A character has aSkull for a Head. This may be because the character is a supernatural being, or due to some disfigurement that makes their headlook like a skull. Occasionally used to make a robot look menacing, with a skull instead of a head.

In all cases of this trope, therest of the body is relatively normal (i.e., not ananimated skeleton.)

See alsoDem Bones,Skeletons in the Coat Closet.

Comic Books

• Ghost Rider has one that'son fire.
  • Dormammu, also from theMarvel Universe, has aFlaming Skull head as well, albeit his isn't quite as skull-like.
• Judge Mortis inJudge Dredd has a cow skull for a head.
• There's a demon inThe Grievous Journey of Ichabod Azrael (and the Dead Left in his Wake) who commandsCharon, and also has a cow's skull for a head.
• Bludgeon inTransformers tends to have this; inG1 it's just the face of his Pretender shell, but themovie version has this as his main robot head.
• While the original character was just a guy in a mask, some versions ofCaptain America (comics)'sArch Enemy theRed Skull qualify:
  • After having his consciousness transferred into a cloned duplicate of Captain America's body, the original Red Skull accidentally inhaled a dose of his own "Dust of Death" - a chemical similar in effect toJoker Venom. Ordinarily, the Red Skull's dust kills its victim, while also transforming the head into a red skull. In this case, due to his cloned body's Super-Soldier Serum, the Skull didn't die, but merely gained anactual red skull for a face.
  • The Red Skull's daughter, Sin, suffered a similar fate, but her face looks like a red skull due to relatively "normal" disfigurement - an explosion and severe burn damage.
• Death's Head, afreelance peacekeeping agent who appeared in Marvel'sTransformers andDoctor Who comics.
• Borderline example: theDoom Patrol archvillain the Brain is aBrain In a Jar perched atop a chess piece-like pedestal. The upper portion of the pedestal is designed to look like a skull.
• Batman villain the Black Mask originally just wore an obsidian mask, but an accident disfigured his head and caused it to look like a blackened skull.
• In theHellboy-verse, a Nazi supervillain known as The Black Flame had a skull wreathed in black fire. Decades later, one Mr. Pope from Zinco Enterprises takes up the mantle of The Black Flame; he wears a skull-shaped helmet.
• The Blue Knight ofAstro City wears a face mask that projects a holographic skull.
• OneWhat If story showed a world whereCaptain America came into being during theAmerican Civil War when Native American magic gave skinny Union soldier Steve Rogers a body to match his heart. His racist commander "Bucky" Barnes was likewise affected by the spell, turning his head into a fleshless skull and causing him to become the villain White Skull.
• Skully/Cranicola of Brazilian comicMonica's Bug-a-booo is an extreme case: he's a skull that lost its body and lies atop a rock.
• PS238 hasCrystal Skull - a reformed supervillain. We don't know (yet) whether it's a mask, graft, shapeshifting or he always looks like this.

Film

• Time Bandits. Evil's minions include tall humanoid creatures with giant claws for hands and cow skulls for heads. As seenhere.
• TheMarvel Cinematic Universe version of theRed Skull had his previously normal face transformed into a literal red skull due to infusing himself with an incomplete Super Soldier Serum.
• Elis Helrot, a member of theGivin species, can be seen in the cantina scene inStar Wars:A New Hope.

Literature

• General Grievous from theStar WarsExpanded Universe—his head/helmet generally resembles a skull.
• The Headless Horseman inSleepy Hollow, albeit briefly.
• Skulduggery Pleasant
• Arguably,Bob the Skull.
  • And inGhost Story,Evil Bob. Specifically, when Harry and the Lecter Ghosts assault the Nevernever entrance to Corpsetaker's lair, Evil Bob takes the form of a Nazi SS officer with a skull for a head.
• The Phantom of the Opera, beforeAdaptational Attractiveness set in.

Live-Action TV

• Monty Python's Flying Circus. In a sketch about a hospital for overacting, there's a brief animation of actors portraying Hamlet giving his "To be or not to be" speech. At one point they pull the flesh off their heads, leaving them with only their skulls on their shoulders.
• The Master does this in theDoctor Who finaleThe End of Time. Due to an accident during his resurrection, he's burning up life-energy faster than he can take it in, which results in his skull showing through his skin. He had a skull-like face earlier, in "The Deadly Assassin," but it applies even more here, because the Tenth Doctor even calls him "Skeletor."
• There is an episode ofBoy Meets World where the gang is in detention and being stalked by a killer who wears a skull mask.
• Kamen Rider Skull fromKamen Rider Double
• Emperor Gruumm fromPower Rangers SPD

Oral Tradition, Folklore, Myths and Legends

• Older Than Print: The godsCihuacoatl and Mictlantecuhtli, in Aztec artwork, each have a form where they have a skull for a head.

