In the aftermath of his battle against Red Skull, the Captain America half of these Tales of Suspense issues begins with a little bit of a “dig” against the character Captain America splits this book with (Iron Man).
When Jarvis offers to “draw him a bath” and Cap basically says that baths are for rich folk and he’d rather stand and shower. Rich folk like Tony Stark, who hired Jarvis.
He then has a very vivid flashback of a World War II adventure that causes him to faint.
Jarvis has a very strong back. Cap is troubled by his loss of consciousness.
He uses negative self-talk and shame to try to snap out of it.
It doesn’t work. Cap faints a lot in this story.
While Cap is unconscious, a new android called Adaptoid sneaks into Avengers Mansion and steals Cap’s identity.
We’ve seen recent issues of The Avengers where the mansion had terrific defenses. There’s no explanation for how the robot gets in so easily.
And speaking of getting in easily, in issue #83 Tumbler crashes through Avengers Mansion’s window, meets up with the imposter version of Cap, and loses a fight to him.
This is the first appearance of Tumbler, a villain so important he didn’t even make it to the cover of the issue.
Tumbler gets the shield, but during the fight–rather quickly–the real Cap wakes up and captures both Tumbler and fake Cap.
Then, Adaptoid wakes up as the cliffhanger, and attacks next issue.
Adaptoid defeats Cap, wonders what’s next for itself, and throws Cap in the East River.
And, on the letters page…
Marvin Wolfman writes in!