Comic Book Questions Answered – where I answer whatever questions you folks might have about comic books (feel free to e-mail questions to me at brianc@cbr.com).

Reader JumborgAce wrote in to ask, "What is the current deal with Skull's face - is it a mask put on by Johan Schmitt or is it something more...MUCH MORE?"

First off, let me note that the current Red Skull is technically dead, but come on, this is comics, I think it is unlikely that the current Red Skull will remain dead.

But anyhow, the current Red Skull debuted in Uncanny Avengers #1 (by Rick Remender and John Cassaday) where he shocked the world by stealing Charles Xavier's corpse and stealing Xavier's brain!!

Skull then used scientific methods to effectively merge his brain with the brain of Xavier, giving the Skull telepathic powers...

We also learn that he is a clone of the original Red Skull, created during World War II as a fail safe, of sorts...

In Uncanny Avengers #3, as the Skull uses his powers to trick Thor into attacking Wolverine, we establish that the Skull is wearing a mask (which makes sense, since that is what the Skull did during World War II)....

This is REALLY confirmed in the final issue of this volume of Uncanny Avengers, as Magneto begins to beat Red Skull to death and we see him punch through the Skull's face mask...

However, when Magneto succeeded in killing Red Skull, it resulted in the unleashing of Red Onslaught (basically the Red Skull's twisted version of Xavier's psyche)...

In the crossover known as Axis, the Avengers tried to defeat Red Onslaught by magically "inverting" the Skull to make him heroic like Xavier. The problem is that it instead inverted EVERYONE, making the superheroes villains and the villains superheroes. In the end, the now-heroic Red Skull gave up his "good" self to help return everything to normal, which also stopped Red Onslaught. In the process, it sure looks like the Skull's skull was warped into becoming a literal Red Skull...

This was confirmed in the third volume of Uncanny Avengers, where the Avengers (and the X-Men) successfully removed Xavier's brain from Red Skull's skull...

Again, Skull then was killed by Captain America (when Cap was secretly working for Hydra), but he'll be back and if he returns, it will be with a literal red skull.

Thanks for the question, JumborgAce!

If anyone else has a question about comics, feel free to drop me a line at brianc@cbr.com!