A Visual Index to Captain America Comics

The 1940s Captain America

I've always wondered why Simon and Kirby chose "Camp Lehigh" as the name for Steve Rogers's home base. The stories seem to take place in either metropolitan New York or Washington DC. But "Lehigh" is native to eastern Pennsylvania (where I used to live), being an Amish corruption of "Lechauweki". Surely Camp Lehigh was not in the Lehigh Valley. (The Summer 1942 "Vampire" story seems to place Camp Lehigh in California.) Are army camps named for people, instead? (There is a Camp Kilmer, named for poet Joyce Kilmer, in New Jersey, where Kilmer lived.) In later years, the location of the camp was more clearly in the Ramapo Mountains of New York/Pennsylvania.

By the way, those who may have seen some of these stories in 1960s reprints in Fantasy Masterpieces may be interested to note that some items acceptable in the '40s were touched up for the '60s. The Butterfly, for example, pierced his victims with his long snout; the reprint implied he just leapt at them and knocked them down. The Hunchback of Hollywood, in his splash panel, was portrayed as a drooling, acromegalic monstrosity, toned down to simpler deformity for the '60s. And Igan and Gorro had their fangs pulled, literally as well as figuratively: Igan was redrawn to have two eyes, and Gorro had a rounder, more ape-like face. O tempora, o mores!

Part 1: The War Years

Comic Source	Name and Image	Description
Captain America Comics #1 (March 1941): "Case No. 1. -- Meet Captain America"	Agent X-13	Agent X-13 was a young woman masquerading as the aged proprietress of a curio shop. Behind the shop was the secret lab of the super-soldier project. I'm adding the covers of the comic issue to the entry for the story depicted on the cover. Sometimes, the cover shows a symbolic, rather than an actual, scene from the story, as has happened here.
Captain America Comics #1 (March 1941): "Case No. 1. -- Meet Captain America"	unnamed Nazi spy	This spy snuck into the secret lab as a high-ranking government official. He killed Prof. Reinstein but died while attempting to flee Captain America.
Captain America Comics #1 (March 1941): "Case No. 1. -- Meet Captain America"	Professor Reinstein	Prof. Reinstein developed the super-soldier formula America hoped to use against the Nazi menace. He was assassinated before making the formula known.
Captain America Comics #1 (March 1941): "Case No. 1. -- Meet Captain America"	Captain America	Steve Rogers was an Army reject who volunteered for the super-soldier project as an alternative way of serving his country, being injected with the only sample of the formula. When the formula sample proved successful, the U.S. government decided to outfit him as a symbol of America and put him to work as a special agent.
Captain America Comics #1 (March 1941): "Case No. 1. -- Meet Captain America"	Private Steve Rogers	The newly muscular Steve Rogers was placed into Camp Lehigh as a private, where, apparently, high officials kept him free from military red tape so that he could act on his own when he saw the need.
Captain America Comics #1 (March 1941): "Case No. 1. -- Meet Captain America"	Mascot Bucky Barnes	Camp mascot Bucky Barnes burst in on Steve Rogers as he was changing into his Captain America uniform. In those heady days of wanton child endangerment, Cap decided Bucky had to learn to fight by his side.
Captain America Comics #1 (March 1941): "Case No. 1. -- Meet Captain America"	Bucky	Apparently, no one ever associated Captain America's sidekick Bucky with the Bucky of Camp Lehigh, even though Cap operated around Lehigh as often as not. Chalk it up to those unnamed officials acting as watchdogs.
Captain America Comics #1 (March 1941): untitled #1	Sando Omar	Sando and Omar were the first Cap villains, beyond the origin story. Sando was a Nazi agent who hypnotized the idiotic and innocent Omar into "predicting" acts of sabotage shortly before they happened.
Captain America Comics #1 (March 1941): untitled #1	F.B.I. Agent Betty Ross	Betty Ross was assigned to the Sando and Omar case. She encountered Cap frequently. In later issues, she was apparently dating Sgt. Duffy and had casual contempt for the goldbricking Private Rogers. In still later ones, she became Steve's friend.
Captain America Comics #1 (March 1941): untitled #2	Rathcone	Rathcone was a Nazi chess master, also adept at manipulating people like chess pieces and thus in charge of a spy ring.
Captain America Comics #1 (March 1941): "The Riddle of the Red Skull"	The Red Skull	The Red Skull was a Nazi saboteur and assassin. He became Captain America's greatest foe, coming back every few issues. In his first story, he was unmasked as aircraft manufacturer George Maxon and died from his own poisoned weapon. Apparently, as with the Joker, someone recognized greatness, and the artists resurrected the villain for later use.
Captain America Comics #2 (April 1941): "The Ageless Orientals Who Wouldn't Die!"	Benson an Ageless Oriental	Benson was a banker who discovered the giant Ageless Orientals in the silent Himalayas. They were unable to be killed except by an explosive sound louder than a gunshot.
Captain America Comics #2 (April 1941): "Trapped in the Nazi Stronghold"	Adolph Hitler Hermann Goering	To rescue an influential patriot, Cap and Bucky go to Germany, where, in the course of beating up on generic Nazis, they also got to wallop Adolph Hitler and Hermann Goering. This is the fat Goering as portrayed in the comic. I have no idea what he really looked like.
Captain America Comics #2 (April 1941): "The Wax Statue That Struck Death"	The Wax Man	The Wax Man was Mayor Dobbs, a fifth columnist who led a brigade of US-based Nazi soldiers driving Super Tanks based in vast underground bunkers (it says here...). In his spare time, he murdered military commanders either by suffocating them in wax deathmasks of their own faces or by kidnapping and decapitating them, keeping their heads in his wax museum.
Captain America Comics #3 (May 1941): "The Return of the Red Skull"	The Red Skull	The story opens with the Red Skull rising from where he was left for dead, declaring himself immune to his own poisons. This would become a common event: Cap would believe the Skull dead, but he'd return in a later story, sometimes with an explanation as to how he did it. Here, the revived Skull resumes terrorizing military men, invades a baseball game with his Power Drill (a train-like vehicle with a drilling nose), and takes time out to hang a couple of con men, who are impersonating Cap and Bucky, because he mistook them for the real thing. You'll note the slightly different Red Skull micro-hero shown here, compared to the one for his first appearance. As part of the learning process, I've decided to do a new Skull micro for each appearance, showing variations in color and design, and often with a significant prop from the story.
Captain America Comics #3 (May 1941): "The Hunchback of Hollywood and the Movie Murder"	The Hunchback of Hollywood	This was a "Phantom of the Opera"/"Clayface I" type of story. A movie production was being sabotaged by a hunchbacked figure. The Hunchback of Hollywood was handsome actor Craig Talbot, a Nazi sympathizer who opposed the film's anti-tyranny message, and not horror actor "Barloff", who played the hunchback in the film. Quel suprise!
Captain America Comics #3 (May 1941): "The Queer Case of the Murdering Butterfly and the Ancient Mummies"	The Butterfly Lenny	The Butterfly was Dr. Vitrioli, a museum curator who was robbing his own museum. (Why he picked a butterfly as a costumed identity is a mystery. He wasn't stealing butterfly collections...) Lenny was Dr. V's assistant, "a human derrick", one guard called him.
Captain America Comics #4 (June 1941): "The Unholy Legion"	Herr Snupp The Unholy Legion	The Unholy Legion were a band of fifth columnists masquerading as beggars, street vendors, and general underclass types. Under the command of Herr Snupp, the Beggar Leader, they killed important defense figures and cheated sympathetic Americans who thought they were helping the truly poor and crippled. I give you Snupp, who branded both his own agents and law enforcement types (before killing them) with a swastika, and three unnamed murderous beggars: a strangler/news vendor, a cripple with a crutch gun, and a "Poisoned Apple Annie". All in all, a rather disturbing class warfare concept, especially so close to the Great Depression.
Captain America Comics #4 (June 1941): "Ivan the Terrible"	Ivan the Terrible	Cap and Bucky face Ivan the Terrible, who deposed a kingdom's rightful ruler, the just King Peter Ross, and set himself up. After beating Ivan, it turns out... It Was All A Dream!
Captain America Comics #4 (June 1941): "The Case of the Fake Money Fiends"	The Fake Money Fiends	Counterfeiters operating in Hillsdale kept snoopers away from the old house that was their base by dressing as ghosts. Seems to me that would have attracted more curiosity than chased it away, but, hey, I didn't grow up in those times. Many early Cap stories were inspired by movies. If anyone can place the source that first had counterfeiters playing as ghosts, I'd like to know what it was. (And they would have gotten away with it ...)
Captain America Comics #4 (June 1941): "The Case of the Fake Money Fiends"	Sergeant Michael Duffy	While an unnamed sergeant gave Pvt. Rogers a hard time as early as the Rathcone story, the recurring character with this name first appeared in this story.  In the comics, the privates were often playing practical jokes on the sergeant, and the innocent Pvt. Rogers invariably was blamed for them, probably because Rogers managed to have a true accident involving Duffy every other issue. In later issues, Steve and/or Bucky actually did play tricks on Duffy, and, still later, Duffy was treated with a bit more respect.
Captain America Comics #4 (June 1941): "Horror Hospital"	Dr. Grimm and Igan Gorro	Dr. Grimm ran a remote private hospital where he kept madmen among his other patients and experimented on all. Igan, here, is one of the doctor's early experiments.  Dr. Grimm's main experiment was Gorro, a gigantic humanoid monster whom he kept alive with the blood of unwilling donors, usually nurses in Grimm's employ.
All-Winners Comics #1 (Summer 1941): "The Case of the Hollow Men"	The Lord of Death The Hollow Men	The self-styled Lord of Death tricked Bowery bums into his lab, where he replaced their blood with his "di-namo fluid", which gave them super-vitality and immunity to death for 24 hours.  (Presumably, after the 24 hours were up, they did die.) He then sent them on destructive missions against US. military suppliers. The bums were only referred to as "the Hollow Men" in the title.  In the story, they were just "zombies". Where Cap appears in these anthology titles, don't expect there to be any relation between the cover and the story.
Young Allies Comics #1 (Summer 1941): "The Coming of Agent Zero"	The Red Skull Agent Zero	Bucky leads a local chapter of the Sentinels of Liberty (Timely's Captain America fan club) to rescue Agent Zero, a British agent, from Nazis. Toro, the Human Torch's kid sidekick, helps out, and the kids form the Young Allies to help the agent. The Red Skull steps in, things escalate, and the Allies take a per-chapter whirlwind tour of war venues (the Home Front, Berlin, the Russian Front, Hong Kong, and back to the USA) with Agent Zero.
Young Allies Comics #1 (Summer 1941): "The Coming of Agent Zero"	Human Torch Human Torch (flaming)	At the last minute, Captain America and the Human Torch (apparently their first meeting in the comics) step in and wrap things up.
