Hello fellow CBMers! Resident CBMer LP4 here to make an article different from my usual ones. This time I will examine two popular supervillains- one from Marvel and the other from DC.
RED SKULL
Powers and Abilities:
Cloned body of Captain America (including the Super-Soldier formula);
skilled hand-to-hand combatant, strategic genius, political mastermind, expert marksman
(Maxon's) Skilled saboteur, hand-to-hand combatant, marksman
(Malik's) Strategic master, political master
(Earth Cosmic Red Skull/Johan Schmidt) Genius level Intellect, Expert Combatant, Regenerative. a fine unarmed combatant and master of disguise. He possesses a keen mind at military, political, corporate and subversive strategies. The Red Skull's most infamous weapon was his so-called "dust of death."
LEX LUTHOR
Powers and Abilities:
Genius-level Intellect, Power-suit enables- super strength, durability, flight, force field generation all across the armor and seemingly unprotected head from the torso of the powered armor, Kryptonite energy blasts, energy blade in right gauntlet.
Blue energy blasts from left gauntlet (which went clean through Starfire's right shoulder), super strength and durability, and energy shield in the left gauntlet.
Flight at super speed due to jets in boots, and electrical surge generated across armor by pressing button on left palm.
I left out most of Lex Luthor's other abilities from the battlesuit since most of the other attacks revolve around the use of different colored Kryptonites and obviously kryptonite is useless against Red Skull.
So CBM, who wins this battle? Personally my vote goes to Lex. All bias aside, let's not forget from the book "Public Enemeies" Lex PWN'd both Superman and Batman simultaneously with his battlesuit on. I know Red Skull is tough and all but I don't see him being able to take down Superman/Batman the way Lex did. Plus, Lex has also experimented on himself with super-soldier type of liquids in his body and he's taken down Batman! Batman and Cap are almost on par with each other (slight edge to Cap America though) I'd say both are nearly-equal intellect-wise...but Lex Luthor being a level-12 intellect gives him the edge. Physicality wise...in a hand-to-hand fight I'm giving a slight-edge to Lex. Without the battle-suit I'd say Red Skull definitely.