In the very first issue of Captain America Comics (March 1941), Captain America battled The Red Skull, a super villain that had been recruited by Adolf Hitler himself. A former bellhop in a hotel frequented by the Third Reich, Johann Schmidt happened to be present when Hitler was berating one of his officers. Hitler turned to Schmidt and, on a whim, suggested that he could train this simple bellhop to be a better Nazi than the officer. Hitler then took a good look at Schmidt and, recognizing his dark inner nature, decided to actually take up the challenge of transforming the young bellhop into a special operative for the Third Reich. Schmidt eventually emerged from his training as the Red Skull -- a deadly villain who wore a grotesque red skull mask to intimidate his enemies. He would go on to become Captain America's arch-enemy. Near the end of World War II, the Red Skull was trapped under the rubble of a bombed building, but the experimental gas he was exposed to there somehow put him in a state of suspended animation. During modern times, he was revived by Hydra, a terrorist organization.