Stan Lee's First Story!
This issue of Captain America Comics features the return of the Red Skull in a story called, appropriately enough, 'The Return of the Red Skull'. It's a fun Joe Simon / Jack Kirby story that has everything you could want from a classic Captain America tale. The Red Skull uses a giant drill car, and threatens, of all places, Ebbets Field, home of the Brooklyn Dodgers, the most American team of that most American institution!
The Red Skull is so hammy it's awesome, saying things like 'Silence Pig!' when dealing with a gangster (yes, it has gangsters in it too), and throwing a cherry bomb (seriously) at Captain America and Bucky.
'The Hunchback of Hollywood and the Movie Murder' seems to be a knockoff of ' The Murders of Clayface' and 'Clayface Walks Again' stories that ran in the preceding months in Detective Comics, although not as good as those Batman stories are.
However, the real notable thing about this issue is that it contains the first published Stan Lee story! Stanley Lieber began his career in comics as an office boy at Timely Comics, filling inkwells, erasing construction lines, getting coffee. But Martin Goodman allowed him to write a text backup story in 1941. Normally a 'throw-away' story that went unread, the text backup stories were included to meet a postal regulation, but it was immediately apparent that this kid had some talent.
The story, 'Captain America Foils the Traitor's Revenge', was in some ways more dynamic than the illustrated Captain America stories in this issue. For the first time, Captain America uses his shield not for defense, but as a thrown weapon, disarming his opponent in the nick of time - something that would become a trademark of the character. Some might dismiss the story as trite by today's standards, but by the standards of the day, this was a pretty good yarn.
'The Queer Case of the Murdering Butterfly and the Ancient Mummies' is nowhere near as cool as it sounds. Its a pretty stock 40s hero story, about the level of quality of a Republic Serials chapter. It conveniently seems to forget about the Butterfly's criminal organization by story's end.
The remainder of the comic includes, 'Tuk Cave-Boy' is a sword and sorcery tale; 'Amazing Spy Adventures: The True Story of the Bald Head Message and How it was Delivered'; a historical; and 'Hurricane Master of Speed' are all largely forgettable.
So, on balance, this is pretty much worth reading, especially for Stan Lee fans!
