Red Skull – [PAGE REDACTED] – [AUTHOR REDACTED]

(There used to be perhaps the best Red Skull page ever written here. But then Red Skull found out, decided he didn’t like it, and got his hands on it.)

(1 Panel)

Panel 1: SPLASH PAGE – It has the appearance of a NAZI-esque WWII-style propaganda poster for HYDRA. Should give the imagery of a previously existing page having been torn down and this page being put up in its place.

On the poster is a bust-style image of RED SKULL, who is looking directly at the reader. He’s angled to look like he’s towering over the reader and looking down at them in a style that should come off equal parts terrifying and ‘Red Skull is watching you’. His very presence should command attention from the reader. One of his hands is extended out in front of him, holding a crumpled up piece of paper that should be the very page that was previously torn down. The overall effect should come off as ‘yes, I did this; let this be a warning that I can do it to you as well’.

TEXT (1): (Top of page) This page has been deemed unacceptable for public consumption by the HYDRA censorship authorities!

TEXT (2): (Directly beneath RED SKULL) HAIL HYDRA!

TEXT (3): Report all subversive activities and media to HYDRA!

TEXT (4): Remember, HYDRA’s ability to maintain order and keep you safe depends on You! 

TEXT (5): Report ALL unacceptable activities to the proper HYDRA authorities!

TEXT (6): HYDRA – True Order in an Chaotic World!

TEXT (7): (Should read like a stamp attached after the fact) APPROVED: HYDRA CENSORSHIP AUTHORITIES – HAIL HYDRA

(END PAGE)

Red Skull - Force of Habit - Grant McLaughlin

Kraven, the Red Skull, and Norman Osborn are roommates.  Just go with it.

1 - Outside shot of a house in a regular neighbourhood.  The lawn is filled with various garbage and debris - tipped over garbage can spilling its contents everywhere, various sporting equipment just left out, overturned beerpong table (and accompanying keg), etc.  Maybe the screen door is off its hinges.  Looks very much like a house cohabited by university students.  To emphasize its messiness, what parts of the houses on either side that can be seen are completely clean.  All word balloons come from within the house.

KRAVEN (1): Our homestead is a shambles!

KRAVEN (2): Disorder and untidiness reign supreme!

KRAVEN (3): Something must be done!

2 - We're now in the house's kitchen.  Kraven stands towards midpanel, looking towards the kitcehn table (and the reader), where Norman Osborn and the Red Skull sit on either side of the panel (looking back at him nonchalantly).  Kraven holds a chore wheel triumphantly in his hands for all to see.  The kitchen is pretty much as messy as outside.  Dishes are piled high in and around the sink.  There are pizza boxes, discarded clothes, and anything else you feel appropriate laying pretty much everywhere.  That kind of thing.  Even the kitchen table is full of old plates, books, and whatever.

KRAVEN: Therefore, I have create a chore wheel to help us hunt down this menace in a manner that is both fair and equitable!

RED SKULL: That's interesting...

3 - Similar to panel 2.  Red Skull pulls out a little gun-like device and fires it at Kraven.  Kraven is literally stunned by the beam that flows out and envelops him.  Osborn is a little perturbed.  LETTERING NOTE: The Red Skull's second word balloon should be dark and malevolent to emphasize the kind of tone he's taking.

RED SKULL (1): Because I made a mind control device for the same reason

RED SKULL (2): You will clean the house.

4 - Osborn looks at the Red Skull with an exasperated expression.  Red Skull looks pretty smug.  In the background, Kraven starts doing dishes (if we see his eyes, maybe have them be little whirlpools to show his mind as being controlled or something).

KRAVEN (quietly, in a wavering word balloon): I will clean the house...

OSBORN: You do realize there are other ways to solve your problems beyond mind control, right?

5 - Focus on the Red Skull.  He's mad smug, throwing his legs on top of the table and leaning back in his chair like a boss - maybe he has hands clasped around the back of his head for support (channeling Ferris Bueller perhaps).

RED SKULL: I think if you'll look at my personal history, you'll see the answer to that question is a resounding "no".

Red Skull - Prog 4 - Ray Wonsowski

Welcome back, my friends, to the show that never ends...

Continuing the prog-rock-fueled adventures of the Wonder Twins: having narrowly escaped a Thanagarian warship, they crash-landed in the snowy battlefields of World War II Norway. 

Today's selection is based on "The Court of the Crimson King" by King Crimson. The setting: Beisfjord, Norway.

 In 1942, prison workers, mostly Yugoslavs, were massacred, allegedly in reaction to a typhus outbreak. Sick prisoners were grouped 20 at a time and shot in waves. Healthy ones were forced to run laps until they collapsed, and shot where they dropped. One day in July in particular, depending on the source, somewhere between 250 and 600 were slaughtered and dumped.

Panel 1- pov from uphill, just outside Camp No. 1. (See photo ref)

CAPTION: A gardener plants an evergreen while trampling on the flower...

Panel 2- ZAN, JAYNA, JEB STUART, and the ghost of GEN. STUART have crested a snowy ridge between iron gates and flying Nazi swastika flags waving in the breeze, the Haunted Tank can be seen in the distance behind them. The four of them are reacting in horror at what they are seeing. ZAN and JAYNA are holding each other, either in solace or to keep from passing out. JEB is drawing his sidearm, but the GENERAL just stands aghast.

CAPTION: I chased the wind of a prison ship, to taste the sweet and sour...

GEN. STUART: (small lettering) Mother o' God...

Panel 3- looking down into the pit of an open mass grave, filled with the emaciated, bloody, and lime-covered bodies of camp prisoners. Sitting in the middle of it all, on a makeshift throne made of piled-high corpses, is the RED SKULL. He is in his dress uniform, Iron Cross at his throat, his heavy coat draped over his shoulders. He holds a list cigarette in his left hand, blowing a long stream of smoke to the side. His pose should be legs crossed, reposed, as if exhausted at the amount of things to do in a day. A German automatic pistol is held lazily in his right.

RED SKULL: How disappointing. I was expecting Herr Kapitan...

CAPTION: The patterned juggler lifts his hand, the orchestra begin...

Panel 4- close up, the RED SKULL sights down the barrel of his pistol aimed straight at us, hateful purpose in his eyes.

RED SKULL: No matter. You'll do.

CAPTION: ...as slowly turns the grinding wheel, in the court of the Crimson King.

...to be continued...

Why the Red Skull?

Because there's bad. Then there's evil. And then there's the Red Skull.

I mean, look at him...

Johann Schmidt. Orphan. Psychopath. Bellhop that "saved" Adolf Hitler from an assassination attempt that he had staged himself.

Classic WWII Kirby.

Nazi. Super-soldier. Symbol of German Nationalist intimidation. Dr. Erskine's shame. Captain America was created to stop him.

60's Kirby.

Commander. Torturer. Mad genius. Terrorist. Hitler grew to fear him. Baron VonStrucker grew to hate him. Magneto swore to kill him. Doctor Doom and the Kingpin both have said they'd rather die than join him.

As played by the masterful Hugo Weaving

He warped reality with the Cosmic Cube. He implanted his mind into a clone of Steve Rogers. He carved out the brain of Professor X to telepathically broadcast his brand of hate all across the globe.

Which leads right into the AXIS event.

He is what we are afraid we might become, if we were to strip away our humanity and our souls, gave in to our worst impulses, without any fear of reprisals, cold, calculating, and always just beneath the surface. 

From the miniseries, cover by David Aja.

He is hate incarnate, and there is none worse than he.