gaining the Tesseract, Schmidt returned to his base and gave the object to Zola for studying. The Tesseract was shown to be so powerful that it could destroy the world. Seeing this Schmidt decided to overthrow Hitler and rule the world alone.

1943
"My weapons contain enough destructive power to decimate every hostile capital on Earth. Quite simply, gentlemen, I have harnessed the power of the gods."

- Johann Schmidt Schmidt and Zola successfully harnessed the energies of the Tesseract, intending to use the power to fuel Zola's inventions. Schmidt, having discovered Erskine's location, dispatched an assassin to kill him. In America, Erskine subjected Steve Rogers to the super-soldier treatment, injecting him with a special serum and dosing him with "vita-rays". Rogers was transformed into Captain America, but Schmidt's assassin, Heinz Kruger, killed Erskine.

When three SS officers came to Schmidt's base to question him about the progress in developing advanced weapons for the Third Reich, Schmidt showed them his Tesseract powered weapons. But when they saw Berlin marked as one of Schmidt's targets on a map, Schmidt vaporized them with his laser cannon. In that moment, Schmidt definitely turned his back to Hitler and the Nazi cause. In November 1943, Schmidt's base in Italy was invaded by Captain America, who came to free his friend Bucky Barnes. When a huge battle occurred after the prisoners escape, Schmidt activated self destruct mode. Him and Zola where about to leave when Rogers and Bucky confronted him. To show Rogers they are both test subjects, he punched and made a hole in Rogers' shield. Schmidt then ripped off his face mask to show him what the serum did to his face. While Rogers and Barnes were stunned, he escaped in a rocket while Zola took his car. Knowing that Rogers and the U.S. army were after him, he decided to accelerate his plans.

1944
"Yes, please, do enter, Captain. Learn if you are worthy of standing by my side."

- Johann Schmidt

Schmidt made an unholy alliance with the German nobleman Baron Zemo. But soon, Schmidt crossed Zemo and HYDRA occupied Zemo's castle in Bavaria. When Rogers invaded the castle and defeated Zola's henchmen like Baron Wolfgang von Strucker, Schmidt brought the Tesseract, intending to use it to activate the Sleeper, the gigantic robotic war machine hidden beneath Castle Zemo. He also wanted the upgraded Super Soldier serum Zola synthesized from the Captain's blood. Captain America destroyed the sample, enraging Schmidt who ordered Iron Cross to kill him. When Captain America defeated Iron Cross, Schmidt escaped and activated the Sleeper. Cap destroyed the Sleeper, which also led to the destruction of the castle. Later, Schmidt told Zola to stop wasting time on failed projects.

In April 1944, Schmidt was in a castle on an island in the Nazi occupied Danish Straits. There, he studied a mystical Viking runestone. However, Rogers and the Howling Commandos invaded the castle. Schmidt attempted to destroy them but they survived.

Unfortunately for Schmidt, Rogers memorized the locations of all HYDRA bases which he saw on a map in Schmidt's base in Italy. He and the Howling Commandos began to take them down one by one. At the same time, Schmidt had his top scientist made nuclear bombs powered by the Tesseract. No one knew about his plans until Rogers captured Zola and he ratted him out.

The last fight
"I have seen the future Captain! There are no flags!" "Not in my future!"

- Red Skull and Captain America In May 1945, the U.S. Army attacked Schmidt's base which made Schmidt accelerate his plans. After his men captured Rogers, he asked Rogers what made him special. At the same moment, the Allied troops under Col. Phillips, Agent Carter and the Howling Commandos stormed it.

During the fight, Schmidt killed several American soldiers. When he saw that his men can't stop the attackers, he retreated to his plane which was stored with bombs. He intended to nuke all bigger cities in the USA. During the launch, Rogers hopped on his plane. After taking out his guards and a bomb, Rogers confronted Schmidt. They engaged in a fist fight with Schmidt winning. The plane spiraled out of control and damaged the cube. Schmidt grabbed the cube, but the cube opened a portal and launched Schmidt into it. His current fate is unknown.

Personality and traits
"He has become convinced that there is a great power hidden in the earth, left here by the gods, waiting to be seized by a superior man. So when he hears about my formula and what it can do, he cannot resist. Schmidt must become that superior man."

- Abraham Erskine on Johann Schmidt Johann Schmidt is a megalomaniac and egocentric genius who firmly believes in Nietzsche's theory of Übermensch (beyond-human), a race of superhuman beings destined to rule the normal ones. Believing himself to be such a man, he used both magic and science to obtain a central position in Adolf Hitler's army, until his conceit arrived to the point of believing to be greater than Hitler himself, thus starting a plan to overthrow him. Schmidt is pitiless and cruel, but also a scientific genius, who's able to see beyond appearances and managed to see the truth behind myths believed to be superstition, in reality fragments of Asgardian origin.

Schmidt was said to be a fully-fledged supporter of the Nazi Party until the incident which left him deformed. He claims that he was isolated to his palace in the Alps because he "no longer shares Hitler's image of Aryan Perfection". Though he is disillusioned by the Führer's ideals, he is still morally devoid and capable of mass murder.

Equipment and skills
As a result of the formula developed by Abraham Erskine, Schmidt was horribly disfigured, but also obtained incredible attributes, such as an enormous strength, speed, stamina and reflexes, and got even his intelligence increased, becoming a war mastermind. In combat, he uses canonical firearms, like the Luger P08 pistol, but after retrieving the Tesseract, he gained access to a source of energy the like of which has never be seen, and used it to implement his weapons.

Before 1943, Schmidt was always dressed in a black SS uniform, wearing the rank insignia of Obergruppenführer (Lieutenant general). Over the uniform, he wore the black leather coat with the HYDRA badge on the left side of the collar. His officer cap also had the HYDRA badge instead of the SS Totenkopf badge. From 1943 on, he wore the unique green uniform with the HYDRA insignia on the upper parts of the sleeves.

Relationships

 * Arnim Zola - Ally
 * Captain America - Enemy
 * Adolf Hitler- Ally/Enemy

Behind the scenes

 * Johann Schmidt was portrayed by Hugo Weaving in Captain America: The First Avenger and voiced by Keith Ferguson in Captain America: Super Soldier. Weaving's "Red Skull" mask in the film was a latex mask conceived by prosthetic makeup designer David White. The visual effects team had to manipulate his face considerably, as the mask was bulky and they wanted to make it look like tight skin wrapped around a very bony structure. They thinned out Weaving's cheeks and lower lip, hollowed out his eyes, and removed his eyelashes and nose to make him appear more like the Red Skull.
 * In Marvel Comics, the Red Skull was Hitler's right hand, second in command and personal assassin. Red Skull has no relationships with HYDRA although he helped Baron Wolfgang von Strucker (the original HYDRA's director) to escape from Germany and to organize HYDRA in the Japanese-occupied territory in the final days of World War II.
 * In Zak Penn's draft for The Avengers movie, the Red Skull was featured as the main villain alongside Loki.