Silver Age Marvel's FIRST Russkie-Smasher Isn't Who You Believe It Is...

It ain't Iron Man or Thor, neither of whom appeared until 1963!

And, while the Fantastic Four made their space flight in 1961 to beat the Russkies into space, they didn't face a Russian foe until the Red Ghost and his Super-Apes in FF #13 (also in 1963)!

Technically, The Incredible Hulk was the first to actually face Russkies in combat in the premiere issue of his own title...cover-dated May, 1962!

But another character, introduced several months before Bruce Banner, was the first to appear in the pages of Atlas/Marvel Comics...cover-dated January, 1962!

...Henry Pym, the man who would soon be The Ant-Man!

His initial appearance was in Tales to Astonish #27, where he appeared to just be a hapless scientist who inadvertently created a formula to reduce himself to ant-size!

But, there was an unrevealed, Russian-related, reason for his project, which we discovered in Tales to Astonish #44...

This week, on the one-year anniversary of imperialist running dog Vlad Putin's unprovoked invasion of Ukraine, we're presenting the Astonishing Ant-Man's premiere adventure from September, 1962...which was against (who else?) Russkies!

Tomorrow:

Return of The Ant-Man!

Dare You Miss It?

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Ant-Man/Giant-Man

Volume 1

Russkie-Smashers BLACK COBRA "...Crashes the Ring of Red Death!"

Fighting Russkies 24 hours a day as either an FBI agent or superhero...

...the Black Cobra is truly unstoppable!

The creatives for this never-reprinted tale from Ajax/Farrell's Black Cobra #1 (1954) were from the Iger Studio which "packaged" comic stories (both scripts and artwork) for various publishers including Fox, Chesler, Elliot, Fiction House, St John, and (of course) Ajax/Farrell!
It may be a re-working of a previously-published comic story, which the studio was notorious for, as shown HERE, where a story written and drawn for one character was modified/updated for a totally-different character!
Or, it may be a totally-new tale.
We're not yet certain.

Russkie-Smashers MARVEL BOY II "Zero Hour!"

The only thing you can trust about Russkies...

...is that you can't trust Russkies...who apparently would be happy to die to "own the imperialists" (to paraphrase Repugs)!

BTW, though the mag was called Marvel Boy for the first 2 issues, (and he appeared in issues 1 through 6), it became Astonishing as of #3, and remained that way for the rest of the title's 63-issue run!

Written by Stan Lee and illustrated by Bill Everett, this tale from Atlas' Marvel Boy #2 (1950) about cooperation-then betrayal parallels what happened between the Allies and Soviet Russians during World War II (when they acted together against the Axis) and afterward (when they became hostile once the common threat had been eliminated).
You'll note, though the other side is referred to as the "Eastern" Empire, they're clearly written and drawn as Russians/Soviets!
Bob Grayson was the second character to bear the "Marvel Boy" name, the first one being a Joe Simon/Jack Kirby creation who made only two appearances during the 1940s.
Since he appeared (and disappeared) before the 1953 revival of the "Big Three" (Captain America/ Human Torch/Sub-Mariner) he could be considered Timely/Atlas/Marvel's final Golden Age superhero!

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Atlas-Era Heroes

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(which includes all of Marvel Boy's 1950-51 appearances as well as the re-intro of the Big 3)

Russkie-Smashers RICHIE RICH "Military Mix-Up"

Yep, you read that right!

The Poor Little Rich Boy kicks Russkie butt in this tale from Harvey's Richie Rich #51 (1966)!

Whatta guy!

And he didn't even have to become Super-Richie/Rippy...

...to do it!

(If you think there's a lot of Spider-Man or Batman titles out now...and there are quite a few...it's nothing compared to Richie Rich at his peak, when there were...take a deep breath...

32 simultaneous monthly, bi-monthly and quarterly titles!

You read that right, True Believer!

By the way, they were all selling better than almost everything Marvel and DC has out there now!

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Richie Rich

Russkie-Smashers MAN COMICS "Bob Brant and the Trouble-Shooters in 'Behind the False Face!' "

You don't need to be a superhero, aviator, or even a space-going cowboy to smash Russkies!

Sometimes, it just takes a group of all-American kids to do the job!

With almost all superheroes banished from the four-color pages of comic books after the ned of World War II, somebody had to take up the slack against the Russkies and Red Chinese and North Koreans!

Atlas Comics' editor Stan Lee combined the still-popular "kid gang" sub-genre with anti-Commie action in this short-lived series.
And, before you ask, they did end up battling Russkies on the Moon!
(I believe anyone who was anyone in 1950s comics had to do that at least once!)
But, that was after their premiere in this never-reprinted adventure from Atlas' Man Comics #26 (1953), illustrated by Carl Hubbell.

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Newsboy Legion
Volume 1
by
Joe Simon & Jack Kirby
The First Kid Gang in Comic Books!