Featuring: Captain America
Release: February 10, 1966
Cover: May 1966
12 cents
Script: Stan Lee
Layouts: Jack Kirby
Penciling: John Romita
Inking: Frank Ray
Lettering: Sam Rosen
Kibitzing: Irving Forbush
10 pages
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Oh, Cap… Cap… will this war never end? Will we never be able to lead normal lives? How can we speak of love… when the world is in flames… when I don’t even know your name!
With famed romance artist John Romita on pencils, we will learn the story of the “girl from Cap’s past”. There’s going to be some confusion here. A lot of confusion, in fact. So let’s review what we know.
Two issues ago, Cap encountered a female SHIELD agent who reminded him of an old flame. This SHIELD agent has an older sister who once dated a man named Steve Rogers.
We see the final parting of Cap and this woman in his memory. We’ll recall it here for reference.
Not a lot of details about this woman to go off, but enough that this issue will find a dozen ways to contradict them.
A documentary about Cap’s role in the liberation of Paris stirs up Cap’s memories. He notes it’s been over 20 years. He lost her that day and never learned what became of her, if she survived the war or not.
“That lightning and thunder… it’s like the angry roar of the past… trying to capture me again!”
He has this thought: “If she were still alive, surely she would have found me by now.” That’s an odd thought. He spent over a decade frozen in ice and hard to find. Before that, there was a war on. Lots of people have trouble finding each other. After that, why would she suspect Steve Rogers is returned if he’d been missing so long? Unless she knew he was Captain America, whose return was well publicized.
One of the frustrations Kirby would have with Lee was Lee’s disinterest in scientific details, often badly describing the science Kirby had carefully drawn, for example in Fantastic Four issues. In many places in these stories, attention to detail isn’t Stan’s strong suit. But I don’t think you can fault him when it comes to World War II history. Stan peppers the narration with accurate details that place Cap’s adventures solidly into history.
The first depicted battle is at the Falaise Gap. This was August 1944 and the decisive engagement that led to Allied success in the invasion of Normandy. We see Captain America leading a charge of French Partisans against the Nazis.
Captain America has spent weeks fighting with a woman with the French Resistance, a woman he’s come to love. He tells her that fighting isn’t a woman’s work, but he apologizes.
We already start to see the problems. This woman knows Captain America. But we learned before that the woman knew Steve Rogers. So perhaps she does know his secret identity.
Nope. She then remarks she’s never seen his face and doesn’t know his name. Okay, maybe then she learns his identity after this moment. But the point of this issue is that they’re going to get separated and he’s going to lose her.
Let’s recall the goodbye speech from two issues back:
“I’ll wait till you return, Steve! No matter how long– no matter what happens– I’ll wait for you, my darling…!”
Compare with:
“I’ll wait for you, Cap! No matter how long… no matter how difficult… I’ll wait for you… forever!”
Very similar sentiments, but the big difference is what she calls him. Steve vs. Cap. Are these two different women? Are Cap’s memories imperfect? The SHIELD Agent also knew the name Steve Rogers, somehow.
The woman is ordered to Paris, and Cap gets several missions in a row.
Meanwhile, she has been captured by the Germans. We get a pretty intense scene. They are executing hostages, mistreating prisoners.
The woman gets a pretty good speech about freedom in. “Go ahead… shoot me! At least I shall die for freedom! But, when the Allies finally crush you into the muck you rose from, what will you have died for?? Nothing but an insane Fuehrer!”
Captain America and the French Resistance liberate the prison and drive out the Nazis, but the woman has been captured by the Gestapo and taken to Paris.
When Paris is liberated, Cap is desperate to find her, but cannot. She had been caught in an explosion and suffered amnesia. He never sees her again.
The woman isn’t named. Neither is the SHIELD agent from last issue. Dr. Strange’s lady friend has also not been named. Stan just often neglects to name the women. The Thing has been dating a woman for a long time now. We at least know her name is Alicia, but not her last name.
Let’s focus on the photographer taking the famous picture. He thinks Cap is yelling about the victory, but Cap is looking desperately for the woman. The photographer misunderstood, and so would people seeing the photograph. The images of this event are explicitly compared to the flag-raising at Iwo-Jima.
And the similarities go deep. Because in both cases what the picture showed and what happened are not quite the same. And what actually happened turns out to not matter. The picture in both cases becomes a symbol, that people interpret. Nobody would know the picture is about Cap looking for a girl. They see a photo representing victory.
The Clint Eastwood film Flags of Our Fathers deals with the facts around the photograph at Iwo-Jima. How it became a symbol bigger than the event itself, and that carried meaning not quite matched by the event itself.
Rating: ★★★★☆, 72/100
Significance: ★★★★☆
Despite the continuity flaws, I’ll still mark this among the Best We’ve Read. Though it’s with a heavy heart I remove the introduction of The Enforcers in Amazing Spider-Man #10 from the list.
I read this story in Marvel Masterworks: Captain America vol. 1.
Characters:
- Captain America
- French Partisan that Cap loves
Minor characters:
- Francois
Story notes:
- Captain America watches documentary about his WWII exploits, which brings up memories.
- Footage of Captain America liberating Paris as iconic as Iwo Jima flag-raising.
- Documentary notes Cap seemed shocked and panicked and the sight of Allied Troops, and nobody knows why.
- Cap has a picture of the woman he loved, who he lost that day.
- Defeated German army trying to fight its way out of the Falaise Gap encounters French Partisans.
- She has never seen his face, but is in love with him.
- A partisan courier summons Captain America to deal with a detachment of Germans in a bunker; the woman is ordered to go to Paris.
- We don’t see Captain America complete his mission, just know that he gets several in a row.
- Germans executing hostages, resistance leaders.
- Germans interrogate woman to learn whereabout of Underground commanders.
- Nazis ordered to evacuate Paris
- Cap seeks out Francois, who informs him the woman has been captured by the Gestapo.
- A Sergeant records everything for Division G-2. Corporal ordered to drive to Gestapo Headquarters.
| Previous | #512 | Next |
|---|---|---|
| Tales of Suspense #77 | Reading order | Tales of Suspense #78 |
| Tales of Suspense #77 | Tales of Suspense | Tales of Suspense #78 |
Peggy Carter’s existence seems quite conflicting to me and I don’t like her very much. They basically invented a love interest for an already established character. Peggy’s existence doesn’t fit with Cap’s Golden Age stories; nor does it fit with the Invaders retcon. It seems that Peggy was created solely so that Cap would have some artificial bond with Sharon. And when Peggy finally reunites with Cap, they will reveal that she was never important, leaving her only an obstacle between Cap and Sharon.
Taking that into account, it would have been much easier for them to just use Betsy Ross instead of inventing Peggy… In fact, I’m surprised that the MCU has given Peggy so much prominence, when she was never a particularly important character.
I’m trying to reread these stories somewhat fresh without judgment of what’s to come. But just from what we have so far, it’s annoying how little sense it makes. And it does seem to somewhat delete Ross from the picture, having Captain America pine over this new woman, while never giving his actual compantion of the 1940s another thought.