A Red Skull Is Not Enough (Updated)

For her part, Wanda intends to throw herself on the magical hand grenade, absorbing the rage so that there is none left to slosh over onto her friends. She will even draw it from the Red Skull himself. She will protect, if it is the last thing she does. Then, she will meet Thanos face-to-face, and, if he truly wishes to meet Death, she will oblige him.

Both the Scarlet Witch and the Red Skull are touching the Wrath Stone, so they both get to command it. Their commands are not contradictory: the Skull wants to explode everything with red fire and the Witch wants to absorb the red fire.

So a very large quantity of red destroying flame explodes out of the Stone and Wanda absorbs it all. She even steals the red flame within the Red Skull, robbing him of his rage for probably the first time in his adult life.

Storm directs the Purple Energy of the Heart of the Universe at the Red Skull, hoping to touch whatever is making him so vengeful and full of ire.

To the extent that character is the product of past events, Wanda sees where the Red Skull's anger comes from. A pathetic weak boy overshadowed by a drunken father, Johann Schmidt sought power in science over those who were bigger and stronger than he was. Promoted to high rank by Hitler himself, who saw in Schmidt's smoldering drive an echo of his own generalized fury, Schmidt eventually founded Hydra, shaping it in his own image. So while Tony Stark did indeed invent the weapon which wrecked Wanda's family, it was Schmidt, the Red Skull, who made Hydra into the organization which twisted the Maximoff twins into the tortured warriors they became.

But some of Schmidt's wrath was always there, before the experiences which bent his outward behavior. Are some men born bad? Seeing him from the inside, two women can now testify that, yes, some men are born with the potential, indeed the overwhelming liklihood, of becoming Very Bad Indeed.

And yet ... he could have resisted his inborn temperament. Instead, he reveled in it. So for all which the Red Skull has done, all the vengeance he has earned, the man behind the mask, the real Johann Schmidt, must take the blame.

Or so it appears, at any rate, to the Scarlet Witch, who holds his life in her hand!

The rage-fire consumes Wanda utterly in a whirlwind of flame. But the Wrath Stone is actuated by anger, not necessarily by a healthy hand or an intact body. So it endures, as does its holder.

Her limbs crackle like burning logs. Her hair is a riotous red holocaust. Her eyes blaze scarlet and her dress whips about like rippling waves from a torch held high! Wanda Maximoff, daughter, sister, soldier, Avenger, is gone, but in her place stands a being of fire and passion, truly the Scarlet Witch in form as well as in name!

Fire must burn out. But it doesn't want to.

The Red Skull would pale in terror if his seared skin could still do so. Illuminated by the purple light of the Heartstone, he sees what he has become, standing before him. His victims merely saw a Red Skull -- he is confronted by an entire Red Skeleton, clothed in fire and fury!

He would faint, but Storm's benison prevents even that escape.

Behind Storm, Star-Lord moans faintly:

"My coat ... the tape. I can't die ... I have to get it ..."

He clutches his chest with both hands, trying to hold himself in for one more moment.

".. to my Dad."

Captain Mar-Vell glides to a stop beside Star-Lord. Around him, the green data of the Genetic Archives mirror the blond superhero, his face reflected in thousands of curved stones.

He looks down at Star-Lord, shifting from his reflection to the face of the young man dying on the floor.

"It's all right, son," says Mar-Vell. "I'm here."