Not the best HR ever.

I had misremembered this sequence, and it's one of my favorite villain bits ever: I had thought the Skull had used the cigarette holder with the "red dust of death" and spit it in the poor accountants face, but he used a cane. Just from the casual meanness of this, even Crossbones looks dismayed. Weird, now that I look at it, Ms. Conrad looks like Peggy Hill.

From the Streets of Poison storyline in Captain America, written by Mark Gruenwald, art by Ron Lim. During this stretch, even though he had a skull face and was trying to bring down the government, the Red Skull was working out of an office building in Washington DC, probably with a hefty turnover in temps.

I also like Crossbones, because he's something you don't usually see in your comic-book super villains: a competent henchman. That's something I don't think I've ever seen for say, Dr. Doom, Lex Luthor, R'as Al Ghul, or the Joker. Skull must have a better interview process.