Comics Corner: Captain America 1

Title: Captain America

Issue Number: 1

Release Date: March 1941

Highlights

• First appearance of Captain America, Bucky Barnes, Red Skull (Maxon), Abraham Erskine, Ak, Number 5, Golden Girl, Phadion, Sando, Tanir, Heinz Kruger, Omar, Rathcone, Rhaya, Sgt. Duffy and Tuk
• Special appearances by Kro, Adolph Hitler, Franklin D. Roosevelt and Makkari
• Short origin story of Captain America
• Death of Abraham Erskine, Phadion, Heinz Kruger, Rhaya and Red Skull (Maxon)
• Bucky Barnes discovers that Steve Rogers is Captain America
• Captain America makes Bucky his sidekick
• You could send a dime to the real headquarters of Timely Comics to join the Captain America Sentinel Army - They'll send you a real badge and membership card!
• Multiple stories make up this first serial style first issue
• A solid introduction to the character, but this is not the Captain America most are familiar with these days

Low Points

• Panels aren't consistent in order, making the story very difficult to read consecutively from one to the next - Often found myself reading panels out of sequence
• Bucky Barnes is just your average, every day kid - Why does Captain American put him in harms way as a sidekick?
• How is Bucky a part of the military, living on the military base with Steve Rogers?
• Very violent stories full of macabre and death
• Original Red Skull was only intended as a villain of the week
• Remaining two (of the six stories) in the issue don't feature Captain America and are unrelated to him in any way

Oddities

• Captain America looks like an anorexic with a blue "glove" on his head on the very first page
• Steve Rogers keeps his identity as Captain America a secret, but Bucky has no secret identity
• How does Bucky know there is a microphone in the ceiling light? It's never established that he finds this prior to getting tied up 
• Cap makes Bucky get all dressed up in his gear to go hunting for Red Skull and then tells him to stay home
• There's an entire city out there, and Bucky somehow manages to stumble onto the hideout of Red Skull, seemingly within minutes, with no clues that would have led him there
• No sooner does Bucky get captured, Captain America crashes through the doors of the Red Skull's hideout - What, is there a sign out front directing people to it?

Rating (based on a 1 through 5 Stans grading system)

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