Red Skull (Earth-1610)

History

Early Years

On a night of February 1945, Steve Rogers and his girlfriend Gail Richards, had one last night together. Four months later, Gail became pregnant. After Captain America was declared dead in Iceland, the government decided it was best to keep Rogers' and Richards' son a secret. In the spring of 1946, the boy was born. They took the boy into foster care on a military base, training him to become a super-soldier to replace the supposedly deceased Captain America. He soon became stronger and more tactically skillful than his father. The son remained in the charge of the military, never shown any intention or desire to escape. In the eyes of the military's observers, the boy had an easy-going personality, though he appeared to suffer from an inferiority complex, believing that he could never live up to his father's reputation.^[1]

However, Rogers' son had carefully planned his escape and was biding his time. In 1963, at age 17, the unnamed son killed all the doctors and soldiers at his facility. He also used a kitchen knife to carve the flesh from his head, literally becoming the Red Skull.^[1] As a statement of his rebellion against the system that created him, Red Skull orchestrated the Assassination of President John F. Kennedy. In a later, unrelated incident, he was also responsible for the sadistic murder of The Red Wasp's infant son and husband. In the following decades, the Red Skull became involved in the Vietnam War, associated with dictators Pol Pot and Idi Amin, and took part in drug-running, terrorist-training, and the Soviet-Afghan War.^[2]

A.I.M.

In 2010, after decades of being a professional assassin, The Red Skull joined A.I.M. After the events of Ultimatum, The Skull and A.I.M. soldiers broke into the Baxter Building, which was momentarily unsecured, and successfully stole the blueprints to Reed Richards' Cosmic Cube. Captain America and fellow Ultimates member Hawkeye attempted to stop the theft. Red Skull finally met his father in his helicopter and brutally attacked him, and nearly killed Cap. Before he threw Captain America out of the helicopter, Red Skull revealed that he was his son.^[1]

At the A.I.M. headquarters in Alaska, the Red Skull had his men kill the commanding officer, placing the Red Skull in charge of the operation.^[3] Taking control of the Cosmic Cube he became highly powered and in a sadistic display of his power had the entire Alaskan A.I.M. team cannibalize each other. When the Avengers arrived they immediately tried to destroy him, but the Cube imbued him with nearly unlimited power and made him invulnerable.^[2]

Battle with the Avengers and Death

During the battle with the Avengers, Red Skull demonstrated his true potential with the Cosmic Cube, changing reality to reflect the time period when Black Widow was being held and tortured in enemy hands, and overpowering Nerd Hulk with ease. Captain America arrived in the stolen Teleporter Jet, but Skull forced the jet to crash. Cap survived the crash and managed to teleport the jet to the exact coordinates where the Red Skull was standing, impaling him with one of the rods protruding from its nose.

The Red Skull was taken to a hospital and kept alive long enough for Gail Richards, his mother, to say goodbye. Skull explained to Nick Fury that all he wanted to do with the Cosmic Cube was to turn back time and prevent his father, Steve Rogers, from being lost during the war. He then could grow up with him and lead a normal life, rather than the one he was given. Petra Laskov, dressed as a doctor, then entered the room and shot the Red Skull in the head, killing him. It was then revealed that Nick Fury was responsible for luring the Red Skull from retirement, orchestrating events in order to regain his position in S.H.I.E.L.D..^[4]

Powers and Abilities

Powers

Artificially Enhanced Physiology: Red Skull exhibited super-soldier abilities as a result of being born with the Super-Soldier Serum in his system. He was conceived by a "perfect" specimen of human development and conditioning, resulting in enhancements likely at superhuman levels.^[1]

