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juststeveandtonythings · 4 years

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Silver Age Steve Rogers: A Summary

I wrote one for Tony Stark so now Steve gets one too. This covers Tales of Suspense Vol 1 #59-#99 (the Captain America part of it - Iron Man is in the Tony Stark summary I just linked) and Captain America Vol 1 #100-#120. I chose Captain America #120 as a stopping point, as that takes us up to December 1969.

Issue-by-Issue Synopsis

Significant events are in bold. Note that a lot of the earlier issues were kind of just silly fluff, so there isn't much to say about them.

[ToS #59] Captain America gets his own story in Tales of Suspense (note that this means Tales of Suspense contains two stories, one Iron Man and one Captain America, not that Captain America appears in the Iron Man story or vice versa). First appearance of Edwin Jarvis.

[ToS #60] Steve fights a bad guy.

[ToS #61] Steve fights a bad guy in Vietnam and saves a man whose brother saved him during WWII.

[ToS #62] Steve fights a bad guy who wants his shield.

[ToS #63] Recap of Steve's origin story.

[ToS #64] 1940s adventure of Steve fighting a bad guy.

[ToS #65] 1940s adventure of Steve fighting the Red Skull.

[ToS #66] 1940s adventure of Steve fighting the Red Skull.

[ToS #67] 1940s adventure of Steve fighting the Red Skull.

[ToS #68] 1940s adventure of Steve fighting a bad guy.

[ToS #69] 1940s adventure of Steve fighting a bad guy.

[ToS #70] 1940s adventure of Steve fighting a bad guy.

[ToS #71] 1940s adventure of Steve fighting a bad guy.

[ToS #72] Steve finds out that the Red Skull left behind three giant robots called Sleepers and goes after them.

[ToS #73] Steve fights the Sleepers.

[ToS #74] Steve fights the Sleepers.

[ToS #75] First appearance of Peggy Carter (in flashback), Sharon Carter, and Batroc the Leaper. Steve sees Sharon, is reminded of Peggy, and starts following her. He encounters Batroc along the way and fights him.

[ToS #76] Steve and Batroc work together to defeat a common enemy.

[ToS #77] Flashback issue about Steve and Peggy's relationship during WWII and how they parted. Peggy ends up getting amnesia, which is why they never found each other again.

[ToS #78] Steve and Nick Fury fight a bad guy.

[ToS #79] Red Skull is revealed to still be alive in the present day. First appearances of A.I.M. and the Cosmic Cube.

[ToS #80] Steve fights the Red Skull, who has the Cosmic Cube.

[ToS #81] Steve fights the Red Skull, who has the Cosmic Cube, until the land they're on crumbles and Red Skull and the Cube are both lost to the water.

[ToS #82] Steve gets drugged and captured by an adaptoid, who then takes his form.

[ToS #83] Steve frees himself and captures the adaptoid.

[ToS #84] The adaptoid adapts to all of the Avengers' powers and fights Steve.

[ToS #85] Steve goes to save Sharon, who has been captured by Batroc on behalf of Hydra under the condition that he be allowed to fight Steve. They fight, but when Hydra interferes Batroc gets annoyed and lets Steve save Sharon.

[ToS #86] Steve fights a bad guy in Asia and asks Fury to tell Sharon that they're going to go on a date, but Fury tells him she's on a mission.

[ToS #87] Steve fights the Planner, who is dressed in a Cap costume and committing crimes.

[ToS #88] Steve receives a video transmission from someone who looks and sounds like Bucky and goes after him.

[ToS #89] Steve finds out that the Bucky who sent the transmission was actually a robot created by Red Skull, who is still alive. They fight.

[ToS #90] Learning that Red Skull has some sort of plastic bubble weapon and fearing for NYC's safety, Steve promises to serve Red Skull for 24 hours in exchange for Red Skull not using the weapon on the city.

[ToS #91] Red Skull makes Steve reveal the location of a military submarine right before the 24 hours are up, then goes after it. Steve fights him. The sub blows up with Red Skull in it.

