10 Things You Didn't Know About Red Skull
3. His Image Was Inspired By A Hot Fudge Sundae
The Red Skull is an arresting image. He does exactly what he says on the tin – his name makes him very much the Ronseal of supervillains – but despite the lack of subtlety, there's something undeniably chilling and disturbing about his grotesque visage. Something which wouldn't have the same effect if his name was “Hot Fudge”.
It sounds like a non sequitur, but it's not. That's what Captain America co-creator Joe Simon very nearly called him. He came up with the character at lunch one day, when he was agonising about coming up for a villain to face his new hero and was faced with a hot fudge sundae sitting on the table in front of him.
First he considered a character based on that, a slowly melting monstrosity called Hot Fudge. History will no doubt thank him for dismissing that idea, focussing instead on the cherry atop the sundae and considering maybe Red Skull would be better.