RAFE MICHEL
Real Name: Rafe Michel
Identity/Class: Human
Occupation: Criminal, gang leader
Group Membership: Leader of the Silver Skulls; formerly People's Militia
Affiliations: Aries
(Grover Raymond), Lucifer,
Morgan, Ultra-Robots;
formerly Red Skull (aka. the Man, Johann Shmidt), Leila Taylor
Enemies: Bucky (Jack Monroe), Captain America (William Burnside), Captain America (Steve Rogers), Sharon Carter, Falcon (Sam Wilson), Reverend Leon Garcia, NYPD (Commissioner Nathan Martin, Sgt. Brian Muldoon, others), Redwing, Leila Taylor
Known Relatives: None
Aliases: Brother Michel, Lucifer
Base of Operations: Harlem in New York City, New York
First Appearance: Captain America I#143 (August, 1971)
Powers/Abilities: Rafe Michel was a bigoted, small-time criminal and loudmouth, who preached hatred against white people, whom he blamed for everything bad, while harming his own community with his criminal actions. He was not much of a fighter, only showed courage with a crowd behind him and cowardly fled when given the opportunity.
While his body was "fused" with Lucifer's essence, Rafe could fire ionic blasts, project force fields (rendering him bulletproof) and possessed superhuman strength and the ability to fly. After Lucifer split his essence between two hosts, Rafe's body only retained the superhuman strength. Rafe retained his thoughts and will while being "fused" with Lucifer, but was in constant telepathic contact with Lucifer. He wore a duplicate of Lucifer's costume during their fusion.
Height: Unrevealed (he was sitting in a chair)
Weight: Unrevealed (seemed slightly out of shape)
Eyes: Unrevealed
Hair: Brown
History:
(Captain America I#161 (fb) - BTS) - Three years ago Rafe founded the
Silver Skulls street gang in Harlem. He called them out to deal with
people he really hated.
(Captain America I#143 (fb) - BTS) - Rafe had some interaction with Sam Wilson aka. the Falcon before and they didn't like each other at all.
At some point Rafe joined the People's Militia.
(Captain America I#143) - Rafe attended a People's Militia meeting and got in the face of Sam Wilson, who had been brought there by Leila Taylor. They nearly came to blows with each other, but Leila stopped them because the Man had arrived to give them their marching orders for their black revolution. Rafe and the others lapped up the Man's word and were ready to burn Harlem to the ground and then go after white people where they lived. Rafe had no time for Sam's wish to hear the other side. Rafe and a few other man beat Sam up after he failed to expose the masked Man and his cronies, who then tossed him back into the crowd.
(Captain America I#143 - BTS) - Leila convinced Rafe and the others to let Sam go and not beat him to death.
(Captain America I#143) - Rafe and the others took Sam across town in a truck and tossed him out the back in front of Steve Rogers and Sharon Carter.
Leila later checked up on Sam, but he was still mad at her for setting him up, so she joined Rafe, who picked her up in a car to bring her to the front lines. Leila and Rafe were going to warn the Man when Captain America and the Falcon arrived at the abandoned warehouse the People's Militia was using as their headquarter. They were shocked when the two heroes took on the Man's bodyguards, but even more when they were exposed as white. The worst thing for Rafe, Leila and the others of the People's Militia was when the Man revealed himself to be none other than the Red Skull, who had been using them to incite a race war in the streets of New York. Red Skull tried to trap Cap, Falcon, Leila and Rafe inside metal walls, but Cap used his shield to block the wall long enough for Leila and Rafe to escape. Rafe and Leila then rushed to the Boys' Club to tell the People's Militia that they had been duped by the Red Skull. After the situation calmed down, Rafe and Leila approached Commissioner Nathan Martin and Rafe told him that the People's Militia's violence was over for the moment. Rafe told the People's Militia to leave because they needed to think about their next move, but Leila went to Sam Wilson instead.
(Captain America I#151) - Falcon approached a boy he had recently saved, but Rafe told the boys not to talk to Falcon because he was a sellout. The children listened to Brother Michel, who then directly told Falcon what he thought of him. Falcon left in anger and told Rafe that he was lucky to not get beat up.
(Captain America I#153) - Falcon saw Leila and Rafe embracing on a nearby fire escape while flying by. Falcon didn't understand why his girlfriend was with Rafe again and later confronted her only to learn that Captain America (actually the 1950s Captain America/William Burnside) had apparently been attacking people in Harlem and she was angry at Sam because he was doing nothing against it.
(Captain America I#154) - Jody, Sam's nephew, and a friend of his saw Falcon getting beat up and kidnapped by Captain America and Bucky. The two boys ran back home to get help and approached Leila and Rafe because they believed Rafe could help. They told them what had happened, but Rafe didn't want to help Falcon. Leila and a few others then convinced Rafe that Falcon was actually doing a lot of good work for Harlem. Rafe relented and promised to get a few people together to help save Falcon and Leila joined him.
Rafe and his crew found out that Falcon was kept at Tyler's warehouse and went there. Rafe knocked on the door and claimed to be a building inspector. Bucky opened the door and got quickly laid out by Rafe and his men. Captain America tried to flee with Falcon, who was still bound to a chair, but turned back to attack Rafe and his men because one of them called him a coward. Falcon freed himself and tackled Cap through a railing, but Cap fell on top of Falcon and escaped with Bucky. Falcon thanked Rafe and the others, but Rafe only mocked him for only being able to win a fight with a battalion behind him. The others ignored Rafe and sided with Falcon, including Leila, but Falcon had no time for her because he had to find the phony Captain America. Before leaving he told the others to tell the people of Harlem that the Captain America attacking them was not the real deal.
