Featuring: Captain America
Release: February 11, 1944
Cover: April 1944
10 cents
15 pages
| Previous | Next | |
|---|---|---|
| Young Allies #4 | Prelude | Captain America Comics #61 |
| Sgt. Fury #16 | Reading order | Tales of Suspense #65 |
The GCD credits the story to Otto Binder, Al Gabriele, and Vince Alascia.
Mostly a miscellaneous story we won’t dwell on. Three things stand out.
First, we note all clues about the identity of the Red Skull. He’s taken to using more German phrases than ever before. “Himmel”, “Donnervetter”. He refers to Captain America and Bucky as “American scum”. So perhaps this is a German villain, and not George Maxon.
Captain America and Bucky unmask him and recognize him as the “real” Red Skull they’ve fought before. This also implicitly acknowledges there may be “fake” Red Skulls out there.
The big “however” is that this Red Skull doesn’t recognize Steve Rogers, when he learned Rogers’ identity in the last Captain America story. This strongly suggests a different Red Skull (or poor keeping of continuity on the writer’s part). But then why does Captain America recognize his face if not the other way around?
The other kind of cool thing is that they find a hidden tropical jungle in Antarctica. There’s conflicting evidence about whether they are in the Arctic or Antarctic, as both words are used. The presence of an Eskimo woman suggests the North, but Red Skull clearly identifies the Aurora Australis, which suggests the South.
Why that’s cool is that 20 years later, the X-Men will find a hidden tropical jungle in Antarctica. They meet Ka-Zar there and battle dinosaurs. No dinosaurs in this issue, but it stands to reason this is the same hidden jungle the X-Men eventually come to. How many hidden tropical jungles in Antarctica can there be?
I’d argue this is the first appearance of that jungle, except that some chronologists trace it back even earlier, at least to a hidden Antarctic jungle introduced in a Vision story in Marvel Mystery Comics #22 from 1941.
Red Skull appears soon after this story in All Winners Comics #12. We’ll skip ahead to his next Captain America appearance, issue 61 from 1947.
We’ll note of All Winners #12 that this is the last wartime appearance of the Red Skull, and even though it’s only 1944, Red Skull has already accepted Germany is about to lose the war, and has turned his attention to establishing a Nazi stronghold in America, to “nazifying” America.
Rating: ★★☆☆☆, 38/100
Characters:
- Captain America/Steve Rogers
- Bucky
- Red Skull
- Sgt. Duffy
Story notes:
- Red Skull uses German expressions.
- Set in hidden tropical jungle in Antarctica.
- Death trap involves knife that lowers as you breathe.
- Eskimo girl only worked with Red Skull because her father was a prisoner.
- Captain America positively identifies him as “real Red Skull”.
- Red Skull does not recognize Steve Rogers.
| Previous | Next | |
|---|---|---|
| Young Allies #4 | Prelude | Captain America Comics #61 |
| Sgt. Fury #16 | Reading order | Tales of Suspense #65 |
