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cream/ow pages; PAGE 15 ONLY
Kirby & Simon cvr/art; origin & 1st app. Captain America, Bucky, & Red Skull; classic Hitler cover; 1st mention of Super-Soldier Serum (3/41) Comic Book Impact rating of 10 (CBI)


First issues don't get more classic than the 1941 launch of Captain America Comics. "Meet Captain America" is more than just a timeless origin story. There’s also the first mention of the Super-Soldier Serum, plus Bucky Barnes rushing in as Cap's valuable sidekick. Jack Kirby and Joe Simon already had a vision for Captain America's true nemesis, too. Technically, "The Riddle of the Red Skull" features a fake version of the notorious villain, but Marvel later established that Johann Schmidt (staying in the shadows until Captain America Comics #7) is pulling the strings.

There's also that classic cover that adds to the book’s importance as an American artifact from the months before Pearl Harbor. Copies flew off the shelf as this sensational debut established Captain America as the leading symbol of American heroism. It bears repeating that the popularity of characters such as Captain America (and the willingness of comic writers and artists to confront the Axis threat) went a long way toward mobilizing a heretofore isolationist American populace in the long, dark days of the late 30s and early 40s.

Many other art forms desperately avoided or ignored the ugly truth of Europe's rapid slide into fascism and Nazism in an obvious attempt to protect their own financial interests overseas. The almost entirely US-based comics business, staffed and developed largely by fugitives from those same wartime horrors, boldly waved the flag of freedom, most notably in this instant classic.