Johann Schmidt (Earth-101)

Soul holds a special place among the Infinity Stones. In order to take the Stone... you must lose that which you love. An everlasting exchange. A Soul... for a Soul.

— Red Skull

Johann Schmidt fought for Germany during World War 1, and after his nation lost, he became determined to help them win the next war. He assembled the greatest scientists he could find to develop a Super-Soldier Serum, and eventually grew so impatient he tested it on himself.

The Serum was a success, but at a cost. His outer layer of skin quickly decayed and became replaced with a Red, skeletal-like exterior.This earned him the fearsome nickname of the Red Skull, which he used to work his way into the secret ancient society, Hydra. When World War 2 broke out, Red Skull took control of a large faction of Hydra and converted it into the Nazi Science Division so that he could continue his work on a grand scale.

He eventually received word of a relic of unspeakable power located in Norway, called the Tesseract. Leading his forces in an invasion of Tonsberg, the Skull obtained the Tesseract and began developing an armada with it. However, the rise of Hydra gave way to the emergence of Captain America, who instantly became the Skull's arch-nemesis.

After years of fighting back and forth, Captain America and the Red Skull would have their final confrontation aboard the Hydra kamikaze jet, the Valkyrie, which was designed to use the Tesseract to obliterate the United States. However, during the fight, Captain America knocked the Tesseract loose, resulting in the Red Skull picking it up to use as a weapon. Unfortunately for him, the Tesseract sensed the Skull's terrible sense of character and activated itself, transporting him across the galaxy.

Captain America then sunk the ship and both of them were presumed deceased. Hydra then made quick use of the Red Skull's previously harvested DNA to give birth to his son, Albert. However, unbeknownst to anyone on Earth, the Skull was actually transported to the far away planet Vormir.

Vormir rested in the center of Celestial space, and was completely devoid of life, save for one mysterious wraith, who welcomed the Skull. He was informed that this planet was the resting place of the Soul Stone, and could not be obtained by soulless people like them. He learned that the previous guardian was a disgraced Celestial who had been cursed to guard the Stone for all eternity, but has begun to fade. Transferring his curse over to the Red Skull, the previous Stonekeeper ceased to exist and the Skull was imbued with a small portion of the Stone's power keeping him alive for eternity as he was forced to guide seekers to the Stone and explain the cost to them.

The Soul Stone could only be claimed by someone who was willing to sacrifice that which they loved. This meant the Red Skull had no possible way of obtaining the Stone, as the only thing he truly loved was power, and he no longer had any of that to sacrifice. As the years went by, the Skull witnessed multiple attempted sacrifices that the Soul Stone did not deem worthy enough, resulting in several meaningless deaths and heartbroken loved ones.

Powers and Abilities

Powers

Super Strength
Super Durability
Super Stamina
Super Agility
Immortality

Abilities

Genius Level Intellect

Strength level

Super Strength

Weaknesses

Life is Constantly Being Drained by the Soul Stone

Paraphernalia

Equipment: None known.
Transportation:

The Valkyrie (Formerly)

Weapons:

Pistol (Formerly)
Tesseract-Powered Arsenal (Formerly)

Notes

No special notes.

Trivia

The Red Skull was led to believe that if the Stone is ever claimed, he would be set free, but he has no way of knowing if this is true or not.
He is completely unaware that his bloodline is still alive on Earth, and not a single human is aware that he is still alive. If one can call what he has been cursed to endure living, that is.

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Links and References

None.