Featuring: Captain America
Release: June 25, 1941
Cover: September 1941
10 cents
9 pages
So long, Cap. I did my best. Long live liberty!
No credits are given in the issue. The opening page is by Jack Kirby and Joe Simon. The rest of the art is by Al Avison, Syd Shores, and George Klein. Those are the credits given in the Golden Age Captain America Omnibus. The GCD credits the entire story to Jack Kirby and Joe Simon, but I believe they are incorrect.
We just read the beginning of Iron Man’s second battle with Titanium Man in Tales of Suspense #81. We had previously read the conclusion of that issue, which featured Captain America’s epic battle with Red Skull and his Cosmic Cube. Before we get to issue 82, I’d like to peek back at this old Captain America story, which introduces the villain Fang.
Fang is an Asian villain, and thus probably a racist stereotype of a character like most Asian villains in the 1940s. And the 1960s.
We learn Fang is based on San Francisco’s Chinatown. He meets with an agent of an “Asian aggressor nation”. I interpret that Asian aggressor nation to be Japan, particular given the agent’s surname of “Nushima”, though the comic prefers not to specify.
After all, America wasn’t at war with Japan in June 1941 when this comic was released.
Continue reading “PRELUDE: Captain America Comics #6, Story B”