Featuring: Captain America
Release: July 4, 1949
Cover: October 1949
10 cents
Editorial Consultant: Jean Thompson, M.D., Psychiatrist
6 pages
| Previous | Next | |
|---|---|---|
| Captain America Comics #61 | Prelude | Young Men #24, Story B |
| Sgt. Fury #16 | Reading order | Tales of Suspense #65 |
No credits are given, except for Dr. Jean Thompson, the psychiatrist whose name assures parents this comic is okay for kids to read. Something I’m not even convinced about.
We saw her name before when we got to this time period in our Sub-Mariner reading. I don’t know a lot about her, and the internet isn’t telling me much. In attempting to search for information about her, my own blog was one of the top hits. And that was just me saying I don’t know much.
It’s 1949. Kids don’t read superhero comics anymore. They want horror comics now. Marvel tries to split the middle with Captain America. The title changes its name from Captain America Comics to Captain America’s Weird Tales. It opens with a horror-tinged Captain America story, and then continues as a pure horror anthology: “The Frozen Ghost!”; “The Thing in the Swamps!”; “The Tomb of Terror”.
In his last appearance, Red Skull died. He died in almost every appearance, then his next appearance showed how he actually survived. Not this time. This issue opens with the Red Skull dead. And in Hell.
He will drag Captain America down to Hell with him. Sorry, the “Lower Region”. I forgot this comic has been approved for children by a psychiatrist. It’s also referred to as the “Flaming Pits”. But never H-E-Double Hockey Sticks.
Charon ferries Captain America across the River Styx.
The story is that Red Skull is in… this underworld place, and secretly adds Captain America’s name to the Book… so Captain America is wrongly taken to… that place. The Devil-like Lord uncovers the Red Skull’s deception, and decides the only rational answer to this situation is for them to fight a final duel. If Captain America wins, he gets to return to the land of the living. If Red Skull wins, Captain America will remain… down there.
They do that thing at the end. You know that thing. A ridiculously common trope across media. It was only a dream… or was it? All evidence suggests the supernatural stuff we just saw had a plausible explanation like a dream, that Steve Rogers has been napping in his armchair this whole time… except for this one piece of torn cloth in his hand that he’d pulled from the Red Skull’s shirt…
This may be the wildest Captain America story yet.
It’s also the last one. There is one more issue of Captain America’s Weird Tales, but Captain America himself does not appear in it. Just pure horror tales. This was the final Captain America story.
In 5 years, they will briefly attempt a revival that lasts 3 issues, then he’ll disappear for another 10 years. Except for that brief blip, it will be 15 years before Captain America has regular adventures again.
This little jaunt to Hell brought his original 8-year run to its close.
I don’t know if I find it a fitting ending or not. On the one hand, it seems tonally off from where the series began, more like a desperate attempt for a new direction than a fitting swan song to America’s greatest superhero.
On the other hand, I guess a final battle with Red Skull in the depths of Hell seems as good a way to close out Captain America’s journey as any.
Rating: ★★★½, 60/100
This comic is pretty hard to find. As far as I can tell, it’s never been reprinted. It doesn’t seem to be available digitally. It seems as though exactly one copy of the comic has been scanned and made available online. Any website I can find talking about this comic seems to use the same scans, and those scans come from a comic missing a good-sized chunk of a page.
Even low-grade copies of this comic have been selling for several thousand dollars, and that’s if you can find one for sale.
Characters:
- Red Skull
- Messenger of the Powers of Darkness
- Charon
- Power of Darkness/Lord of the Lower Region
Story notes:
- Red Skull adds Captain America’s name to a ledger, the “Great Volume”, “written in fire”, the “forbidden book”.
- Messenger comes to claim Captain America and take him to the “Lower Region”.
- Dante’s Inferno reference.
- Charon, guardian of the River Styx
- Lord of Lower Region learns of the mistake; Red Skull reminds him his own law is that what is written cannot be changed.
- Lord orders duel between Captain America and Red Skull.
- Red Skull wields Grim Reaper’s Scythe.
- Captain America thinks he was dreaming, but has a piece of the Red Skull’s outfit.
| Previous | Next | |
|---|---|---|
| Captain America Comics #61 | Prelude | Young Men #24, Story B |
| Sgt. Fury #16 | Reading order | Tales of Suspense #65 |
I’ve been hoping for a reprint of this for years. The art’s not Kirby or even Syd Shores imitating Kirby, but it looks a lot better than what I’ve read from the Sun Girl era of Cap. Kind of a Fantasia-esque quality to the gargoyle dude which I really like