Featuring: Captain America
Release: May 10, 1966
Cover: August 1966
12 cents
Stupifying script: Stan Lee
Electifying illustration: Jack Kirby
Dazzling delineation: Don Heck
Luminiferous lettering: Artie Simek
Frantic fund-raising: Irv Forbush
10 pages
| Previous | #570 | Next |
|---|---|---|
| Tales of Suspense #80 | Reading order | Tales of Suspense #81, Story B |
| Tales of Suspense #80 | Tales of Suspense | Tales of Suspense #81 |
So long as evil lives– to muster the forces of bigotry, greed, and oppression– the fight goes on! So long as men take liberty for granted– so long as they laugh at brotherhood– sneer at honesty– and turn away from faith– So long will the forces of the Red Skull creep ever closer to the final victory!
Them is an evil organization. AIM is an ordinary defense contractor. But Fury suspects a connection. Captain America remains unaware of this.
Eisenhower did warn us about the military industrial complex.
This conjunction of an immense military establishment and a large arms industry is new in the American experience. . . .Yet we must not fail to comprehend its grave implications. . . . In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist.
This AIM agent had been on the right side of things, pursuing the Keeper of the Cube before he could deliver the Cosmic Cube to the Red Skull.
Red Skull refers to Them and AIM interchangeably, and refers to the “Grand Imperator of the secret empire known as Them”. In the comics, all letters are capitalized; I translate them to normal upper/lower-case for this blog. I assume that “secret empire” here is in lower-case, and refers to any secret empire, not to be confused with the “Secret Empire” that has recently menaced Hulk.
Hydra fell, so the Secret Empire and Them/AIM rose to seemingly take their place. Their was one more shadowy organization that had employed Batroc, but it’s not clear if it’s one of these groups or yet another secret empire.
A couple good ranting quotes from Red Skull this issue. Here’s one.
I, who am the prince of villainy, serve none! And now, once the Cosmic Cube is mine, all that live will pay me homage!
It looks to me like Wolfgang just committed suicide at Red Skull’s direction. Did the censors miss that? Is it okay for people to die now? Maybe it’s subtle enough. But the guy has a gun in his hand in one panel and then we hear a “Krak!” in the next. Scott McCloud would say the magic of comics lies between the panels where the reader is using their imagination to make a story.
The epic battle between decades-long rivals begins. Cap gets some gloating in, about Hitler’s suicide and the Reich’s failures.
You were always a loser, Skull! Your own Third Reich was reduced to ashes by the very forces of freedom you so despised! And, what of your beloved Fuehrer? He took the coward’s way out while the Allied planes reduced his Fortress Europa to smoking rubble!
Red Skull calls that all Fake News.
These fascists hate being called losers. Feeling like a winner is everything to them.
The Skull then responds with his own comeback that we used for the pull quote above. It’s worth reading, and then taking a good look at the world around us, and maybe reading again.
So long as evil lives– to muster the forces of bigotry, greed, and oppression– the fight goes on! So long as men take liberty for granted– so long as they laugh at brotherhood– sneer at honesty– and turn away from faith– So long will the forces of the Red Skull creep ever closer to the final victory!
This is the ultimate battle between the greatest of rivals. Right here, this issue and the next is the best Captain America/Red Skull confrontation. They spend a lot of the battle in this issue making these speeches, but that’s part of why it’s great.
We then get a big reveal. Red Skull is responsible for Bucky’s death. Zemo had been working for him all along. This makes perfect sense, as we know that Red Skull was second only to Hitler in the Reich. So everyone ultimately served one or both of them.
This adds a bit of drama to the scene, as Bucky’s death is a wound Cap has not recovered from. He got some closure in Avengers #15 when Zemo died in battle with Cap. That closure is shattered here by Red Skull claiming the credit for being the mastermind behind Zemo.
Now, Red Skull was presumed dead/in suspended animation at the time. But he claims the credit for being Zemo’s boss. That’s what bosses do. Claim the credit while others do the actual work.
The battle takes a turn when Red Skull gains the Cosmic Cube, which makes him practically invincible.
I’d like to note that while this rendition of the Red Skull isn’t as good as the original Kirby/Simon version, this is a huge improvement over the last several Kirby Red Skull depictions. On the potato-skull scale, this is getting closer to looking like a skull.
I don’t own this issue, so I am getting the scans from Marvel Unlimited. Which often is missing the letters pages. But this one has it.
Options exist. In the first part of this issue, Iron Man and Namor didn’t resolve their battle, and it will continue in Namor’s comics. The Them/AIM saga continues in Nick Fury’s SHIELD series. Also, we didn’t finish the Boomerang/Secret Empire saga from Hulk’s comics. We could go on to any of those threads. Or we can finish up this epic battle between Red Skull and Cap.
I choose the latter. So we’ll jump ahead to the second story in Tales of Suspense #81, and read the first story (the Iron Man one) after we’ve seen what happens with Namor and with AIM and Boomerang.
Rating: ★★★★☆, 71/100
Significance: ★★★☆☆
This goes on the distinguished list of the Best We’ve Read, displacing the battle between Fantastic Four and Hate Monger. Unfortunate to lose, as that issue becomes increasingly relevant to our times.
I read this story in Marvel Masterworks: Captain America vol. 1.
Characters:
- Captain America
- Wolfgang
- Red Skull
- Keeper of the Cube
Story notes:
- Cap heading to police headquarters where Red Skull’s assassins are held.
- High-altitude plane explodes and the pilot ejected in capsule which hits the river.
- Cap finds an AIM agent. He’s heard of them, but is unaware of any connections to Them.
- AIM agent muttering about Cosmic Cube and Red Skull’s betrayal.
- Agent had been pursuing Cube’s Keeper, who was delivering Cube to Skull.
- Red Skull shook hands with Keeper and planted a miniaturized neuro brain-tap which sapped his will.
- SHIELD ID card of Cap’s let him acquire a ship instantly.
- Cap and Skull battle.
- Red Skull reveals Zemo was working for him when he killed Bucky, taking ultimate credit for Bucky’s death.
- Red Skull immune to own stun gas thanks to insulated skull mask. This confirms it is still a mask he wears.
- Cosmic Cube converts thought waves into material action.
- Red Skull consigns Keeper to another dimension.
| Previous | #570 | Next |
|---|---|---|
| Tales of Suspense #80 | Reading order | Tales of Suspense #81, Story B |
| Tales of Suspense #80 | Tales of Suspense | Tales of Suspense #81 |
