Featuring: Captain America
Release: November 10, 1966
Cover: February 1967
12 cents
Produced with pandemonium by: Stan Lee and Jack Kirby
Inking by: Frank Giacoia
Lettering by: Artie Simek
10 pages
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|---|---|---|
| Strange Tales #155, Story B | Reading order | Avengers #34 |
| Tales of Suspense #86 | Tales of Suspense | Tales of Suspense #87 |
…you were one of the greatest! Don’t ever forget that!
Before we start, I’d like to note the date. Tomorrow, December 20 2025, marks 85 years since the introduction of Captain America, by Joe Simon and Jack Kirby.
December 20, 1940, almost a year before Pearl Harbor, at a time American policy and popular sentiment was still against involvement in the war in Europe, here was Captain America punching Adolf Hitler in the face.
There are those on the internet who claim comics have become too political in recent years. To my mind, they’re not political enough. This cover was a bold political statement, and remains one of the greatest comic covers of all time, a fine introduction to one of Marvel’s greatest superheroes.
Superheroes should stand for what is right, not for what is popular. That’s how they become timeless.
Captain America is on a mission in the Orient, trying to rescue a double agent.
The first half of the issue is dedicated to Kirby-trademark action as Cap fights against presumably Chinese soldiers.
We get to the humanity of it when Cap realizes this undercover spy is suffering from combat fatigue. He’s a great hero who has done much for SHIELD and for America, but it’s taken its toll.
In the end, the agent finds his courage, and dies a hero, destroying a secret weapon and saving the world.
It’s a good story, but also worth noting the agent in question is an Asian American. And Stan and company have had a very hard time all through the ’60s with their depictions of Asian characters. They tend to be drawn and depicted as stereotypes.
The best Asian characters of the ’60s have been Wong and the Ancient One, but their depictions are purely rooted in stereotypes.
This SHIELD agent, whom we only know as Agent 60, is the first to break the mold.
In the ’50s, Marvel did have one example of an Asian hero worth considering, Jimmy Woo. We haven’t met him yet, but we will.
A good character with a good if tragic arc that plays out over a few pages, and a step forward for representation.
We learn Cap’s SHIELD codename is Shield Star. We don’t learn whom the codename Eye-Patch belongs to.
Cap was sent on this mission by a female SHIELD agent we’ve met a couple times, but whose name we haven’t learned. Returning from this mission, Cap was planning on a dinner date.
However, now she’s away on a mission, so they need a rain check again.
“…only to have lost her again–forever?” asks Cap.
No, Cap, she’s just on a mission. You can have fondue when she gets back. Stop being over-dramatic.
I had wanted to describe myself as done with the continuity surrounding AIM and the Secret Empire, and that’s partially true. But we’re still letting the fallout dictate our reading order. When I read an issue of Sgt. Fury or a Blue Beetle story, you’ll know that means I think I’ve read everything that urgently tied into those issues.
In particular, this is the second half of a comic, and we read the first half a while ago. I don’t like to do that. But the Iron Man arc felt like it needed to be within the Secret Empire stuff, and the Captain America stuff was explicitly later, as it was tied into the Hydra stuff that followed.
So we read ahead in Iron Man, intending to read these Captain America stories soon. We then started the new Hydra saga, pairing it with the Umar saga unfolding in the latter half of Strange Tales comics. We fit in the last Captain America story where it fit in terms of the larger Hydra saga, and then are reading this as soon as we hit a breakpoint in the Hydra and Umar sagas.
How this ties into our next Avengers arc, and how that arc relates to the continuity of the Secret Empire is complicated. We’ll discuss that next post.
And then the next Daredevil arc also has complicated connections to the Secret Empire continuity. But then I think I’ll be able to stop talking about it and read this month’s Sgt. Fury, nicely untethered from any tight continuity.
Mails of Suspense.
Rating: ★★★½, 63/100
Significance: ★★★☆☆
Characters:
- Captain America
- Colonel Kuro Chin/SHIELD Special Service Agent #60
Story notes:
- Yashonka Arms Research Center in the Orient.
- Red star indicates Asian Commie troops, likely Chinese.
- Captain America searching for Agent 60.
- One of SHIELD’s most trusted female agents sent Cap on this mission.
- Agent 60 had not checked in, has not yet destroyed Z-Ray.
- Beeper Dogs are mechanical bloodhounds.
- Solar gun attacks Cap.
- Agent 60 breaks cover to save Cap, and dies for it.
- Phosgene gas capsule spreads posion gas.
- Z-Ray destroyed.
- Cap’s SHIELD codename: Shield Star.
| Previous | #626 | Next |
|---|---|---|
| Strange Tales #155, Story B | Reading order | Avengers #34 |
| Tales of Suspense #86 | Tales of Suspense | Tales of Suspense #87 |
Captain America is my favorite comic book character, and while this is a simple or almost filler story, I think it perfectly showcases the character’s strengths.
It’s interesting to see how representation has evolved, even from such an early stage in the Marvel universe. Although we’ll still have to wait for more Asian representation, it will be worth it when we finally meet Shang-Chi, if your project gets far enough along.
Shang-Chi is a long way away at the rate I am going.