Bring On The Bad Guys: Red Skull #1 - Marvel Comics

BRING ON THE BAD GUYS: RED SKULL No. 1, October 2025

It's a safe bet to say that the opening of this comic book should have caused its readers to anticipate an enthralling game of cat and mouse between the titular character and his highly intelligent target Reinhard Kramer. However, this tense battle of minds set during the finals dark days of the Second World War doesn’t actually last anywhere near as long as expected, thanks to Stephanie Phillips disconcertingly deciding to abandon her intriguing plot, and simply pen Johann Schmidt’s prey meekly submitting himself to his adversary’s demonic blade for the greater glory of the Third Reich; “My research -- The Atlantean technology passed down in my family for generations to make it possible… It -- It can’t be replicated. It must be protected.”

Indeed, Kramer’s change of heart to willingly sacrifice himself to the Red Skull is so shockingly abrupt that a fair few within this mini-series’ audience will doubtless feel its American author suddenly realised she was rapidly running out of sheet space, and needed to end her yarn far sooner than Phillips’ initial narrative allowed. This complete change of direction definitely leaves a lot of potential for a variety of Reinhard’s clones being systematically chased down by an increasingly agitated Schmidt on the 'cutting room floor', and will surely enrage the odd bibliophile that the twenty-five page periodical’s secondary tale by Marc Guggenhiem wasn’t abandoned to provide Stephanie’s plot with more room.

Furthermore, the “acclaimed writer and military-history buff” then suggests that the super-criminal’s hunt was utterly pointless anyway, because he’ll only receive his highly sought after prize of Captain America's soul if the First Avenger willingly signs his spirit away to Mephisto. This conclusion is genuinely perturbing, and apart from providing Blackheart’s father with another useable dagger which once belonged to the Lords of Darkness, doesn’t arguably add anything to the legendary lore of the facially-disfigured “protégé of Adolf Hitler”.

One thing which doesn't appear to be detrimentally impacted upon by this comic’s hurried ending though are Tommaso Bianchi’s quite lavish layouts, which do a terrific job of depicting Mephisto as the ‘face in the mirror’. In addition, the sheer savagery of Johann is clearly on display whenever the maniac is either cold-bloodedly gunning down malformed copies of Kramer, or perturbing piercing his fellow German’s heart with a knife. Perhaps therefore the only quibble some onlookers might have is that the artist appears to pencil the Atlantean-inspired scientist as being a bit too young for someone with such extensive medical knowledge.

The regular cover art of "BRING ON THE BAD GUYS: RED SKULL" #1 by Lee Bermejo