These two issues introduce a familiar face to the World War II era: the mighty Thor, visiting Midgard (Earth) as he had been doing for centuries, but rarely this close to his eventual banishment there in the form of Dr. Donald Blake in August 1962's Journey into Mystery #83. We also meet another familiar face—albeit... Continue Reading →
These three fill-in issues, written by future Invaders scripter Don Glut and drawn (with the exception of issue #31) by now-regular penciller Alan Kupperberg, contain little material relevant to Captain America's ethics, so this will be a quick post. The first two claim to tell the story of the Invaders' first meeting (even before their... Continue Reading →
These three issues focus more on Bucky than Captain America, but the historical background is of such importance that I'll feature many panels without Cap nonetheless. (Fair warning: Some of the images and terms in this post are very disturbing, and the reason why will be clear very soon.) Also in these issues, two... Continue Reading →
These two fairly light issues—straddling issue #24, which reprinted a Golden Age tale—involve a sidetrip to Egypt during the ongoing struggle to save young Toro's life (after his critical injury in issue #21) and sets up the next storyline with tremendous resonance for the World War II era as well as today. (We'll... Continue Reading →
The first three of these four issues tie up the storyline from the last post, with the fourth exploring the origin of Toro (with minimal Cap content). The most interesting part may the return of a former Invader, as seen on the cover to issue #20 above... but did Lord Fallsworth get better, or... Continue Reading →
This comic—the only issue of What If? that takes place in the mainstream "616" Marvel Universe rather than creating new timelines with alternative versions of canonical stories—represents what may be the pinnacle of writer Roy Thomas's original sense of retroactive continuity (or retconning) at Marvel, filling in details in old stories to address inconsistencies and... Continue Reading →
These three issues reintroduce another Golden Age Timely Comics hero to the book, and Captain America has a Superman/Captain Marvel moment when he discovers a comic book character with a strikingly familiar origin to his (and I'm not talking about his own portrayal in the Marvel Universe version of Timely Comics). All of this... Continue Reading →
In this issue (falling between issues #15 and #16 of the main series), writer Roy Thomas demonstrates his original concept of "retroactive continuity," filling in details in comics history to fill in gaps or explain current-day curiosities—this time, as he explains on the ending text page, correcting some goofs he admits he made in the... Continue Reading →
Roy Thomas is up to his old tricks again. These two issues introduce the British WWII team the Crusaders, who bear a striking resemblance to the Freedom Fighters, DC's team that, like the Invaders themselves, was retroactively formed from 1940s characters—in this case, Quality Comics heroes that DC acquired the rights to, including... Continue Reading →
