I: Feature Story: "The Red Skull Lives!"

Pages: 10

Script: Stan Lee
Pencils: Jack Kirby
Inks: Frank Giacoia
Letters: Artie Simek

First Appearance: Horst, Wolfgang, Count Royale

Villain: Red Skull, Horst, Wolfgang, Count Royale, AIM

Gadgets & Technology: Solar Energy Escape Ship, Hypno-Helmet, Cosmic Cube

Marvel Milestones: First appearance of Red Skull in current Marvel Universe continuity, first appearance of Cosmic Cube

Synopsis: Cap tussles with a gang of fantastically garbed men firing laser guns, but as they make their getaway in their Solar Energy Escape Ship, Cap realizes that he is the only one who saw them. As he wonders if he's cracking up, the attackers radio back about their successful mission to Horst and Wolfgang, their superiors who are themselves in the service of the Red Skull.

Reliving the time of his origin in which he and his two partners were buried alive under a mountain of rubble after his last battle with Captain America, the Red Skull remembers that he was kept alive by a gas that put him into suspended animation until he was recovered and revived years later by "Them", the organization otherwise known as Advanced Idea Mechanics (AIM) with whom he cooperates on similar goals, but only as a matter of convenience.

The Skull inspects his diabolical invention, the Hypno-Helmet, which he is using in a plan to drive Cap crazy. And at that very moment, Cap is seeing a psychiatrist about his "hallucinations", but one of the Skull's agents pounces on him. Thanks to the Hypno-Helmet, the doctor is oblivious to the battle being waged in his office, but Cap is now certain that he's not the one who is crazy.

The Skull sends Horst in to finish "Phase Three" of his plan to destroy Cap by plotting a murder and framing him. Meanwhile, AIM is developing the Cosmic Cube...

Horst finds Cap, but before he can murder an innocent man that stands next to the hero, Cap leaps upon him and knocks him down for the count with his shield. He uncovers Horst's plot, and it is revealed that it was the Skull who set it all up. Cap now realizes his oldest enemy is alive again....

(Continued in TOS #80)

--synopsis by Gormuu

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

Click on cover image to learn more about each issue.