History
After Black Skull from Earth-21798, member of the Multiversal Masters of Evil, failed to hold down Earth-21170 and was overthrown by local resistance fighters, his place among the Masters of Evil became open. Multiple Red Skulls showed up to claim the mantle, including Red Skull-82197, Red Skull-63137, Red Skull-51948 and Red Skull-19193.[1] The one who eventually prevailed was another Black Skull from Earth-38590, bonded to his own version of the symbiote.[1]
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When the Multiversal Masters of Evil finally made a move against Earth-616, the faced both Prehistoric and modern Avengers in a battle that raged for days. Losing his patience, Johann Shmidt deliberately gave up tyring to control the Symbiote, intending to unlesh its full strength against the Avengers. Instead, the Symbiote abandoned him for Kid Thanos, leaving Shmidt naked and defenceless.[2]
The Avengers won the day, with Berserker, Ghost Goblin and King Killmonger of the Masters of Evil being dead, and Doom Supreme and Dark Phoenix departing that reality altogether. Left to himself, Kid Thanos collected the corpses as well as still-alive Black Skull for his vivisection experiments.[3]