Is The Red Skull Returning To Marvel Comics?

While Captain America has a myriad of villains in his rogue's gallery, there are none more synonymous with the hero than the Red Skull.

In the first issue of Captain America: Steve Rodgers, the iconic hero is revealed to be on the side of Hydra, but we don't know yet how long he's been in their employ or how it happened, though Nick Spencer implies it has been since he was young.

Captain America: Steve Rodgers #2 will look to explain a few of these questions, but a recent preview on Marvel.com has revealed that The Red Skull will be playing at least some part in Cap's latest predicament, making a return to the overall Marvel Universe.

Artist Jesus Saiz mentioned the character in response to the question "What villains are upcoming in the book?" He said: "You are going to have to wait and see! What I can tell you, though, is that I love love love drawing the Red Skull. I would work on a book in which Red Skull is the only character"

The preview images shown seem to be courtesy of a flashback sequence, where Cap not only does damage to the Red Skull but also to the cosmic cube. When the cube is involved, anything is possible, though, so we'll have to wait and see. Either way, the character will figure into things in some form or fashion in this storyline, and that may extend to the greater Marvel universe after all is said and done

Red Skull has been a bit MIA after his Secret Wars miniseries. Before that, the character's clone dug up Charles Xavier, took his brain, and proceeded to use the remains of the mutants powers to cull the mutant population. After he was killed at the hands of Magneto, Xavier's brain unleashed Onslaught (seriously, someone torch that thing already), who remained dormant in his mind. It meshed with Red Skull and created Red Onslaught. After he was dealt with by the Avengers and X-Men, he became White Onslaught courtesy of AXIS. After another battle with Magneto, the character has only popped up once or twice.

The best heroes need great villains, and Red Skull is certainly one of those. Hopefully, he returns to the Marvel Universe soon.