This week, I want to flip the script a bit. As you know, Off the Cape is typically about showcasing non-superhero, non-Big Two titles that Marvel and DC fans could enjoy but might have missed. This time, however, we are going to take a look at a Marvel comic set within the Marvel universe, and heavily connected with the world of superheroes. It’s a story a lot of superhero fans might have missed, but comics readers who aren’t superhero fans and prefer the type of fare that this column usually covers definitely missed it. I think both groups of comics fans could enjoy this story.
The title I am talking about is “Red Skull: Incarnate,” written by Greg Pak with interior art by Mirko Colak and a series of chilling covers by David Aja. While technically set on Earth-616, “Incarnate” isn’t really a superhero comic as there are no super-powers, no costumes or secret identities, and certainly no super-heroics. To be fair though, it is the origin story of one of Marvel’s most thoroughly evil super-villains, the Red Skull. For those of us who aren’t Captain America fans, the Red Skull was the right-hand man of the most infamous super-villain in actual history: Adolf Hitler himself.
More than anything else, “Incarnate” is historical fiction. As a history buff and comics fan, that aims it squarely at two of my fanboy soft-spots (it’d have to be science fiction as well to hit the trifecta), so I may be a little biased when I say that “Incarnate” is a fantastic miniseries. Set during the collapse of the Weimar Republic (the short-lived democratic government of Germany that existed from the end of World War I until Hitler came to power), the mini follows Johann Schmidt from his escape from an orphanage until his ultimate first encounter with the Fuhrer himself.
Pak and Colak’s story shines a sympathetic light on Schmidt at first, giving us many reasons to sympathize with him. We see him punished for stealing food to feed a stray dog, chased by street urchins, getting in to fist fights with members of the S.S., and even at one point defending a young Jewish girl. He is given many chances at redemption, and as I read it for the first time there were a few times I almost believed he could still turn out to be a good person. Inevitably though, my hopes and his soul were chipped away, turning Schmidt from a lost and lonely boy into the hardened man who would one day become the Red Skull.
The story fits seamlessly within the framework of the rise of Nazi Germany. Schmidt’s chaotic and directionless youth is set against the background of the chaotic collapse of the Weimar Republic and the Great Depression (which many Americans might not realize was a world-wide phenomenon). As he begins to harden and discover his violent nature, the Nazis begin to solidify their power.
The major problem the mini suffers from is common to all origin stories of pre-established characters: we already know how it ends. The Red Skull is defined by his service to Hitler. We already know that he is the ultimate fascist enforcer. The climax at the end can’t really be a big twist, because we already know what happens at the end and he pledges himself to Hitler. However, it’s not what happens that makes this story, it’s how it happens. The twist at the end is so cold, so evil, so magnificent and true to the Red Skull persona that despite knowing beforehand roughly how it turns out, it still is quite the twist! I don’t want to spoil any of it for you so I won’t go in to any specifics, but it is such a character-defining moment for Schmidt that it makes “Incarnate” one of the best origin stories I’ve read from Marvel.
Mirko Colak’s interior art is nothing spectacular or flashy, but he has a strong talent for storytelling that makes “Incarnate” an almost effortless read. He doesn’t try to steal the show away from the story but rather complements it entirely. He directs the eye to flow effortlessly across the page, and his pacing is so smooth you hardly notice it. The character’s expressions are nearly all spot-on, and revealing of the inner thoughts of an otherwise guarded and concise anti-hero. It’s the subtle, almost unnoticeable aspects of the art that reveal Colak’s great talent.
Continued belowIn my previous installments of OTC, I’ve recommended purchasing everything in trades, so I will yet again deviate from my formula so far. In this age of decompression, “Incarnate” is one of the few modern comics stories that really works in the single-issue format. Greg Pak didn’t just write this for the trade. Each issue is a complete chapter in Schmidt’s life, and each reaches a moment of resolution even as they lead in to the next.
The biggest sell for the single-issue format is David Aja. His powerful covers are so good that I couldn’t help but post them all here in this column. They are modeled after real Nazi propaganda posters, and show the Red Skull as he will become, in full uniform and wearing his red skull-shaped mask. It is interesting to note that he never appears in such attire within the story itself. “Incarnate” ends before his true training begins, long before he receives the mask that defines his ultimate persona. Aja’s covers are there to remind us who we’re really reading about and who the young Schmidt will truly become.
Without that reminder, we could almost forget that we are reading a Marvel masterwork. “Incarnate” would simply be the fantastic piece of historical fiction it is at its core.
