Red Skull

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Johann Schmidt
Red Skull Hugo Weaving.jpg
Quote:

"Let us see if this heart of yours is stronger than my hate!"

Race:

Human

Affiliation:

Hydra

Gender:

Male

Born:

ca.1900 CE

Died:

ca.1944 CE ?

  [Source]

Johann Schmidt, aka the "Red Skull", is a character from Marvel comics and the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

History

Little is known about Schmidt's life before he became associated with Hydra. It's not clear whether Hydra already existed when he was working with Dr. Abraham Erskine on a "super-soldier" serum, but he later joined or founded Hydra as a "deep science" organization for Nazi Germany.

As the leader of Hydra, Schmidt somehow learned of the alien power source known as the Tesseract and sought it for use in building advanced weapons. He provided engineer Arnim Zola with resources to weaponize the power of the Tesseract and used the resulting weapons against the Allies in World War II, but he soon redirected Hydra from developing weapons for the Nazi government to seeking independent power for himself.

Schmidt was targeted by Hydra's American counterpart, the Scientific Strategic Reserve. The SSR was working with Dr. Erskine, who had defected from Nazi Germany. Erskine managed to administer his super-soldier treatment to one American volunteer, Steve Rogers, who was transformed into Captain America. Erskine was assassinated by a Hydra agent just after the treatment was complete.

Rogers lead a military campaign against Hydra that eventually defeated the organization. Schmidt himself was presumed dead after he handled the Tesseract directly and was apparently disintegrated.

Attributes

Johann Schmidt is a capable scientist, although not a genius like Tony Stark or Arnim Zola. He is very adept at seeing the potential applications of new or alien technology and organizing a team of scientists and engineers to develop that potential.

Schmidt is also a charismatic leader, able to inspire such loyalty in Hydra's troops that they were willing to defy the German government to follow him, and most were willing to commit suicide rather than be captured and interrogated by Hydra's enemies.

Treatment with Dr. Erskine's super-soldier serum gave Schmidt superhuman strength and endurance comparable to Captain America, but the treatment also disfigured him, turning his skin red, causing his hair to fall out, and collapsing the cartilage of his nose, resulting in his "Red Skull" appearance. Dr. Erskine attributed the negative effects more to Schmidt's personality flaws than to any serious problem with the serum itself.