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Post by The Captain on Jan 22, 2016 5:56:29 GMT -5
Tales of Suspense #62 "Breakout in Cell Block 10" Writer: Stan Lee Art: Jack Kirby (pencils) and Chic Stone (inks) Cover Date: February 1965 SynopsisCap is giving an demonstration at a state penitentiary to show how he would defend himself if the prisoners escaped. At the end of the demonstration, the warden leads Cap down to Cell Block 10, where the most dangerous criminals are kept. Once there, the prisoners, guards, and the warden surround Cap, holding him at gunpoint and locking him in a cell with the acting superintendent, and it is revealed that the "warden" is actually a convict named Deacon who masterminded the takeover of the prison and locked up the acting superintendent, all in an effort to capture Cap and get his shield for the magnetic properties so that they could open a sealed iron gate within the prison and gain their freedom. Cap manages to get free (done off-panel), and he takes on the convicts, who have been unsuccessful in using his shield to open the iron gate. He regains his shield and explains that the magnetics they sought to use to open the gate had been removed because they "ruined my shield's delicate balance." The cons continue to press the attack, but Cap defeats them all and the cops show up to end the event. As Cap and the acting superintendent walk away, the acting superintendent reveals that the iron gate was only able to be opened if the sound of two words were heard near it, those two words being "Captain America". Continuity Issues: None My Thoughts:This is just a sloppy mess, full of Silver Age nonsense, and not the goofy "DC Silver Age kind that is kind of charming in retrospect" but the slapdash "churn it out because we have a deadline to meet and a weekend to do it in' kind. First off, there is a big arrow on the first page basically saying "Remember the plot we used in TOS #60? We're rehashing it here". Way to build dramatic tension there, Stan! Second problem I have is with the prison takeover itself and Cap's subsequent appearance to do the demonstration. How long were the convicts in charge of the prison? Are we talking 24 hours, a couple of days, or a week even? How did no one notice, not a delivery driver or a guard showing up for work or the wife of a guard who never came home from his shift? Also, was this demonstration with Cap scheduled by the acting superintendent, or did Deacon arrange it? If so, and the takeover happened just shortly prior, how was Steve able to drop everything he was doing, including Avengers' business, and just wander over the prison to give another one of these demonstrations? Now to the magnetics. I'm not so concerned about the science behind it, because comics, but how did Deacon and the convicts know about this? Deacon says that "Everyone knows his fellow Avenger Iron Man designed magnetic powers into this shield for Captain America", but how did this become common knowledge? I'm kind of betting it wasn't a major news story that Captain America got upgrades to his shield, so how does everybody know? Lastly is the reveal of the actual "key" to unlocking the gate. It's just nonsensical, as the words "Captain America" would have been fairly common to have spoken together at the time. The Avengers and Cap probably both would have been in the news, so it's possible a guard may have inadvertently said "Hey, did you see that Captain America and the Avengers beat up Baron Zemo's guys?" to one of his fellow guards during the course of normal conversation, letting all of the prisoners free. Why not pick a phrase like "Tangerine Unicorn" or "Mundane Noodle", something that most likely would never be uttered by accident? In addition, the story contradicts itself on this matter, because just after Deacon and his guys get Cap's shield, they go to use its magnetics to open the door, and Deacon says "Captain America" right in front of the door, but it doesn't open!!!!  My Grade: F. Although I would have thought it impossible, this story makes the Cap installment in TOS #61 read like a combination of William Shakespeare and Ernest Hemingway.
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Post by Icctrombone on Jan 22, 2016 7:23:29 GMT -5
I love the punchline at the end that the words "Captain America" open the door.
