Featuring: Human Torch Release: August 8, 1963 Cover: November 1963 12 cents Written by: Stan Lee Drawn by: Jack Kirby Inked by: Dick Ayers 18 pages
Why did we choose now to review the origin of Captain America? Because Captain America is returning. “From out of the Golden Age of Comics”, the cover says. Not sure if we’ve yet seen that term in our reading. The era we are reading has been dubbed the Marvel Age.
Weird that he’d choose the Antique Auto Show of Glenville, Long Island to make his return after a decade-long absence.
Captain America and Human Torch get into a fight. Superheroes often do that when they meet.
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.
See my initial post for the context. Suffice to say that I will be sharing my entries to the Classic Comics Forum tradition, “ Twelve Days of Classic Comics Christmas“. This is a cross-post of my ninth entry, representing #4 on my list of favorite comic book Crossovers.
4. Daredevil and Captain America “Armageddon” from Daredevil #233 (Marvel, 1986)
by Frank Miller and David Mazzucchelli
It also features the Avengers, but I decided to downplay that fact above, per the rules of this contest. Besides, most of the Avengers only show up for like a page. But oh what a page. “A soldier with a voice that could command a god… and does.”
Once the pill-popping psychopath with delusions of patriotism is subdued, then it’s up to Captain America and Daredevil to expose government connections to the Kingpin of crime, and trace the origins of Nuke all the way back to the experiment that once created Captain America.
Frank Miller had done a legendary run on Daredevil, which came to an end. He returned to the book a few years later for one more sprint, this time teamed with the legendary David Mazzucchelli. (The same team would later reunite for Batman Year One) Over the course of 7 issues, they tear Matt Murdock’s life apart, but leave him standing strong despite it all. This is their final issue. Kingpin has grown tired of his more subtle attacks on Daredevil and unleashed hell on New York.
For those keeping count, this is the 3rd Daredevil entry and second entry without Spider-Man.
In 1989, I was in Walgreens and my mother suggested I pick out a comic book from the newsstand. Thirty years and some 40,000 comics later, she has had time to regret that moment. On that day, I began a hobby which has consumed a large amount of my life’s attention and energy.
The comic was Avengers #309. I think I picked it out because I recognized some of the characters from cartoons I had seen. Thor, Captain America, Sub-Mariner. Perhaps I recognized She-Hulk. The other two characters on the cover were new to me.
The issue begins in the middle of events. Our characters stand atop a giant crater. The top reads, “Stan Lee PRESENTS: The MIGHTY AVENGERS!” Then in bolder letters, “TO FIND OLYMPIA!” Olympia is written is this cool gold font.
The story doesn’t end with this comic any more than it begins. By the final page, Thor is the only Avenger left standing and facing off against Blastaar. We get a little blurb which reads, “Next: The end of the Eternals? The end of the Avengers? You must not miss… Death in Olympia! In 30 days!!” The word ‘Death’ is written in this cool blood-dripping font.
