| “ | You are deluded, Captain. You pretend to be a simple soldier, but in reality, you are just afraid to admit that we have left humanity behind. Unlike you, I embrace it proudly, without fear! | „ |
| ~ Red Skull to Captain America. |
| “ | Tomorrow, HYDRA will stand master of the world. Born to victory on the wings of the Valkyrie. Our enemies' weapons will be powerless against us. If they shoot down one plane, hundreds more will rain fire upon them! If they cut off one head, two more shall take its place. Hail HYDRA! | „ |
| ~ Red Skull to his soldiers. |
| “ | A lifetime ago, I too sought the stones. I even held one in my hand. But it cast me out, banished me here, guiding others to a treasure I can not possess. | „ |
| ~ Red Skull as the Stonekeeper. |
Johann Schmidt, also known as the Red Skull and later the Stonekeeper, is a major antagonist in the Infinity Saga of the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
He was portrayed by Hugo Weaving in Captain America: The First Avenger, who also played Thaddeus Valentine in Mortal Engines, and by Ross Marquand from Avengers: Infinity War and onward, who also voiced Infinity Ultron in What If...? and Apocalypse in X-Men '97.
What Makes Him Pure Evil?[]
- He massacred through the Kummersdorff, the weapons development ground Arnim Zola worked on, slaughtering everyone present except Zola who agreed to work for him using his genetics research out of his life, to which Schmidt used to make himself a superior man, and threatened his life multiple times if he fails him, eventually leading to Zola becoming the vile man he is.
- He murdered Ernst Kauffman in order to gain a higher position and get back at him for banning him from talking to Adolf Hitler.
- He had Dr. Erskine's family imprisoned and sent to a concentration camp to coerce him into working for him and the Nazis, before having him imprisoned in terrible conditions.
- Even though his mutation and deformation was bad, he brought his misery on himself by using an underdeveloped Super Soldier serum copy.
- He attempted to betray Hitler and overthrow him when he viewed receiving his own base for HYDRA as an exile.
- He threatened the Church Keeper on the lives of his friends, family and the rest of Tønsberg to find the real Tesseract, and when he showed him the real Tesseract, he had him killed and Tønsberg inhabitants massacred.
- He had his scientists try and use the Tesseract in order to create a weapon capable of mass destruction.
- He sent an assassin to kill Dr. Erskine when he learned of his existence.
- He killed three Nazi soldiers sent by Hitler out of anger when they scolded him for not giving weapons to Hitler and seeing that his plan to cause mass destruction will include the German capital, Berlin, horrifying Zola, though for the wrong reasons.
- He separated HYDRA from the Nazis to keep the weapons and the Tesseract for himself.
- He had the prisoners of war horribly tortured in brutal experiments so he can replicate the effects of the Super Soldier Serum, while having their workload increased exponentially.
- When Zola protested that it will kill them, and eventually, will lose people to speed up progress, Red Skull says they can always gain more prisoners.
- He initiated the self-destruct sequence of the base when the enemies outnumbered the HYDRA members present, leaving his own men to die.
- While he gave Zola a key of his car to escape, it is because he views Zola as a valuable pawn, and still told Zola not to scratch it.
- Despite his men's devotion to him he shows no care in return, often killing them when they either fail him or in some effort to defeat his enemies, including when he murdered a lesser that escaped an attack on a HYDRA base.
- His ultimate plan was to use his new Tesseract weapons in order to wipe out half of the world so he can rule over whatever is left as a god, making him have the highest attempted kill count for a human villain in the entire MCU.
Trivia[]
- Red Skull is the very first Marvel Cinematic Universe villain to be Pure Evil. (Zola is the secondary antagonist and his Pure Evil status wasn't complete yet, so he doesn't count). He is also the only one in phase 1 to count as one.
- Symbolically, his archenemy, Captain America, was the first MCU Pure Good and the only one to appear in phase 1.
- Despite his status as Pure Evil, Avengers: Endgame director Joe Russo stated that Red Skull did mellow out following his banishment to Vormir, recognizing his own fault in abusing the Tesseract's powers. However, just because he accepted his fate and recognized his faults does not indicate he felt any remorse for his actions towards others. More than likely he only recognized how his actions impact himself and regrets them for that reason.
External Links[]
- Red Skull on the Villains Wiki
- Red Skull on the Marvel Cinematic Universe Wiki
- Red Skull on the Marvel Wiki
- Red Skull on the Marvel Movies Wiki
- Red Skull on the Disney Wiki
- Red Skull on the VS Battles Wiki
[]
 Pure Evils
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