Featuring: Captain America
Release: August 19, 1953
Cover: December 1953
10 cents
6 pages
| Previous | Next | |
|---|---|---|
| Captain America’s Weird Tales #74 | Prelude | Young Men #27, Story B |
| Sgt. Fury #16 | Reading order | Tales of Suspense #65 |
No credits are given. The GCD attributes the story to Don Rico and John Romita, except the first panel which it attributes to Mort Lawrence.
It is 1953, 4 years since the final Captain America story, which itself brought and end to the company’s entire line of superhero books, the Human Torch and Sub-Mariner sagas having ended a little sooner.
Marvel’s only nod to the superhero genre in the time since is their science fiction hero, Marvel Boy, whose series lasted 6 issues.
They’re ready to try again. Now generally branded as “Atlas Comics”, the company that had been known as “Timely” and would be best known as “Marvel” offers this superhero revival, bringing back their 3 most successful superheroes of the 40s: Human Torch, Sub-Mariner, and Captain America.
All three return in this very issue. We read the Sub-Mariner story previously. Spinning out of this Young Men series, all three will soon get their own titles as well. Sub-Mariner’s return will last 10 issues, while Human Torch and Captain America each get three issues, before again being consigned to oblivion for another decade.
We read several issues of the Captain America revival to prepare to read Captain America’s lasting return in 1964. Those posts met with the sharpest criticism in the comments section I have yet received. I was called naive, arrogant, ignorant about comics… The internet can be a cruel place sometimes.
Hopefully this post will fare better. The plan is to read two Young Men stories, Red Skull’s final two adventures before his 1960s revival. We’ll see how it goes.
We’ve peeked at this very story before, when we read the new telling of the origin of Captain America in Tales of Suspense #63; we compared that telling with all previous tellings, including this one. We won’t recover that ground, and instead will focus on the Red Skull.
The story opens with Red Skull showing old footage of his defeats at Captain America’s hands. Red Skull is confident Captain America is dead.
The last we checked in with these characters, the opposite was true. They had a final battle in Hell. Captain America returned to the land of the living, and Red Skull did not.
No explanation is given for why Red Skull is alive, or why he thinks Captain America might be dead. All we know is it’s been a few years since Captain America has been seen.
Red Skull is now working with, or at least planning to work with, the Soviets. It’s a bit weird to go from being a Nazi to a Communist, given that they Nazis were an anti-communist party, and rounded up anybody in Germany with communist leanings and sent them to concentration camps. But I guess Red Skull is fickle, and willing to be loyal to whoever will partner with him. Perhaps he’s in it for the money and the murder, rather than any cause.
Recall Steve Rogers had been teaching high school at the Lee School. Bucky was a student. Bucky was shot and seriously injured, so Captain America got a new partner, a woman. Bucky had recovered to have a couple last adventures with Captain America, but they seemed to be irregular. Captain America’s final stories were often solo stories or partnered with Betty Ross, the Golden Girl.
We see here Steve Rogers is still teaching at the Lee School, but it’s now a college. Bucky is a college-aged student. We can do some math. If Bucky is college-aged (say 18-22) in 1953, then he was 5-9 when we met him in 1940, which seems a little young for crimefighting.
He also doesn’t really look much older now than he did then. His hair seems blonder.
I’d prefer to believe he was at least 12 or so when Captain America started training him, which would make him 25 now. Obviously he could be in college at 25, especially if his gunshot wound delayed his education. But he sure doesn’t look 25.
The Red Skull’s return convinces Steve Rogers that it’s time for Captain America to return as well.
Steve has an odd manner of referring to Captain America in the third person. That’s presumably just a bit of poetic language. After all, he is Captain America. Right?
Rating: ★★½, 45/100
I read this story in Marvel Masterworks: Atlas Era Heroes vol. 1. You can also find it on Kindle.
Characters:
- Red Skull
- Captain America/Professor Steve Rogers
- Professor Reinstein
- Bucky
Story notes:
- Red Skull believes Captain America to be dead. Refers to previous defeats at his hands.
- Red Skull plans to start international crime syndicate in league with the Reds.
- Professor Steve Rogers teaching at Lee School, tells of Captain America’s origin.
- Professor Reinstein chose candidate rejected from army for physical reasons, but eager to serve; Steve Rogers strapped to a table for experiment; Nazi agent killed Reinstein and the formula died with him.
- Blonde college student named Bucky.
- Red Skull has hostages at UN.
| Previous | Next | |
|---|---|---|
| Captain America’s Weird Tales #74 | Prelude | Young Men #27, Story B |
| Sgt. Fury #16 | Reading order | Tales of Suspense #65 |
Sorry you have to deal with trolls, Chris. For what it’s worth, I think your posts are well-informed and insightful, with just the right amount of sardonic humor interspersed throughout. I love reading your them!
Yeah, I think you do a great job. Don’t listen to that fake, dead football player. 😀