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Captain America Comics #1: Review

Mar 1941
Joe Simon, Jack Kirby

Story Name:

Case No.1: Meet Captain America

Review & Comments

Rating:
4 stars

Captain America Comics #1 Review by (February 15, 2010)
Includes a coupon to receive for 10 cents an official badge and membership card for "Captain America's Sentinels of Liberty". Besides the drawings of Cap and Bucky, the badge includes a drawing of a woman named Betty Ross; such is the name of who would become the great love of Bruce Banner / the Hulk, comic created 21 years later (1962). a) First appearance/origin of Captain America/Steve Rogers. First appearance of Bucky Barnes. In this first issue Cap’s shield is triangular. The Human Torch is referred to as a comic book character. Story retold in TALES OF SUSPENSE #63 (March 1965). b) First appearance of agent Betty Ross, renamed Peggy Carter in the Silver Age. Story originally untitled. Story retold in TALES OF SUSPENSE #64 (April 1965). c) First appearance of Sergeant Duffy (not yet named). Story originally untitled. d) First appearance of the Red Skull (George Maxon). Story retold in TALES OF SUSPENSE #65 (May 1965).

New and Improved Comments: 1) First appearance/origin of Captain America/Steve Rogers. First appearance of Bucky Barnes. First appearance of Abraham Erskine, called Reinstein, which would later be retconned as a code name. In this first issue Cap’s shield is triangular. The Human Torch is referred to as a comic book character. Story retold in TALES OF SUSPENSE #63 (March 1965). 2) First appearance of agent Betty Ross, later renamed Betsy, who would become the masked hero Golden Girl. Story originally untitled. Story retold in TALES OF SUSPENSE #64 (April 1965). 3) Text story, with two illustrations. 4) First appearance of Sergeant Duffy (not yet named). Story originally untitled. 5) First appearance of the Red Skull (George Maxon). Story retold in TALES OF SUSPENSE #65 (May 1965) where Maxon's first name is John. 6) First appearance of the Hurricane. The hero is said to be the son of Thor, God of Thunder, and the last of the Greek immortals, mixing mythic pantheons. But then, nothing about the story makes sense. 7) First appearance/origin of Tuk Caveboy. The intro mentions something about a quest for Attillan but nothing is said to Tuk about it; maybe that’s why he is searching for Atlantis for the next two issues.




 

Synopsis / Summary / Plot

Captain America Comics #1 Synopsis by Peter Silvestro
Case No.1: Meet Captain America
Due to the alarming number of spies and saboteurs in the U.S. Army, president Franklin Roosevelt commands FBI chief J. Arthur Grover to show two high ranking officials about a top secret program designed to defeat those spies. The agents are taken to a seclude place where a fragile man named Steve Rogers is injected a serum created by Dr. Reinstein that transforms him into a formidable athlete code named Captain America. One of the agents was a Hitler spy; after killing Reinstein and destroying the last sample of the serum, he is defeated by Rogers.
Captain America went onto battle the enemies immersed in his country ranks carrying a shield, and wearing a custom that covered his face, and reminded of the American flag. Rogers later met Bucky Barnes, the mascot of the regiment at camp Lehigh, who discovers his secret identity and thus becomes Cap's sidekick, wearing a red and blue custom.



Story #2

Sando and Omar

Writer: Jack Kirby. Writer: Joe Simon. Penciler: Jack Kirby. Penciler: Joe Simon. Inker: Jack Kirby. Inker: Joe Simon.

Synopsis / Summary / Plot

Stage hypnotist Sando mesmerizes his dwarfish assistant Omar into predicting acts of sabotage against the United States. When the predictions all come true, Captain America and Bucky investigate and confront Sando onstage. With the aid of government agent Betty Ross, they unmask Sando as a Gestapo agent and put an end to his schemes to terrorize America with his phony predictions.


Story #3

Captain America and the Soldiers’ Soup

Writer: ?. Penciler: Jack Kirby. Penciler: Joe Simon. Inker: Jack Kirby. Inker: Joe Simon.

