I: Feature Story: "30 Minutes to Live!"

Pages: 10

Script: Stan Lee
Layouts: Jack Kirby
Pencils: Dick Ayers
Inks: John Tartaglione
Letters: Artie Simek

First Appearance: Sharon Carter, Batroc

Villain: Batroc

Guest Appearance: Sharon Carter

Flashback Cameo: Bucky, Sgt. Duffy, Agent 13

Marvel Milestones: First unnamed appearance of Sharon Carter, who will remain unnamed for quite some time

Gadgets & Technology: Inferno 42

Synopsis: While a secretive group of plotters discuss using the chemical weapon Inferno 42 to destroy whole cities, Cap falls into the ocean after leaping off the back of the Sleeper. After being rescued by the US Navy, he returns to New York, where he loses himself in thoughts surrounding his pas, his identity, and what makes him tick as Captain America. Overshadowing all these thoughts are his recollections of Agent 13, the young woman he fell in love with during WWII.

So haunted is he by his memory of lost love that he thinks he sees her once again, walking down a busy city street. Before he can stop the young, attractive blonde, he witnesses another man bump into her. They both drop identical cylinders onto the ground, and Steve realizes that the man, through sleight of hand, switched his cylinder with hers. Steve tries to stop the man, but the young woman urges him not to.

Right around the corner, a costumed man leaps upon the man carrying the cylinder. But Batroc the Leaper quickly realizes the man, a SHIELD agent, was merely a decoy: the pretty blonde, who was also a SHIELD agent, carries the supply of Inferno 42 in the cylinder she now carries, the element that his terrorist employers crave!

Steve checks on the young woman to see if she's okay, and as she walks away, she wonders if that was the face of Steve Rogers, the man her sister had told her of from her time in WWII.

After she rounds the corner, a shot rings out. Steve changes to Cap and finds Batroc standing over her, trying to grab the cylinder from grip. Cap defends her, beating back Batroc. But the young woman runs away with the cylinder while the two men fight each other. Batroc stops the fight and shares with Cap the stakes involved: the cylinder has cracked, and within half an hour, the city will explode when the unstable Inferno 42 ignites. Together, Batroc declares, they must find the girl....

(Continued in TOS #76)

--synopsis by Gormuu

Issues Reprinted
Captain America from
Tales of Suspense #59-81

Click on cover image to learn more about each issue.