Music

• In the section of"Weird Al" Yankovic's 2024 release"Polkamania!" where he coversLil Nax X's "Old Town Road", the "performer" is a cowboy with a skull for a head.

New Media

• A popular game onFacebook calledWar Metal has a character appropriately called Skullkeeper who fits this trope.

Tabletop Games

• Dungeons & Dragons.
  • 1st Edition
    • TheGambado from theField Folio supplement.
    • Module I12Egg of the Phoenix. The cleric MacKurian's dead body had a cow's skull attached to it. It is later changed into a revenant form and occupied by MacKurian's spirit, leading to the final confrontation with Doc.
  • One of more freakish monsters inForgotten Realms is "lichling". A 6" cockroach with human arms and legs and skull-for-a-head,feeding on the fear,immune to normal weapons and thushilariously lethal. It can slowly grow to 80' long, but is likely to be destroyed sooner. They're spawned by demiliches. In thousands.
• Space Marine Chaplains inWarhammer 40,000 have skull-designed helms.
• InBattleTech, the archetypal 100 ton assault mech, the Atlas, features a head stylized after a human skull.

Toys

• Shadow Tracker fromG.I. Joe (released in 2011) looks like a Predator expy, but is this trope once his mask is removed.
• TheHe-Man knock-off lineCombo Warriors has Satana, who has skin on the right-side of his face, but the left-side is a skull.

Video Games

• Some incarnations of Scorpion fromMortal Kombat depict him as having a flaming skull for a head.
  • Most other times, it's a non-flaming skull. It's never made clear whether this is a supernatural power of his or if thatis his actual head now.
  • Scorpion's fellow undead Noob Saibot has an alternate costume inMortal Kombat 4 that gives him one, too. Along with his shadow powers andSinister Scythe, it makes him look alot likeThe Grim Reaper.
• Duskull fromPokémon.
  • One can make a case for Marowak too: in its pre-evolutionary form as Cubone, it wears its mom's skull as a helmet. After it evolves, the skull's becomefused to its head.
• The normal form of the Mahjarrat inRuneScape is this when they haven't been rejuvenated for a while.
• Applies to every character inRaskulls, aside from the Pirats.
• Mumbo fromBanjo-Kazooie. According to his backstory, his head became a skull because he was placed under a magic spell by the evil witch Gruntilda, who was once his student.
• Murray fromMonkey Island. However, his skull is all that's left of him after Guybrush destroyed his boat.
• The Skullmonkeys and Klogg fromThe Neverhood.
• Like his namesake suggests, Skull Man fromMega Man 4.
• Mr. Bones fromBum Simulator.

Web Comics

• Lord English fromHomestuck has agreen skull for a head, natch.
• Various characters inCoga Suro2 adopt this look when activating their Immortal-given powers- their skin turns grey, their hair white, and their head into a grey skull that glows from within.

Western Animation

• Skeletor inHe Man and The Masters of The Universe. In the original series and its sequel, Skeletor was simply a guy whose head looked like a skull; in one episode ofThe New Adventures of He-Man we even see that he has some hair up top. In the 2002 series, however, Keldor's face was melted off by a vial of acid - his life was saved by Hordak, but at the cost of his head now being a skull floating above his shoulders.
• Justice League examples:
  • Dr. Destiny uses his powers of illusion to achieve this look. He reverts to a normal appearance when recovering from a punch to the face, and when he is finally defeated.
  • Atomic Skull also has a skull wrapped in green fire, which he could fire energy blasts from.
• Slade fromTeen Titans had this while acting asTrigon's undead servant, because in life he was burned to death by lava. As he kept it hidden behind his mask, however, it was only glimpsed a couple of times near the climax of that storyline.
• InThe Real Adventures of Jonny Quest, Ezekiel Rage usually gets the "Phantom of the Opera" motif, what with his face badly burned and him having to wear a white mask. His Questworld avatar, though (which we see in "The Edge of Yesterday"), actually has a skull for a head.
• Mr. Skullhead fromAnimaniacs.

• Trope
• Skull for a Head
• Head Tropes
• Skeletal Tropes