I loved those cartoons! There was a Cap episode based on (as I would learn later) Avengers #18--"When the Commissar Commands!"--and this was my introduction to the Avengers. It featured the Kooky Quartet Avengers and later on when I finally secured an actual Avengers comic, I was shocked to see a quite different team.

Tales of Suspense #71



"...When You Lie Down With Dogs...!"
Writer: Stan Lee
Art: Jack Kirby (Layouts) and George Tuska & Joe Sinnott (Art)
Cover Date: November 1965

Synopsis
Cap is being carried to the rocket that is aimed for Winston Churchill's home as the issue opens, and as this happens, Dr. Rawlings argues with the Nazis not to send his sister Celia in the rocket along with Cap and Bucky. His pleas fall on deaf ears and he is thrown in Castle Greymoor's dungeon instead. Back upstairs, one of the Nazis carrying Cap stumbles, causing Cap to fall out of their grasp; Cap thinks to himself that he meant to do that to get himself free. He fights the four Nazis off, then takes cover from their gunfire.

Nearby, Bucky comes to and escapes his guard (with a JUDO CHOP! to the back of the neck) before joining Cap in his fight. Cap, who has regained his shield, takes out a couple of Nazis with one toss, then bull-rushes into another group, sending them scattering. Major Uberhart arrives on the scene, his gun drawn on a captive Celia Rawlings. Cap and Bucky pause, but Celia manages to slip free of her captors, giving Cap the opportunity to knock out Uberhart. In the fray, Celia lunges for a Nazi with a gun, only to end up getting shot; Bucky quickly dispatches the shooter, but it is too late for Celia, who dies as her brother tends to her wound.

Cap and Bucky convince Dr. Rawlings to assist them in aiding the Ranger troop pinned down by the Nazis, which he does by adjusting the rocket's trajectory to land on the Nazi armored division. At the same time, Dr. Rawlings, driven mad by grief, set the stored rocket fuel on fire, leading to a series of explosions that destroy the castle, kill the remaining Nazi soldiers, and seemingly end his life as well, although Cap and Bucky are able to narrowly escape, thus ending the drama at Greymoor Castle.

Continuity Issues
At the end of issue #70, Cap's hands are bound behind his back while he is carried face-down by two Nazi soldiers, but here his hands are unbound and he is being carried face-up by three Nazis.

On page one of this story, Cap's shield is on his chest as he is carried, but on page two, it is no longer on his chest and is nowhere to be seen.

Less continuity issues but moreso inconsistent art problems were:
1. In issue #70, the Nazi uniforms are grey, but they are green in this issue.
2. Major Uberhart's hair is silver in issue #70 but blonde here.
3. Major Uberhart's Nazi armband comes and goes from panel to panel and page to page.

My Thoughts
A perfectly acceptable ending to the Castle Greymoor saga, although not without some points that bugged me. Regardless of Cap's disappearing shield as noted above, I didn't like how he regained his shield off-panel while they showed Bucky escaping his guard; it's a bigger point in the story rather than showing five panels of Bucky getting loose from his captor.

As well, Dr. Rawlings' behavior at the end of the story is inconsistent. He breaks down at his sister's side as she lies dying from her gunshot wound, apologizing for his actions that led to that moment. When next seen, he is rationally agreeing to assist Cap and Bucky in adjusting the trajectory of the rocket, but as the rocket launches (during which time he appears perfectly calm), he has set the rocket fuel on fire and is cackling like a madman at his actions. Grief can certainly affect different people in different ways, but he goes from one extreme to another in a matter of just a few panels.

My Grade: B This was better paced than the previous issue, bringing the Greymoor Castle story to an appropriate close, with Cap and Bucky saving not only themselves, but also their group and Winston Churchill.

Hope I don't disappoint!  I usually post one or two reviews per week, as I'm able, and am always looking for feedback and input from the readers as to how I can make my reviews better.

Tales of Suspense #72



"The Sleeper Shall Awake!"
Writer: Stan Lee
Art: Jack Kirby (Layouts) and George Tuska (Art)
Cover Date: December 1965

Synopsis
As the story opens, it is revealed that the past few issues (and potentially all of the WWII tales) were part of a story that Cap was telling to Hawkeye, Quicksilver, and Scarlet Witch. Clint gives Steve some teasing about his role in the war, then asks what Bucky is currently up to; Steve says that he died, and when Clint presses the issue, Wanda intervenes as Steve walks away, head hung low. Back in his quarters, Steve broods about Bucky's death, which keeps him awake for a while; once he falls asleep, he dreams of his last encounter with the Red Skull, in which the captured villain mentions "Sleepers", his plan to continue to the war on "Der Tag" ("The Day"), twenty-five years in the future from that point in time. Steve awakens, shaken and anxious for clues, clues he finds in a metal box he took from the Skull during that last fight; inside the box is a list of German agents and "stations".

Over in Bavaria, a group of men brave a driving rain storm as they make their way to the home of the burgomaster. When they arrive, they find him dressed in his Nazi uniform; from there, they depart into the hills, looking for one of the "Sleepers" the Red Skull had mentioned. They pull a boulder away from a cave opening and after they finish, a giant robot emerges.

Close by, Captain America parachutes into Germany and makes his way toward a set of loud footsteps. As he approaches a small town, he encounters the Sleeper, which nearly steps on him. He battles it, to no avail, and Cap is left to ponder his next move as the Sleeper lumbers forth mindlessly toward an unknown goal.

As the issue wraps, a woman is shown ordering a group of diggers to assemble at a particular place, as she is responsible for the awakening of the second Sleeper.

Continuity Issues: None

My Thoughts
What a great way to bring the ToS series back into real-time continuity! Much as I enjoyed the WWII stories, they only provided interesting backstory to Cap but had no impact on his current situation. I liked how they used Clint's lack of tact and underlying disrespect for Cap as the catalyst for the nightmare that set Cap off on his search for the metal box and ultimately took him to Germany to locate the Sleepers. The only drawback to this is that is gave us the first of what will become a seemingly unending string of panels of Steve brooding about Bucky's death over the course of the next few years.

The artwork is passable, with George Tuska finishing over top of Kirby's layouts; I've never been a huge Tuska fan, but it's really hard to screw things up too much when working with something that Kirby started. My major complaint is with the first panel, where the other three members of the Quartet are gathered around Cap; Quicksilver and Hawkeye are drawn standing, while Wanda is drawn kneeling at Steve's feet as he tells his story, as though she is a child.

My Grade: A- Glad to see Cap's tales back into real-time, and what a way to get The Sleeper storyline started.

I agree both that this is a great story, and the first panel with Wanda looking like an 8 year old listening to Granpa Steve is weird.

Having a WWII plot that goes into 'modern times' just made so much SENSE.

She had a crush on EVERYONE back then... but I suppose that does make sense.

From Avengers #8:

Feminist icon Janet van Dyne (The Wasp) shows that she's not afraid of her sexuality.