young allies – Coke & Comics

PRELUDE: Young Allies #16, Story B

Battle of the Giants!

Featuring: Tommy Tyme
Release: May 16, 1945
Cover: Summer 1945
10 cents
5 pages

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Daring Mystery Comics #5, Story H	PRELUDE	Venus #5
Daredevil #9	Reading order	Journey Into Mystery Annual 1

Geez! Am I dumb! Here am I wishin’ for sumpin’ right in me mits! Let’s go Clock! I’m gittin’ me a ringside seat!

That loin cloth better hold; this is a children’s comic.

No credits are visible. The GCD credits the art to Charles Nicholas and Al Bellman.

We’ve read two appearances of Marvel’s first characters named Hercules. We then sort of met the “real” Hercules in his reincarnated form as Marvel Boy. But now we meet the actual Hercules of myth.

I admit to trepidation when learning that his introduction was in Young Allies, and I was so relieved to learn I didn’t actually have to read the Young Allies story. Give me Tommy Tyme any day. Tempted to give extra points to this story for not being Young Allies.

This story adapts a famous Hercules legend, the defeat of Antaeus the Giant. In the classic story, Hercules’ labours were in the service of Eurytheus in penance for killing his own wife and children. On his quest to find golden apples, Hercules battled Antaeus. The comic leaves out these details and just shows the battle.

We sort of met Tommy Tyme once before. I’d wanted to see the original Marvel versions of Merlin and the Black Knight, though had been reluctant to bother to read the issue. So we talked about it here.

I’ve apparently since grown less picky about what Marvel stories to read. Little Hercules. Tommy Tyme. It’s all one big soup.

Tommy Tyme stories tend to have a similar structure. His “wonderful Clock of Ages” takes him back to some famous time and place to meet some famous people, like Robin Hood or Benjamin Franklin. Think of the series as a precursor to Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure.

PRELUDE: Young Allies #4

The Most Amazing Story of All Time…

Featuring: Young Allies
Release: June 17, 1942
Cover: Summer 1942
10 cents
Script and editorial: Stan Lee
Illustrated by: Al Gabriele
45 pages

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Captain America Comics #16, Story D	Prelude	Captain America Comics #37, Story C
Sgt. Fury #16	Reading order	Tales of Suspense #65

Let’s begin by noting this is not the most amazing story of all time. This is an awful series and nobody should read it. Least of all me.

This story drags on for 45 bloody pages. At least it’s not as bad as the last one we read. And it’s actually a much faster and smoother read than the first issue. Perhaps that’s Stan Lee’s scripting at work.

We noted last time how awful all the characters are, so we’ll just try to skip to the Red Skull stuff this time.

I’m including this story only because the continuity remains pretty tight, and I do want us to be able to untangle Red Skull’s contradictory appearances intelligently.

PRELUDE: Young Allies #1

The Coming of Agent Zero/The Red Skull and the Graveyeard of Doom!/Voyage to No-Man’s Land/Trapped in Nazi-Land!/Outwitting the Bloodthirsty Tyrants!/Captain America and the Human Torch to the Rescue!!

Featuring: Young Allies
Release: July 23, 1941
Cover: Summer 1941
10 cents
57 pages

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Captain America Comics #3	Prelude	Captain America Comics #7
Sgt. Fury #16	Reading order	Tales of Suspense #65

The table of contents lists Joe Simon as “Art editor” and Jack Kirby as “Art director”, while recognizing Carl Burgos as the creator of Toro. No hints as to who actually wrote or drew the comic are given. The GCD credits Otto Binder, Charles Nicholas, and Syd Shores, noting Jack Kirby supplied art for some of the chapter-opening splash pages. The cover is by Jack Kirby and Syd Shores.

We also take the on-sale date from the GCD, which disagrees with the July 10 date given in Mike’s Amazing World, but also offers an explanation for the discrepancy.

An ad shows an earlier version of the cover (and gives the July 10 release date). Notice in the original cover, Stalin is one of the villains (along with Hitler, Tōjō, and Mussolini). This comic was released in July 1941. Between its original advertisement and publication, Germany invaded the Soviet Union, so Stalin was now a good guy, and couldn’t be depicted as evil in the comic. The USSR was now part of the Allied forces.

America remained neutral in the war, but you couldn’t tell by the comic books.

We read the introduction of the Young Allies, a painfully long 57-page adventure. Our motivation is that this is the third appearance of the Red Skull, who was presumed dead in an explosion in Captain America Comics #3.

This comic is pretty rough reading. The most infamous part of it is the character of Whitewash Jones, a painful stereotype of an African American child, whose portrayal somehow keeps getting worse as the issue progresses. Even leaving aside that racial sentiment has evolved in 80 years, the other kids are also pretty awful characters. Tubby, the obese child, is portrayed no better. Nor is Knuckles, the street-tough kid. Jefferson, the nerd, probably comes off the best.

The history of cartooning is built on caricature and exaggeration, but these four kids just push it into the absurd and unreadable.