Featuring: Captain America
Release: October 8, 1964
Cover: January 1965
12 cents
Stan Lee writer par excellence!
Jack Kirby illustrator without peer!
Chic Stone delineator extaordinaire!
Artie Simek letterer– what else?
10 pages
| Previous | #288 | Next |
|---|---|---|
| Tales of Suspense #61 | Reading order | Tales of Suspense #62 |
| Tales of Suspense #61 | Tales of Suspense | Tales of Suspense #62 |
Captain America goes to Vietnam and fights a sumo wrestler. I usually associate sumo wrestling with Japan, and suspect that Stan and Jack just haven’t thought too hard about the differences between Vietnam and Japan. However, culture does spread in our modern world, and I can’t confirm Vietnam didn’t have any sumo wrestlers in the 1960s, so I’m going to give them a pass.
Captain America is fighting the Commies. This brings to mind his very brief 1954 return as “Captain America… Commie Smasher!” Of course, those stories are hard to reconcile with the modern Marvel Age continuity in which Captain America was frozen in ice from 1945 to 1963. How could he then have been fighting Commies in 1954?
It’s worth commenting that I am trying to understand a canon as I go. What I am taking as canonical is that which is on the page between Fantastic Four #1 and wherever we are in this blog. Some stuff in that canon already seems to contradict other stuff, so we’ll sometimes have to stretch to reconcile things, or drop minor details. We’re peeking at the occasional pre-1961 comic, but I can’t practically consider them part of this canon, because I haven’t read them all. The ones we do read, we will generally treat as canonical, unless clearly contradicted by modern stories. The 1950s Captain America adventures are clearly contradicted by the revelations of Avengers #4 that Cap spent that whole decade on ice, so we will treat those stories as non-canonical.
All that is to say, we will treat this adventure as Captain America’s first battle against the Reds. The only possible exception to take with that assertion is the battle with the Masters of Evil in Avengers #6; the group was not particularly Communist-affiliated, but many of its members had been; Radioactive Man was an agent of Red China, and Black Knight had first been imprisoned for selling American secrets to the Chinese.
For the third issue in a row, Captain America shows off his athletic prowess against generic foes, this time Viet Cong soldiers.
At least we then get to see him fight a sumo wrestler. The most interesting foe yet for this rather bland series.
Beyond the generic fighting, this is the first issue of this new Captain America series to have an actual story, and one with a bit of heart. Lt. Jim Baker is a pilot captured by the Viet Cong. In World War II, his brother had once saved Captain America’s life, so Captain America has come to repay that debt by saving Baker.
We get a good Cap moment. He’s at his best when making these sentimental pronouncements.
“But the entire free world needs you, Cap– !”
“It needs you too, son! It needs all of us!”
Marvel has not yet had many black characters, though more than many of its competitors. Gabe Jones is so far the only such recurring character of the Marvel Age. We talked a bit through Marvel’s history with black characters in Sgt. Fury #2. We’ve seen cameo appearances by black characters, police officers and such. Jim Baker is only the second named character. This is his only appearance, so he’s not a major Marvel character. But he has a significant role in this issue, fighting alongside Cap against the Viet Cong.
Here is a recent blog post on black comic characters of the era on Forbushman.
For 1964, Stan and Jack are well ahead of their time in their depiction of black characters. Their depiction of Asian characters leaves much to be desired.
Surprisingly, this is not the last appearance by the General. He shows up in Captain America #411 (1993). Mark Gruenwald had a super-villain fight club story where several villains competed in an arena, and he pulled out all kinds of foes from Marvel history for the tournament.
Rating: ★★★☆☆, 55/100
Significance: ★★★☆☆
A hard one to rate. On the negative side, generic villains, Asian caricatures, and Cold War propaganda. On the positive side, Kirby’s usual dynamic art, some good rousing patriotic dialogue by Lee, a story with a bit of heart, and one of the earliest positive examples of a black character in Marvel comics. We’ll say the good outweighs the bad and give this a solid “good” rating.
I read this story in Marvel Masterworks: Captain America Vol. 1. You can also find it in Captain America Epic Collection vol. 1: Captain America Lives Again. Or on Kindle.
Characters:
- Captain America
- Lieutenant Jim Baker
- The General
Story notes:
- Cecil B. DeMille reference
- Jim Baker played college football.
| Previous | #288 | Next |
|---|---|---|
| Tales of Suspense #61 | Reading order | Tales of Suspense #62 |
| Tales of Suspense #61 | Tales of Suspense | Tales of Suspense #62 |
