The continuing story of how a young Johann Schmidt becomes the Red Skull continues.

Continue on to read the rest of this review.

Johann is working as a hitman for a gangster.  The usual murder and silencing that a teenager with psychopathic tendencies gets into to.  While trying to lay low after killing a blackmailer Johann runs into his old friend Dieter.  Dieter has joined the Communist party and is becoming too loud for his own good.  Johann is asked to keep an eye on him and at the worst, kill him.  “You have no friends.”  Here is a young man with no family, no girl and now no friends.  There is nothing to hold him back from killing, deceiving or becoming the most devious man in the Marvel Universe.

This issue ends with Johann swearing his allegiance to the Nazi party.  The last piece necessary to forever place him on the side of evil has been taken with two words.

Lets talk about history in this issue.  I have the usual taught in the US very basic but not detailed understanding of history.  I now have the adult intelligence to be very curious about history but lacking the drive to pursue this information.  I would gladly pay double the cover price to have this be half comic book half history book.  Throw in 30 pages of text in each issue to explain everything that was happening at the time and not only will I be buying this book for myself but I’ll be sending it to my non comic book reading but history loving father as well.

Sure comics are “funny books” but they don’t have to be pigeon holed like this.  There has not been one cape, one flying man, nothing super in this book at all.  Despite all that its the most riveting title of the year.