[ToS #92] Steve unknowingly interferes with a S.H.I.E.L.D. plot where an LMD Nick Fury is supposed to be assassinated, which puts Sharon in danger. Fury asks him to save her as a result.

[ToS #93] Steve and Sharon are both captured by A.I.M.

[ToS #94] First on-panel appearance of M.O.D.O.K. Steve and Sharon fight A.I.M.

[ToS #95] Steve goes on his first date with Sharon and proposes to her despite not knowing her real name. When Sharon declines, Steve decides to stop being Captain America and reveals his identity as Steve Rogers.

[ToS #96] Steve saves some random people dressed up as Cap who were filling the gap he left. He decides to continue being Captain America.

[ToS #97] Steve is summoned by T'Challa to Wakanda to help fight some bad guys who might be related to Steve's rogues' gallery.

[ToS #98] Steve and T'Challa fight Baron Zemo.

[ToS #99] Steve and T'Challa are caught by Baron Zemo. Sharon shows up while disguised as a spy and is asked by Zemo to shoot them.

[CA #100] Steve, Sharon, and T'Challa defeat Baron Zemo, who is revealed to be a fake. Steve asks T'Challa to join the Avengers.

[CA #101] Steve finds out about a fourth Sleeper and goes after it, but it gets away.

[CA #102] Steve and Sharon again go after the fourth Sleeper and defeat it with the power of love. Red Skull decides to use Sharon against Steve going forward.

[CA #103] Sharon's name is finally revealed (she was previously only known as Agent 13). They go on a date, but the Red Skull's minions kidnap her and force Steve to come after them. They escape, but unknown to Steve, the Red Skull has attached "nuclear tape" to the back of his neck.

[CA #104] Steve goes to fight the Red Skull while Sharon, Fury, and Tony Stark disarm a bomb connected to Steve's nuclear tape.

[CA #105] Steve tries to distance himself from Sharon, fearing his proximity puts her in danger, and goes off on a random mission to disarm a separate, unrelated bomb.

[CA #106] Steve fights some bad guys trying to steal LMD tech from S.H.I.E.L.D., including an LMD that looks like himself.

[CA #107] First appearance of Doctor Faustus, a psychiatrist Steve has recently started seeing. Faustus gives Steve some pills to supposedly help with nightmares, but it's a trap. Faustus gets arrested after a fight.

[CA #108] Steve and Sharon fight the Trapster, who they find out is working for the Red Skull.

[CA #109] Recap of Steve's origin story.

[CA #110] Steve saves Rick Jones from the Hulk. Rick then puts on Bucky's costume and asks to be his sidekick. Steve agrees, and they fight Madame Hydra/Viper (in her first appearance) and her Hydra goons together.

[CA #111] Steve and Rick fight Hydra again. Steve jumps into a river as they're shooting at him. A bullet-riddled costume and a Steve Rogers face mask are found afterward, but no body.

[CA #112] Recap of Steve's adventures from the original Cap comics, Avengers, Tales of Suspense, and this current run, narrated by Tony Stark in the wake of Cap's apparent death.

[CA #113] Captain America is given a funeral that Madame Hydra then crashes. Rick goes after her, and so does Steve, who is unsurprisingly alive after all. After Hydra is defeated, Steve explains how the Cap that was gunned down was a fake. Steve now has a secret identity again.

[CA #114] After Steve and Sharon fight A.I.M., Steve asks Sharon to resign from S.H.I.E.L.D. Sharon refuses to quit her job, and they break up. Steve then tries to assume a different civilian identity but is found by Red Skull, who has the Cosmic Cube again.

[CA #115] After spending some time toying with Steve, Red Skull transforms Steve into himself, and himself into Captain America.

[CA #116] Red Skull continues to toy with Steve, who is being attacked non-stop due to looking like the Skull. Eventually, Red Skull teleports Steve to the isle where the Exiles are, as he recently betrayed the Exiles and know that they will want to kill the Red Skull on sight.

