Obsessively putting our comics in chronological order since 1985.
| 1964-12-01 00:06:30 |
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Tales of Suspense #61 (Captain America)
Issue(s): Tales of Suspense #61 (Captain America story only)
Cover Date: Jan 65
Title: "The strength of the sumo!"
Credits:
Stan Lee - Writer
Jack Kirby - Penciler
Chic Stone - Inker
Review/plot:
This issue has Captain America fighting his way into a Vietnamese base...
...defeating the general, a giant sumo wrestler...
...and rescuing a POW named Jim Baker.
With a few modifications this could have been a Golden Age era war story.
Quality Rating: D+
Historical Significance Rating: 2 - early Silver Age Cap solo story
Chronological Placement Considerations: The MCP places this between Avengers #11-12, unlike the Iron Man portion of the issue which takes place before Avengers #11 along with Suspense #61 and #63. There's nothing in this issue that dictates placement.
References:
- Not really a reference, but the end blurb plugs Cap's appearance in Sgt. Fury and His Howling Commandos #13, published the previous month.
Crossover: N/A
Continuity Insert? N
My Reprint: Essential Captain America vol. 1
Inbound References (2): showCharacters Appearing: Captain America, General Wo 1964 / Box 2 / Silver Age Previous:
Avengers #11Up:
MainNext:
Daredevil #5
Comments
The general "Sumo" will come back during Gruenwald's era. Also the name of Jim Baker isn't new to me, but I can't remember...
Added General Wo. Thanks. This does seem to be the only appearance of Jim Baker.
There was an historical figure by the name of Jim Baker, so you might be remembering that person.
The story has a lot wrong with it but the Kirby action scenes are fun. Also it's nice that a person of color appears in a Silver Age story and his race isn't even mentioned. Speaking of which, Jim is colored grey with light brown hair throughout the story but on the cover he's clearly African American. I'll assume we can chalk up the off-coloring inside to a technical error of some kind.
I had a friend who argued with me that it was Sam Wilson who Cap rescued years before he became the Falcon so I had to track down a copy of this to prove it wasn't him. The only historical Jim Baker I can think of is the disgraced TV evangelist who was sent to prison.
@Bobby- The disgraced televangelist and husband of the famously overly made up Tammy Faye was Jim Bakker, spelled with 2 "K"'s.
Another historical "Jim" Baker would be James Baker, who served as Secretary of the Treasury under President Reagan, Secretary of State under President George H.W. Bush, and as White House Chief of Staff for both Reagan and the elder Bush.