Young Allies Comics #1 (Summer 1941): "The Coming of Agent Zero"	Toro Henry "Tubby" Tinker Jeff Sandervilt Aloysius Percival "Knuckles" O'Toole "Whitewash" Jones	Plotwise, not a bad "kid gang" adventure. However, what I assume was the publisher's goal of having the members represent all major demographics of their readership (the fat kid, the rich kid, the tough kid) results in the inclusion of a Black stereotype: "Whitewash Jones, who can make a harmonica talk." ("Yeah man! I is also good on de watermelon!") You have to give Timely credit for including a Black kid in their gang (DC's Newsboy Legion and Boy Commandos, for example, did not.), but the result is at least embarassing, and often offensive, to modern readers. I wouldn't have expected to see a Young Allies Masterworks any time soon, because of that, but one came out in July 2009. In case you weren't aware, Toro was the Human Torch's kid sidekick (which is why one of his hands is aflame), and he and Bucky often had fights in this series over which of the adult heroes were the best.
Captain America Comics #5 (August 1941): "The Ringmaster of Death"	The Ringmaster of Death	The Ringmaster was a Nazi agent whose wheel of chance dictated the night's assassination victim. Other than controlling a circus full of Nazi performers, he had no abilities. Looks a lot like the Hulk/Spidey Ringmaster, though, doesn't he? (Later Marvel stories made him the father of that Ringmaster.)
Captain America Comics #5 (August 1941): "The Gruesome Secret of the Dragon of Death"	Captain Okada	Captain Okada commanded a secret weapon of the Japanese navy: the Sea Dragon, a giant, ship-swallowing submarine. Hey, it's Cap's first Japanese villain, and he isn't a racist caricature! That's because Pearl Harbor hadn't happened yet. Things got vicious immediately after that. The Sea Dragon sub returned in a 1990's Invaders story, and the idea itself was reused in another Cap story later in the 1940s.
Captain America Comics #5 (August 1941): "Killers of the Bund"	The Bund	The Bund was an actual pro-Nazi German- American organization of the WW2 period.  Captain America and Bucky fought some Bund agents who were threatening loyal Americans Hendrich and Bob Shmidt.
Captain America Comics #5 (August 1941): "The Terror That Was Devil's Island"	Pepo Laroc	Pepo Laroc was the brutal overseer of Devil's Island, the infamous French prison camp.  He was put in charge by the Vichy government after the Nazis conquered France, so that prisoners of war could experience his cruelty. Like many Simon/Kirby stories of the '40s, this was inspired by a movie, 1939's Devil's Island.
Captain America Comics #6 (September 1941): "The Camera Fiend and His Darts of Doom"	The Camera Fiend	The Camera Fiend led a gang of crooks who were attempting to steal the British Crown Jewels, which were on tour in America.  His innocent- seeming camera fired poisoned needles.  He was actually Bucky's teacher, Lucius Hall.
Captain America Comics #6 (September 1941): "Meet the Fang, Arch-Fiend of the Orient"	The Fang	The Fang was a Chinese warlord, ruler of a tong (a criminal Chinese secret society) in America.  The Japanese Baron Nushima hired his hatchet-men to eliminate two Chinese emissaries seeking a loan from the U.S. to help fight Japanese aggression in China. While Fang never appeared again, in the 1960s Cap recalled his having died at Hiroshima.  I thought that was a nice touch.
Captain America Comics #6 (September 1941): "The Strange Case of Who Killed Doctor Vardoff?"	The Hangman	The Hangman systematically eliminated anyone who stood between him and control of the super-strong silk invented by Dr. Vardoff -- and there was quite a list: Vardoff himself, his assistant Ludwig, businessman Dino Cardi, and a mobster's gun moll, all of whom felt the grip of his noose of super-silk.  Actually, the Hangman was Vardoff himself, who wanted nothing more than to be left alone to do his research.
All-Winners Comics #2 (Fall 1941): "The Strange Case of the Malay Idol"	Kuoli, King of the Islands Malay chieftain	Steve Rogers, Bucky, and Col. Carter are stranded on an island in the Malay peninsula when their plane goes down. The pilot, Kurt Mueller, faked the crash in order to get secret documents Carter carried. As Kuoli, King of the Islands, Mueller commanded a small army of Malay warriors.
Captain America Comics #7 (October 1941): "Captain America and the Red Skull"	The Red Skull	The Skull returns, whistling Chopin's Funeral March as a prelude to his murders. That's the big gimmick for the story. Nicely eerie, perhaps, for radio or film, but not especially effective on the printed page. By the way, the cover seems to have no relation to any of the stories this issue, so I'm putting it with the first story. Expect the same for future issues.
Captain America Comics #7 (October 1941): "Death Loads the Bases"	The Black Toad	The Black Toad was Chuck McArthur, manager of the Badgers baseball team.  Using blowgun darts, he tried to make it appear as if the team was jinxed, so that he could buy it from its current owner at a bargain price. The Black Toad reappeared in a dream Cap had in issue #18, one of his few villains (besides the Red Skull and Hitler) ever to appear more than once in the 1940s.
Captain America Comics #7 (October 1941): "Horror Plays the Scales"	The Fiddler	The Fiddler was a Nazi assassin who used his violin to kill. First, he had an assistant, acting as a servant, put a bomb-laden radio in his victims' homes, which The Fiddler would detonate with certain notes he'd play during a public concert broadcast on the radio. He also could play frequencies that the human system could not stand, but he accidentally killed himself in one attempt, not knowing Cap and Bucky had stopped their ears.
Captain America Comics #8 (November 1941): "The Strange Mystery of the Ruby of the Nile and Its Heritage of Horror"	Pharaoh Ra the Avenger	When Henry Sanders sold a supposedly cursed ruby from an Egyptian tomb, the ruby's new owners began dying at the hands of a seeming spirit of Egyptian vengeance. Cap exposed the fake Pharaoh as Sanders, who couldn't bear to see his treasure in the hands of others.
Captain America Comics #8 (November 1941): "Murder Stalks the Maneuvers"	Pierre Dumort	Pierre Dumort posed as a Major from the Free French forces and led the soldiers of Camp Lehigh into a war game using live ammo. Cap exposed the deception and brought Dumort to justice.
Captain America Comics #8 (November 1941): "Case of the Black Witch"	The Black Witch	The Black Witch tried to keep heiress Karin Lee from her inheritance, Hagmoor Castle (near Camp Lehigh!), by making it appear haunted. The Witch was revealed to be Feritt, the lawyer for the estate, who knew there was oil under the castle grounds.
Captain America Comics #9 (December 1941): "Captain America and the White Death"	The White Death	This was another "kill the heirs" plot, but this time lawyer Matthew Clinton conspired with one of them, knife-throwing son-in-law Manuel Perez, who masqueraded as the White Death, to kill the others and then share the estate. For some reason, the White Death was deemed memorable enough to appear in an album issue of Captain America in the 1960s.
Captain America Comics #9 (December 1941): "Captain America and the Man Who Could Not Die--"	Nick Pinto	Nick Pinto was sent to the electric chair but then was arrested committing crimes days later. He was sent to the chair again, after which Cap discovered a conspiracy with a prison doctor to fake Nick's death each time. (My micro is taken from the splash page image of Nick in the hardcover reprint; in the body of the story, as in the entire original printing, he appeared as a normal human.)  This story was probably inspired by Lon Chaney Jr.'s Man Made Monster (Universal, 1941), but there have been other "Man Who Wouldn't Die" stories which could have influenced this, too.
Captain America Comics #9 (December 1941): "The Case of the Black Talon"	The Black Talon	The Black Talon was artist Pascal Horta, whose painting hand was crushed in a car accident. A surgeon transplanted the hand of Strangler Burns, a Black murderer who wanted to atone by donating his body to science, onto the artist. The artist then claimed "the corpuscles of the dead killer's hand invaded my blood-stream – slowly seizing control of my brain", forcing him first to paint, and then to create, scenes of death. Inspired by the film The Hands of Orlac, or more likely its later remake with Peter Lorre, Mad Love (MGM, 1935), neither of which used the race angle. Dunno who's to blame for that one.
All-Winners Comics #3 (Winter 1941): "The Canvas of Doom"	The Artist	The Artist paints portraits of people killing themselves, using paint laced with an hypnotic drug, so that the viewer is forced to act on the image.   This is one of the first Cap stories not drawn by the Simon/Kirby team. Al Avison, inker on some earlier stories, apes the Simon/Kirby style in layout, if not the details of the art. Story is by "S.T. Anley", i.e., Stan Lee. Hmm.  Two "fiendish artist" stories in a row -- three, if you count the Black Talon's return below. I wonder if this had anything to do with Timely discovering that Simon and Kirby had been moonlighting at DC...
Young Allies Comics #2 (Winter 1941): "Fate Spins an Evil Web"	Black Talon Baron Boche The Fish-Men	Nazi agent Baron Boche offers the Black Talon control over America if he'll aid the Nazi cause. Talon learns Bucky's Young Allies team is helping a young woman find her explorer father, and that the father has discovered an unknown island, recently risen from the sea bed and inhabited by fish-men "natives". The Black Talon is rather colorless here, compared to his original appearance. Yes, he still has the grafted hand, but he's played as a gang leader rather than a homicidal artist. (Perhaps the corpuscles were better assimilated?) The Talon also later turned up in a dream in #18, making him Cap's only three-timer from the '40s.
Captain America Comics #10 (January 1942): "Spy Ambush"	Countess Mara	Countess Mara led a team of spies to steal a new rapid-fire grenade gun. This may be the adventure Bucky later refers to, when riding a motorcycle reminds him of it, as involving the "Satan in Satin", as Cap and Bucky ride a motorcycle here and in no intervening adventures I can find.
Captain America Comics #10 (January 1942): "Hotel of Horror"	Netman	The Netman, a fifth columnist, learned Cap was to be honored by an American city (Gotham City!) and, posing as Charley Boswell, the Mayor's secretary, led Cap into a hotel in that city filled with traps and killers.
Captain America Comics #10 (January 1942): "The Phantom Hound of Cardiff Moor"	The Hound	The Hound was supposedly an ancient spectre, cursing those who lived in Cardiff Manor after the original owners were forced out. He was really Mr. Murdock, the last of the original owners, who, in conjunction with a phosphorus- painted mastiff, sought to reclaim the manor from recent buyers.  Yeah, yeah, The Hound of the Baskervilles. (20th Century- Fox, 1939, for a film version to serve as inspiration.) Again, "Cardiff Moor" was supposed to be somewhere near Camp Lehigh. This is the last published Simon/Kirby Cap story.
Captain America Comics #11 (February 1942): "The Case of the Squad of Mystery"	The Second Squad Herr Grotz	The Second Squad was performing rather well in the war games. You might say they operated with German precision. Cap found they'd been replaced by Herr Grotz's spies.
Captain America Comics #11 (February 1942): "The Feud Murders"	George Brinner Uncle Forrest Coger Colonel Rand	Two privates accused each other of stirring up an old family feud. One was killed, and the other fled to his mountaineer family to warn them. Cap, following, found a land speculator behind the revived feud. Obviously, this was based on the Hatfield-McCoy feud of the late 19th century.
Captain America Comics #11 (February 1942): "The Symphony of Terror"	Mephisto Inspector Gribbon Detective Finnegan	An opera company manager and a lead singer are murdered in rapid succession. Suspicion falls on another of the singers, but the man in the Mephisto costume turns out to be a jilted lover of the female lead. A pair of bumbling detectives appear for comic relief. Another Phantom of the Opera- inspired story.
