Story #2The Fantastic Origin of the Red Skull
Writer:
Stan Lee. Penciler:
Jack Kirby. Inker:
Chic Stone.
Synopsis
On a mission into
Germany to locate the
Red Skull,
Captain America has succeeded all too well: as the story opens he is being tortured in a Nazi dungeon. The Red Skull enters—the real one, not the imitation from last issue—sends his minions out and sits down to tell Cap his story…he was
Johann Schmidt, an orphan and a thief, victim of all bullies and vagrant. When the
Nazis came to power he came to envy
Hitler, the opposite of all he was. Working as a hotel bellboy, he met Hitler who, disgusted by his bungling officers, bet that he could make the bellboy into a better Nazi servant. Seeing the depth of hatred in Schmidt’s eyes, Hitler is inspired to turn Schmidt into the perfect Nazi, training him personally, and when he is finished, giving him the identity of the Red Skull. As the super-Nazi, the Red Skull leads a wave of terror across Europe, establishing his own power base and threatening the world, so that now even Hitler fears him. Cap leaps up to attack the Skull but finds himself strangely weak. The Red Skull reveals his scheme: the account of his origin was a ruse to distract Cap while a hypnotic drug took effect. When Captain America awakens, he is completely in control of the Nazi villain and set for a mission to assassinate the
Allied Supreme Commander.