Issue(s): Tales Of Suspense #88, Tales Of Suspense #89, Tales Of Suspense #90 (Captain America stories only)
Cover Date: Apr-Jun 67
Title: "If Bucky lives..!" / "Back from the dead!" / "...And men shall call him traitor!"
Credits:
Stan Lee - Writer
Gil Kane - Penciler
Gil Kane / Joe Sinnott - Inker

Review/plot:
Captain America is on monitor duty as depicted in Avengers #38 when suddenly Bucky appears on screen! He is alive and held captive in an island off of Nova Scotia. Cap lets Jarvis know he's leaving (Jarvis says he will contact Hawkeye who is the alternate for monitor duty).

Meanwhile the Swordsman and Power Man are also being brought to the island by means of a floating bubble. They are given orders to fight Cap, and they do.

Cap beats them and then the mystery mastermind tells him about the power of the floating bubble technology and how only he knows the secret of Bucky. The next issue reveals the mastermind to be the Red Skull.

The Red Skull makes Cap fight a robot, and then a Bucky robot.

Then he does the closing walls deathtrap thing, but Cap escapes. Cap catches up with the Red Skull after the Skull has used his bubble technology to lift up the heart of Manhattan into the sky. This is, i believe, the biggest scheme executed by a super-villain in Marvel History so far.

Cap agrees to work for the Red Skull for 24 hours in order to prevent him from destroying Manhattan. You'd think the Red Skull wouldn't be willing to try that again considering what happened the last time, but he probably enjoyed getting Cap to go on television to announce his new allegiance.

Quality Rating: C-

Historical Significance Rating: 2

Chronological Placement Considerations: Takes place during Avengers #38 and 39.

References:

• The Red Skull seemingly died in Tales of Suspense #81, but the "far-reaching" power of the Cosmic Cube allowed him to survive even after he lost his grip on it.

Crossover: N/A

Continuity Insert? N

My Reprint: Marvel Double Feature #12, Marvel Double Feature #13, Marvel Double Feature #14

i always loved an episode of the old spiderman cartoon where the villain makes the isle of manhatten float in the air. and spidey webswings underneath the floating island to get to him. and that cartoon was probably produced about the same time as this issue.

I remember that episode, lame as all get out, half of the entire show was spidery swinging under manhatten.

Yeah those were two different shows. One being the "Marvel Super Heroes" show that was essentially "lip movements of Kirby/Ditko comics"; and the '67 Spider-Man series that essentially started out doing comic stories early on but then de-evolved into aliens, mad scientists and Spider-Man spending many episodes merely swinging around random psychadelic backgrounds.

Oh, wow. This gives me a weird flashback. I'm not sure where I read this story, but I know I read it somewhere (perhaps my brothers had that issue of Marvel Double Feature, because it's the only place it was reprinted before the 00's according to GCD). That panel of Bucky pulling off his mask I probably haven't seen for 30 years, but as soon as I saw it, I knew it instantly.

As for the second panel, it's great how some artists you can see the work and suddenly realize who they are. The first panel didn't do it, but that second ones scream Gil Kane. I think I can picture Green Lantern in that same pose Power Man is in.

Since there's an explanation as to how the Skull survived his seeming death in Tales of Suspense 81, shouldn't that be listed under References?

It turns out that there is an actual footnote to #81, but that and the flashback showing how the Skull survived was cut from by Double Feature reprint. Thanks Michael.

I found this one entertaining and I also remember that Spider-Man cartoon (complete with the song). I liked that the Swordsman and Powerman were a team again as they had been with the Black Widow.