Captain America #369
The Skeleton Crew
Captain America has come to the Pink Flamingo Lounge, a strip club where the Serpent Squad’s Asp works in her spare time. Thinking this is an attack, Asp tries to blast him with her powers, but he easily blocks it with his shield. He quickly subdues her when she tries to escape, explaining that he hasn’t come to fight or arrest her. He’s only come because he is looking for her partner, Diamondback. He tells Asp to pass along the message and says that Diamondback can leave him a message on his hotline. Before leaving, Cap wonders why Asp would degrade herself stripping in front of an audience. He gets a mouthful, as Asp actually enjoys doing what she does. He then leaves, thinking how lucky he was when one of the Avengers Crew — Michael O’Brien — caught a poster advertising Asp’s appearance at the Flamingo Louge. However, he wonders what Mike was doing in this seedier part of town. He hopes that Diamondback contacts him soon now that he’s free to get in touch with her.[1]
At that same time, Diamondback is paying a visit to the Tinkerer to get a new set of throwing diamonds. She tests them out and hears about the inventor’s improvement. She is pleased with his work and pays him his fee, even though this has cleared out her savings account. After leaving, Diamondback stops to check her voice mail and gets a message from Asp warning her that Captain America is looking for her. Diamondback is pleased and calls Cap’s hotline to tell him that she has a lead on Crossbones and asks him to meet with her on the corner of Fifth and 66th.
Fourty-five minutes later, Diamondback is at the meeting place unaware that Crossbones and his Skeleton Crew — Mother Night, the Voice, and the Machinesmith piloted Fourth Sleeper — are staking out the Hellfire Club as it is their only lead to figuring out where Magneto took their boss, the Red Skull.[2] Going over the blueprints of the area, Crossbones figures their best way to infiltrate the club is to break in through the sewers. As they make their way into the fetid waters below, the Fourth Sleeper is too big to fit and is forced to smash his way through. The noise this causes gets Diamondback’s attention and prompts her to go an investigate.
Soon, the Skeleton Crew arrives at a security door that leads into the Hellfire Club’s basement. After the Machinesmith hacks the security lock and security cameras, the Voice uses his powers to command the armed guards to stop in their tracks.
Back topside, Diamondback investigates the utility truck the Skeleton Crew were using and discovers that Crossbones is nearby. Since the pair have a past history together, Diamondback wants to go up against him alone and get revenge in a way that Captain America could never understand, and leaps into the sewers to pursue him.[3] By the time she catches up with the Crew, they are on their way back as their investigation has turned up nothing. In order to avoid being seen, Diamondback ducks into a nearby pipe just as Crossbones and the others are being attacked by Selene, the Hellfire Club’s Black Queen. Although she has no idea where Magneto is, she won’t tolerate the Skeleton Crew’s inclusion. When the Voice tries to use his power to make her stop, she uses her transmutation power to make his voice amplifying speakers wrap around his neck and start strangling him. She tells him to free her from his influence in order to spare his life. When the Voice complies, Selene then uses her power to crush his windpipe.
Mother Night tries to use her hypnotic power to make herself appear invisible, but this doesn’t work on Selene’s superior mind. The Black Queen, starting to grow old from her power use, then begins draining the Voice’s life energy to restore herself. Seeing that she is killing his teammate, Crossbow fires an arrow at her and strikes Selene in the chest, saving the Voice’s life. By this time, the Hellfire Club guards have snapped out of the Voice’s control and have come to join the battle.
By this time, Captain America has arrived at the meeting place looking for Diamondback. He finds no sign of her, but he hears the sound of battle coming from the damage manhole in the street and heads down to investigate. He arrives just in time to have the Black Queen knocked into his arms. However, when she tries to absorb his own life energies, Diamondback tosses one of her trick diamonds and hits Selene in the back of the head, knocking her out. Crossbones and his crew are surprised to see Captain America and Diamondback have found them, but he has no interest in fighting since they still need to find their boss. Mother Night then uses her power to render them invisible to the eye and flee, leaving Cap and Diamondback to deal with the Hellfire Club guards. In the ensuing clash, the Black Queen revives and decides that this battle is pointless, she then uses her power to collapse the sewer tunnel on top of Captain America and Diamondback, burying them alive.
Recurring Characters
Captain America, Diamondback, Skeleton Crew (Crossbones, Mother Night, Machinesmith, the Voice, Fourth Sleeper), Black Queen, Asp, Tinkerer
Continuity Notes
Here, Captain America states that he was busy with the sinking of Avengers Island and “all the other things” he had on his mind at the time. This would have been the Acts of Vengeance storyarc which saw a cabal of villains pitting heroes — particularly the Avengers — against foes they haven’t fought before. The Avengers involvement was chronicled in Avengers #311-313, Avengers West Coast #53-55, Avengers Spotlight #26-29, Captain America #365-366, Iron Man #251-252, and Thor #411-412. Avengers Island was sunk in Avengers #311.
Magneto kidnapped the Red Skull and left him in an abandoned bomb shelter to die back in Captain America #367. At the time of this story, Magneto was associated with the Hellfire Club, joining their group as their White King back in New Mutants #51. He then took control of the group in New Mutants #73-75. Despite this, Magneto has gone off to do his own thing, as seen in Avengers West Coast #56-57 and 60.
Crossbones and Diamondback, aka Brock Rumlow and Rachel Leighton, go way back. Back in the day, Brock was the leader of the Savage Crims street gang. When he raped Rachel, her brothers came at Brock to avenge her. He murdered them all and went on the run. This was first chronicled in Captain America #400.