Captain America Comics #12 (March 1942): "The Terrible Menace of the Pygmies of Terror"	Doctor Crime The Pygmies of Terror	The mysterious Dr. Crime stole and refined the shrinking solution of the head-hunters of the Amazon. He sent shrunken gangsters into homes to steal for him. Dr. Crime is one of the few '40s Cap villains who returns in another story. Also, this is the first Cap story which is 20 pages long, compared to the 10-12 page stories of previous issues
Captain America Comics #12 (March 1942): "The Case of Rozzo the Rebel"	Rozzo the Rebel	President Alvaro, of the South American nation of Oroco, visited America. Rozzo, an exiled revolutionary and his former colleague, attacked him, to revenge himself for imagined wrongs. Somehow, Rozzo had built a hidden underwater citadel, where Alvaro was made prisoner. Steve Rogers was assigned as Alvaro's bodyguard, so Cap must come to the rescue. This is another 20-page story.
All-Winners Comics #4 (Spring 1942): "The Sorcerer's Sinister Secret"	The Sorcerer	Mysto the Magician was really the Sorcerer, a Japanese spy. During a show near an army base in the Pacific, he caused a colonel to disappear, so that he could torture him into revealing base defenses. Cap proved his supposed magic feats were actually stage illusions.
Captain America Comics #13 (April 1942): "The League of the Unicorn"	King Unicorn Zong The League of the Unicorn	For ages, members of The League of the Unicorn have been the master criminals of Asia.  They wear helmets with steel horns, used to gore their foes. Now they've come to America, to disrupt friendship between China and America, by killing the visiting Prince Tsaihoon. Cap exposes King Unicorn Zong as Hargraves, a railroad tycoon who saw a chance to make a big profit in Asia and revived the moribund League to do so. This is the first post-Pearl Harbor cover.  Expect more of this.
Captain America Comics #13 (April 1942): "The Lighthouse of Horror"	The Looter	The gang of the mysterious Looter is behind the sabotage at Last Chance Lighthouse.  But who is the Looter? Is he Lems, the lighthouse keeper who hates strangers?  Or is he the suave Mr. Philips, whose shipboard romance with Betty Ross was interrupted when their ship crashed at Last Chance Lighthouse? If you think the Looter looks like an evil Popeye, so do I. Was it intentional? Who can tell at this distance...
Captain America Comics #14 (May 1942): "The Horde of the Vulture"	The Vulture (I) Little Moose	Steve Rogers's supply convoy, taking materiel to Fort Mojave in the American southwest, is attacked by Native American renegades, led by The Vulture. Though suspicion falls on his friend, Little Moose, Cap suspects a Japanese plot and unmasks the Vulture as Hugh Bradley, a local trader. The story shows signs of a rushed last-minute editing, changing what was originally "Black Hawk" into "Vulture" – mostly. Certainly the character looks more like a vulture than a hawk, but there could have been a few art changes, too.
Captain America Comics #14 (May 1942): "The Petals of Doom"	The Yellow Claw (I)	No relation to Atlas's Fu Manchu imitation of the 1950s, this Yellow Claw is a European who sends poisoned flowers to military officials. He does have a pair of claw-like yellow hands, but no explanation for them is given.
Young Allies Comics #3 (Spring 1942): "The Coming of the Khan"	The Khan	The Khan has been promised the rule of America, if he can successfully pull off an invasion of America. The Young Allies learn of this and follow him to Alaska, where they help the army thwart the invasion.
Captain America Comics #15 (June 1942): "The Tunnel of Terror"	Fritz Krone Moeller The Tunnel Creatures	Fifth columnists under Herr Moeller's command attempt to spread fear and despair in America. When Cap stops their usual efforts, Moeller's superior, Fritz Krone, has disguised agents erupt from a new tunnel under construction, pretending to be some sort of subterranean people disturbed by the tunnel. Actually, the tunnel will intercept Krone's secret base if it is not stopped.
Captain America Comics #15 (June 1942): "The Invasion from Mars"	Gool,  Martian Warlord Fake Martian	10-foot-tall Martians are sighted around Camp Lehigh, and nearby Gotham City (again!) is threatened. Cap reveals the Martians to be disguised Nazis, out to break American morale, but good old Americans fight Martians as easily as they do Nazis. Hmm.  Two stories about Nazi attempts to spread fear through hoaxes, in the same comic.  I wonder why the editor wasn't paying attention...
All-Winners Comics #5 (Summer 1942): "The Vampire Strikes!"	The Vampire	Dr. Togu was "the world's greatest master of occult medicine", who distilled the secret of vampirism into a formula, which he drank.  As the Vampire, he preyed on American Army officers, until Cap knocked him into sunlight, whereupon he reverted to human form and fell to his death.
Captain America Comics #16 (July 1942): "The Horror of the Seas"	The Hooded Horror The Sea Monsters King of the People of Lai-Son	Captain America goes to Innsmouth! Betty Ross is assigned to investigate disappearances near Valley Port. She is captured by the Hooded Horror, leader of the cultists of the goddess Lai-Son, and taken to a temple beneath Satan's Reef to be sacrificed. Cap has followed her and learns the Hooded Horror is a Nazi agent who wants Valley Port for a base. But the town was long ago taken over by the people of Lai-Son and their sea monsters, so the Horror has been impersonating their King. Cap frees the King, gets the story of the town, and blows up everything. This is an unusual story, in several ways.  First, the monsters are definitely the menace, but as soon as Nazis are shown as involved, they become almost sympathetic. Next, it's H. P. Lovecraft's "The Shadow over Innsmouth" all over again: the harbor town where outsiders are unwelcome, a sinister bus ride, a cult, fish-men, a lair under a reef. Finally, even acknowledging the source, it was still, in the re-telling, a pretty creepy tale... until the explanation of how the cult came to America: Vikings land on the island of Lai-Son (which appears to be in the Pacific) and intermarry with the cultists to steal their gold, then leave – okay so far, if you accept either Vikings on the West Coast or Polynesian-type islands in the  Atlantic. After centuries of hunting, because Lai-Son demands they be with their mates, the cultists find the descendants of the Vikings in Valley Port, USA... and kill the people they've been searching for all these years. Then, instead of returning to their sunny island, they stay and build a new home under Satan's Reef.
Captain America Comics #16 (July 1942): "Red Skull's Deadly Revenge!"	Archer Red Skull Brute Benson Duke Shores Igor	After breaking jail, the Red Skull masters archery, then gathers a new gang around himself. They're bait to lure Cap, because he's certain his arrows can pierce even Cap's shield. Bucky is hospitalized and Cap made a prisoner – and unmasked! Dressed as Cap (with giant red teeth showing under the cowl), the Skull steals defense plans, ruining Cap's reputation.  But a healed Bucky tracks Cap down, and, after an arrows vs. shield showdown on the wings of a flying airplane, the Skull falls to his seeming death. Cap leaves the plans with the body, confident this will prove the Skull stole them.... By the way, note the Japanese flag the Skull wore on his chest instead of his swastika at the beginning of this story.  No reason given for it; it was just there for a while, and then the swastika was back.
Young Allies Comics #4 (Summer 1942): "The Most Amazing Story of All Time"	Farmer Red Skull	Showing amazing continuity between two titles, this story says the Red Skull had a hidden parachute, so he floated safely down, changed clothes with a farmer he ambushed, and escaped.  I liked the way he looked as a farmer, even though it only lasted a couple of panels. The rest of the story involves the Skull's plot to kill everyone in Washington, D.C., with poison gas released by treated papers.  Knuckles is thought dead for a while, and Bucky and Toro have a boxing match. The Skull falls off a cliff at the end, and everyone stands around the body, so it looks like he couldn't possibly have escaped death this time. Ahem.
Captain America Comics #17 (August 1942): "The Monster from the Morgue"	Killer Kole Dr. Jason Weirdler	That popular stand-by, a gangster's brain in a gorilla's body. Cautionary note to all scientists: do not announce your scientific breakthroughs ahead of time. Dr. Thomas Austin, having successfuly revived a human corpse, plans to reanimate a gorilla. (Why the first resurrection wasn't enough to satisfy anyone isn't explained.) Rival Dr. Weirdler decides to embarass him by substituing the jarred (and presumably pickled) brain of Killer Kole for that of the gorilla. He apparently needn't have bothered, because the experiment is a failure, and the gorilla is thoughtfully given a burial by "jeering medical students" under a stone reading "Doctor Austin's Mistake". But a lightning bolt, bypassing nearby trees and striking the grave, completes the reanimation, and Killer Kole finds he can't help heading for the circus to pick up his new mob. Kole starts killing the judges who sentenced him to death, and Weirdler grows a conscience and confesses all. Cap and Kole fight atop a fire ladder, and Kole falls to his re-death. Man, Frankenstein and King Kong and any number of "Man Who Wouldn't Die" revenge movies, all rolled into one! That's Entertainment! While he doesn't look much like a gorilla, this is a pretty faithful rendition of Killer Kole as he appeared in the comic.
Captain America Comics #17 (August 1942): "Sub-Earthmen's Revenge!"	The Spook Queen Medusa The Sub-Earthmen	When Nazi saboteurs attack Camp Lehigh, their explosions cause turmoil in The World Below.  Good Queen Medusa leads a troop of her Sub-Earthmen, riding giant worms, to the surface to investigate, but a final shock seals the shaft behind them. Somehow, the "top-men" (us) misunderstand the intentions of cavemen mounted on giant worms, and Cap has to intervene to prevent a mutual massacre. But a Krimson Klansman calling himself The Spook tells Medusa how she can have revenge on the top-men. Cap has to stop the fatal misunderstandings which ensue, and The Spook is revealed to be one of the saboteurs who caused the whole thing.  Pow, right in the kisser! (And, yes, the  Sub-Earthmen are still stranded at the end of the story.)
Captain America Comics #17 (August 1942): "Machine of Doom!"	Prof. Clement Mott Le Bull	Eminent scientist Mott thinks the war-torn world has gone mad, so he goes mad, too, and plans to destroy the world with his Cosmic Depressor (which apparently uses Cosmic rays to Depress the motion of atoms, causing matter to drift apart). Vichy collaborationist Le Bull wants North America to drift apart, but not necessarily anywhere else. Cap wants to stop them both.  He does. Fort Lehigh is in Florida today.
Captain America Comics #18 (September 1942): "Bowling Alley of Death"	Gigo	A new bowling alley in town attracts a lot of Camp Lehigh business, but too many accidents, some fatal, happen there to the soldiers. Owner Gigo is actually a Nazi saboteur. There's more to the story, about Gigo's background in a Russian secret society, but it's all filler.
Captain America Comics #18 (September 1942): "The Tomb of Horror"	Prof. Harold Wembley "The Black Talon" "The Black Toad"	Steve Rogers, assigned to help an archaeologist in Egypt, dreams of two former foes in the tomb. That's all.  It's a dream. Next!
Captain America Comics #18 (September 1942): "The Mikado's Super Shell"	Paw	Paw, "mad Japanese genius," has developed a massive gun which can fire a shell across the Pacific. Cap invades Japan to destroy it.