Synopsis / Summary / Plot

Late one night, Steve Rogers is awakened by a sudden silence in camp —he goes out to investigate and finds the sentry unconscious. Changing into Captain America he trails the intruders to the cook house where he finds a pair of thugs preparing to poison the soldiers’ soup. Cap leaps into action, and with Bucky who arrives shortly, the villains are overpowered and confess to the police. At a camp gathering the next day, the Colonel expresses his gratitude to the mysterious hero Captain America.


Story #4

Chessboard

Writer: Jack Kirby. Writer: Joe Simon. Penciler: Jack Kirby. Penciler: Joe Simon. Inker: Jack Kirby. Inker: Joe Simon.

Synopsis / Summary / Plot

Nazi mastermind Rathcone uses a chessboard to determine which high-ranking American military officer his men will kill. When Captain America and Bucky pursue the killers of an admiral, the villain adds their figures to his chessboard. Bucky is lured into a trap and taken prisoner. Cap tracks him down, frees Bucky and together they mop up Rathcone’s spy operation.


Story #5

Captain America and the Riddle of the Red Skull

Writer: Jack Kirby. Writer: Joe Simon. Penciler: Jack Kirby. Penciler: Joe Simon. Inker: Jack Kirby. Inker: Joe Simon.

Synopsis / Summary / Plot

A masked killer known as the Red Skull is murdering military officers. Captain America and Bucky prevent the Red Skull’s henchmen from robbing a bank but the mastermind gets away. Shortly after an aircraft built by the Maxon company crashes due to sabotage, another general is killed by the Red Skull. Cap, arriving on the scene too late to save the officer, battles the Nazi agent but is overpowered. Bucky comes to his rescue and the Skull is unmasked as George Maxon, head of the aircraft company. Cap stands back while Maxon kills himself with his own poison injection. Later the FBI uncovers all of Maxon’s terroristic activities.


Story #6

Murder Ltd.

Writer: Jack Kirby. Writer: Joe Simon. Penciler: Jack Kirby. Inker: Jack Kirby.

Synopsis / Summary / Plot

Hurricane, last of the Greek immortals, arrives in Coast City, where he detects the hand of his ancient enemy Pluto behind a recent rash of gangland slayings. He heads to the hideout of gangster Piggy Perroni, subdues his henchmen in a wink, and introduces himself as hitman Mike Cury (Mercury, get it?). When Piggy assigns him to a hit, Hurricane whirls into action, taking out the remaining hoods and delivering Perroni to Police Commissioner Regan and D.A. Nelson. The speedy hero then heads to a swanky estate where a society costume part is in progress, there to meet Paul Sayden, the real mastermind. Sayden, dressed as Satan (Sayden, get it?) is really Pluto, and he proceeds to poison the party punch. Hurricane arrives in an angel costume and challenges his enemy to battle, punching him into the punch. The epic battle cows the gusts and when the police arrive, Hurricane tells them that Paul Sayden will trouble them no more before vanishing as suddenly as he came, with a promise to return.


Story #7

Stories from the Dark Ages

Writer: Jack Kirby. Writer: Joe Simon. Penciler: Jack Kirby. Inker: Jack Kirby.

Synopsis / Summary / Plot

The blond and hairless Tuk is summoned by his dying foster-father, Ak, last of the Hairy Ones, to hear a strange story. Years earlier, Ak had witnessed a pair of beautiful and hairless people being stranded on his shore, with the male vowing revenge. Almost immediately, the man, Phadion, is killed protecting his family from a horned beast, and Ak rescued the woman Rhaya and her child and took them to his cave. Not long after Rhaya was slain by a lion and now Ak reveals that Tuk is the orphaned boy. Ak dies and Tuk sets out to find his destiny; he is attacked by two killers from the savage Gorek tribe, and is rescued by another Cro-Magnon, Tanir the Hunter. Tanir offers to join Tuk on his quest (which Ak did not mention and Tuk does not explain).


Jack Kirby
Al Liederman
Jack Kirby (Cover Penciler)


Characters

Listed in Alphabetical Order.

Bucky Barnes
Bucky Barnes

(James Barnes)
Captain America
Captain America

(Steve Rogers)

Plus: Betsy Ross (FBI Agent), Hurricane, Nazis, Pluto (Hades), President Franklin Delano Roosevelt (Franklin Delano Roosevelt), Professor Erskine, Red Skull (John Maxon), Tuk Caveboy.

> Captain America Comics: Book info and issue index

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