Sin (Marvel Comics)

Sin
Cover art for Captain America vol. 5 #28; Sin is in the foreground. Art by Steve Epting.
Publication information
Publisher	Marvel Comics
First appearance	Captain America #290 (February 1984; as Mother Superior) Captain America #612 (January 2011; as Red Skull)
Created by	J.M. DeMatteis (writer) Paul Neary (artist)
In-story information
Alter ego	Sinthea Schmidt
Team affiliations	Sisters of Sin Serpent Squad The Worthy
Partnerships	Crossbones
Notable aliases	Mother Superior, Red Skull, Sister Sin, Erica Holstein, Skadi: Herald of the "Serpent"
Abilities	Expert hand to hand combatant and martial artist Highly skilled markswoman High-level intellect (As Mother Superior): Telepathy Telekinesis Teleportation Intangibility

Sin (Sinthea Schmidt) is a fictional supervillain appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. The character is the daughter of the Red Skull and an enemy of Captain America.

Publication history

Sin first appeared in Captain America #290 (Feb 1984), and was created by J.M. DeMatteis and Paul Neary.

Fictional character biography

Sin (left and middle) being aged into adulthood as Mother Superior (right). Art by Paul Neary.

Seeking an heir, the Red Skull (Johann Schmidt) fathered a daughter with a washerwoman. After the woman died in childbirth, the Red Skull angrily almost killed the child due to being a girl. But follower Susan Scarbo convinced not to, telling him she would raise the girl herself as her nanny. The Red Skull agreed and left the girl now named "Sinthea Schmidt" with Scarbo to be raised and indoctrinated with the Red Skull's views as she grew up. Red Skull returned when Sinthea was a child and put her in a machine that had her aged into adulthood and gave her superhuman powers.^[1]

As Mother Superior, she became the leader of a group called the "Sisters of Sin", young orphan girls who were accelerated into adulthood and given psionic powers by the Red Skull after being indoctrinated by Sinthea. The Sisters of Sin would have many run-ins with Captain America (Steve Rogers) before being de-aged when they entered a chamber designed to reverse the Red Skull's aging process and they were restored to children (she would later claim she was deaged to the wrong age - but whether this is true is unclear).

Later, Mother Night reformed the Sisters of Sin and became their new leader, while the deaged Sinthea herself took the name Sister Sin.

Sometime later, she was captured by S.H.I.E.L.D. and taken to their reeducation facility where they reprogrammed her with false memories as the "normal" American girl Erica Holstein. After the Red Skull was seemingly assassinated by the Winter Soldier under Aleksander Lukin's orders, Crossbones broke into the facility, kidnapped and tortured her to break the reprogramming. After he succeeded, she simply calls herself "Sin" while she entered into a relationship with Crossbones and the two went on a killing spree. She later reunited with the Red Skull while her father was living inside Lukin's mind.^[2]

As the first part of the Red Skull's Master Plan, Sin disguised herself as a nurse after the Civil War while Crossbones sniped Captain America at the courthouse, even though it meant obeying her father and abandoning Crossbones to his fate. Sin then revealed to Sharon Carter that Carter was the one who had killed Cap. Now the leader of a new incarnation of the Serpent Squad, Sin breaks Crossbones out of jail. He is later apprehended again, and Sin wounded in an attempt to break into the Capitol Building. Sin is later sent to assassinate the Democratic and Republican presidential candidates, but is stopped by Captain America (Bucky Barnes).^[3] In Captain America: Reborn, Sin attempts to assist Norman Osborn to put her father in Steve Rogers's body, however, she is injured by the explosion of her father's mechanical body and her face is hideously scarred.^[4]

She is later visited in prison by Helmut Zemo for information on Bucky.^[5] Sometime later, Master Man sprung her from prison, prompting her to take her place as the new "Red Skull".^[6] She delivers a video to the media recorded three months before Barnes's trial, declaring that the reformed hero wasn't brainwashed but was an accomplice and fully aware of these actions. She along with Master Man are later seen on Ellis Island where she pretends to blow up the Statue of Liberty with Falcon and Black Widow tied up and gagged inside, unless Bucky is delivered to her.

During the Fear Itself storyline, Sin, with Baron Zemo's help, unearths the Hammer of Skadi and becomes Skadi in order to free the Serpent: God of Fear from his underwater prison. Sin vows to do what her father failed to do in taking over the world.^[7] She succeeds in her mission in freeing the Serpent and then prepares an army of Nazis to take over the D.C. Capital.^[8] During their battle in Washington, D.C., Skadi mortally wounds the current Captain America.^[9] In the final battle, Skadi battles Rogers. Thor gives Rogers the hammer Mjolnir to make up for the loss of the shield. Thor manages to kill the Serpent and Odin strips the Worthy of their hammers, causing Sin to lose Skadi's powers. This leaves Sin incapacitated.^[10]

Sin later returns as one of the villains working alongside Zemo as part of a plot to forcibly sterilize the human race. She battles Captain America (Sam Wilson) and apparently falls to her death after refusing to allow the hero to save her from an explosion.^[11]

After meeting the mysterious Korbik who was created from a shard of the Cosmic Cube, Sin's face was restored to normal.^[12] At the end of the Avengers: Standoff! storyline, Sin was with Red Skull's clone when he re-establishes HYDRA with Crossbones.^[13]

When Jane Foster is forced to step down from her role on the Congress of the Nine Realms by Cul Borrson, the twisted god attempts to nominate Sin as Midgard's new representative, but Jane has already appointed SHIELD agent Roz Solomon as her replacement.

During the Secret Empire storyline, Sin and Crossbones are shown to be in charge of a super-prison that was established by Hydra. Their super-prison was raided by the Underground in their mission to free their captive friends.^[14]

Powers and abilities

Sin appears to have no superhuman abilities but being trained by her father, the Red Skull, through which she is an expert hand-to-hand combatant and martial artist. She is also highly proficient in firearms and explosives, and has a high-level intellect.

As Mother Superior, Sin possessed a range of superhuman powers including telepathy, telekinesis, teleportation and intangibility. After she was de-aged, she apparently lost these powers completely - unlike the other "Sisters of Sin", whose powers were diminished but not eliminated upon de-aging. The reason for this discrepancy has never been revealed.

As wielder of the Hammer of Skadi, Sin as "Skadi" could fly or propel herself through water at great speeds. She could also release large amounts of electricity and energy from the hammer and teleport herself to other places. The hammer could also be used as a blunt-force melee weapon or as a throwing projectile. She eventually lost these powers after the Hammer was apprehended.

In other media

References