Featuring: Captain America
Release: May 19, 1954
Cover: September 1954
10 cents
By: John Romita
6 pages
Well, that didn’t last long. After getting his old series back with issue 76, it’s cancelled with issue 78. Something about “Captain America… Commie Smasher!” didn’t resonate with audiences the way anti-Nazi propaganda had a decade earlier.
Captain America fights Electro. Not to be confused with the Spider-Man villain who will be introduced a decade later. Or the robotic superhero introduced 15 years earlier. (Of course, the only reason we are reading this story is to cover our bases and meet all the Electros.)
The opening splash has a lot of detail. The sign in the background was at first confusing, but makes sense within the story. That appears to be a fireman checking out the battle.
A Soviet notes Captain America’s weakness is his affection for Bucky.
I’m reminded of a great quote from Usagi Yojimbo, the samurai rabbit epic by Stan Sakai: “What fools we have in this world– to have mistaken honor as weakness.”
The comic is short, the battle dull, the anti-communist propaganda tiresome.
So let’s talk about the artist. Let’s talk about John Romita. He is one of my all-time favorite comic artists, though not necessarily for his work on this particular comic. Captain America was really his first big break after a couple years working for Marvel. He’ll soon move to DC and find his niche with the romance genre and really make a name for himself. He’ll then move on from comics to advertising. It will be Stan Lee who entices him to come back and try another superhero comic, more than a decade after his work on Captain America. We’ll be seeing him again soon enough in our reading.
Well, I plan to cover the final story from this issue as well, also by Romita. So technically we’ll see him again very soon, but we’ll also see him in our modern Marvel reading when we get there.
Fast forward 30 years and his son, John Romita Jr., will also become a favorite comic artist of mine. Here’s a father/son collaboration from Amazing Spider-Man #400 (1995).
The image below is from Heart Throbs #63 (1959), published by the Distinguished Competition. You can see Romita’s art improved by leaps and bounds in the 5 years separating these comics.
(With thanks to https://truelovecomicstales.blogspot.com/ for the scan)
Rating: ★★☆☆☆, 39/100
I read this story in Marvel Masterworks: Atlas Era Heroes vol. 2. You can also find it on Kindle.
Characters:
- Captain America
- Bucky
- Electro
Story notes:
- Electro created by Soviet scientists to be able to defeat Captain America.
- Electro’s powers last for 24 hours, then he needs recharging.
- Electro smuggled into America; lands on Long Island.
Next post: PRELUDE: Captain America #78, Story D
Next in order: Avengers #4
Previous post: PRELUDE: Captain America #76
Previous in order: Tales to Astonish #55, Story B
Great comic. Far better than your jaded review which seems born largely of ignorance of the era and comic books in general. The Timely superhero revival of the ’50s was great stuff.