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Post by DE Sinclair on Jan 22, 2016 9:39:41 GMT -5
Tales of Suspense #62"Breakout in Cell Block 10" Writer: Stan Lee Art: Jack Kirby (pencils) and Chic Stone (inks) Cover Date: February 1965 SynopsisCap is giving an demonstration at a state penitentiary to show how he would defend himself if the prisoners escaped. At the end of the demonstration, the warden leads Cap down to Cell Block 10, where the most dangerous criminals are kept. Once there, the prisoners, guards, and the warden surround Cap, holding him at gunpoint and locking him in a cell with the acting superintendent, and it is revealed that the "warden" is actually a convict named Deacon who masterminded the takeover of the prison and locked up the acting superintendent, all in an effort to capture Cap and get his shield for the magnetic properties so that they could open a sealed iron gate within the prison and gain their freedom. Cap manages to get free (done off-panel), and he takes on the convicts, who have been unsuccessful in using his shield to open the iron gate. He regains his shield and explains that the magnetics they sought to use to open the gate had been removed because they "ruined my shield's delicate balance." The cons continue to press the attack, but Cap defeats them all and the cops show up to end the event. As Cap and the acting superintendent walk away, the acting superintendent reveals that the iron gate was only able to be opened if the sound of two words were heard near it, those two words being "Captain America". Continuity Issues: None My Thoughts:This is just a sloppy mess, full of Silver Age nonsense, and not the goofy "DC Silver Age kind that is kind of charming in retrospect" but the slapdash "churn it out because we have a deadline to meet and a weekend to do it in' kind. First off, there is a big arrow on the first page basically saying "Remember the plot we used in TOS #60? We're rehashing it here". Way to build dramatic tension there, Stan! Second problem I have is with the prison takeover itself and Cap's subsequent appearance to do the demonstration. How long were the convicts in charge of the prison? Are we talking 24 hours, a couple of days, or a week even? How did no one notice, not a delivery driver or a guard showing up for work or the wife of a guard who never came home from his shift? Also, was this demonstration with Cap scheduled by the acting superintendent, or did Deacon arrange it? If so, and the takeover happened just shortly prior, how was Steve able to drop everything he was doing, including Avengers' business, and just wander over the prison to give another one of these demonstrations? Now to the magnetics. I'm not so concerned about the science behind it, because comics, but how did Deacon and the convicts know about this? Deacon says that "Everyone knows his fellow Avenger Iron Man designed magnetic powers into this shield for Captain America", but how did this become common knowledge? I'm kind of betting it wasn't a major news story that Captain America got upgrades to his shield, so how does everybody know? Lastly is the reveal of the actual "key" to unlocking the gate. It's just nonsensical, as the words "Captain America" would have been fairly common to have spoken together at the time. The Avengers and Cap probably both would have been in the news, so it's possible a guard may have inadvertently said "Hey, did you see that Captain America and the Avengers beat up Baron Zemo's guys?" to one of his fellow guards during the course of normal conversation, letting all of the prisoners free. Why not pick a phrase like "Tangerine Unicorn" or "Mundane Noodle", something that most likely would never be uttered by accident? In addition, the story contradicts itself on this matter, because just after Deacon and his guys get Cap's shield, they go to use its magnetics to open the door, and Deacon says "Captain America" right in front of the door, but it doesn't open!!!! My Grade: F. Although I would have thought it impossible, this story makes the Cap installment in TOS #61 read like a combination of William Shakespeare and Ernest Hemingway. I knew "mundane noodle" sounded familiar. Is it wrong that I'm thinking of changing my screen name to "Mundane Noodle"? |
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Post by The Captain on Jan 22, 2016 10:14:32 GMT -5
In the movie "A Christmas Story", "mundane noodle" is one of the nonsensical things that Darrin McGavin yells to represent swearing when he is dealing with the malfunctioning furnace, right before the breaking of the leg lamp. My wife and I have adopted it around our house in a similar fashion when our girls are around.
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Post by DE Sinclair on Jan 22, 2016 10:36:39 GMT -5
In the movie "A Christmas Story", "mundane noodle" is one of the nonsensical things that Darrin McGavin yells to represent swearing when he is dealing with the malfunctioning furnace, right before the breaking of the leg lamp. My wife and I have adopted it around our house in a similar fashion when our girls are around. Yup. I knew it sounded familiar so I Googled it and was reminded of the "Old Man's" artistry in the field of profanity. Google couldn't do anything with "Tangerine Unicorn". |
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Post by Farrar on Jan 22, 2016 10:59:27 GMT -5
Good synopsis/commentary. I read these Cap stories in the Cap Essentials v. 1 a few years ago. Re this particular story in ToS #62, I love Chic Stone's inks on Kirby.
