Nazi-Punchers SGT FURY AND HIS HOWLING COMMANDOS "Fighting Side-By-Side with Captain America and Bucky!" Conclusion

When Last We Left Our Heroes...

 Captain America and Bucky have discovered a Nazi plot involving movement of slave laborers to a French coastal site where large amounts of munitions are also being moved.
Why?
Freeing a group of captive American aviators who were about to be executed, Cap has an idea about how to discover the plan, but he wants backup...

 Now that was kool!

This wasn't the first time the Nazis tried this trick in the Marvel Comics Universe.

in Timely's Marvel Mystery Comics #16-17 (1941), Prince Namor, the Sub-Mariner discovered another English Channel tunnel as well as a Japanese one under the Bering Strait!

After destroying the German tunnel single-handed, Namor then teams up with the Original Human Torch and Toro to destroy the Japanese tunnel.

In actual history, the idea of an invasion tunnel from mainland Europe to England dates back to 1804, when it was rumored Napoleon Bonaparte was digging one to bypass the British fleet!

1805 illustration showing proposed French invasion using a tunnel as well as barges and balloons.

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Sgt Fury and His Howling Commandos

Epic Collection

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Nazi-Punchers SGT FURY AND HIS HOWLING COMMANDOS "Fighting Side-By-Side with Captain America and Bucky!" Part 1

It's Memorial Day Weekend...

...and since we wanted to show the actual (comic book) military in action, we thought we'd present them along with a pair of costumed heroes!

We hate to break into the classic Stan Lee-scripted, Jack Kirby-penciled, and Dick Ayers-inked action from Marvel's Sgt Fury and His Howling Commandos #13 (1964), but you'll have to tune in tomorrow to see how the Howlers fit into this situation!

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Sgt Fury and His Howling Commandos

Epic Collection

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Nazi-Punchers SUPER GREEN BERET "White Magic in the Black Forest!"

The Green Berets were established in 1952!

So how is one of them fighting Nazis during World War II???

It could only happen in comic books!

We introduced you to Tod Holton: Super Green Beret HERE!

In that same premiere issue from Lightning Comics (#1 in 1967), besides fighting (then) present-day VietCong, he travelled through time, thanks to writer Otto Binder and artist Carl Pfeufer!
In the next (and final issue), Tod travelled back even further in time to the American Revolution!
We'll save that one for next year, the 250th anniversary of America!

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Tales of the Green Berets

by Robin Moore and Joe Kubert

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Nazi-Punchers / Twice-Told Tale FIREBIRD / BLACKOUT "Secret of the Valkyrie!"

He's a Colorful Nazi-Puncher...

...facing a Nazi woman warrior in a story that's both his first..and final...but not only...story!

Confused?

Keep reading!

"In all his checkered career..."

What "checkered career"?

This tale from Spotlight's Tailspin Comics #1 (1944) was FireBird's only appearance!

But it wasn't this story's first publication!

It's a "twice-told tale", which originally was the final appearance of an ongoing strip about a hero named BlackOut! in Holyoke's Cat-Man Comics #24 (1942).

Berlin-based American newspaper reporter Jack Wayne was arrested on Dec. 9, 1941, when the US declared war against Germany.
Tortured and blinded by the Gestapo, Jack was rescued by the German Resistance and brought to a doctor secretly aiding freedom-fighters, who provided him with a pair of experimental glasses which enabled him to see!
Though not an aviator, the multi-talented ex-reporter operated throughout Germany in Cat-Man Comics #10 through #24, proving equal to any challenge presented!

You'll note the last page of FireBird dropped the original final caption about the character's next appearance.
(Ironic since there weren't any BlackOut tales after this one!)
Plus, the story's splash page was considerably-modified to reflect the character's new phoenix-like name and motif by Spotlight Publications' art director LB Cole, who was noted for his use of color against solid black backgrounds!

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Take That, Adolf!

Fighting Comic Books of the Second World War!

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A Twice-Told Tale About Nazis Becoming Russkies...and Being SMASHED Both TImes by Different Heroines!

This is a "twice-told tale"...

...demonstrating how similarly WWII Germans and Cold War Russkies could be portrayed in pop culture!

First, a tale starring a long-forgotten heroine from Elliot's Spitfire Comics #132 (1944)...

Secret agent Spitfire Sanders made only two appearances, in successive issues of Elliot Comics' Spitfire Comics, which despite the high numbering of this issue (#132), only had two issues!
(And this was the first of the two!)
The art on this story about an extremely competent female spy is by journeyman artist Paul Cooper, working for the Iger Studios, who also supplied art to Ajax/Farrell (where the re-worked version appeared several years later) and Fox Comics.
It was scripted by "Rick Shawn", which was likely a pen-name since he's only credited with the two Spitfire Saunders tales!

Now we jump a decade to 1954.

The Nazis have been defeated.

Communism is on the rise.

A comic book publisher needs a story about a superheroine to meet a deadline, so Nazi-Crusher Spitfire Sanders becomes...already-existing Russkie-Smasher Phantom Lady!

Oh, and due to space limitations, the original story has to be cut by a couple of pages...

For this presentation in Ajax/Farrell's Phantom Lady #5 (actually #1) from 1954, the brand new (and extremely-restrictive Comics Code also required a reduction in gunplay and use of torture instruments like whips, so a number of panels were reworked...or deleted entirely!

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Phantom Lady

TPB Reprinting the Complete Golden Age Fox Comics Series, Mostly Illustrated by Legendary Good Girl Artist Matt Baker, and with a New Cover by Good Girl Artist Adam Hughes!