All-Winners Comics #6 (Fall 1942): "The Mock Mikado Strikes!"	The Mock Mikado	Unknown to the current Emperor of Japan, a fraternal twin brother was born along with him. In order to keep the peace in the royal family, the brother was sent to Mexico and secretly raised by a trusted agent. Now, this "Mock Mikado" is ready to raise an army of his own and invade America.  And guess who's sent to stop him?
Young Allies Comics #5 (Fall 1942): "Horror In Hollywood"	The Owl	The Owl, master of propaganda, is sent to Hollywood to stop production of an anti-Nazi film. It's something of a mystery why this character is called "The Owl", other than his having a vaguely owlish appearance, until you realize he's a master of disguise and there are captions saying "Who? Who? Who is The Owl?" Hey! Whitewash is doing something useful! On most other covers, he, Jeff, and Tubby are all captives, leaving the heavy lifting to Bucky and Toro, and maybe Knuckles with a machine gun.
Captain America Comics #19 (October 1942): "The Crocodile Strikes"	The Crocodile	A family in a decaying bayou manse is menaced by a giant crocodile. Cap soon learns The Crocodile is actually a human in disguise – but who? One of the family? One of their servants? The visiting professor?
Captain America Comics #19 (October 1942): "On to Berlin"	Herr Demon	General Spenser is kidnapped and taken to Germany. Steve Rogers fails to volunteer for a rescue mission, and Bucky thinks Steve's a coward, until he realizes Steve held back so that he could accompany the mission as Captain America. Meanwhile, Hitler calls for his chief torturer, Herr Demon, to get needed info from the general...
Captain America Comics #20 (November 1942): "The Spawn of the Witch Queen"	Spawn of the Witch Queen Barbec	A British expedition finds the mummy of a child in an Egyptian tomb.  Following the chanting of a spell, the restored mummy becomes a human child, which the expedition leader adopts.  Years later, Steve Rogers's unit, on assignment in Egypt, helps re-discover the tomb and the remains of the earlier expedition.  The child has grown into a man, the Spawn of the Witch Queen, and is trying to resurrect his mummified mommy.  Cap exposes his British liaison as the one behind the Spawn's mask. Surely, partially inspired by Karloff's The Mummy (Universal, 1932).
Captain America Comics #20 (November 1942): "The Fiend That Was the Fakir"	The Fakir	The Japanese are arming hill tribes in India to oppose the British forces there.  The Fakir leads those tribes.
Captain America Comics #20 (November 1942): "The Case of the Clammy Things"	Doctor Destiny The Things	Horrible "Things" emerge from the London Underground (subway) system and kidnap the Lord Mayor and others. Cap and Bucky follow and find the base of Doctor Destiny, who thinks his destiny is to rule London. The Things are mutated humans. Dr. D. looks like an anime character, doesn't he?
Captain America Comics #21 (December 1942): "The Creeper and the Three Rubies of Doom"	The Creeper	To stop an important treaty between the Allies and the country of Alslavia from being signed, a Nazi agent called The Creeper has stolen the rubies from King Dane's signet ring. Cap must recover them or risk insulting the king. A rather (ahem!) elaborate story around a simple (-minded) premise. All the Creeper is missing is a farmer's daughter and a railroad track...
Captain America Comics #21 (December 1942): "Satan and the Sorcerer's Secret"	Balthar the Sorcerer Satan	Would-be sorcerer Mr. Balthar makes a pact with the devil and gains death-dealing eyes. After beating him, Cap has to wrestle with the Devil himself.  No, really!
USA Comics #6 (December 1942): "The Ghost's Gaze of Death"	Medusa	War plants are terrorized by a ghostly figure, the fright causing accidents in the plants, and those who come close enough die on the spot.  Prof. Anton Harvey believes it's the ancient Greek Medusa (except this Medusa is obviously male). Cap believes it's a trick. Medusa is really Harvey, who is also a Nazi agent, and his look of death is a concealed dart gun.
All-Winners Comics #7 (Winter 1942): "Return of Doctor Crime"	Doctor Crime Von Eisner	Doctor Crime, who has been allowed to wear his costume in prison, tells Nazi Von Eisner where to find the shrinking formula in Dr. Crime's old house. Amazingly, Von Eisner doesn't steal the formula but gives it to Dr. C, who escapes. Dr. C then kidnaps a general. During the course of the story, both Bucky and Dr. C are shrunken and have a fight, after which a hawk grabs tiny Dr. C for dinner.
Young Allies Comics #6 (Winter 1942): "School For Sabotage"	Prof. Kraut
Young Allies Comics #6 (Winter 1942): "The Comet of Doom"	Togo
Captain America Comics #22 (January 1943): "The Vault of the Doomed"	Doctor Eternity	Congressman Barlow and his "anti- Nazi committee" are making things too hot for Mr. Schultz and the local Washington Nazis, so he is invited to meet with "Dr. Eternity, Spiritual Guide" -- i.e., medium. The ghost of Barlow's brother predicts Barlow's death.  Cap and Bucky are passing by and find a vault under the house, where Eternity and his hunchbacked servant seal them in. They are rescued by another client of Dr. E's and unmask the Doctor to reveal "one of Hitler's star boys!" It may be that Dr. E was originally intended to be Mr. Schultz under the mask.  There isn't much resemblance, but it seems odd there'd be an unmasking scene in the story without someone under the mask we'd recognize.
Captain America Comics #22 (January 1943): "Captain America Battles the Reaper! (The Man the Law Couldn't Touch!)"	The Reaper	The Reaper is a demogogue who applies Hitler's "Big Lie" principle to the subversion of the U.S. government, telling Americans "right is wrong, and wrong is right". Since he never openly espouses revolt, he can't be arrested.
Captain America Comics #22 (January 1943): "The Cobra Ring of Death"	The Ring Toto	Both Senator Ralph and General Lang have died suddenly. Cap thinks the odd cobra ring both men wore had something to do with it.  Bucky shows the ring in local curio shops and finds a Bund leader called The Ring, who captures him. Cap fights The Ring's giant servant, Toto, to learn Bucky's location, and The Ring is accidentally killed by one of his own cobra rings: when the hand is clenched into a fist, the head of the cobra injects strychnine into the wearer.
Captain America Comics #23 (February 1943): "The Mystery of the One Hundred Corpses"	Izan	Cap and Bucky find almost a hundred corpses in a flooded quarry, but no one in nearby towns seems to be missing.  Dr. Izan (even Bucky knows to spell it backwards) is replacing dying men with Nazi agents and dumping the originals' bodies in the quarry.
Captain America Comics #23 (February 1943): "The Deadly Snapper"	The Turtle-Man	The Turtle-Man has, for a year, been helping convicts escape from Louisiana chain-gangs into nearby Swamp Sinister.  Now, he's ready to strike, at a Mardi Gras float using real jewels. Both the previous issue's "comic attractions" and the story's title refer to this character as The Snapper, but for some reason he's become the much less awesome sounding "Turtle-Man" in the body of the story.
Captain America Comics #23 (February 1943): "The Idol of Doom"	Prince Ba'rahm	Steve and Bucky see a woman and a Hindu disappear in a ring of fire in the middle of a lake.  Later, the woman's body is found. It's all part of a plot to gain wealthy women's estates.
USA Comics #7 (February 1943): "Case of the Flying Submarine"	The Eraser Fritz the Fire Eater	Circus "rubber man" turned spy, the Eraser is out to steal the sole model of a flying submarine. He doesn't do anything particularly circus-y in this story -- no being double-jointed, no tricky escapes or break-ins. The best he can do is to vow to Cap, after Cap's taken back the model and knocked the Eraser into the sea, that, since rubber floats, he'll be back. But he wasn't. Similarly, Fritz doesn't eat any fire. He yells and shows a forked tongue shaped like a flame, but that's it.
Kid Komics #1 (February 1943): untitled haunted house story	ghost	There's no Young Allies story in this issue, but Knuckles and Whitewash (and Jeff in a cameo) appear in a haunted house story.
Captain America Comics #24 (March 1943): "The Vampire Strikes!"	Count Varnis Butler	Assigned to put a searchlight atop Vampire's Mountain, Steve and Bucky find the home of Count Varnis, and darned if the Count isn't acting oddly...
Captain America Comics #24 (March 1943): "Meet the Eel of Horror Harbor"	The Eel	Investigating the mysterious sinkings of newly completed ships, Cap and Bucky find men in the employ of The Eel, treating the ships to attact the Eel's giant octopus, which drags the ships under. The Eel also has a pit of giant electric eels, which Cap uses to finish off both the octopus and the Eel himself.
All-Winners Comics #8 (Spring 1943): untitled	Prince Kuhomai	General MacArthur is coming to visit Steve Rogers's unit, currently stationed in New Guinea. Prince Kuhomai, a Japanese officer whose father committed suicide after losing to MacArthur at Bataan, plans to avenge his father's death by blowing up the camp during the visit. Cap and Bucky are imprisoned with the explosives, get free and sabotage them, then use them to cause Kuhomai to blow himself up.
Captain America Comics #25 (April 1943): "The Princess of the Atom"	Dianne	Vacationing with friends, Steve Rogers learns Dianne Ferrule is actually a princess from a sub-atomic world, sent to Earth to escape the evil Togaro. Using shrinking drugs, they go to the sub-atomic world of Mita to fight Togaro, who, in the meantime, has been sending his own men to Earth as giants, looking for the princess. Pulp author Ray Cummings adapted his own novel of the same name for this two-part Cap story. Looks like this month's cover was intended for next month's Russia story.
Captain America Comics #25 (April 1943): "The Murdering Mummy and the Laughing Sphinx"	Karr the Mummy Modebl	A mummy has been murdering high government officials. Cap and Bucky find it and learn it is preparing the way for the return of the demon Modebl. They also manage to grab a sphinx charm from its neck. Egyptologist Prof. Jameson is eager to examine the charm, but it is Cap who learns the charm contains a liquid which enables him to face Modebl... or so it seems, since the liquid is an opium solution, causing hallucinations. Jameson is really the Mummy, but it's not his fault: he drank some of this liquid and became a kind of lycanthrope, unaware of his changing each night into the Mummy.
Young Allies Comics #7 (April 1943): "Meet the Ambassador of Death"	Ambassador of Terror
Young Allies Comics #7 (April 1943): "The Scratch of Death"	The Serpent
Captain America Comics #26 (May 1943): "The Princess of the Atom, Part II"	Togaro	In Mita, Dianne is returned to her people, but Togaro has accompanied them in miniature and rejoins his troops.  They enlarge their own ship so that it outweighs Mita and forces it out of orbit. Cap helps rescue the tiny Mitans through Dianne's enlarged ship, takes them to a new planet, then pursues Togaro, who now wants to conquer Earth.  The story ends with gigantic Cap and Togaro wrestling, until Togaro hits his head on a mountain, dies, and shrinks to his own sub-atomic size. Not only was "Princess of the Atom" a two-parter, they were two long parts, 25 pages each.
Captain America Comics #26 (May 1943): " Captain America and the Russian Hell-Hole"	Nazi commander Col. Nemeroff	Steve and Bucky, on a convoy going to Russia, are separated from the convoy when they stop a Nazi plane from strifing their ship.  In the captured plane, they make their way to Russia, after which they take a message from a dying Russian spy, escape a Nazi air base hidden inside a glacier, fight wolves, and visit a Lapp village, before finally thwarting a planned invasion of Murmansk, escaping from chains in a sinking ship, and being feasted as heroes in the Kremlin. There seems to be one of these "stop the invasion" stories about every third issue on average, and I usually don't like them. But this one had more coherence than most, with the Russian locale set pieces appearing naturally.
