The Red Skull and Baron Helmut Zemo were each always presented as Alpha Nazis. That cannot have made for collegial relations.
Has any writer really explored that?
The Red Skull and Baron Helmut Zemo were each always presented as Alpha Nazis. That cannot have made for collegial relations.
Has any writer really explored that?
I don't recall anything, but I do not have an encyclopedic knowledge of Cap. I do know the higher-ups in the Nazi party had many disagreements and power struggles among themselves through the period of the reich. It makes sense to me that "alpha" nazis like Skull and Zemo would be the same, provided, of course, they were loyal to hitler.
Going by this cover...
...Nick Spencer seems to have touched on it to some degree.
From what I remember growing up, RS and the WWII Zemo (Strucker) were top Nazi agents, and professional rivals as is often the case w. top guys in an organization, but they weren’t out to get each other or anything. I believe RS even helped Zemo escape Germany when Zemo was in need of a getaway.
It prob. helped that RS was a Captain America villain and Zemo fought Nick Fury the most; it made for minimal overlap in agendas.
In modern times the various Zemos were more associated w. Hydra while RS usually did his own thing.
Baron Von Strucker and Baron Heinrich Zemo (the WWII one) are separate characters. Strucker was the one Skull helped escape Germany since he foresaw Hitler's loss and wanted Strucker to set up a new powerbase outside Germany, Red Skull had Zemo try and steal an experimental plane in England, which lead to Captain America being fozen and Bucky's "death".