Tales of Suspense #80 (August 1966)

Since last week was July 4th, the birthday of the United States of America, I thought I'd do a comic focusing on Captain America, in particular a prelude to one of his greatest battles against his undoubtedly greatest nemesis: The Red Skull. This is Tales of Suspense #80!

The cover is a Jack Kirby, Don Heck, Stan Goldman, and Sam Rosen piece. It is an awesome cover. I think it's a rather iconic cover. The Red Skull holding up the Cosmic Cube in triumph, said item emanating waves of power, enough to even make the good Captain take pause. 

"When Fall the Mighty"
Writer: Stan Lee
Penciler: Gene Colan
Inker: Gary Michaels
Colorist: Unknown
Letterer: Artie Simek
Editor: Stan Lee
Editor-in-Chief: Stan Lee

The story begins with our man Cap witnessing a plane explode in the air.

Cap sees the pilot eject out thanks to a capsule. Said capsule heads for the river, and Cap dives in to get the pilot out. As he swims towards the capsule, he notices that it has no markings on it, leaving the Star-Spangled Avenger to wonder who it belonged to. 

He then realizes it belongs to AIM, aka Advanced Idea Mechanics. Cap is able to get the occupant of the capsule out, clad in AIM's iconic yellow "beekeeper" outfit. 

The AIM man babbles about a Cosmic Cube. The Cube was AIM's crowning achievement, the ultimate weapon. In the wrong hands, it can devastate the cosmos. And it's in the hands of the Red Skull.

At an unknown location, the Red Skull is watching the Cosmic Cube's keeper being pursued by AIM. He overrides the Keeper's plane's controls and shoots down the pursuing AIM forces. A pilot managed to eject (the same AIM man Cap found), but it doesn't matter. Red Skull now has the Cosmic Cube for sure. His crony Wolfgang wonders how on Earth Red Skull managed to convince the Cube's keeper to bring him said Cosmic Cube. 

The Skull explains that when he attended a meeting that included AIM (as it was thought the Red Skull was an ally of AIM's), he managed to shake the keeper's hand...like he just shook Wolfgang's.

The little gadget in Wolfgang's hand is a miniature mind-control device. The Red Skull also planted one on the Cosmic Cube's keeper, allowing him to command said keeper to bring said Cube to him. And now that Wolfgang's under the Skull's power, the supervillain commands him to take his own gun and...shoot himself in the head as the crimson-headed monster leaves the room.

Never work with the Red Skull, kids. It's not the best for your health. Captain America is in hot pursuit of the AIM craft containing the Cosmic Cube. He got some help from SHIELD for it, thanks to a special ID card Nick Fury Sr. gave him in Tales of Suspense #78. Captain America leaps from his SHIELD craft to the AIM plane thanks to his power of being awesome. He and the mind-controlled AIM pilot end up struggling.

The brawl causes the two to eject from the plane. 

They end up landing on the Red Skull's private island. The Red Skull tells the AIM man to guard the cube while he faces the Sentinel of Liberty. Cap and Skull fight, Cap noting that the Nazi villain's clothes are covering protective armor. The Skull gets into Cap's head by revealing that he was the man behind the seeming death of Bucky Barnes as revealed in Avengers #4, decades before it would be retconned that he was turned into the Winter Soldier.  

As the madman hoped, this throws Cap off-balance, allowing the supervillain to blast the All-American Avenger with some gas from a hidden device. 

The mind-controlled AIM man hands the Skull the Cosmic Cube. He now has the power to reshape the cosmos in his evil hands.

He tests the Cube by using it to exile the AIM man to another dimension. 

The story ends with Cap getting back to his feet, realizing that this is no longer the Nazi madman he fought back during the war. He's now facing off against a god.

This was a crackling little adventure. It got me excited to read the next issue. I found myself wondering how Cap was going to get out of this mess. Stan, Gene, and the gang did a great job illustrating just how much of a monster the Red Skull is. I did wish there was a bit of technobabble put in to help explain exactly how the Cosmic Cube can alter reality, but I can understand why there wasn't here. After all, there's only so much space a story has in an anthology comic. 

If you want to read this for yourself, I recommend tracking down the 2011 trade paperback Captain America vs. The Red Skull. You can also track down the 2014 trade paperback Captain America Epic Collection Vol. 1: Captain America Lives Again. It was reprinted in 2021. Thanks for reading this blog entry! If you liked it, show it off! Take care of yourselves and each other! See you next time!