USA Comics #8 (May 1943): "Invasion of the Killer Beasts"	Oberst Von Steibel para-trooper with poisonous dogs	The story opens promisingly with a captured Nazi para-trooper telling how the accursed Captain America defeated their Nazi might, but it heads downhill quickly. Oberst Von Steibel hand-picks 50 men but fails to make any use of their particular skills, putting para-troopers in with infantry, for example.  He gives them an animal weapon – dogs with poisonous fangs – and immediately, with no time to accustom the dogs to the men, ships them off to America on a cramped sub, ensuring the travel time could not be used for training, either. A mere 50 men were supposed to cripple the entire US Army, and even then, they use their deadly new canine weapon almost as an afterthought. They then try to wipe out Camp Lehigh with a single truck with explosives – sent to a dam, admittedly, but this was apparently something they had planned in advance, and it had a single point of failure. Naturally, it failed. Maybe the Oberst was really a double-agent, setting up 50 of the best Nazi soldiers for sacrifice. Or maybe the story was thrown together with no sense of a real plot. You decide.
Captain America Comics #27 (June 1943): "North of the Border"	Baron Von Hartmann	Quebec City is the star of this tale, in which Baron Von Hartmann's capture of a Canadian general and his war plans is merely the MacGuffin.
Captain America Comics #27 (June 1943): "Blitzkrieg to Berlin"	Herr Wolf Kapitan Huntzel Pierre Leroux	Cap and Bucky stumble across a deserted house, gimmicked with traps, which is the base for Herr Wolf's spy ring. The spies capture them and return with them to Berlin aboard Kapitan Huntzel's u-boat. Hitler gloats, but they escape, after learning about the construction of a giant u-boat which will carry soldiers to invade America.  With the help of Pierre Leroux, a resistance fighter, they destroy the sub. This is the kind of sloppy "stop the invasion" story I don't like, as it loses its focus (Wolf's information) halfway through and has to invent a new one (the giant u-boat).
All-Winners Comics #9 (Summer 1943): "Case of the Sinister Hun"	Baron Von Widemouth	The Baron, the sinister hun in question, is trying to blow up the locks of the Panama Canal with "aerial torpedos" – actually, small drone planes with explosives.
Kid Komics #2 (Summer 1943): "The Suicidal Saboteurs"	The Young Nippon Society
Captain America Comics #28 (July 1943): "The Challenge of the Mad Torso"	The Mad Torso	Letters signed by "The Mad Torso" taunt Cap to stop the kidnapping of a famous researcher.  He does so and follows a trail to a Western mountain and a once-deserted monastery, now the home of the Torso: a Nazi scientist whose bomb-wrecked arms and legs have been replaced by mechanical ones.
Captain America Comics #28 (July 1943): "The Vultures of Violent Death"	The Birdmen of Pa-Pi-Ru-Gua	The Japanese military have convinced the inhabitants of a South Pacific island to allow a Japanese base there.  Under their guidance, warriors riding giant birds capture Cap, Bucky, and an Allied flight crew, and Cap must face a series of trials to save them all from execution.
USA Comics #9 (July 1943): "Puppets of Death"	Varda	Cap stumbles across a plot to eliminate Jameson, an Allied counter-spy.  He trails Jameson to the Black Cat night club where, during a puppet performance, Jameson collapses and is later diagnosed as having died of Dengue fever, which is so highly contagious that his body must be buried immediately, in a sealed casket, without being embalmed. Hmm... Cap learns that the puppeteer, Varda, is using his show to infect targets with a drug whose effects resemble Dengue but which instead puts them into catalepsy, from which he later revives them to enslave them and use their skills. Cap is set up as a human puppet but manages to kill Varda with an arrow to the throat!
Young Allies Comics #8 (July 1943): "North Africa Ahoy"	Gen. Leroux
Young Allies Comics #8 (July 1943): "Terror of the Rising Sun"	The Whip
Captain America Comics #29 (August 1943): "The King of the Dinosaurs!"	Olaf the Iguanadon Prof. Karl Schultz	This time, it's a human brain in a dinosaur's body. Prof. Karl Schultz discovers a frozen, comatose "Iguanadon -- the King of the Dinosaurs" in Antarctica and has it shipped to an American museum. But he is a Nazi agent and former brain surgeon, and he kidnaps his loyal aide Olaf, transplants his brain into the dinosaur, and revives it.  The confused Olaf wanders through the city and into the countryside. Cap finds him and tells him how Schultz has tricked him.  Olaf kills Schultz and then himself, jumping off a cliff.
Captain America Comics #29 (August 1943): "The Case of the 'Phantom Engineer'"	The Phantom Engineer	While awaiting a train to take him back to camp, Steve hears the legend of the Ghost Train of Wreck Canyon. A skull-faced "phantom engineer" lays claim to the railroad and the canyon, saying he'll wreck any train going through it, then runs off. To make sure a train with important military personnel gets through, Cap investigates the canyon, finds radium-sheeted Nazi "ghosts" and a movie projector with a ghostly train. The Phantom Engineer is Peter Blakeman, district manager for the railroad and Nazi saboteur.
Captain America Comics #29 (August 1943): "The Case of the Headless Monster"	The Headless Monster	The Headless Monster terrorizes small towns in the Ramapo area. Cap investigates and finds the Monster too tough to beat, though it runs off, anyway, and disappears. He does find Jonathan Torgson, a dwarfish huge-headed freak, an apparent captive of the Monster. But the Monster is really a mechanical shell for Torgson, who wanted revenge for being tormented as a freak and who ultimately kills himself.
Captain America Comics #30 (September 1943): "The House of the Laughing Death"	The Silent Killer	Four people have died mysteriously in Carlin Sanatorium, victims of the "Laughing Death". Cap finds plenty of dirty work in the Sanatorium.  Arthur Blaine has hired Dr. Carlin to kill an uncle so that he can inherit. Carlin had been forced to murder by his criminal brother, who is hiding in the Sanatorium.  The Laughing Death is pure oxygen, which overworks the heart and leaves no trace.
Captain America Comics #30 (September 1943): "The Curse of the 'Yellow Scourge'"	Tu-Ra-Bi-Ka	Tu-Ra-Bi-Ka the Witch Doctor has convinced the formerly neutral natives of his Pacific island home to side with the Japanese. Turns out the Japanese have replaced Tu-Ra-Bi-Ka with an impostor.
Captain America Comics #30 (September 1943): "The Saboteur of Death!"	Von Broot	Cap is assigned to make sure Nazi agent Von Broot does not interfere with the Allies presence in Barabia. The story never really develops or goes anywhere.
USA Comics #10 (September 1943): "The Cylinder of Death"	Gen. Nikki Olga	Olga, a Russian spy posing as a dancer, warns Cap that "the Cylinder of Death must be destroyed!" Cap can't prevent Japanese soldiers from smuggling the cylinder into California, but he does learn its secret: it's filled with a miniaturized army (shrunken by a ray projector stolen from the late Prof. Livingstone 6 months earlier), which is being enlarged as he watches.  There's an odd, neat scene where Cap traps the toy army in a room and smashes out at them, even as other soldiers and equipment, evading him, continue to grow. About half the army is smashed in this way, but the rest escape at their full size. A nearby army base helps clean up the rest, and General Nikki, mastermind of the plot, falls to his death from atop a dam.
All-Select Comics #1 (Fall 1943): "The Case of the Mystery of the Human Bats!"	The Vulture (II) The Batmen	This Vulture is a Nazi scientist who developed a serum which not only makes men stronger but enables them to fly, though they need artificial wings to steer. He created a team of Batmen, which he controls because the serum must be renewed every 12 hours or the taker dies. He uses them to kidnap important officials. Cap is taken to the mountaintop eyrie of the Vulture. Apparently the deadly withdrawal effects of the serum only manifest after repeated usage, because Cap and the hostages take the serum themselves to be able to fly down from the mountain, leaving the rest to die from withdrawal.
All-Winners Comics #10 (Fall 1943): "Kioto, the Mad Jap"	Kioto	Kioto is put in charge of the Japanese base on a Pacific island, but his cruel methods have soured the natives, who approach Cap to free them from his rule. There's not much "mad" about Kioto, other than his cruelty. But that includes capturing Allied soldiers, killing them, and parachuting them back behind Allied lines as a taunt, so maybe that was enough for the audience.
Young Allies Comics #9 (Fall 1943): "The Bloody Henchman"	Benito Mussolini
Young Allies Comics #9 (Fall 1943): "Toward the Land of the Condemned"	Herr Executioner
Kid Komics #3 (Fall 1943): "Caught in the Tune of Death"	Black Dirge
Captain America Comics #31 (October 1943): "The Terror of the Green Mist"	Fungi	Humanoid plants are parachuted into American croplands, where they are shot by soldiers.  But puncturing them releases a green mist which turns the nearby land into slime. Cap and Bucky follow the trail to Germany, where the transformed madman called Fungi is made to turn his own laboratory into slime. Fungi is pretty creepy. Timely is definitely in the sensationalistic "weird horror" camp, compared to more staid DC, who had a bunch of children's licensees to keep in mind (e.g., the popular Superman radio show).
Captain America Comics #31 (October 1943): "The Canal of Lurking Death"	U-boat commander	Hunting a hidden submarine base, Cap and Bucky force a U-boat commander to take them there.  An underground tunnel on the Holland coast leads to the base, where fake hay barges and windmills disguise its true purpose. Cap plants explosives on the subs in the base, then returns to England to fetch RAF bombers.  When they see the subs go up, they are able to pinpoint the base and finish the job with their bombs. Other than Cap's swimming from Holland to England, there isn't much he does here a spy character couldn't have done.
Captain America Comics #31 (October 1943): "The Coughing Killer"	The Cougher	While doctors waste their time looking for a bacterial agent, spread when the Cougher coughs, the real weapon is the poison dart he fires from his blowgun cough-drops.
Captain America Comics #32 (November 1943): "The Menace of the Murderous Mole-Man"	The Mole	In London, Cap puzzles over the accuracy of Nazi bombers recently: along with their other targets, they always manage to hit a couple of air raid shelters.  He finds the underground warren of The Mole, who plants bombs under the shelters so that the deaths will be blamed on the planes.
Captain America Comics #32 (November 1943): "Ali Baba and His Forty Nazis"	Ali Baba	A modern-day Ali Baba uses the trappings of the old story to sabotage Allied efforts in Baghdad.
Captain America Comics #32 (November 1943): "The Talons of the Vulture"	The Vulture (III) Joan Jacques	This third Vulture is a Nazi officer, a prison commandant, who delights in striking at the guerrillas of the French resistance who try to stop the slave trains bound for his camp. Cap joins the guerrillas and finds they are led by a woman, Joan, whose brother, Jacques, is a prisoner in the camp.  He is then captured and realizes Jacques is passing information about the guerrillas to The Vulture.  Engineering a breakout, he proves his case to Joan, who shoots her traitorous brother. Rather a nice little story, if a tad obvious to modern eyes. Cap and Joan are fond of each other, so that the Cap/Peggy Carter relationship alluded to in the 1960s seems to have been inspired by this one.
