Marvel: Who Is the Black Skull & How Powerful Is He?

Marvel Universe has plenty of alternative realities, and from those alternative realities come some of the best storylines, including slightly twisted versions of our favorite superheroes and villains. One such story is ‘Heroes Reborn.” On Earth-21798, there exists a version of Red Skull even more menacing than the original one, and we’re going to use this opportunity to tell you his story. Let’s see who exactly is Black Skull & how powerful is he? 

The Black Skull is an alternative version of the Red Skull, who bonded with a symbiote. The Black Skull comes from the ‘Heroes Reborn’ storyline, and he organized terror attacks along with Masters of Doom until he was eventually subdued by Nighthawk. Black Skulls has all the standard powers and abilities of both Red Skull and Venom symbiote, making him quite powerful. 

Now that we’ve given you a short overview of who Black Skull is, it’s time to analyze it in more detail. If you’re interested in how Red Skull became Black Skull and who eventually put a stop to him, stay with us and keep reading! 

‘Heroes Reborn’ is an alternative take on reality 

Before we start recounting Black Skull’s story, we should give you some context and background on where this story takes place. The reality of ‘Heroes Reborn’ is Earth-21798, and the first hero to notice that something was odd was actually Blade. Blade was strolling around New York looking for Ghost Rider, and he came across Robbie Reyes, but instead of meeting with the fabled anti-hero Robbie Reyes started mocking him, having no idea what Blade was talking about.

Then Blade started noticing other things. Iron Man never built the suit since he never took the shrapnel to the heart. Carol Danvers never became Captain Marvel because she was too insubordinate.

Wakanda doesn’t seemingly exist, Steve Rogers was never unfrozen from the ice, and Thor is a drunkard who never claimed Mjolnir and knows nothing about it because Odin is dead. In short, Avengers don’t exist in this reality. They are replaced by Squadron Supreme of America, consisting of Blur, Doctor Spectrum, Hyperion, Nighthawk, and Power Princess.

How did Red Skull become Black Skull? 

One notable member of Squadron Supreme of America was, at one point after returning from Battleworld, fused with the symbiote. Nighthawk, at first, didn’t realize that the symbiote was alive and thought that it was just a cool suit that made him stronger. As time passed, Nighthawk realized that the symbiote “seeps into his mind like a black tar.” 

Nighthawk promptly got rid of the symbiote, but the wretched creature found another host. After losing his host symbiote at some unknown point in time, he bonded with Red Skull, and Red Skull was effectively transformed into a Black Skull. 

What happened to Black Skull? 

Following his transformation into the Black Skull, Johann Schmidt, in collaboration with Masters of Doom, launched an attack on several different but important locations in Washington, D.C. 

Black Skull was supposed to attack the Capital building and hold the Congress hostage. However, the plan didn’t exactly pan out as Nightawk made an appearance along with Blade and managed to defeat both the Black Skull and retake the Capitol Building. 

Upon returning to the United States, Nighthawk confronted the Black Skull and Hydra soldiers who had taken Congress members hostage in a Masters of Doom attack. Assisted by Blade, Nighthawk battled the Hydra forces while discussing his team’s impact on the world. After defeating the Hydra soldiers, he defeated the Black Skull and imprisoned him in Ravencroft Asylum.

Later, Nighthawk had to stop the Goblin’s takeover of Ravencroft Asylum by subduing the dangerous inmates. The Goblin abducted Gwen, a nurse from Ravencroft, and exposed her to his gas, driving her insane. Nighthawk rescued Gwen but was forced to fight her due to her insanity. In the confrontation, both the Goblin and Gwen were injured.

The Goblin disclosed that his motive was to convey his final wish to Nighthawk: to preserve their world without changes. At the same time, even though Black Skull presented significant danger, Nighthawk likewise managed to subdue him by using a sonic device he carried with him. 

Nighthawk will eventually again have the need for a symbiote and will let it bond with him. In an attempt to enforce superhero registration, Nighthawk’s push sparked a civil war against Hyperion. Nighthawk once again enhanced his abilities with the Venom symbiote and the Eye of Agamotto to battle Hyperion. With the Eye of Agamotto and symbiote, Nighthawk managed to deal quite the damage to Hyperion, especially when it came to summoning bolts of destructive energy

However, Hyperion won by exploiting Nighthawk’s vulnerability to sunlight, at the same time forcing the symbiote to latch off of Nighthawk. 

How powerful is Black Skull? 

Since Red Skull of Earth-616 and Earth-21798 share pretty much the same background, we can assume that the Black Skull had all the same powers and abilities as his main reality counterpart. This means that Red Skull was at the moment he bonded with the symbiote inside a cloned body, and had all the physical attributes that belong to it.

Additionally, due to the symbiote, Black Skull gained enhanced strength, durability, speed, and all the other attributes that come from being bonded by the thing. 

Symbiote also constantly worked on driving Black Skull insane, so even though it made him physically stronger, just like with Nighthawk, it also opened him up to mental vulnerabilities. 

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