Hawkeye made a move on Wanda right at the tail end of the Roy Thomas era - maybe even the first couple of issues of the Englehart run. Somewhere in the era where he was wearing that horrible blue skirt. That's when he discovered she was in love with Vision, which was a new plot development at the time:

There's also this scene from Avengers #90 foreshadowing his feelings for Wanda.

Right, I didn't want to stray too far afield form the time of the Silver Age Tales of Suspense story The Captain reviewed, so as I noted in my post I only concentrated on the Silver Age-very early Bronze Age stuff, to illustrate Wanda's crushes.

Wonder Man came much, much later. I usually like him but I agree that relationship was problematic. Have you read the Vision Quest saga in Byrne's West Coast Avengers? Vision's disassembled and Simon moons over Wanda. Really creepy and inappropriate IMO. 

Yes, I remember that, Farrar. Perhaps I overstated it by saying it was the same as Warren and Wanda. (My favorite era for the Avengers is the "Cap's Kooky Quartet" era up to about issue #50. My favorite thing is trying to figure out what's up with Wanda's deus ex machine powers where she's just as likely to knock over a vase as save the day with a well-placed hex that shorts out the whole mechanism of the villain's primary devilish contraption. Even Wanda has no idea what's going to happen. (And I prefer her with black hair.))

Tales of Suspense #73



"Where Walks The Sleeper!"
Writer: Stan Lee
Art: Jack Kirby (Layouts) and George Tuska (Pencils and Inks)
Cover Date: January 1966

Synopsis
Captain America watches with concern as the recently-awakened first Sleeper, one of the decades-hidden weapons of the Red Skull, marches forward to rendezvous with the other two of its kind. Realizing he could not physically stop the giant robot himself, Cap sends his shield flying toward a large boulder, which is dislodged and falls onto the Sleeper. Unfortunately, the rock only briefly slowed the Sleeper, which continues on its way after freeing itself from the rubble with Cap in pursuit on a discarded motorcycle he finds nearby.

The scene shifts to Frau Erica Wolfmann, the second of the Red Skull's agents responsible for releasing a Sleeper. Her team of diggers has excavated a large hole containing a metallic blue shell. One of the men strikes the top of the metal device with his shovel, causing an earth-shaking explosion followed by the emergence of the second Sleeper, which has the appearance of a red manta ray.

Cap races across a log extending over a chasm, wondering if the explosion he just heard was the second Sleeper awakening. The log beneath him snapped as he pondered that question, forcing him to leap to the other side of the gap as his motorcycle crashes into the ravine below. Pulling himself up, he spies the newly-freed Sleeper flying over the countryside, and as he enters a nearby village, Cap is almost blown over in its wake. Cap maneuvers himself into a position to be able to leap onto the top of the flying vessel in time to witness it glide above the first Sleeper and attach itself magnetically to the other robot's back.

Elsewhere in Germany, a man enters a pawn shop to retrieve an item left there long ago. The shopkeeper calls out the man as being a Nazi but still retrieves the item, which is a metal box with a key on top of it; for his trouble, the shopkeeper is shot by the Nazi agent, who then heads out into the street. He heads to the town center, where he begins to turn the key on the box, intent on awakening the third and final Sleeper.

As the issues wraps, Cap is still on top of the combination of the first two Sleepers, where he has to block bullets fired by NATO planes. He dives from his perch when a missile approaches, and as the rocket misses its target, Cap wonders if anything can stop the Sleeper...

Continuity Issues
In the first panel showing Frau Wolfmann's digging team, there are two men in the hole, but in the second panel, there are three. The one who strikes the device to awaken the Sleeper is the one that is not in the first panel. While sloppy, this isn't definitively an error, as it could be reasonably argued that the man was kneeling or bent over at the time of the first panel.

The first Sleeper is colored brown in issue #72, but it is colored purple in this one.

My Thoughts
Another great installment of the Sleeper saga. The story flows very well, with Stan, Jack, and George making great use of the 10-page format, not wasting any panels and keeping the action moving crisply.

My favorite panels in this issue were in the pawnshop, when the shopkeeper calls out the Red Skull's agent for being a Nazi. When the agent mentions the Red Skull, the shopkeeper tells him not to speak that name there, and just to add validity to his feelings, the Skull's agent shoots him as he goes to carry out the awakening of the third Sleeper. It's taking actual history and bringing it to life in a comic book, giving the next generation a very real glimpse into how strongly the Nazis affected the entire world, particularly those in Germany who did not agree with Hitler's plans or actions.

My Grade: A The first ongoing storyline for Captain America in the modern era continues with Cap fighting against not one but two seemingly unstoppable foes, aware that a third is on the way.

I totally agree!