Captain America Comics #33 (December 1943): "Mother Wong"	Mother Wong Giant Servant Japanese liaison	Mother Wong, secret gang leader whose name is whispered in dread across China, is really spying for the Allies to free her country from the Japanese occupiers. Cap and Bucky first fight, then aid, her.
Captain America Comics #33 (December 1943): "The Master of the Killer Mongoose!"	The Master Lt. Betty Ross	Stationed in North Africa, Steve and Bucky save Betty Ross, now a WAC, from attackers. Later, she and the other WACs are kidnapped by hirelings of the Master, a Nazi spy who punishes failure by having his pet mongoose rip out one's throat. They are to be smuggled into Tunis and pumped for info, but Cap kills the mongoose and sets them free, and the WACs capture the spy ring.
Captain America Comics #33 (December 1943): "The Symbol of Doom"	The Symbol of Doom	A cloaked figure the newspapers call "the Symbol of Doom" is seen at every recent disaster affecting the army. When the Symbol tries to destroy the troop train Steve and Bucky are on, they investigate in costume. In a copper mine, they find a Japanese suicide squad whose cloaks hide the explosives they carry, and Cap gets them to destroy themselves.
All-Select Comics #2 (Winter 1943): "Saboteurs in White"	Doctor Red Skull	The Red Skull's saboteurs have destroyed 4 factories. They break in variously, but no one ever sees them leave. That's because they're disguised as medical personnel and leave with the ambulances, having taken over a private hospital.
All-Winners Comics #11 (Winter 1943): "The Case of the Yellow Fire Monster"	Nogatami	Nogatami, famous Japanese chemist, impersonates Ching Toy, who is the priest of a Chinese fire god of the same name. Nogatami has expanded the worship of the fire god to heroin addicts and sent them out to burn selected targets. When Cap appears and breaks up the temple, Nogatami raises terror in the streets himself with various fire weapons.  But when he tries to flee from Cap by climbing a bridge cable, one of his own flames melts the cable, and he falls to his death.
Young Allies Comics #10 (Winter 1943): "The Horror of the Doll-Devil"	Malabo
Young Allies Comics #10 (Winter 1943): "The Coils of the Python"	The Python
Captain America Comics #34 (January 1944): "The Cult of the Assassins"	Kali The Dacoits	A fainting princess at a diplomatic reception in India allows Dacoits to attack a viceroy. Cap suspects a plot and learns the princess is worshipped by the Dacoits as Kali, Daughter of Kali, leader of a cult of assassins. Kali, who is actually Japanese, falls in love with Cap and kills herself when he ruins her plans. By the way, in real-life, the Kali-worshipping assassins were actually the Thuggee or Phansigars (different names in different parts of India). "Dacoit" merely means "bandit".
Captain America Comics #34 (January 1944): "The Stage of Death"	Rosso	Rosso, the deformed dwarf, haunts the Central Opera House, killing performers.  He is a former tenor who was accused of stealing funds, then thought killed by a train accident.  But he survived and now steals beautiful things while avenging himself on his former friends. A more direct swipe from Phantom of the Opera than most such stories, this one fails to make clear whether Rosso was guilty of the original thefts or not. Many "Phantom" stories portray the villain as either a wronged avenger or a jealous monster. No one seems to have bothered much in this case.
Captain America Comics #34 (January 1944): "Invasion Mission!"	Gestapo chief	The Allies plan an invasion on the Balkan coast. Cap and Bucky are sent in ahead to clear the way. They save a beautiful Italian spy and sabotage Nazi gun emplacements, allowing the invasion fleet to land.
USA Comics #11 (January 1944): title unknown
Captain America Comics #35 (February 1944): "The Gargoyle Strikes"	Count  Georges Tarragh The Gargoyle	Why does the charming and accomplished Count Tarragh wear a golden mask?  No one knows that it covers a beast-like face. As The Gargoyle, he chooses to aid Hitler's cause until he can prove his superiority over the Nazis, as well. Cap stops him from stealing an unnamed "war invention" from a scientist in the Florida Everglades.
Captain America Comics #35 (February 1944): "The Steel Mask"	The Man in the Steel Mask The Bronze Idol	An old Mayan temple in the American southwest holds an ancient secret. The Man in the Steel Mask claims to be a centuries-old Mayan priest, and he uses the robotic bronze idol of the temple to stir up nearby Mexicans against the U.S., but he's really a Nazi agent.
Captain America Comics #35 (February 1944): "The Case of the Horror Money"	Peter Stromboli Mr. Walker	Is it really counterfeit money if it's printed with government plates on government paper? Yes, if the printer is greedy Peter Stromboli rather than the U.S. Mint office he manages. One thing's for sure: it's not "horror money". He uses the Walker identity to spread the cash.
Captain America Comics #36 (March 1944): "The Blood of Dr. Necrosis"	Dr. Necrosis	Australian forces fighting in Burma suffer an appalling increase of gangrene cases among their wounded.  Cap traces the problem to the blood supply, which is being used by the infected Dr. Necrosis in an attempt to cure his own gangrenous condition.
Captain America Comics #36 (March 1944): "The Strange Mystery of the Leopard Woman"	The Leopard Woman	Not much mystery to it: Countess Kyra and her pet leopards kidnap the New York City Water Commissioner as part of a Nazi plot to poison the city reservoir.
Captain America Comics #36 (March 1944): "The General of Death"	General Von Savage	While the Allies plan an invasion of France, Gen. Von Savage leads a Nazi counterinvasion plot: a tunnel under the English Channel to strike at England.
All-Select Comics #3 (Spring 1944): "The Keeper of the Monsters"	Prince Suli Tatu the ape	Prince Suli robs a museum of jewels, then becomes a vagrant, intending to get arrested and let one set of police hide him from another.  In addition to this, he has two trained gorillas as aides. On first reading this story, I thought Suli was calling one of the apes "Tatu". On re-reading it, it may be that "Tatu" is a command.  It's only said once, so it can be read either way.  I prefer to name the ape.
All-Winners Comics #12 (Spring 1944): "The Four Trials of Justice"	The Red Skull	Taking its cue from President Roosevelt's "Four Freedoms" speech, the story has the Red Skull trying to "Nazify" residents at the Lakehurst Resort, and Cap bringing them each of the freedoms: from want, from fear, of religion, and of speech.
USA Comics #12 (Spring 1944): "The Toll of Death"
Young Allies Comics #11 (Spring 1944): "The Spawn of Death"	The Nazis	The Young Allies sneak aboard a ship and are captured by a Nazi sub. They are taken to a prison camp and spend four chapters fighting their way back to England. No main villain here, just a lot of Nazi soldiers.
Young Allies Comics #11 (Spring 1944): "Osaki, the Murderous Jap"	Capt. Osaki	A bomber flying the Young Allies to the West Coast for a special bond rally is captured by Capt. Osaki, who plans to bomb American sites with their own plane.  The Young Allies escape from being tied to the bombs and drop them, and Osaki, on a Japanese aircraft carrier.
Kid Komics #4 (Spring 1944): "The Scourge of the Jap"	Japanese Sandman
Young Allies Comics #12 (Spring 1944): "The Terror of the Jap Head"	The Head	This is just bizarre. There's a fat Japanese head atop a little rocket ship, zipping around decapitating military leaders. And look at Whitewash on the cover,  being heroic and not a hostage! No such luck for Jeff or Tubby, though.
Young Allies Comics #12 (Spring 1944): "The Spiked Chariot of Destruction"	The Mad Mechanic	The Mad Mechanic is a Nazi inventor. From a base in Switzerland, he sends machines of all sizes, from exploding wrist watches to robots to giant juggernaut vehicles, out to wreck Allied plans.
Captain America Comics #37 (April 1944): "The Chambers of Dr. Agony"	Dr. Agony	Cap and Bucky find a missing offical in the torture chamber of Dr. Agony, a Nazi scientist trying to increase human resistance to pain, so as to make unstoppable soldiers. Dr. Agony dies fighting a panther he has already taught to ignore pain, so it does not feel the blows of his knife as it slashes him.
Captain America Comics #37 (April 1944): "The Seven Sons of Satan"	The Seven Sons of Satan	Three times, Cap sees an assassin calling himself the Son of Satan die, and three times Cap meets him again. It turns out there were seven identical sons of a Japanese Satanist (it says here), all out to smash the Allied drive into Burma.
Captain America Comics #37 (April 1944): "Frozen Death"	The Red Skull	In the midst of a frozen land, the Red Skull rules a jungle, where he's building a ray to turn the Allied weapons into dust. Otto Binder, who could do better, must have written this one in a hurry.  No explanation for the jungle is given. (I know, all you comics geeks are thinking it's Ka-Zar's "Savage Land".) The story can't even decide if the frozen land is the Arctic or the Antarctic: reference is made to the Antarctic jungle and Aurora Australis, but there's also an Eskimo girl and references to Arctic wastes.
Captain America Comics #38 (May 1944): "Castle of Doom"	Honorable One Death Valley Pete	Death Valley Pete has a secret gold mine, and he's used the money to build a castle in the middle of the desert. Japanese agents take it over and systematically rob air bases on the West Coast of fighter plane parts and ammo, using them to build their own planes which will be used to attack the US from the inside.  Cap and Bucky investigate and free Pete, who has built the castle over the mine itself -- a perfect place to set a bomb to wreck the whole plot. The story's central idea is taken from the real-life Death Valley Scotty, who also had a castle and a supposed gold mine.   The Japanese leader is unnamed but dressed in ceremonial robes, so using the honorific as his name seemed appropriate.
Captain America Comics #38 (May 1944): "Frozen Death"	The Cellmen Japanese scientist	In the Arctic, Cap and Bucky find a land of tropical warmth under an ice cap.  A stranded Japanese scientist has used the primordial conditions to develop mindless humanoids which regenerate from their pieces into complete copies of the original.  So how does Cap stop a menace which can't be cut or blown apart? Two stories with the same title, and a jungle amidst a polar waste, one issue apart? Did two writers talk variations on an idea at lunch?  And why didn't the editor put a little distance between the stories?
Captain America Comics #38 (May 1944): "The Peril of the Past"	Dr. Emil Natas Phao Na- Tash Hercules Diablo Natas Sir Amerigo	With Cap and Bucky as his prisoner, the sneering Dr. Natas tells Cap that they've met before, in past lives, and are destined to do so again.  His recounting of defeats in past lives gives Cap the chance to beat him in this life. "Holy cow!" Bucky finally realizes, "His name, spelled backwards ...!"  Is this truly the end of Dr. Natas? I guess so, at least in this life, as he never returned.
Captain America Comics #39 (June 1944): "Terror of the Ghost Harpoon"	Old Harpooner Mate Silas	Steve and Bucky's leave in Nantucket is interrupted. Beautiful Molly wants to get her late father's whaling ship, the "Moby Dick",  profitable again, but the crew is spooked by threats and harpoons appearing from nowhere.  It's a plot by Mate Silas, aided by a mad old harpooner, to steal the ship from her.
Captain America Comics #39 (June 1944): "Riders of Death"	The Death Riders	Motocycle-riding Japanese agents try to burn down the factory town which sprang up around the Crawford Bomber Plant.
