Captain America in 1965
Very interesting strategy to use these Tales of Suspense issues as flashback stories to the World War II era. A long time ago, I was reading about the differences between the JLA and the Avengers. One theory behind why the Avengers was more interesting was because the nature of JLA is tied to DC’s A-listers (80s excepted), and those characters tend to have all their character development in their own series.
Avengers always kept a couple A-list characters, though, even when the comic developed its own cast. A cast with a couple stars could remain interesting if either, a) there is plenty of development on the part of the exclusive characters (Vision, Hawkeye, Wonder Man, etc.), or b) if those stars developed a scheme to allow development in Avengers.
Putting Tales and Avengers in different time periods would protect against canonical complications. Not to say that’s what actually happened, but it’s what went through my mind when I read these issues.
It’s quite possible that the writers still hadn’t concocted exactly how to pull Cap out of his timeline, thematically (Cap vs. Nazis), or maybe Lee just felt World War II heroics could be this comic’s unique marketing niche.
Anyway, the coolest thing about these early Cap issues is how he’s drawn — a (comparatively) low powered human diving head first into danger and gunfire. Red Skull is also quickly re-established as an emblem of pure calculated evil. No room for grey area in this era of these characters.
I tried to put myself in the mindset of someone living in the mid 1960s and thought about Marvel’s lineup during this era. If I were a kid in 1965, I don’t know if I’d be reading Tales of Suspense. Spider-Man and Fantastic Four, without a doubt. Avengers, definitely. X-Men, potentially. Cap and Iron Man… that’s a harder ask. The characters are great; their treatment, not so much.
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