Captain America in the 1960s

Feb 28

Feb 28 Captain America in the 1960s

I’ve mentioned it before in other primers, but it needs repeating: In the late 1960s, Marvel canceled all of their flagship horror/sci-fi titles as the books had slowly been taken over by superheroes. Tales of Suspense was one of the titles on the chopping block with its featured characters getting their own titles. The Captain America series that came out of this, resumed its numbering from Suspense with issue #100.

At the start of the series, Jack Kirby was still artist on the book with Stan Lee as writer. However, this was a period in time when Stan was phoning it in and this title doesn’t appear to be any different as a lot of these stories were rife with the typical tropes you find in Jack Kirby’s work.

Issue #100 wrapped up the a plot that started in Tales of Suspense which saw Captain America team-up with the Black Panther to stop a Baron Zemo impostor. This story served a spring-board to put the Black Panther on the Avengers.

What follows is a lot of recycled Jack Kirby plot contrivances for a number of issues: Issues #101-104 saw Captain America battle the Red Skull and various allies such as the fourth Sleeper robot and a group of war criminals called the Exiles. What is striking about these issues is that how, with the advent of Marvel’s Sliding Timescale, these stories need explanations for how so many Nazi war criminals could still be in their prime. However, since a lot of Nazis had access to technology to slow or stop the aging process it doesn’t seem like too much of a stretch to explain this away.

Issue #106 was an issue where Captain America fights a LMD, because apparently every Jack Kirby story is obligated to have at least one plot point about an android or some such similar thing. There are a bunch of uninspiring fights with Batroc the Leaper and the Trapster in issues #105 and 108 in particular. The only real stand-out issue is #107 which introduces a new villain named Doctor Faustus. Kirby’s final work on the title (for the rest of the decade) were issues #109 and 112 which were both recap issues

Issue #110 through 113 saw Jim Steranko come on as artist where they finally had Rick Jones become the new Bucky. This will only a little longer the Steranko’s tenure on the book. Jim was only around long enough to bring back Hydra — introducing Madame Hydra as their new leader. It was also provided a flimsy plot to make Captain America’s identity a secret again. In the story, Cap uses a dummy wearing a rubber mask to fool everyone into thinking he was murdered by Hydra and that Steve Rogers was only a cover identity. This is such a stupid plot idea that it eventually has to be hashed out further in Avengers #107 when it’s revealed that everyone forgot Steve Rogers was Captain America because of the fucking Space Phantom.

Issue #114 saw John Romita take over as artist, this only lasted one issue. It featured a lot of stupid ideas. With Steve Rogers “dead”, Captain America starts dying his hair and wearing make-up to change his appearance. This, like Romita is dropped after this issue. Also, the story features a really cringe moment where Cap asks his girlfriend Sharon Carter to quit SHIELD because it’s too dangerous for a woman. Thankfully, they didn’t have the character quit, but still it’s a really dated scene.

Issues #115-119 featured a long running arc where the Red Skull recovers the Cosmic Cube and uses it to swap bodies with Captain America. With this plotline, Gene Colan takes over regular art duties and, to be honest, this is not his best work. The story drags on and on as the Red Skull just watches others chase and try to kill Captain America until he decides to get involved personally. By this point, Rick Jones has spent his entire time as Bucky whining about how he isn’t good enough for the mantle and he eventually quits as the writers were going to make him the sidekick of Captain Marvel. The only good thing to come out of this story arc is the introduction of Sam Wilson, aka the Falcon. Although Falc will not become Cap’s new crime-fighting partner until the 1970s.

Anyway, this run of Captain America is pretty underwhelming. In all honesty, Captain America stories are going to be sub-par until the 1980s, but that’s a story for another time.