Captain America Poster #53 vs Red Skull by Lee Bermejo

Description

The Red Skull (Johann Schmidt) is the archenemy of Captain America,and is portrayed as a Nazi agent. Created by Joe Simon, Jack Kirby and France Herron, the concept of the Red Skull first appeared in Captain America Comics #1 in March 1941. Joe Simon was inspired at the moment he was considering an appropriate villain for Captain America. Coincidentally, he saw a hot fudge sundae melting and noticed how it was resembling a human-like figure in the process. Although Simon initially considered calling this character Hot Fudge, the cherry on top seemed like an exposed skull as its head and he decided that the Red Skull was a more appropriate moniker. Although the Red Skull has no superhuman abilities, he possesses an intellect and inventive genius on the level of supervillains such as Doctor Doom, and is a highly gifted subversive strategist and political operative. At one point, the Red Skull’s mind inhabited a body cloned from Captain America’s, and hence possessed the mutagenic alterations induced by the Super-Soldier formula. He was thus endowed with a body that was in perfect physical condition, with strength, speed, durability, agility, dexterity, reflexes, coordination, balance, and physical endurance that exceeded that of any Olympic athlete who ever performed. Despite the scar tissue covering his face and head, his senses were still above-average. He has been shown as a superb martial artist, though he was never on par with Captain America himself; he was originally trained by German athletes appointed by Hitler, and is heavily trained as a skilled marksman with various forms of handguns, and well-versed in the use of fire arms and explosives. While sharing Alexander Lukin’s body, he lost his superhuman abilities. Since then he resides in one of the android bodies engineered by Arnim Zola, with enhanced endurance and resilience. He typically armed himself with a trick cigarette that could fire fatal poison gas — his trademark “Dust of Death” — toward his victim. The “Dust of Death” is a red powder which kills a victim within seconds of skin contact. The powder causes the skin of the victim’s head to shrivel, tighten, and take on a red discoloration, while causing the hair to fall out. Hence the victim’s head resembles a “red skull”. He also carries a large arsenal of conventional and advanced fire arms and explosives.

Near mint condition.