Topical References
Diamondback is depicted using a payphone to call a messaging service to check her voice mails. At the time this story was published, answering services were still quite common place. With the advent of cell phones, such services are less prominent, especially when it comes to personal use. As such, Diamondback’s use of one could be considered topical.
The Black Queen likens the Voice’s speaker system with a boombox. This was the name used for large portable music player. These things were huge and got their name because they could play music at a high volume. People would carry them around everywhere even though they were the size of a small suitcase. This should be considered a topical reference since this type of technology is not as ubiquitous as they once were thanks to advancements in technology. Now you can annoy everyone around you with a speaker small enough to fit in your pocket. Still, there is still a niche market for these products. Regardless, they have been in decline that a boombox wouldn’t be the first thing to come to one’s mind, as such this reference should be considered topical.
Out of his Skull
Since Magneto left him in an abandoned bomb shelter to die, time has begun to lose all meaning to the Red Skull. He doesn’t know how long he has been trapped. He has given up trying to find a way out, or any hope that someone on the outside can hear him calling out for help. He’s even decided to stop drinking the water that has been left for him. Now all he does is sit in the corner searching his mind for something to fill the void that is his current existence.
Soon, he starts hearing noise and incessant ringing that eventually turns into the sound of voices. One such voice calls the Skull by his real name, prompting the Red Skull to open his eyes. A man soon walks out of the gloom and the Skull is shocked to see that it is his father, Hermann Schmidt. Hermann’s opinion of his son hasn’t changed after all these years. He still sees Johann as an abomination who should have died in childbirth, just like his mother.[1] The Skull tries to defend himself, telling his father that he never chose to be born. Hermann scoffs at this, and tells his son that if he wants to make things right, he should kill himself right then and there. Angered by this suggestion, the Red Skull lunges at his father but he disappears since he is nothing more than a hallucination.
The Skull lands at the feet of Adolf Hitler, who begins slapping him around. The Fuhrer reminds Schmidt that he created the Red Skull and made him everything that he is, remaking a simple bellhop into the most feared Nazi in history.[2] Hitler is disgusted to see that the Skull has warped the Nazi ideal to satisfy his own selfish needs. The Nazi leader then reminds the Skull how he took his own life in his bunker, not unlike this one, at the end of the war, preferring death over defeat.[3] He tells the Skull that the only way to redeem himself is to do the same.
The Skull is then visited by his own daughter, Sinthea, who reminds the Skull about his own neglect toward her and how he had a low opinion of her being a woman and therefor not a true heir to his legacy. She goes on about how he would only spend five minutes a week with her between brainwashing and artificial aging processes.[4] Her hate for him is so deep, she also tells him to kill himself. It’s then that the Skull realizes that he is holding a broken shard of glass in his hands.
Johann is next visited by Arnim Zola, who tells the Skull that killing himself is the only way out of the bunker as his mind will be downloaded into a cloned body that has been prepared for just such an occasion.[5] However, Schmidt can’t bring himself to cut his throat with the broken glass because it would be too painful to do so.
That’s when he is visited by a hallucination of Captain America, who turns out to be the only voice that doesn’t want him to commit suicide. Cap tells his mortal foe that the Skull’s death would be pointless and how he needs the Nazi to survive in order to face justice for his past crimes. He then encourages the Red Skull to not give up and keep fighting. The Skull cannot bare this for very long, screaming at the specter to shut up. Back in his right mind again, the Red Skull curses Captain America for being the only person who actually cares if he lives or dies. Still, he has been convinced not to take his own life and finds it strange to find himself on the same side as his mortal enemy this once.
Recurring Characters
Red Skull
Continuity Notes
In Captain America #298 a version of the Red Skull’s origins were told. In that account, Hermann Schmidt was an abusive alcoholic. The Skull’s mother Martha (it’s always Martha isn’t it?) died giving birth to their son. Red Skull #1-5 would later retell the Skull’s origins, showing that some of the circumstances surrounding his past were lies or fabrications. In this new accounting of events, the Skull was still an orphan whose mother died during childbirth. As of this writing (June, 2022), it has not been confirmed how much of the story told in Captain America #298 is still true.
Adolf Hitler indeed have a hand of molding a young bellhop into becoming the Red Skull. This was first told in Tales of Suspense #66. It was later expanded upon in the aforementioned Captain America #298 and Red Skull #1-5. In the latter account, it’s revealed the young Johanne Schmit — after flunking out of the Brownshirts — was convinced to join the Nazi resistance and was posing as a bellhop to assassinate Hitler. However, Schmidt betrayed his friends and became Hitler’s newest trainee.
In the real world, Adolf Hitler did indeed commit suicide during the fall of Berlin near the war’s end. In the Marvel Universe, Hitler’s death was a lot more graphic. As seen in Young Men #24, Hitler was immolated by the Human Torch before he could kill himself. However, Hitler actually managed to cheat death thanks to geneticist Arnim Zola. Hitler’s mind was transferred in a cloned body and would continue to terrorize the world for decades to come, usually as the Hate-Monger. For details on that see Super-Villain Team-Up #17.
The origin of Sinthea Schmidt, the Red Skull’s negative attitude toward her, and her artificial aging and brainwashing were all detailed in Captain America #298. These events are later revisited in Captain America (vol. 5) #15.
When the Red Skull died of old age in Captain America #300, there was a contingency plan in place to help him cheat death. Using a DNA sample taken from Captain America, Arnim Zola was able to clone a new body for the Skull to escape into, as seen in Captain America #350. As detailed in Captain America #387, Arnim Zola has two other cloned bodies on hand in the event that the Skull physically dies again. These clones will eventually get destroyed by Hauptman Deutschlander in that same issue.
