With Thunderbolts* prepared to electrify movie theaters, chatter online has turned to the history of Marvel Cinematic Universe baddies. The quality of these various adversaries has ranged wildly from one movie to the next, with every Zemo and Killmonger being balanced out by forgettable foes like Dar-Benn and Malekith. However, the most beloved of these antagonists, including the likes of Thanos, have become pop culture icons. The MCU has very much been about heroes that audiences can look up to, but this saga’s also delivered its fair share of enjoyably wicked enemies.
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However, even given the deluge of baddies the MCU has juggled in the last 17 years, it’s still shocking how absent one of its earliest antagonists has been from the larger MCU mythos. Red Skull was the primary foe in Captain America: The First Avenger, but has primarily been MIA ever since. The MCU really needs to start incorporating Red Skull more into its projects, especially given how important this character is in the world of Marvel Comics.
Where Did Red Skull Go?
Red Skull’s been intertwined with Captain America from the very start, as the duo both debuted in Captain America Comics #1 in March 1941. By 1966, the Johann Shmidt version of Red Skull had re-joined Captain America in the modern world of Marvel Comics. From there, he was a default baddie across Captain America comics and other Marvel publications. Given his notoriety in these texts, it was no surprise that Red Skull would also make the leap to the big screen with Captain America: The First Avenger.
Played by Hugo Weaving in his initial appearance, Red Skull ended The First Avenger destroyed by the Tesseract, the very item he’d spent the whole movie pursuing. Seven years after The First Avenger’s release, Red Skull returned in Avengers: Infinity War, now played by Ross Marquand. Here, it was revealed that Red Skull was stuck on Vormir, watching over the Soul Stone. Marquand would reprise the role the following year in Avengers: Endgame. This cosmic explanation for the character’s whereabouts explained why Red Skull had been gone for so much of Phases Two and Three, no question.
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However, Red Skull has since been absent from the MCU even with a new actor around to take over the part. This is despite Phases Four and Five exploits taking place heavily across the cosmos. Not even Ant-Man solo movies venturing into other dimensions could open the door for more Red Skull appearances. What a shame that is, since Red Skull provides such a great classical villain in the Marvel Comics. The persistence presence of this Nazi baddie provided not only an effective go-to baddie, but also reflects the enduring nature of bigotry so many Marvel superheroes crusade against. In other words, Red Skull’s inescapable presence in the Marvel universe is supposed to reflect chilling aspects of our real world.
The Other Lost Possibilities of Eschewing Red Skull
It’s extra urgent that Red Skull come back to the MCU given how crucial the Captain America mythos are to this franchise. Captain America: Brave New World recently reaffirmed how important Sam Wilson is to the larger MCU landscape. Instead of having Wilson contend with loose plot threads from The Incredible Hulk, why not have him tussle with Captain America’s greatest comic book rivalry? It’s incredibly weird to see so much modern MCU media centered on Captain America lore yet not feature the character’s equivalent to the Joker.
The MCU has also shown such tremendous dramatic success in showing how its villains evolve over multiple projects. Loki, Thanos, Wilson Fisk, these figures all compelled audiences on the big and small screens through how they grow from one production to the next. Longform storytelling only enhances the depth of these foes rather than diluting their power. Red Skull could’ve been a chilling version of this phenomenon, as audiences could’ve witnessed how this hateful Nazi’s cruelty evolved over time and with the changing decades.
Instead, the character’s largely been one-and-done save for those two Avengers cameos. Red Skull’s Infinity War and Endgame appearances only exacerbated how strange it was that he’s vanished from most post-First Avenger MCU media. In the near future, the MCU needs to figure out how to get one of its first movie villains (not to mention a seminal foe in the comics) back as a main player. Red Skull has been tormenting Captain America, cheating death, and plotting the world’s destruction in Marvel Comics for eons. Why shouldn’t he be equally persistent on the silver screen?
Captain America: The First Avenger is now streaming on Disney+.