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Post by Hoosier X on Jan 22, 2016 11:48:17 GMT -5
Tales of Suspense #62 was one of the first issues of TOS I bought when I first started going to the comic book store in Indianapolis. (I already had TOS #49 and I had read the TOS stories in Iron Man Annual #1). I really loved Iron Man and those old issues of TOS were very affordable.
So I bought it for the Iron Man story (I still love the origin of the Mandarin) but I still have a lot of affection for that Captain America story. My friends and I noted some of the silly elements of the story that Richard Bishop noted, but I like this story anyway. Come on! That Jack Kirby/Chic Stone art is irresistible!
I love those thick lines on the figures inked by Chic Stone. Every panel looks like somebody decided to turn some Kirby art into a stained-glass window.
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Post by Rob Allen on Jan 22, 2016 20:20:26 GMT -5
Yeah, bought this one off the stands too, and I do clearly remember that my first encounter with Captain America was in an Avengers story where he's showing off the new gizmos in his shield, and this story did away with them. This was an early example of a key difference between Marvel and DC at the time: in Marvel stories, things could change and stay changed. At DC, everything was always completely back to normal at the end of every story.
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Post by Batflunkie on Jan 22, 2016 20:42:23 GMT -5
This was an early example of a key difference between Marvel and DC at the time: in Marvel stories, things could change and stay changed. At DC, everything was always completely back to normal at the end of every story. True, though in "Marvel Comics: The Untold Story", Stan is quoted as saying that the books should invoke "the feeling of change and character development, but revert back to status quo soon after" |
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Post by Rob Allen on Jan 23, 2016 3:09:02 GMT -5
This was an early example of a key difference between Marvel and DC at the time: in Marvel stories, things could change and stay changed. At DC, everything was always completely back to normal at the end of every story. True, though in "Marvel Comics: The Untold Story", Stan is quoted as saying that the books should invoke "the feeling of change and character development, but revert back to status quo soon after" That started a few years later. In 1965 when this was published, things really could change. Heck, just having the characters refer to things that happened in the previous issue was something that rarely happened in DC books. Marvel at that time really gave readers the impression that we were reading the character's life story a month or two at a time. DC books could be read in any order. |
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Post by Icctrombone on Jan 23, 2016 8:09:33 GMT -5
True, though in "Marvel Comics: The Untold Story", Stan is quoted as saying that the books should invoke "the feeling of change and character development, but revert back to status quo soon after" That started a few years later. In 1965 when this was published, things really could change. Heck, just having the characters refer to things that happened in the previous issue was something that rarely happened in DC books. Marvel at that time really gave readers the impression that we were reading the character's life story a month or two at a time. DC books could be read in any order. Well put. I will add that the footnotes that Marvel included with the issue numbers, helped to make me want to seek out these books. Continuity was a great thing back then when their universe was fairly new. I miss those footnotes but maybe it's a conscience effort in order not to be tied into continuity anymore. |
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Post by The Captain on Jan 23, 2016 13:09:49 GMT -5
Tales of Suspense #62 was one of the first issues of TOS I bought when I first started going to the comic book store in Indianapolis. (I already had TOS #49 and I had read the TOS stories in Iron Man Annual #1). I really loved Iron Man and those old issues of TOS were very affordable. So I bought it for the Iron Man story (I still love the origin of the Mandarin) but I still have a lot of affection for that Captain America story. My friends and I noted some of the silly elements of the story that Richard Bishop noted, but I like this story anyway. Come on! That Jack Kirby/Chic Stone art is irresistible! I love those thick lines on the figures inked by Chic Stone. Every panel looks like somebody decided to turn some Kirby art into a stained-glass window. The art is gorgeous, I'll give you that, but if the story is bad or nonsensical, they could have Michelangelo on pencils, with da Vinci on inks and Monet on colors and I would give it a low grade. All the pretty pictures in the world can't make up for poor writing, in my estimation. |