(Captain America I#160) - Rafe was walking the street with Leila and Falcon was furious when he saw them together. He told Leila that it was over between them while Rafe made it clear that Leila was his girl. Leila had enough of Rafe and walked over to Falcon, who told Rafe that he was just a blind bigot behind his shades and that he had enough of Rafe mouthing off to him. After Falcon and Leila were gone, Rafe declared in front of a crowd that he would get his revenge on Falcon for this.
(Captain America I#161) - Rafe and his Silver Skulls attacked Falcon and Leila during a walk in the early morning hours. He threatened to stab Falcon for taking his girl, but Falcon fought back and pulled one gang member in front of him to avoid getting stabbed and then tossed the man at Rafe. Falcon and Redwing then dealt with the other gang members, but Rafe picked up his knife again and jumped Falcon from behind. Falcon turned around at the last moment and punched Rafe in the face, knocking off Rafe's glasses in the process.
(Captain America I#177) - Rafe and two fellow crooks broke into a deli store at night through the back door to steal the owner's weekly income, but Rafe accidentally tripped the alarm. A police officer was immediately after them, but Rafe and his crew tried to escape through the front door. They ran into the extraterrestrial Lucifer, who offered them an alliance and attacked more arriving police because he didn't want to get arrested either. The foursome fought the police, but Falcon arrived aid the authorities. Lucifer suddenly noticed that he was growing weaker and that his form was drawn back to the Nameless Dimension because his body's composition had been changed by the chemicals in the food. To remain on Earth, Lucifer grabbed Rafe and merged with him, transforming them both into a fused duplicate of Lucifer. Lucifer's spirit was now in control of Rafe's body and took off into the sky.
Lucifer soon noticed that his power was too much for Rafe's body to contain and was quickly burning it out. He freed Zodiac member Aries from prison and split his essence to merge with Aries as well, turning him into a second Lucifer duplicate. Falcon tried to stop the duo, but they were too powerful for him. Some guy in a car then brought them to Boss Morgan, who hired them to kill Falcon.
(Captain America I#178) - Lucifer (Rafe) and Lucifer (Aries) went after Falcon, but failed to take him out because when Lucifer split his essence between Rafe and Aries, they only retained his superhuman strength. They returned to Boss Morgan with excuses, but Lucifer (Aries) had a solution, which Lucifer (Rafe) didn't like at all because he didn't want Lucifer (Aries) to speak for both of them. Lucifer (Rafe) was hit by a stinging headache, but Lucifer (Aries) believed that Lucifer (Rafe) just needed to control his temper. Boss Morgan didn't care and let the Lucifers return to the hidden laboratory, which Lucifer had used in the past. The Lucifers activated the Ultra-Robots, hidden away in the lab, and used them to attack Harlem to draw out Falcon. They watched as their plan succeeded, but Lucifer (Rafe)'s head was hurting again. They defeated Falcon this time around, but Captain America (wearing a ski mask) saved him and then took out the Ultra-Robots. Lucifer (Rafe) grabbed Cap from behind, but suddenly collapsed due to excruciating pain in his head. Lucifer (Aries) didn't care because he believed Lucifer (Rafe) had just been holding him back, but Lucifer (Rafe) reminded him that they were connected and because Lucifer's powers were too much for Rafe's body, they both died and Lucifer's energy returned to the Nameless Dimension.
(Iron Man Annual 1999 (fb) - BTS) - Years later Rafe's corpse was dug up by Count Nefaria, who drained the remnants of his ionic energy (from the time he was a host to Lucifer).
Comments: Created by Gary Friedrich & John Romita Sr.
His first name was revealed in Captain America I#143 while his last name was revealed in Captain America I#151.
This profile was completed on 08/23/2026, but its publication was delayed as it was intended for the Appendix 25th anniversary event.
Profile by Markus Raymond.
CLARIFICATIONS:
Rafe Michel has no known connections to:
images:
Captain America I#154, p9, pan5 (main)
Captain America I#177, p9, pan8 (head shot)
Captain America I#143, p11, pan4 (no welfare checks needed)
Captain America I#143, p28, pan2 (time to split)
Captain America I#161, p6, pan3 (knife fighter)
Captain America I#161, p8, pan7 (glasses knocked off)
Captain America I#177, p16, pan2 (as Lucifer)
Appearances:
Captain America I#143 (November, 1971) - Gary Friedrich (writer), John
Romita Sr. (artist), Stan Lee (editor)
Captain America I#151 (July, 1972) - Gerry Conway (writer), Sal Buscema
(pencils), Vince Colletta (inks), Stan Lee (editor)
Captain America I#153 (September, 1972) - Steve Englehart (writer), Sal
Buscema (pencils), Jim Mooney (inks), Roy Thomas (editor)
Captain America I#154 (October, 1972) - Steve Englehart (writer), Sal
Buscema (pencils), John Verpoorten (inks), Roy Thomas (editor)
Captain America I#160 (April, 1973) - Steve Englehart (writer), Sal
Buscema (pencils), Frank McLaughlin (inks), Roy Thomas (editor)
Captain America I#161 (May, 1973) - Steve Englehart (writer), Sal
Buscema (pencils), John Verpoorten (inks), Roy Thomas (editor)
Captain America I#177 (September, 1974) - Steve Englehart (writer), Sal
Buscema (pencils), Vince Colletta (inks), Roy Thomas (editor)
Captain America I#178 (October, 1974) - Steve Englehart (writer), Sal
Buscema (pencils), Vince Colletta (inks), Roy Thomas (editor)
Iron Man Annual 1999 (August, 1999) - Kurt Busiek (co-plot), Joe Casey
(co-plot/writer), Terry Shoemaker (pencils/inks), Bud LaRosa (inks),
Bobbie Chase (editor)
First Posted: 09/02/2026
Last updated: 11/06/2025
Any Additions/Corrections? please let me know.
Non-Marvel
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