Featuring: Captain America
Release: May 3, 1966
Cover: September 1966
12 cents
Script: Stan (The Man) Lee
Art: Jack (King) Kirby
Inking: Frank (Good Guy) Giacoia
Lettering: Artie (Smarty) Simek
Recruiting: Irv (Fall Guy) Forbush
10 pages
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There is nothing I cannot do! The universe itself must bend to my wishes, so long as I hold the Cosmic Cube! My every wish– my every command– must be instantly obeyed!
At this point, of the many many nicknames we’ve seen in credits, Stan the Man Lee, and Jack King Kirby are by far the most common.
I’m doing a thing I don’t like doing and skipping into the middle of this comic, skipping the Iron Man story at the start.
We had a choice as we have at least two cliffhangers to resolve. See what happens between Namor and Iron Man or between Cap and the Red Skull? I’ve chosen the latter. The fight between Iron Man and Namor continues in Namor’s title, so we have to read that before we get to this Iron Man story. And I was eager to see the resolution of this Captain America story.
Also, this issue’s Iron Man story begins a new saga, one I don’t want to entangle with the web of comics we’re in the middle of.
Red Skull has the Cosmic Cube, giving him godlike power.
He gets in a good villain monologue we use for the pull quote above.
While Cap’s thoughts form a good heroic response.
My life means nothing! The fate of all mankind is at stake! If he isn’t stopped– humanity itself is doomed!
Red Skull creates a creature called the Man-Thing to menace Cap. Won’t be the last Marvel character to use this name.
Cap’s thoughts remain inspiring soliloquies.
I mustn’t panic! Mustn’t give way to despair! No matter how awesome the odds– I’ll fight as I’ve lived– I’ll never abandon hope! So long as I remain unbeaten– the Skull’s victory will never be assured!
How do you beat a villain with the power of a god? Not the first time this question has come up.
Red Skull is all-powerful. His weakness is his own mind, his ego. Cap must win through trickery. Convincing the Skull he’d prefer Cap live as his servant rather than just be killed. And then seizing a moment of hesitation on Skull’s part.
Red Skull had already declared himself king and made a suit of golden armor for himself. It’s that golden armor which weighs him down when he dives into the sea after the Cube, causing him to drown.
No idea how Cap is expected to get off what remains of the island.
Red Skull is certainly dead forever this time.
But while it seems to be forever buried beneath the sea, Marvel fans know this won’t be the last we see of the Cosmic Cube.
It will eventually make its way into the hands of the villain Thanos.
Between the Cube and his Thanos-Copter, he’ll become an unstoppable force.
Here’s the letters page for the issue:
I’d like to relate a personal anecdote. This anecdote contains some facts, some interpretation of art, and some wild speculation.
In 2004, Ed Brubaker and Steve Epting launched a well-regarded run on Captain America.
I’ll spoil the plot of the first issue, which is a bit of a feint. The issue is setup for a coming story. Steve and his ladyfriend Sharon are chatting about life. Meanwhile, we learn Red Skull has regained a fragment of the Cosmic Cube, with enough power to set his plans for laying waste to the world into motion. The issue seems to be setting up a confrontation.
Until the final pages.
Red Skull is on the verge of his triumph, when a sniper kills him and takes the Cube. The issue ends with Red Skull dead on the floor.
The real story being set up was not a confrontation with the Skull but with someone known as the Winter Soldier, who harbors a terrible secret connection to Captain America.
What was Ed Brubaker doing with this issue? Well, some misdirection. Making us think he was setting up another battle between Cap and Red Skull over the Cosmic Cube. It would be like the 7th or so such story by that point. Instead, he shatters those expectations in order to set up a very different story.
This is a way of letting the audience know this isn’t your grandfather’s Captain America. It’s an out-with-the-old-in-with-the-new type of thing. Yesterday’s villain gets unceremoniously killed to make way for today’s villain.
The question which leads to my speculation is why he chose the story he did to pretend to set up. Red Skull is plainly Cap’s most iconic villain, so it makes sense to use him as the decoy villain. But why the Cosmic Cube?
It makes sense Brubaker would want an iconic classic Cap story to springboard off. I think this story we just read is Cap’s most iconic battle with Red Skull, and perhaps the most iconic Captain America story as well. But is that the general consensus?
The above is a combination of fact and my interpretation of the art.
Some more facts before we hit the wild speculation. Brubaker was living in San Francisco in the late ’90s. He would sometimes visit the comic store I’d been working in, but became very close with a guy James who owned a comic store a couple miles away.
Sometime in the year or so before Brubaker’s Captain America premiered, I was visiting James’ comic store and he asked me a question. He asked me what I thought the most iconic Captain America story was. I named this one.
I didn’t bother to ask James why he was asking. Follow-up questions aren’t my strong suit.
A year or so later, I read his Captain America story. But only many years later did I recall the question James had asked and start to form connections in my brain. Why did James ask that question? What made Brubaker believe this was a good iconic Captain America story to homage in his tale? Could it be that Brubaker asked James and James asked me and James relayed my response to Brubaker? Which inspired Brubaker to write the tale he did? Or is it just a common belief that this is an iconic Cap story, and my role in this tale is all in my head?
I don’t know. I asked James about it 20 years later and he shrugged and said maybe. I guess he doesn’t specifically recall every interaction with every customer in his decades of running a comic shop.
There’s a lot of speculation in this anecdote, but I still like to claim without particular evidence that I helped inspire the plot of Ed Brubaker’s Captain America run, based on my love for this story we just read.
With that, I’m finished with Marvel Masterworks: Captain America vol. 1 and can put it back on the shelf. That always makes me feel like I’m making progress.
Rating: ★★★★☆, 73/100
Significance: ★★★☆☆
We just added Thor’s battle with Ulik in Thor #137 to the Best We’ve Read, but now it’s going to have to come off to make room for this story.
Characters:
- Captain America
- Red Skull
- Man-Thing
Story notes:
- Cube fits easily in Skull’s hand with his fingers around it.
- Red Skull summons Heat of Hades.
- Anything Red Skull wishes comes to pass. For example, he causes a tree to explode.
- Red Skull boasts how the Cube will make him Supreme Monarch of Earth; with the Cube on his crown he’ll be able to send irresistible thought commands to every corner of the globe.
- Red Skull imagines a planet of soldiers with new weapons ready to forge an intergalactic empire in his name.
- Cap refers to artificial creation of Red Skull as a Man-Thing.
- Cap overcomes Man-Thing and Red Skull dissolves creation before it can meet defeat.
- Red Skull is about to send Cap to another dimension, but Cap convinces him to spare him and make him an underling.
- Red Skull agrees Captain America will head his own Knights of the Round Table.
- Red Skull gives himself a suit of golden armor.
- Cap kneels to be knighted, but it’s a trick.
- The Cube’s power is lessened if Cap keeps Skull’s fingers from closing.
- Red Skull still able to make the island fall to pieces.
- Cap knocks Cube out of hand and Red Skull dives into ocean after it. Weight of golden armor pulls him down.
- Cube trapped beneath sea and beneath fallen rocks of the island.
| Previous | #571 | Next |
|---|---|---|
| Tales of Suspense #80, Story B | Reading order | Tales to Astonish #82 |
| Tales of Suspense #81 | Tales of Suspense | Tales of Suspense #82 |
