Issue(s): Sgt. Fury and His Howling Commandos #8
Cover Date: Jul 64
Title: "The Death Ray of Dr. Zemo"
Credits:
Stan Lee - Writer
Dick Ayers - Penciler
George Roussos - Inker

Review/plot:
Inker George Roussos used the pseudonym George Bell (sometimes just Geo. Bell) but i'll use his real name in the credits.

Dick Ayers, who inked the earliest issues, takes over the art from for this series beginning with this issue. He'll be the regular artist until the end of the series (the last non-reprint issue is #120, in 1974). Despite the creative team change we still the same tone; your random blend of ethnicities lead by the tough but lovable sergeant taking on the entire German army.

The Howling Commandos have just returned to base after capturing an entire company of SS Troops when they are immediately sent on another mission in Germany. It seems a Nazi scientist named Dr. Zemo has invented a death ray that will ensure that the Nazis win the war.

The Howlers navigate their way through a booby trapped castle guarded by Nazi elite guards using a combination of wits and bravery. Zemo gets away, blowing up his castle and the death ray prototype in the process.

Gabriel Jones horn playing continues to be annoying.

The new member, the British ponce named Percy, beats up some soldier bullies with his umbrella.

As Mark Drummond notes in the comments, Stan Lee said on CNN's Crossfire during an episode about the revamped Rawhide Kid that Percy Pinkerton was originally meant to be gay:

CARLSON: Mr. Lee, tell us now, you've obviously been in comics longer than almost anybody in America, are there any other super heroes we ought to wonder about? And can you tell us about Robin?

LEE: Well, I'm not going to get into that. But the book I mentioned years ago that I did, "Sergeant Fury," ... had a gay character. One member of the platoon was called, I think, Percy Pinkerton. He was gay. We didn't make a big issue of it. In this comic book that I read, the word gay wasn't even used. He's just a colorful character who follows his own different drummer. He follows a different beat. But we're not proselytizing for gayness.

I'm not so sure that was the original intention (in issue #23 he's actually shown to have been a ladies man); he seems more like a stereotype of a foppish British noble. Either way, Pinkerton is shown to be Howler material in this issue.

Nick Fury is a gruff as you would expect, and there's a certain amount of charm to seeing him in his pre-SHIELD days, but it's still a clunker. Dr. Zemo is a very generic evil Nazi scientist. Which is interesting considering they were planning on using him in the Avengers - i would have expected a little more... something to distinguish him here. At the same time, a "death ray" is pretty out there fore this series, which despite its often ludicrious plotting never has the Commandos going up anything truly sci-fi or super-villainy.

Quality Rating: C-

Historical Significance Rating: 5 - First appearance of the original Baron Zemo.

Chronological Placement Considerations: During WWII.

References:

• "Special Notice: Pay particiular attention to Dr. Zemo! You'll also see him in other Marvel Mags, such as The Avengers #6!"
  
• Percy replaces Junior Juniper, killed in Sgt. Fury and His Howling Commandos #8.

Crossover: N/A

Continuity Insert? Y

My Reprint: N/A

um....your "random blend of ethnicities" was 1 black guy and a bunch of white guys with different accents, all American, except for Perthy.

also, i think Zemo gets away, blowing up his death ray, and in the process, the castle.

here's what distinguishes zemo from your average evil Nazi scientist - he abandons the soldier he promises to reward if the soldier will protect him from the Howlers:
"Dont leave me!! I saved you!! You are a Nazi!! Vhen you make a promise, you cannot break it!! You cannot...sob...you cannot..."

he breaks the sacred Nazi rule of keeping promises. i bet he would break a "cross my heart" swear without a second thought. that's pure evil.

Stan Lee stated decades later that Percival Pinkerton was supposed to be gay, but I'm not sure if he was being entirely serious.

I'd always wrongly assumed that Zemo was a GA character.
Making Pinkerton and the other Howlers not ridiculous was one of the biggest achievements of the Captain America movie.

Technically, Percival Pinkerton wasn't in CAPTAIN AMERICA: THE FIRST AVENGER.

(Oops, posted before finishing!)

The CA:TFA replaced the character of Pinkerton with another Brit, James Montgomery Falsworth (in comics the first Union Jack), played by J.J. Field. This was probably due to the character name being possible insulting to the LGBT community.

Regarding the sexuality of Pinkerton, it's worth bringing up this anecdote:

In an interview with Dick Ayers (in Alter Ego, I believe), Ayers says he sees the interview on CNN and e-mails Stan to ask him what's that about.

Stan replies, and this is a quote (according to Ayers): "Dick, I never hedge my bets!"

What I took from that is that Stan, canny with PR as ever, sort of retroactively made Pinky Gay to both seem ahead of the curve and to defuse this being any sort of controversial blow. Pinky was just an over the top British stereotype. Stan had a British wife and was hip to the influx of British cinema in the 60s' surely; this was really just him doing a retroactive character change- right on national television. :)