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This is the second volume of Silver Age Captain America and it reprints the rest of Cap’s run in Tales of Suspense, from # 82 to 99 and finally the debut of Captain America in his own title with Captain America #100. Unless otherwise noted, Stan Lee and Jack Kirby teamed up for this historic run.
Spoilers Ahead
-Tales of Suspense #82- Cap remembers and old mission with Bucky from a photo album he looks through. He goes to check the mansion one last time and sees old villains who are long since dead. It turns out that all these hallucinations are caused by an AIM enemy called The Adaptoid, a robot who can absorb powers of any enemies. In the end, the Adaptoid steals Cap’s powers.
-Tales of Suspense #83- Cap (Adaptoid version) is confronted by a new villain called The Tumbler. He practiced acrobatics and wants to make a name for himself. Tumbler beats the fake Cap very easily. Tumbler thinks he has won until the real Cap wakes up and easily manhandles him. He straps down the Adaptoid until his teammates return and Tumbler is brought to jail.
-Tales of Suspense #84- The rest of the Avengers return home to the Adaptoid but they say they will look into it shortly. They don’t know that Adaptoid has stolen all their powers. The Avengers leave and Adaptoid, with all the powers of the Avengers, and after an epic battle, Cap is dropped by the Adaptoid into the water. Adaptoid doesn’t want AIM to destroy him so he flies off into hiding, not to be seen again until his appearance in the X-Men.
-Tales of Suspense #85- Cap learns that his woman friend from SHIELD is held captive by Hydra so he goes to look for her and he is attacked Batroc. Batroc and Cap have a huge fight, drawn as only Kirby can draw, but when Hydra starts interfering Batroc gets pissed and goes against the agents and even helps Cap save the SHIELD agent, then Batroc escapes. The fight scenes here were just awesome.
-Tales of Suspense #86- Cap invades a secret communist base in made-up city of Yashonka. Cap is there to help save a SHIELD agent who is there as a spy trying to destory their super deadly Z-Ray. Cap invades, fights a whole bunch of crazy machines and gadgets, finds the SHIELD agents, the SHIELD agent sacrifices his life and Cap escapes as the entire facility explodes. You don’t see stories like these anymore, just a short fight story that is really just there.
-Tales of Suspense #87- Roy Thomas wrote it and Jack Sparling drew it, the only time in TOS where it was written by someone other than Stan. It was actually very good, too. So the villain is called the Planner and his masterplan was to impersonate Cap, have the public turn against him, have Cap find him and steal his shield with all the Stark magnetic technology (which he didn’t know Cap took out). His plan goes perfectly, right down to Cap finding him, but c’mon, Cap kicks this guys ass. We assume Cap clears his name at the end.
-Tales of Suspense #88- Cap gets a message that is seemingly from Bucky saying that he is alive and he’s captured! So Cap shows up at the facility where Swordsman and Power Man are awaiting ready to defeat Cap. We saw the two villains arrive eariler and they were told by a mysterious shadow that they need to defeat Cap and they will be wealthy beyond their dreams. So Cap defeats the two villains and is then brought to the mastermind, who we don’t see yet. Gil Kane drew this very well, and he would take over for art on TOS from here up to issue 91.
-Tales of Suspense #89- The main villain is exposed! It is none other than the Red Skull! Cap is trapped and has to fight a robot made by Skull and a Bucky android! Cap defeats the faux Bucky but Skull pulls the plug on any chance of Cap surviving when he starts closing the walls on him!
-Tales of Suspense #90- Cap is stuck between two closing walls but Skull gets too cocky and leaves. Cap escapes and hitches a ride on the plane Skull is using. Skull had told Cap he is going to use his magic bubble to capture a whole city and take over the world! Cap is hanging on a line off the plane and eventually gets to the ship. It is too late as Skull already has Manhattan and he only frees it when Cap admits to the world that he is a traitor and works for the Skull!
-Tales of Suspense #91- So Cap is a traitor in the public eye and is in Skull’s possession for 24 hours. He doesn’t do anything for about 23 hours and 55 minutes but then asks for the location of a super-secret sub. Cap tells him and then Skull shoots him into a room with a heat ray. Cap escapes but not before Skull hypnotizes the crew of the submarine. Cap releases them from their hypnosis and they plan a way to defeat Skull. Skull goes into the submarine as it explodes! Looks like the end of Skull! Well, I don’t believe that for a second. Gil did an awesome job on this four parter.