[CA #117] First appearance of Sam Wilson and Redwing, who save Steve as he's being attacked by the Exiles. Steve realizes he can take off the Red Skull mask and look like a normal man. He convinces Sam to adopt a superhero identity and names him the Falcon so that he can serve as a symbol when fighting the Exiles.

[CA #118] Steve trains Sam in hand-to-hand combat and together, they fight the Exiles. Red Skull is annoyed that Steve is thriving and decides it's time to end it himself.

[CA #119] Red Skull restores himself and Steve to their true bodies. They fight (along with Sam and Redwing). However, Red Skull loses his advantage when the Cosmic Cube gets deactivated as part of an unrelated plot by A.I.M. and uses the last vestiges of its power to teleport away.

[CA #120] Steve and Sam return to the States and part ways. Steve takes on a job at a local college and saves a professor from being kidnapped by A.I.M., then quits the job.

Characterization

We all know Steve as the guy who will fight for freedom any day of the week and prone to giving rousing speeches, both during and after battle. He encourages others to do the same, and is responsible for Sam becoming the Falcon. He even trains both Sam and Rick Jones in hand-to-hand combat.

Underneath that patriotic exterior, though, is a conflicted man warring with a lot of dissonant feelings. Sometimes he seems to resent being Captain America: he's Cap because he feels a duty to be Cap, but he also blames that devotion to duty for Bucky's death as well as the fact that he can't just settle down with Sharon, who feels duty toward her own job. At the same time, he feels like outside of Captain America, the man under the mask - Steve Rogers - has no identity or life of his own. His resentment leads him to quitting being Captain America, but his sense of duty leads him to pick it back up almost immediately afterward. However, there is no resolution at this time to his lack of identity as Steve Rogers. He tries to fill in the gap with Sharon by pursuing a romance with her, but it fails when she won't fit in the exact way he wants her to.

On top of all that, Steve actively blames himself for Bucky's death (in addition to the bit about duty mentioned above). He thinks he shouldn't have brought Bucky with him on that fatal mission near the end of the war and that he should have been able to save him. As a result, his enemies frequently use Bucky's ghost to either lure him into traps or mess with his mind. Despite his guilt, though, Rick Jones is able to successfully convince Steve to allow him to pick up Bucky's mantle.

And of course, Steve still feels disconnected from his current present, twenty years into the future. The disconnect is bad enough that he sought therapy for it, though unfortunately for him said therapist was Doctor Faustus.

When it comes to his love life, he falls hard and fast - probably too hard and too fast. While Silver Age comics in general completely fail at "show, don't tell" when it comes to romance, Steve takes it to another level, and it's explicitly confirmed that his intense feelings for Sharon are literally because she looks like someone he loved during the war. This leads to him proposing to her on their first date, before he even knows her as anything other than Agent 13. When she declines, he's so upset that he briefly quits being Captain America. He also repeatedly tries to make her quit her job as a top agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. because he fears for her safety, and they break up after her multiple refusals to do so.

He's also so open about his feelings for Sharon that Fury is essentially left to be the middleman for them at times, arranging their schedules so they can go on dates. Random unnamed S.H.I.E.L.D. agents are also shown to be aware of Steve and Sharon's romance.

Relationships

Bucky Barnes is Steve's teenage sidekick from WWII, though he perished as part of the same event that left Steve frozen in the ice for twenty years. Though he's dead, his spectre continues to haunt Steve, both in the form of Steve's guilt as well as enemies like the Red Skull using Bucky's likeness to draw him into battle.

Red Skull is Steve's greatest enemy, and continues to come back time and time again. His major flaw regarding Steve is that he enjoys seeing Steve suffer so much that he ends up drawing out his plots for long enough that Steve is able to escape and live another day.

