10 Things You Didn't Know About Red Skull
6. There Are Several Red Skulls
Surprisingly, Tadzio de Santis never appeared in the comics. That's surprising because there's been a bunch of other Red Skulls over the years besides the original, filling in when he was otherwise occupied by being technically dead or marooned in a different time period or something. In typical comic fashion, most aren't all that different to the original.
At first the Red Skull was introduced as an American industrialist George John Maxon, owner of the Maxon Corporation, who is actually a Nazi agent providing funding to the Third Reich and overseeing their activities in the US. He's later revealed to simply be a stooge for Johann Schmidt when he's busy doing other things.
When Schmidt disappeared at the end of World War II, his reputation was hijacked by KGB agent Albert Malik, who set up a new terrorist organisation to further Soviet interests under the identity of the Red Skull. He was also the guy responsible for the death of Peter Parker's parents, who were American spies tasked with taking the new Skull down.