Enter the Red Skull.

[sherkahn]

For every hero, there must be a villain. For Captain America, arguably the incarnation of the best ideals of the Marvel Universe, there must be the Red Skull.

Johan Schmidt emerges from the shadows, and we get a good look at him, courtesy of ComicBookResources.



wow.


The Red Skull. Walking and breathing among us. Be afraid.

Looking good and sharp, cold and collected, and truly villainous. If Hugo and tap into that Agent Smith despicable nature and crank it up, I will be impressed.

If they only put that effort into Dr. Doom....

For legality.


Sexy time!

Yes. Touch it. Touch my monkey.

Comments

[punishermax]

The raddest belt buckle.

[icon_uk]

Yeah, is he HYDRA rather than a Nazi?

[valtyr]

I get the impression that Hydra will be a Nazi organisation; I think it's so Marvel aren't cheerfully plastering swastikas all over their marketing and action figures and Happy Meals.

[icon_uk]

Yes, I had been wondering how that was going to work! :)

[omgwtflolbbqbye]

They said it's going to be explicitly clear in the movie that Hydra is a branch of the 3rd Reich.

[fourds]

My understanding is that Hydra starts as a special Nazi organization in the film.

[drmcninja]

Doesn't it in the comics? Baron Strucker and all being the founder and man in charge?

[icon_uk]

It was introduced in the 1960's as a sort of generic terrorist organisation with world domination plans, with a former Nazi in charge, so it had the trappings. I think it's backdating to being around in WWII came a while later.

[espanolbot]

I think that the reasoning now is that it's an organisation founded by escaped members of the Nazi/Fascist Italian/Imperial Japanese power structure, who pooled their resources to keep fighting the war after their governments officially stopped fighting.

I think that they were kind of like that group ODESSA, which smuggled Nazi war criminals out of Europe so they could escape to South America.

The Hand, of Daredevil fame, was formed by and run more by the Imperial Japanese members of the group, while the former Nazis ran the Hydra branch. AIM I think was their combined tech wing until they declared independence and wandered off on their own.

[darkblade]

I thought the Hand were just sterotypical evil ninjas.

[sherkahn]

For a while the Hand were champions, defenders of Japanese common people, assembled to overthrow corrupt officials. They themselves were soon infiltrated by the Snakeroot ninja clan and corrupted from within. A tiny faction of that original ninja group (from 5 separate islands, the 5 fingers of the Hand) eventually became the Chaste, as an attempt to redeem their original order of ninja clans.

[valtyr]

This looks really good. I think perhaps slight overkill on the leather straps, but still. The head is perfect (reminiscent of how Ultimate Red Skull appeared) and it doesn't look silly, which was a definite danger.

Need to see it in motion though, the mouth articulation could be trip it up.

I love the red piping, and the pointed cuffs.

[greenmask]

Wow, he actually.. looks like the Red Skull. I'm impressed!

[thanekos]

ah, the Skull aprés defigurement!

must've had a bit of speech therapy after the fact, looking at his lips..

[lucky_gamble]

Is weird to be slightly attracted to him? No of course not :0

[sherkahn]

its scans_daily. It's never just you.

[selke]

My thoughts exactly.

[writeofway]

This looks awesome! I'm really psyched for this movie to do well.

[cypherfdp]

Fuck yes.

[espanolbot]

Heh, as I said in the past it was kind of unfortunate for the guy playing the hero, as being cast against Hugo Weaving will automatically make him less interesting.

The fact that people might end up leaving the theatre liking the Nazi villain more than Captain America is kind of hilarious.

[valtyr]

Well, it's often the case villains are more 'interesting' than heroes. On the other hand, Chris Evans may not be as fantastic an actor as Hugo Weaving, but he is very, very likeable and charming and I hope they'll have played to that in the script. I dunno, we'll see.

[mas]

He's so shiny!

[okkult3000]

Captain America is already a better movie than the Fantastic Four.

[beoweasel]

Not exactly hard. :P

[starwolf_oakley]

The Red Skull is one of the very few Marvel villain who considers himself a villain, the bad guy, evil, etc. Yes, a lot of Marvel villains consider themselves *criminals* but that's not the same as considering yourself a "bad person."

The Red Skull is a person who decided "I choose evil!" He doesn't do anything to justify himself other than an occasional sarcastic "Yeah, and democracy works *so well*!" snark to Captain America.

[darkblade]

One more leather strap and he's qualified for Kingdom Hearts.

[sherkahn]

You should check his legs and crotch then, juuust to be sure.
You know those Germans and their kink.

[cygna_hime]

Nonsense. Why, I don't see a single zipper anywhere!

[baihu]

He is however, already qualified for Metal Gear.



The bottom comic pretty much guarantees it!

[selke]

I don't know if it's the uniform, but that's kind of sexy.

[tacobob]

Looks good. Just don't suck movie. PLEASE.

[jlroberson]

Hmm. Not bad, actually. Could have a LITTLE more exaggeration. But not bad.

However, looking at him now, it at last occurs to me:

Wouldn't he have been REALLY easy for a sniper to pick off?

[akodo_rokku]

His disapproving glare deflects bullets.

(Of course in the comics he was in fact eventually killed by a sniper.)

[rordulum]

Eventually killed by Bucky Barnes, the sniper. He'd never live that down with his old Nazi cronies.

[valtyr]

The trailer has a very short shot of him peeling off a flesh-coloured mask, so I guess he doesn't wander the battlefield like that much.

[proteus_lives]

That is great fucking make-up!!

[recognitions]

Kingpin is obviously hitting the "so" in that last line.

[baihu]

Is it ironic that is also V up there?

[halloweenjack]

Not to mention Elrond, Agent Smith, and Mitzi Del Bra. Dude's got range.

[schmevil]

Looks pretty good. My despair for this film just eased. A bit.

[halloweenjack]

They stole that coat from my dreams.