Brian Truitt

USA TODAY

The Red Skull doesn't like petting puppies or contributing to charities. In fact, the guy's elementally pure when it comes to being evil.

And the most irredeemable of all Marvel Comics supervillains is more dangerous than ever in the upcoming event series Avengers & X-Men: AXIS. Marvel hosts a panel discussing the major new story line as well as other news Saturday at the Special Edition: NYC comic-book convention at New York's Javits Center.

Written by Rick Remender,AXIS runs nine issues over three months starting in October and crosses over into several Marvel titles including Iron Man, Magneto, Loki: Agent of Asgard and Remender's own Captain America and Uncanny Avengers comics.

The nihilistic Red Skull, a bad guy with Nazi roots who has been battling Cap in comics since 1941, has had parts of Charles Xavier's mind and telepathic powers sewn onto his own brain. The Skull also has harnessed the physical and psychic force of the behemoth Onslaught — an entity created from the personas of Xavier and Magneto — to enslave thousands of people and cause chaos by broadcasting messages of hate globally.

Remender's Uncanny Avengers book has featured Avengers and X-Men putting aside years of differences "to reconcile and become friends and (enjoy) high-fives and hugs and cuddles," he says. Now, with the coming of a supersized Red Skull, "they have to deal with a threat that is ultimately too big for them to contend with even working together."

Marvel executive editor Tom Brevoort describes AXIS as "kind of a Michael Bay movie. It's big and spectacular and has a ton of full-out bombast."

But there are also themes of brotherhood and love, he says. "What we get is a story with a whole lot of heart that focuses on these characters' interpersonal relationships. And, of course, breaking some hearts and ruining some lives."

AXIS is told over a trio of three-issue acts that lead to changes for the heroes that will be "lasting and natural and additive,'' Remender says.

"It's a nice cathartic chapter in the history of the Avengers and X-Men at the worst moment in their lives. Writing it, there were a couple of moments where I banged on my desk and said, 'Yes! Yay, nerd!' and I got excited for it."

Brevoort promises that readers will see different sides of many characters that have never been seen before, from the good guys to the vast array of villains. Plus, many factions will rise, including a group calling itself Axis.

Iron Man plays a key role in AXIS and is in for a status-quo change, Remender says. "The Red Skull has seen things that Tony Stark is capable of, and seen value in them."

The large ensemble cast also includes Cap, Thor, Luke Cage, Storm, Deadpool, the Inhumans' Medusa, Havok, Kid Apocalypse and Quentin Quire on the Avengers/X-Men side. Doctor Doom, Enchantress, Absorbing Man, Carnage, Hobgoblin and Sabretooth come to the fore among the antagonists.

Compared to the Red Skull, all those baddies seem reasonable and much preferable, Brevoort says.

Most Marvel villains have some sort of nobility that is undercut by their tragic flaws, he says. But not the Red Skull, who "is pretty much black all the way in, and the deeper you go, the blacker it gets. The Skull is really all about grinding other people under his boot heel.''