Johann Shmidt

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"*Freedom is only for the one who rules! All others must be slaves!*"
―Johann Shmidt[src]
**Johann Shmidt** (also known as **Albert Malik** and primarily as **Red Skull**) was a notable Human Mutate terrorist who served the Third Reich during World War II, the KGB throughout the Cold War as well as the secret society Hydra.

## Biography

### Early life

Johann Shmidt was born in Germany on September 8, 1922 to a coarse, drunken German villager named Hermann Shmidt and his reportedly saintly, long-suffering wife Martha, who for years endured abuse and beatings from her husband. Martha died giving birth to Johann, their only child. Driven to madness by the death of the woman he both loved and hated, Hermann Shmidt tried to drown the newborn infant, accusing him of murdering Martha. The doctor who had just delivered the baby saved Johann from his abused father, however, and the next morning Hermann Shmidt committed suicide.

The doctor then took Johann to an orphanage, where the child led a lonely existence. Johann ran away from the orphanage when he was seven years old and lived on the streets as a beggar and a thief. He became fascinated with the stories of the Greek and Norse gods during his childhood and would eventually come to believe that he was a descendant of Zeus himself. As he grew older he worked at various menial jobs but spent most of his time in prison for crimes ranging from vagrancy to theft. Shmidt longed for a master who would show him the way to achieve power. Years after the Third Reich had come to power in Germany, Shmidt was working in a hotel where the dictator of Germany's Third Reich, Adolf Hitler, came one day to stay. That night Shmidt brought refreshments to Hitler's suite and found Hitler berating the chief of the Gestapo for letting a spy escape. On hearing Hitler's voice, Shmidt decided that Hitler was the master he had sought. When Hitler ranted to the Gestapo chief that "I could teach that bellboy to do a better job than you!" the dictator then looked closely at Shmidt and saw potential in the bellboy. Inspired, Hitler declared that he would make the bellboy into a "perfect soldier" who would serve as his right-hand man. Shmidt eagerly agreed to do what Hitler wished.

### The Nazi Years

"*But, was that not why we lost World War II? Because we underestimated the skill and the courage of free men?"
"No! It was because the Fuhrer did not listen to me!*"
―Eric Gruning and Johann Shmidt[src]
Trying to carry out Hitler's orders, his subordinates at first attempted to train Shmidt to become a perfect German soldier wearing an ordinary SS uniform. Enraged, for he wanted to turn Shmidt into something quite different, Hitler personally took over Shmidt's training. Hitler gave Shmidt a lifelike red skull-like head mask and named him the Red Skull. The Skull was answerable only to Hitler himself.

The Skull undertook a wide variety of missions for Hitler, most of which involved the Skull's specialty, the spreading of terror. In the early 1940s, before the United States entered World War II, the Red Skull was particularly involved with subversive activities in the United States. In Europe during the war, the Skull took personal command of many military actions and personally supervised the takeovers and lootings of many cities and towns; in various cases, the Skull ordered and supervised the eradication of the entire population of such communities. The Red Skull also organized a "wolf pack" of submarines which preyed upon shipping across the world, often under the Skull's personal command.

At first, Hitler took great pride in his protégé's successes and let the Skull have anything he wanted. Hitler thus financed the construction of secret bases for the Skull in various locations throughout the world, many of which were equipped with highly advanced experimental weapons and devices developed by Nazi scientists. The Skull was particularly interested in procuring technological weapons that could be used for the purposes of subversion and warfare. During the war he stole plans for the "nullatron," a device that could control human minds; adapted a space-warping device developed by the cyborg scientist codenamed Brain Drain; and commissioned Nazi scientists to develop a projector which could encircle and suspend sections of cities within spheres of energy.

But while the Skull always admired Hitler for his ideological vision, he was never content with being Hitler's subordinate. The Skull kidnapped and killed many of Hitler's closest advisers and eventually rose to become the second most powerful man in the Third Reich. Now Hitler could no longer effectively control the Skull and came to fear him, especially since the Skull had made little secret of his ambition to supplant Hitler someday. After the renowned military officer Baron Wolfgang von Strucker had a falling-out with Hitler, the Red Skull sent Strucker to Japan to found an organization that would prepare the way for takeovers in the Far East under the Skull's leadership. Strucker joined a subversive organization that came to be known as Hydra, broke his ties with the Red Skull, became head of Hydra, and built it into a major threat to world peace.

As World War II raged on, Hitler vowed that if he could not conquer the world, he would destroy it. To achieve this end, the Skull proposed the construction of five gigantic war machines, to be called the Sleepers, which would be hidden in various locations while they generated and stored the power they would need, and then be released at a future date, "Der Tag" ("The Day"), to destroy the Earth if the Allies won. Hitler enthusiastically instructed the Skull to construct the Sleepers, unaware that the Skull intended to use them to conquer the world himself if Hitler's Third Reich fell. In the closing days of the war in Europe, Allied intelligence received reports of a Nazi doomsday plan code-named "Der Tag" to be implemented after Hitler's defeat. However, the Allies had no idea what the plan entailed.

## Personality and traits

"*Everything is going according to plan.*"
―Johann Shmidt[src]

## Powers and Abilities

### Abilities

**Strategic Genius**: Shmidt's genius intellect allowed him to become an expert in multiple fields of study. He was a master of political, military, and subversive strategy, as well as a brilliant planner and organizer.

**Hand-to-Hand Combat**: The Red Skull was a fine hand-to-hand combatant, although not to the level of Captain America. He was also a brilliant fencer and skilled marksman.

## Appearances

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