• Enhanced Strength: Red Skull's physical strength was beyond normal humans. He had demonstrated that he was strong enough to knock out people with normal durability with as little as a tap to the head and was shown to easily kill 247 men with his bare hands; furthermore, Red Skull's strength also extends to his legs enabling him to leap greater heights into the air without a running start.^[1]
• Enhanced Speed: Red Skull's speed is enhanced beyond the limits of an Olympic-level athlete.^[1] During his early-life career, he was able to easily move faster than any top athletes,^[1] as well as outrun a speeding motorcycle.^[1]
• Enhanced Agility: Red Skull's agility, balance, flexibility, dexterity, and bodily coordination were enhanced to levels that were beyond the natural physical limits of an Olympic gold medalist. He had the combined agility and acrobatic prowess of the most accomplished circus aerialists and acrobats. He also had the ability to leap up to 105 yards out in a single bound.^[1]
• Enhanced Reflexes: Red Skull's reflexes were border on superhuman level. His reaction speed was 90 kph, which made it possible for him to dodge gunfire even at close range from multiple gunmen simultaneously, though it was shown that he had several scars on his body from the gun shot wounds that he had healed from.^[1]
• Enhanced Stamina: Red Skull's body eliminated the excessive build-up of fatigue-producing poisons in his muscles and his musculature generated considerably less fatigue toxins than the muscles of an ordinary human being, granting him phenomenal endurance. He could physically exert himself at peak capacity for several hours before fatigue toxins begins to impair him. He could sprint on the tech machine for several hours before showing any signs of fatigue.^[1]
• Enhanced Durability: Red Skull's bones and muscles were denser and harder than normal, He could withstand great impacts, such as falling from multiple stories high, being struck by an opponent with super strength that would severely injure or kill a normal human, with little to no discomfort. He survived other forms of extensive punishment throughout his life and was even able to survive a rock slide caused by the Nerd Hulk.^[2]
• Enhanced Healing: He was able to heal broken bones and torn muscles in several days, while bullet and knife puncture wounds healed in a matter of hours.^[1] He had also become naturally immune to deadly poisons and illnesses.^[1] However, Red Skull is not capable of regenerating his head as it was shown that he was shot in the head with a bullet by Red Wasp, which eventually killed him.^[4]
• Disease Resistance: Red Skull was immune to all Earthly diseases, infections, and disorders, and he had never been ill. He was impervious to gas attacks, poisons, and nerve-toxins of any kind and completely resistant to diseases like anthrax, smallpox, and HIV. His immune system was so powerful that "a half a pint of tetrodotoxin" showed no ill effects.^[1]
• Alcohol Immunity: Red Skull was virtually immune to intoxication by consuming alcohol.^[1]
• Suspended Aging: The Super-Soldier Serum dramatically slowed the aging process due to extensive regeneration of healthy cells, though showing his true physical appearance was impossible as a result of Red Skull having cut his own face off.^[5] His body however appeared to be like a man in his prime.
• Enhanced Intelligence: His mental acuity had been greatly enhanced, allowing his mind to process information quickly, giving him an accelerated learning aptitude, a knack for quickly analyzing multiple information streams, such as threat assessment, and rapidly respond to changing tactical situations. He possessed an eidetic memory, meaning that he never forgot anything and had perfect recall, could speed read, and utilized high deductive reasoning skills. At his home military base, he was able to easily outsmart the people who worked there by using his cunning strategy to kill them when he turned seventeen.^[1]

Abilities

Skilled Combatant: Although he is not a master of martial arts like his father, Captain America, Red Skull was still a formidable combat fighter as shown when he brutally injured his father in hand-to-hand combat with ease,^[6] and also killed 247 people in the secret military base.^[1]

Strength level

The Red Skull had the strength to defeat Captain America in battle, meaning he was seemingly stronger than his father;^[6] however, he was not as strong as Thor or Hulk.^[2]

Weaknesses

Exposed Cartilage: The Red Skull used a knife to peel the skin, cartilage, and fat from his head, leaving only the muscle tissue.^[1]

Psychopath: Due to his unusual childhood, the Red Skull developed psychopathic tendencies, which at first, he chose to hide from his trainers. He then killed everyone on the military base, as well as removing his own flesh from his face.^[1]

Paraphernalia

Equipment

Cosmic Cube: Red Skull had temporarily used a Cosmic Cube to fight the Avengers.^[4]

Transportation

A.I.M helicopter.^[6]

Weapons

During his career, it was revealed that Red Skull had been seen using a pistol to assassinate an infant child whose parents were Nikolai Laskov and his wife, the Red Wasp.^[2]

Notes

• Before The Red Skull's death, he was 64 years old.^[4]

Links and References

• 6 Appearances of Red Skull (Earth-1610)
• Minor Appearances of Red Skull (Earth-1610)
• Media Red Skull (Earth-1610) was Mentioned in
• 19 Images featuring Red Skull (Earth-1610)
• 2 Quotations by or about Red Skull (Earth-1610)
• Character Gallery: Red Skull (Earth-1610)

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Footnotes