Captain America Comics #39 (June 1944): "Rockets of Doom"	Carl Von Brummel	Scientist Von Brummel is frustrated by his inability to develop a rocket bomb which will cross the Atlantic, allowing Germany to bomb the US from afar. Then how is it German missiles are actually doing so much damage in New York?
All-Select Comics #4 (Summer 1944): "Mystery of Hangmen's Island"	Von Wolheim Cloaked Nazi	Von Wolheim's invention jams French patriot Jules Derrain's daily broadcasts to his countrymen. Then Derrain is kidnapped and taken to spooky Hangmen's Island, where the Nazi base is in a fake haunted house.
USA Comics #13 (Summer 1944): "The Curse of Frankenstein"	Frankenstein Monster Herr Rotzz Anna Frankenstein	A note from Anna Frankenstein brings Cap and Bucky to the famed Castle Frankenstein. Someone has resurrected the Frankenstein Monster. Herr Rotzz, the blind butler, is the obvious suspect, but Cap soon learns that Rotzz was working with Anna herself to try to make the monster into a Nazi weapon. So why'd she call for Cap in the first place? As a red herring, knowing he'd come anyway once he'd heard about the monster. Okay...
Young Allies Comics #13 (Summer 1944): "Coffins for Sale"	The Nazis
Young Allies Comics #13 (Summer 1944): "The Land of Death	Satan Charon
Kid Komics #5 (Summer 1944): "The Mad Fiend of Horror Castle"	Phantom
Captain America Comics #40 (July 1944): "The Jester of Death!"	The Jester	A colonel treats Steve and Bucky to a society party at Mr. Bryce's famous "House of Pranks". Bryce, as a Jester, invites everyone for a drink at the Arsenic Bar before moving on to another part of the house. But the one man who did drink dies of poison, and another man is broken on a torture wheel before the Jester disappears into the house. Cap and Bucky find the real Bryce a prisoner and unmask the Jester as someone who, having been the childhood victim of an horrific prank by those invited to the party, has decided on a killing revenge. But the Jester tricks himself and plunges down an open elevator shaft.
Captain America Comics #40 (July 1944): "Auction of Death"	The Keeper of the Flash	When a meteorite crashes on an island, an assistant lighthouse keeper discovers that it can focus sunlight into a destructive beam and fashions part of it into a prism.  As the Keeper of the Flash, he demonstrates its power, then invites anyone to bid on it. At the auction, Axis agents feud among themselves, killing the Keeper and allowing an American general to use the Flash to destroy the rest of the meteorite, as the Allies only wanted to keep such a ghastly weapon from the Axis.  Cap and Bucky are in here, but they do nothing to move the plot along.
Captain America Comics #40 (July 1944): "Captain America in the Mystery of the Floating City"	Lyander Nazi  leader sea monster	Ten bombers have vanished crossing the Atlantic.  Cap and Bucky find they've been shot down by the inhabitants of a floating city, built centuries ago by explorers who failed to cross to North America. Nazis have taken over, and Cap allies himself with a rebel, Lyander.  Even a sea monster tamed by the Nazi leader can't stop them, and the Nazi kills himself in failure, while the floating city moves on to a more secluded location.
Captain America Comics #41 (August 1944): "The Killer Beasts of Notre Dame"	The Gargoyles Nazi Governor General	Hmm... Why have the gargoyles of Notre Dame seemingly come to life to attack the Parisians?  Is it because they are defying their rulers, as the Nazi Governor General claims? Or is it because he has taken homicidal madmen from the asylums, dressed them as gargoyles from Notre Dame, and let them loose on the populace?  Hmm...
Captain America Comics #41 (August 1944): "The Murder Brain"	Tiger Duncan's brain Doc	Gangster "Tiger" Duncan's will reaches from beyond the grave. After Duncan is electrocuted, his still-living brain commands the prison doctor to remove it and keep it alive, then slowly turns the doctor into a simulacrum of himself. A bit more pulpy than the usual Donovan's Brain copy, and more enjoyable for it.
Captain America Comics #41 (August 1944): "The School of Horror"	The Schoolmaster	The Schoolmaster is an expert in the art of murder, and he is using the deserted Graystone Building to teach his methods to criminals.  He is really the former co-owner of the building who, surviving an attempt to kill him, developed a hate for not only his former partner but all mankind.
All-Winners Comics #13 (Fall 1944): "Gardens of Doom"	Dr. Botan Number 12	Separated from their unit during maneuvers, Steve and Bucky find the gardens of Dr. Botan, who makes plant-human hybrids, such as Number 12, a former blacksmith crossed with an Amazonian plant.  In escaping, they set fire to Botan's lab, and he and his experiments, including the surrounding gardens, die.
Amazing Comics #1 (Fall 1944): "Horror of the Murdering Magician"	Tehru	The Young Allies sneak aboard a troop ship bound for India. In India, they fight off a raid by Tehru, a local magician, and his men, then follow him to a Japanese base. Tehru plans to use his illusions to aid the Japanese, but the Young Allies turn the tables on him. Fleeing, Tehru falls into a tiger trap and is killed.
USA Comics #14 (Fall 1944): "Riddle of the Stolen Buddha"
Young Allies Comics #14 (Fall 1944): "The Green Death"	The Green Death
Young Allies Comics #14 (Fall 1944): "The Monster of the Maniac Murders"	Dr. Wilton Wilkes Suki
Kid Komics #6 (Fall 1944): "Sinister Jap Secret Weapon"	The Japanese
Captain America Comics #42 (October 1944): "Tojo's Terror Masters"	General Yokima	The Chinese freedom fighters report that all Japanese troops are being withdrawn to some new location in the south. Cap and Bucky investigate and discover Gen Yokima's invasion plan: a rail tunnel under the Pacific to America. With the trains on their way, Cap flies ahead to an island way-station and packs the tunnel with TNT.
Captain America Comics #42 (October 1944): "Waters of Death!"	The Ichthyologist	Millionaire J. T. Fleming has survived recent attempts on his life, but Cap is concerned -- and with good reason: Fleming dies mysteriously in his swimming pool.  From hiding, Cap watches someone remove a poisonous jellyfish from the pool and tracks him to a marine laboratory. The unnamed ichthyologist wanted revenge because Fleming refused to back an expedition of his. He, too, dies -- in the arms of an octopus.
Captain America Comics #42 (October 1944): "The Baron of Horror Castle"	The Baron	On overseas assignment, Steve and Bucky act as guards when their commander is invited to dinner at nearby Horror Castle. The Baron drugs his guests and plans to take them to Germany. Cap is captured and thrown into the moat with man-eating "paraya" fish, but escapes. When the Baron tries to hurl a cannonball at Cap, the weight overbalances him and he falls over the parapet to his death.
Captain America Comics #43 (December 1944): "Captain America in the Shadows of Death!"	The Shadow Monster	In the town of Meadow Brook, people see shadows of murders, but no bodies are ever found. Old John Shaffer makes weird paintings with shadows – could some monster from one of his paintings have come to life?  No, but his nephew is trying to make people think so, because he knows there's a valuable ore on his uncle's estate, and he wants to inherit it.
Captain America Comics #43 (December 1944): "The Death That Came from Nowhere!"	Baron Hitso Shell Pilot	Baron Hitso's new shells strike targets with astounding accuracy. That's because they have kamikaze pilots.
Captain America Comics #43 (December 1944): "The Sea Dragon!"	Dr. Yokotio	A giant sea dragon is sinking Allied ships. It's mechanical. They did this better in issue #5.
All-Select Comics #5 (Winter 1944): "The Bamboo Knife Butcher"	The Medicine Man	The Mallon family have international mining interests, and young Paul Mallon vanished while inspecting one in "the jungle". A shrunken head is sent to his mother, but how did savages know her address? Cap suspects Paul's uncle, Mr. Smallen, is involved, and he is – his own time among the headhunters has caused him to follow headhunter practices, and he's preparing to sacrifice Paul.
All-Winners Comics #14 (Winter 1944): "Monstro the Mad Jap"	Monstro	Monstro loves jigsaw puzzles, so he uses them to steal designs from war factories.  He gives the workers puzzles to do on their lunch hours, and the workers often as not do the puzzles on whatever surfaces are available, including tables holding designs. Monstro then collects the puzzles, as their other sides have copied the designs on which they rested. Cap gets wise, then gets captured, and Monstro builds a puzzle which will electrocute Cap when it's completed. But he misses a piece, Cap escapes, and Monstro gets electrocuted.
Captain America Comics #44 (January 1945): "The Prophet of Hate"	The Prophet of Hate	The Prophet of Hate, fanatical swordsman of India, has risen from his grave to drive out the European forces of the Allies. With the dubious aid of Sgt. Duffy, out to prove to his girlfriend that he can as big a hero as Captain America, Cap and Bucky unmask the Prophet as a Japanese spy.
Captain America Comics #44 (January 1945): "The Graveyard of Ships"	The Octopus Creatures Boss	The lone survivor of a lost cargo ship tells a fantastic tale: his ship was caught in a miles-long mass of seaweed and sunk by weird octopus creatures.  Cap finds Betty Ross also investigating the story and reveals a plot by the shipping company's boss to defraud his insurance company.
Captain America Comics #44 (January 1945): "Midnight Means Murder"	Black Hand	Master terrorist Black Hand can send explosive radiation into any time-piece, so that when its two hands touch, it explodes with great force. Okay...
Captain America Comics #45 (March 1945): "Dynamos of Death"	The Superintendant The Skeletons of Glowing Death	Crooks cause blackouts, then rob amidst the panic dressed in phosphorescent skeleton costumes.
Captain America Comics #45 (March 1945): "The Thing in the Swamp!"	Major Von Kaulen Hans the Monster	Major Von Kaulen, trying to bomb a factory, is shot down over nearby Keecheebee Swamp.  Something in the water turns his aide, Hans, into a monster whom he can control, so he tries to use Hans to wreck the factory.
Captain America Comics #45 (March 1945): "The Human Beast!"	The Cat Woman	A murderous female thief is also an accomplished acrobat. Not much here. She dies fleeing from Cap.
All-Select Comics #6 (March 1945): "Yellow Claw and the Mole Men"	Yellow Claw (II) The Mole Men	Japanese agent Yellow Claw has a formula to turn men into human moles, suitable for tunnelling under defense plants and collapsing them or sneaking underground to kidnap officials. But his master plan is to create a new volcano under a major American city.
All-Select Comics #7 (Spring 1945): "The Masters of Evil"	"Terrible Tom" Garrett Terdu Captain Kidd Jesse James Frank James Jack the Ripper Bluebeard Gyp-the-Blood	Gangster Garrett, escaping from Cap, meets Terdu, a sorcerer. "I glory in evil," Terdu says, and resurrects criminals of the past to show Garrett that Cap can be beaten.  But Cap beats these revenants, too. Terdu dies in his own cauldron, and Garrett just wants to go to a nice quiet jail.
All-Winners Comics #15 (Spring 1945): "The Masked Trio of Death"	Lupo The Masked Trio	Where did Lupo obtain his new gang?
