Featuring: Captain America Release: March 17, 1941 Cover: May 1941 10 cents By: Stan Lee 2 pages
Marvel comics up through the 1960s have often included short prose stories. We haven’t covered any yet in detail, as none have been sufficiently relevant. In the 1960s, they have been short one-off tales of science fiction or fantasy.
The first two Captain America comics also each featured a text story we did not cover. We have not even covered all the Captain America comic stories from those first two issues. We are just doing a brief scan of Captain America’s history prior to his return in 1964.
Why cover this particular text piece? The author is notable.
Featuring: Captain America Release: February 10, 1941 Cover: April 1941 10 cents By: Joe Simon and Jack Kirby 15 pages
Notice that for the second issue in a row, Captain America is attacking Adolf Hitler on the cover. A disappointing thing about the first issue was that the scene was not reflected inside the comic. This comic makes up for it with this second story. Which is of course why we are reading it. To actually see Cap sock Hitler.
Note that it’s February 1941. Still 10 months before America enters the war. But Joe and Jack aren’t shy about letting their opinions out. They inform us that Cap and Bucky head to “Nazi enslaved France”. Quite the strong language.
Featuring: Captain America Release: February 10, 1941 Cover: April 1941 10 cents By: Joe Simon and Jack Kirby 15 pages
This comic was released on my birthday, just 40 years early.
Our buildup to Avengers #4 continues.
Once again, the cover of the comic shows Captain America directly confronting Hitler, this time without the satisfying sock to the jaw. The interior of the first issue disappointed, as Captain America and Hitler did not actually meet. This issue will rectify that, but not with this story. We’ll see Hitler in the next post, concerning “Case No. 2”.
The title of the story alone–“The Ageless Orientals Who Wouldn’t Die”– tells you that this comic is probably extremely inappropriate, and it is. Popular culture depictions of Asian characters were problematic for decades. This comic at least only features giants, not meant to represent actual people.
Featuring: Captain America Release: December 20, 1940 Cover: March 1941 10 cents By: Joe Simon and Jack Kirby 7 pages
The issue’s Table of Contents lists each chapter as a “Case”. The first was “Case No. 1”. This story is “Case No. 2”. Cases 3 and 4 seem to have actual titles, but this one does not.
We read the first “Case” in this comic a little while ago, because I thought Captain America was returning in Strange Tales #114. I was mistaken. I was fooled by the Acrobat in disguise, just like the whole town of Glenville. But I just peeked at the cover of Avengers #4, and it looks like this time Captain America is really going to return.
Yes, I know the old saying. “Fool me once, shame on… shame on you. Fool me… can’t get fooled again.”
But I have a really good feeling that this actually is Captain America. Hence, I would like to review a smattering of his 1940s and 1950s appearances to get a sense of who this fella is and what’s he’s about.
This story is notable for being the first mission of Captain America and Bucky. We learned their origin in “Case No. 1”. Now it’s time for them to go into action.
It’s 1940. Europe is at war. America has stubbornly remained neutral. But there are Axis spies and saboteurs on the homefront, and Captain America and Bucky are ready to deal with them.
Featuring: Captain America Release: December 20, 1940 Cover: March 1941 10 cents By: Joe Simon and Jack Kirby 8 pages
Here he comes. (Here comes the Captain)
Ladies and Gentleman! (Here comes the Captain)
The moment you’ve been waiting for! (Here comes the Captain)
The pride of Camp Lehigh! (Here comes the Captain)
Steve Rogers!
The 1940s had more Marvel superheroes than I could name. We’ve looked at some of the miscellaneous ones like the Angel. Some would be brought back for small roles by later writers. Many would lend their name to later characters. Despite the vast numbers of them, there is a “big three”. We’ve discussed two of them at length.
Jim Hammond, the Human Torch, would lend his name, likeness, and powers to a new character, Johnny Storm of the Fantastic Four. Namor the Sub-Mariner would return in the pages of Fantastic Four, often as an adversary.
There is a third big one we have left out until now. But it’s time.
I’m not certain that what we are looking at up above isn’t the best comic book cover ever. To appreciate it, you must look at the date of release. December 20, 1940. It was completed prior to that date; thus, it was completed over a year before Japan attacked Pearl Harbor. America’s official position toward the wars of Europe and Asia at the time was neutrality, as codified in various neutrality acts based by Congress over the previous 5 years. And yet, here was a hero garbed in the American flag punching Adolf Hitler in the face.
Jack Kirby is obviously a name we’ve seen a lot in our reading, as he created the Fantastic Four, the X-Men, the Avengers, etcetera. Before that, he defined the romance genre within comics. And long before that, he created Captain America. Born Jacob Kurtzburg, the son of Austrian-Jewish immigrants, he was 23 when Captain America #1 reached the stands. Two and a half years later, he would join the US Army and go fight Hitler’s forces in Europe himself.
Joe Simon, born Hymie Simon, was a few years older than Kirby, also the son of immigrants, of Russian-Jewish heritage. He joined the Coast Guard for the war and spent the war years in America. Simon and Kirby would be partners for 15 years and together shape American comics as we know them.