-Tales of Suspense #92- Agent 13 is trying to infiltrate AIM by saying she went against SHIELD. So to test her they send a huge killer robot after Nick Fury in an attempt to kill him. Cap interferes and defeats the robot but Nick tells him he may have cost Agent 13’s life. Cap says he will save her. Kirby returns with a bang, doing what he does best, drawin huge robots and great fight scenes.
-Tales of Suspense #93- Cap finds AIM in a submarine deep underwater but is captured. Agent 13 helps to free him and the two try to find out the mystery of MODOK. They don’t actually see him but an AIM agent gets the drop on the duo and shoots Cap with a paralyzing ray. Agent 13 is turned over to MODOK as an AIM agent aims his gun at Cap’s head.
-Tales of Suspense #94- So the AIM agent is about to shoot Cap when one of them reminds him that they can’t kill anyone without MODOK’s approval. The AIM agents had enough and send Cap to MODOK to defeat the leader. We finally see MODOK, a huge headed man in a flying device. Cap can’t get a step on the monster but the AIM agents shoot him down. Cap and Agent 13 escape ad MODOK blows up the submarine.
-Tales of Suspense #95- Cap takes out a gangster warlod and he stunningly retires! We learn that he retires since he wants to live a normal life. After a date with Agent 13 where she basically tells him its her duty to serve SHIELD, Cap realizes his priorities as Cap are overwhelming his life. He unmasks and retires, then returns home to one great scene of all his memories, done as only Kirby can do.
-Tales of Suspense #96- Steve Rogers, his identity known to the world, realizes that a whole bunch of people have been impersonating Cap. Some mobsters put a hit on Cap and they attack one of the impersonators. So the real Steve Rogers saves him as SHIELD takes out the would-be assassins. Cap takes back his retirement.
-Tales of Suspense #97- We see Cap takes out some mobsters at the beginning of the issue and we forward to Black Panther battling some strange costumed characters. We also see Agent 13 getting ready to go out on a mission. Eventually a ship sent by Black Panther picks up Cap and brings him to Wakanda.
-Tales of Suspense #98- Cap arrives at Wakanda and almost gets blasted out of the sky! He arrives and Panther tests him to make sure he is the real Cap. He warns Cap of a satellite in space that can destroy anything. Cap doesn’t know why he’s involved but Panther tells him that there’s a reason why. The two are knocked out before anything else could happen. Agent 13 appears to be at the location where Black Panther and Cap are at! The real villain is shown to be the long thought dead Baron Zemo!
-Tales of Suspense #99- Cap and Panther are trapped but they manage to escape. Cap and Panther take out the Zemo flunkies but Zemo gets the best of both and shows them what his powerful new ray can do. Agent 13 shows up at the end and Zemo tells her to kill Cap. She doesn’t know what to do!
-Captain America #100- We start with a brief origin of the new Silver Age Cap being found in ice. He awakes to the Agent 13 (who he doesn’t know is Agent 13 yet since she’s in disguise) pointing a gun at him. She misses him inentionally then tells Zemo not to bother with them now. Agent 13 eventually turns on Zemo, destroys the control panel and Cap and Panther fight back. They fight a huge robot monster named Destructon. It takes a while but Cap and Panther defeat him. They then take out Zemo and show he is an imposter. His minions kill him then capitulate to Cap and Panther. SHIELD gets the word that Zemo is defeated and Fury destroys the satellite. Thus ends the threat of Zemo.
-The Bottom Line- Stan starts it off again with a foreword where, like last volume, he really just wrote about the highlights of the stories that were collected. Jack and Stan really love Cap and it shows. When Stan really puts his all into a character the stories were great and the same goes for Jack. Kirby is at his best here, drawing Cap with a fury you don’t normally see in artists. The fight scenes were the usual bombastic panels you would expect from King. If anything, this is a collection to pick up just for the fabulous art. Don’t get me wrong, the stories were top-notch, too. This is a great Kirby collection. There are some extras, like a the original splash page of TOS #98 and the unused cover of Cap #100. It is the same thing but features a Zemo shadow. The only minor quibble I have with this collection are the last two issues. The art and script were fine but the inks by Syd Shore didn’t seem to mesh with Kirby at all. It is not the smooth inks of Joe Sinnott or Dick Ayers and instead is very Golden Age, like the early Cap stories with a very detailed (every line on the face) picture. I just didn’t dig it. Still it is a great collection. High Recommendation.
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