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Post by The Captain on Jan 24, 2016 15:13:43 GMT -5
Tales of Suspense #63 "The Origin of Captain America" Writer: Stan Lee Art: Jack Kirby (pencils) and Frank Giacoia (as Frank Ray) (inks) Cover Date: March 1965 Based on the story "Meet Captain America" by Joe Simon (writer), Joe Simon and Jack Kirby (pencils) and Al Liederman (inks) - originally published in Captain America #1, dated March 1941 Synopsis:The American war effort is just getting started as the draft board is examining all able-bodied young men for the service, at the same time that Axis agents are taking steps to hinder the US's military function. In a meeting of military leaders, Operation Rebirth is discussed, a program that will help the US to victory, a program that will take its first step that very evening. At a small curio shop, two of the men from the earlier meeting enter the building and approach the elderly female shopkeeper. She orders they identify themselves or die, and they give her a password, which satisfies her and she leads them into the bowels of the building. Once they are at the secret lab under the shop, she removes her lifelike mask, revealing a young, beautiful woman beneath. They anxiously await the start of the experiment, which begins when a scrawny youth enters the lab; they mention that he is the result of months of searching for the perfect 4F candidate whose body will react properly to the tissue-building chemicals they are about to administer. The young man, Steve Rogers, was too puny and sickly to be admitted to the army, but his courage, intelligence, and willingness to die for his country were the reasons he was selected for this program. He is given a glass tube by Dr. Erskine, who keeps the formula in his head to prevent it from falling into the wrong hands, which contains a chemical mixture designed to improve his physical state and reflexes, but it could also be his death if not prepared correctly. Fortunately for the young man, it was done properly, and his body undergoes an immediate transformation into a strapping, muscular specimen. At that moment, however, a Nazi agent bursts into the room, shooting and killing the scientist and ending the future of the program. Rogers immediately attacks the Nazi agent and quickly defeats him, but the agent breaks free and runs into some machinery and is killed. Thus, Captain America is born! Donning a red, white, and blue costume, and carrying a similarly-colored shield, Captain America takes on the Nazi threat both at home and abroad. However, to maintain his cover, Steve Rogers is placed in the army as a buck private, and he takes on the persona of a bumbling fool to throw off any suspicion. It is at the camp that Steve befriends Bucky Barnes, an orphan who has been taken in as the camp's mascot. One night, as Rogers is putting on his Captain America uniform, Bucky enters his tent and learns the secret of his new friend. In order to keep Bucky quiet, Captain America takes him on as a sidekick, training him and taking on foes of the United States side-by-side. Thus begins the story of Captain America! Continuity Issues: None My Thoughts:I was hesitant to review this issue. This is the retelling of Cap's origin story, one which is well-known to both comic book fans and casual fans (due to the "Captain America: The First Avenger" movie), and so it really isn't fair to give a rating to this, as it isn't original. Comparing it with the original story, there are a few difference between the Simon version and Lee's work here, those being: 1. Cap's original shield was a three-sided "Heater"-style shield, while in TOS #63, Cap is shown with the recognizable circular shield. 2. Dr. Erskine coins the name "Captain America" in the lab in the original story, while in Lee's story, that name is bestowed on Steve Rogers in the days following the events at the lab. 3. The final couple of pages of Lee's story, where Cap and Bucky are shown taking on a group of Nazi saboteurs, are not in Simon's version, which was only 7 pages long (the new story was 10 pages long). My Grade: None. It does what it is supposed to, and that is give the background of Captain America to a new generation of readers.
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Post by Icctrombone on Jan 24, 2016 17:12:15 GMT -5
I always enjoyed his origin story.
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Post by Icctrombone on Jan 24, 2016 17:16:16 GMT -5
A quick Google search shows that the next issue starts the WW2 stories. I guess the origin story paved the way to do this.
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