USA Comics #15 (Spring 1945): "The Doom of Metal"
Young Allies Comics #15 (Spring 1945): "River of Fire"	The Corpse
Young Allies Comics #15 (Spring 1945): "The Witch Doctor's Curse"	The Witch Doctor
Kid Komics #7 (Spring 1945): "The Mystery of the Sinister Black Bag"
Captain America Comics #46 (April 1945): "Invitation to Murder"	Mrs. Matison Lawyer	The peculiar will of Mr. Matison divides his estate evenly among his wife, his brother, and his cousin, but if any of them die, that person's portion is given to the others.  "Why, that's an invitation to murder!" claims someone, and so it is.  Mrs. Matison goes first, and the other two heirs accuse each other, but it's a plot between Mrs. M and the lawyer to get the heirs killing each other, after which she'd turn up alive.
Captain America Comics #46 (April 1945): "The Shadow of the Monster"	Butch Cantwell	Has Captain America turned to crime? No, it's Butch Cantwell in a Cap suit.  Cap pleads with authorities, based on his past career, to trust him to bring in this impostor.
Captain America Comics #46 (April 1945): "The Mystery of the Puff-Adder Skulls"	The Master	Two Wall Street financiers have died from sudden heart attacks, and Cap is a witness to a third death – and the puff-adder skull found on the victim. Preventing a fourth death, Cap finds an otherwise nameless Master who uses the deadly snakes in a variety of ways.
Captain America Comics #47 (June 1945): "The Crime Dictator"	Crimorto	Using the twin weapons of Crime and Violent Death, Crimorto lures Cap into a trap. Crimorto's powers (throws lightning, raises mists) are granted by his shroud-cape, but no fancy gadget is shown to be behind them. However, neither is a supernatural angle (e.g., puzzled Cap wondering how he does it) played up.  Crimorto just has these powers, and everyone accepts it as natural.  Rather odd for the otherwise highly rationalized, if fantastic, Cap comics.
Captain America Comics #47 (June 1945): "The Monster of the Morgue"	Prof. Todt	What is the connection between the ships mysteriously blowing up in the harbor and the sudden interest Prof. Todt's new undertaking parlor has in the unclaimed bodies from the city morgue?  Could it be that he's stuffing them full of explosives and using them for mines?  Yes.  Ew.
All-Select Comics #8 (Summer 1945): "The China Wall Mystery"	Gen. Sneeki Lao-Chung	Stationed in China, Steve and Bucky are patrolling the Great Wall and choose to investigate a noise as Cap and Bucky.  They are approached by Lao-Chung, who shows them secret tunnels under the wall, now being used by Japanese General Sneeki for an invasion of China. With Lao-Chung's help, Cap smashes the invasion force and collapses the tunnels.  He then learns that one of the builders of the Great Wall, centuries ago, was one Lao-Chung.
All-Winners Comics #16 (Summer 1945): "The Mystery of the Floating City"	Lyander (again)	This is a reprint from Captain America Comics #40. You might wonder about the need for reprints (which are typically last-minute fill-ins) on a quarterly book, but recall that Germany surrendered in May, 1945, probably just when this issue was being laid out. I'm guessing there was some story which no longer worked post-surrender, and no time to reletter it to be a tale from before the surrender, so a reprint was needed. For some reason, Timely chose to reprint this story. Don't know if it was a favorite or simply close to hand at the time, but a Human Torch story also from that issue was also reprinted in this same issue, so I suspect the latter. The reason the Nazis captured the floating city was to use it as a refuge for fleeing Axis leaders, so it may have been judged to be semi-appropriate for the time.
USA Comics #16 (Summer 1945): "The Riddle of the Totem Pole!"	Chief	Men are dying without a sign of cause, and next to each is a miniature totem pole. Cap traces the totem pole to a tribe in the Pacific Northwest and is captured. The Chief reveals the victims were all descendants of  people who bought the tribe's original land, which the Chief considers to have been a swindle.  The men were told ahead of time of the tribe's vengeance, then died of sheer fear when each received a miniature totem. Cap and Bucky are placed atop the 100-foot-high "sacred totem", which is set afire.  But they find the totem is hollow, climb down the inside, and escape.  The burning totem collapses on the remnants of the tribe.
Young Allies Comics #16 (Summer 1945): "The Mad Prince Shinto and His Suicide Battalion"	Prince Shinto
Young Allies Comics #16 (Summer 1945): "Mystery of the Sacks of Death"	Shiv
Kid Komics #8 (Summer 1945): "Dragons of Death"	Ssu-shi
Captain America Comics #48 (July 1945): "The Mark of the Satyre"	The Satyre	Sudden death in a rural Pennsylvania town. Cloven hoofprints found on the victims. And in a secluded mansion which was once a wax museum, a frightening statue mysteriously vanishes and reappears... Can a super-patriotic hero remain popular after war frenzy has died down? I think it helped that Cap fought weird menaces from the start, so someone like The Satyre provided that bit of sensationalism the comic needed.
Captain America Comics #48 (July 1945): "The Corpse That Wasn't There"	Laird Carson	Cap finds Mildred Carson dying of poison and rushes her to a hospital, but her body is stolen from the cab they used. Cap must figure out why.
Captain America Comics #48 (July 1945): "Colosso and His Murder Marionettes"	Colosso	You've seen this before: crimes are committed in every town which Colosso's marionette show visits, but he's always giving a show when they happen.  The marionettes are midgets.
Captain America Comics #49 (August 1945): "The League of Hate"	Capt. Vergelhaupt	Veterans returning to small towns are stirring up prejudice against foreigners. Cap uncovers a Nazi plot to replace American soldiers without living families with Nazi agents.  A rather good anti-prejudice story until the final page, where a flashback reveals Hitler telling these agents to work for "a soft peace", that is, a post-war agreement where Allied vengeance is not meted out against German soldiers. So the story suddenly veers from a message of brotherhood to one of Deserved Vengeance on Our Enemies!  Grr!
Captain America Comics #49 (August 1945): "Symphony of Death"	Diavolo Organ Grinder Mug	Diavolo's gang has an organ grinder with a concealed gun shoot bank messengers and the like, while other gang members grab what they carry.
Captain America Comics #49 (August 1945): "Murder by Proxy"	The Boss	The splash page promises "Awhole community terrorized by a corrupt political machine directed by an unknown political genius", but we get a simple story where a captured crook is left unguarded in a hospital so he can be rubbed out before he talks. And the unknown political genius is the District Attorney who convinces the police their usual precautions are unnecessary. Oh, for the days of drooling Axis agents and impossible high-tech weaponry...
All-Select Comics #9 (Summer 1945): "The Tick-Tack-Toe Murder!"	"Knucks" Connors	Cap stops crooks attacking a junkman collecting newspaper.  One bundle of the papers the crooks wanted is covered in games of tic-tac-toe.  Bucky recognizes a kids' code in the diagrams, directing them to a house where "Knucks" Connors is holding a millionaire for ransom.
USA Comics #17 (Fall 1945): "The Bloodthirsty Baron"	The Evil Knight	The Evil Knight tries to rob a ship containing art treasures being returned to Europe. When his sword cuts through a steel ladder, Bucky wonders if he's wielding Excalibur.  But, he's actually Paul Bonaparte, mechanical genius, whose sword produces the great heat of a welding torch.  Bonaparte owns Hagmoor Castle, where Cap and Bucky find him and pursue him to a wrecking yard, where Cap shorts out the sword and Bucky captures him with the electromagnetic crane. Remember Hagmoor Castle from Captain America Comics #8? Here is the name again, but apparently unrelated to the previous castle.
Young Allies Comics #17 (Fall 1945): "Phantom of Amajo Suki"	The Japanese
Young Allies Comics #17 (Fall 1945): "Massacre of the Mannikins"
Kid Komics #9 (Fall 1945): "The Corpse Came F.O.B."	Tony Lukas	The boys arrange to work on a farm for their vacation and encounter gangster Tony Lukas, trying to bring his protection racket to the farm town.
Captain America Comics #50 (October 1945): "The Walking Dead"	Leader Walking Dead	Cool cover: hooded cultists and an ape in a bell tower. Too bad nothing like that happens in any story in this issue, but this one is the closest. After he died, John Foster was secretly buried with the deadly poison rain formula he'd developed. Now corpses in Lawnmere Cemetary are rising from their graves.  Actually, they're Japanese spies in disguise, searching for Foster's grave and the formula.
Captain America Comics #50 (October 1945): "The Mystery of the Eyes of Death"	Genrami	Genrami the mirror vendor coats his mirrors with a special backing which produces an intense glare that affects the viewer twenty-four hours later. He shows them to Allied soldiers in India, and the soldiers go blind the next day in the midst of battle.
Captain America Comics #50 (October 1945): "The Leopard and His Killer Mob"	The Leopard	The Leopard got his name when an attempt to escape from prison exposed him to high voltage, which caused spots to appear on his skin. Now he's paid his debt to society, but he wants society to pay for what happened to him, so he goes on a rampage with a deadly electirc beam gun he invented in prison.
Captain America Comics #51 (December 1945): "Mystery of the Atomic Boomerang"	Prof. Rudo	Prof. Rudo has invented an "atom-water" for Japan: left in the sun to evaporate, it suddenly explodes with terrific force.  He lures Allied soldiers into an area where he's spread it, waits for the sun to come out, and ... boom! But Cap manages to turn the tables on him, and he dies in one of his own explosions – the "boomerang" of the title.  (Yeah, I thought so, too.)
Captain America Comics #51 (December 1945): "Fraternity of Fat Fellows"	The Chameleon	The Chameleon has been reading Sherlock Holmes stories. Remember "The League of Red-Headed Men"? Almost the same plot, except the dupe is a portly mortician rather than a redheaded pawnbroker.
Captain America Comics #51 (December 1945): "The Case of the Blonde Bombshell"	Captain Catti Fluffy Flair	Pin-up Fluffy Flair came to the Pacific to entertain the troops, but Captain Catti plans to replace her with a look-alike who will semaphore base information to a watching Japanese spy.
All-Winners Comics #17 (Winter 1945): untitled	The Wizard The Witch	Dave Carreaux invites Steve and Bucky to his family's bayou plantation for a vacation. The wedding of his elder brother is threatened by the reappearance of a family legend, a brother-sister Wizard and Witch who kill the eldest Carreaux in each generation. Philip Carreaux is killed, but Cap shows the pair are a former lover of the bride, out for revenge, and a hired girl.
Young Allies Comics #18 (Winter 1945): "Eeney, Meeny, Miny -- Murder"	Big Boy Bates
Young Allies Comics #18 (Winter 1945): "The Mummy of Death"	Karr the Mummy	Reports of a killer mummy lead the Young Allies to the scene, where they find the mummy itself.  "I am Karr, courtier to Modebl the Demon!" After driving the mummy away, they find a sphinx charm, which they take to Egyptologist Dr. Lammon, who can tell them little. But a secret compartment in the sphinx reveals a solution of concentrated opium, and the mummy reverts to Dr. Lammon in death.  The opium had made him a "lycanthrope": at night, he would go mad and kill, but remembered none of it by day. If this sounds familiar, it's because it's a rewrite of the mummy story from CAC #25. I suppose one could claim there were multiple Laughing Sphinxes and two different people found them and thought they were Karr.

To the Post-War '40s