Batroc the Leaper is on paper one of Steve's enemies, though they have worked together multiple times to fight a common foe. Batroc is shown to have a strong desire to defeat Captain America, but at the same time, he has an equally strong sense of honor that demands that any such defeat must take place under fair conditions. He will not hesitate to turn on others if they interfere with his sense of fair play.

Peggy Carter is Steve's first love from the war, though it's unclear if he ever knew her name. However, they were separated after Peggy got amnesia from an exploding cell, causing her to forget him and therefore never see him again.

Sharon Carter is Steve's singular love interest in the present day. He starts following her as soon as he sees her due to her resemblance to Peggy and learns she's a top agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. When he finally goes on a date with her, he proposes, and when he's turned down he briefly quits being Captain America. While she loves him back, she feels that her duty to S.H.I.E.L.D. prevents her from having a married life, and her refusal to quit despite his repeated requests lead to them breaking up.

Nick Fury is one of Steve's friends from the war, and is also the Director of S.H.I.E.L.D. They talk a lot, and at least on one instance Steve has invited him to his place just so he can vent about his life (Fury usually mentions crying towels on these occasions). He also acts as a somewhat reluctant but also amused middleman when it comes to Steve and Sharon's relationship.

Rick Jones is a young man who briefly takes up the role of being a replacement Bucky. Steve trains him in combat gymnastics and though he fears for Rick's life, he ultimately allows him to be his sidekick.

T'Challa is King of Wakanda and the Black Panther. After they work together on a mission, Steve asks him to join the Avengers, which T'Challa agrees to.

Sam Wilson is a man Steve encounters while in the Red Skull's body (though his mask is removed so he looks like a normal person). Due to their shared goal of defeating a common enemy, Steve encourages Sam to take up a superhero identity and dubs him the Falcon, training him in hand-to-hand combat. Once the enemy is defeated, and after Sam learns Steve was actually Captain America, Sam returns to Harlem to be a superhero there.

Tony Stark is the weapons director of S.H.I.E.L.D. (and Iron Man, though Steve doesn't know this). Steve and Sharon constantly use gadgets he designed and have a huge amount of respect for him. The fact that Iron Man tricked out Steve's shield at one point is known by everyone, enough that there is not one, but two plots that involve enemies trying to steal said shield (though Steve removes the enhancements later).

Trivia

[ToS #60] Steve briefly wields a shield that is enhanced with transistors, courtesy of Iron Man (he later removes them due to balance issues, though).

[ToS #63] During the war, Steve acted like a bumbling private to deflect suspicions that he was actually Captain America.

[CA #105] Steve makes an explicit enough reference to Christ that it seems to confirm him as a Christian.

[CA #108] Everyone is constantly using stuff designed by Tony Stark, who is referred to as the weapons director of S.H.I.E.L.D.

[CA #110] Steve smokes a pipe.

[CA #111] A description of Steve's fighting style, which is referred to as combat gymnastics.

[CA #117] Steve is capable of using clay to form makeshift facial prosthetics for himself as a disguise.

[CA #117] Steve is normally camera-shy.

Noteworthy Panels

These are mostly panels that are noteworthy for meme reasons, since actual noteworthy events are highlighted in the synopsis.

[ToS #59] The heels of Steve's boots are razor-sharp.

[ToS #65] With true Nazi efficiency, the Red Skull has a hit list of four whole people that he wrote out in a notepad.

[ToS #74] All Steve needs is a flamethrower!

[ToS #79] Steve's A on his cowl peels off to reveal a circuit that blocks hypnotic waves.

[ToS #95] Steve tells Tony that he helped the Avengers the only way he could - with his money!

[CA #101] Steve rocks a Stark-designed transparent inflato-suit.

[CA #106] Steve hangs around shirtless in front of a random S.H.I.E.L.D. agent who is trying to talk to him about work stuff.

[CA #118] Steve apparently gave Rick an autographed photo of himself.

[CA #120] "Roger Stevens" is the best undercover name Steve can come up with.

#summary post #tales of suspense vol 1 #captain america vol 1 #steve rogers

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