The Red Skull

The Red Skull has returned and his first order of business is to eliminate his minions who failed on their previous mission. The Skull decides to take up using Chopin's "Funeral March" as a signature for his murders. When the story hits the press, Steve Rogers and James Barnes wonder who would be responsible for the killings as they believe that the Red Skull is dead.

Returning to Camp Lehigh, they are late for dress rehearsals for a camp run play about the 1890's. Getting into costume with Betty Ross, Steve and Bucky are shocked to see when the conductor -- Captain Craig -- suddenly drops dead while the Funeral March is playing. Sneaking away Steve and James change into Captain America and Bucky. Investigating the murder scene they find that Craig's baton had been poisoned. When someone up in the scaffold attempts to kill them with a sandbag, Captain America and Bucky race up and attack who they think is responsible. It turns out to be a stagehand who convinces them that their attacker had fled. As Captain America and Bucky runs off, the stagehand removes a mask revealing him to be none other than the Red Skull, who has tricked the heroes into following a dead lead.

The Red Skull then gathers his new gang and target General King, their attempt to capture King is brought to the attention to those rehearsing when they hear Chopin's March again. Changing once more into Captain America and Bucky, the two heroes manage to capture the Red Skull's gang, but the Red Skull manages to escape with King as his hostage. The Skull leaves behind another one of his calling cards: a box containing a small red skull, and a note that implicates Captain America and Bucky as accomplices in the kidnapping.

Before military personnel can capture Cap and Bucky they rush off and catch up with the Red Skull at the docks. During their fight, one of Captain America's punches knocks the Red Skull into the water and he is lost. With King free, he clears Captain America and Bucky's names and they sneak back to base to resume their civilian identities and put on the play.

Recurring Characters

Captain America, Bucky, Betsy Ross, Nazis (Red Skull), Sgt. Duffy

Continuity Notes

• Captain America and Bucky thought that the Red Skull had died in Captain America Comics #3. However, as explained in Tales of Suspense #66, Maxon was not the real Red Skull, just an operative that used his identity for a time.

Death Loads the Bases

When the owner of the Brooklyn Badgers baseball team, Bernard Riggley refuses to sell the team, the next game against the Blue Sox is ended abruptly when his star pitcher is murdered with a poison dart. Watching from the stands, Steve Rogers and James Barnes change into Captain America and Bucky to investigate. They run into a cloaked figure who calls himself the Black Toad who manages to evade capture when his gang gets the drop on the two heroes. Returning to Camp Lehigh, Steve and James are given K.P. Duty by Sgt. Duffy for returning late.

That night, Captain America and Bucky return to Riggley stadium for the next game in the hopes of capturing the Black Toad before he can kill again. When the next running pitcher refuses to participate in the next game, Captain America and Bucky agree to participate in the game in order to flush the Toad out. Sure enough, the Toad appears and attempts to sabotage the game with a bomb, but Captain America tosses it to a safe distance.

Chasing the Black Toad into the locker room, Cap and Bucky soon find themselves in the dark and accidentally jump Riggley. Turning the lights back on, Riggley is about to tell them who the Black Toad really is when he is struck with a poison dart. Clashing with the Black Toad and his minions again, Captain America manages to unmask the Toad in a one-on-one battle, revealing him to be Chuck McArthur, the Badger's manager. McArthur explains he sought to get ownership of the team because he felt that he deserved to own them after working them up to be the best team in the league. Having completely gone insane, McArthur then jumps from the stands to his death.

Recurring Characters

Captain America, Bucky, Sgt. Duffy

A Message from Captain America

Captain America relates brief biographies of the various characters who appear in the pages of his magazine: Betty Ross, Sergeant Duffy, Father Time, Jerry "Headline" Hunter, and Hurricane.

Horror Plays the Scales

Nazi agent the Fiddler has been sent to the United States to eliminate government officials who have been vocally against the Nazi regime in Europe. To this end, he sets himself up as a concert performer who has his performances broadcast. He has his henchmen take up jobs as butlers for these officials and plant explosives in their radios so that when he hits the right note on his violin, the bombs go off and slay his targets. His first victim is Senator Alvin Benson, whose death leaves the authorities stumped. However, Captain America and Bucky are also investigating the scene. After the authorities leave, the two heroes catch the "butler" retrieving a fragment of the bomb from the wreckage. When they can't get any answers from the Nazi spy they knock him out and leave before the police return.

Returning to base, Steve and James are told by Sgt. Duffy that they have been spared K.P. Duty because the regiment has been invited to a concert. At the concert, Steve is jarred by the sudden high pitch squall of the Fiddler's fiddle at the end of his show. When they exit the concert hall there is already news on the street the mysterious death of another senator. Steve and James decide to check it out in their civilian guises, pretending to pay their respects. The butler slams the door on their faces, leaving the two heroes suspicious. Curious, Steve sends Bucky base to camp and decides to see if the agency that has hired out the butlers to the recently deceased senators is hiring. When he tries to get a job he is refused, however he spies on another man getting a job after him, confirming his suspicions that the butlers have something to do with the murders. Changing into Captain America, Steve returns to Camp Lehigh and sends Bucky to keep an eye on the Fiddler while he rushes off to the home of the senator that has recently hired one of the new butlers.

Arriving at Senator Shores, Captain America barges in before the Fiddler's nightly broadcast and forces the butler to stay in the room during the performance. Sure enough, the butler confesses to the entire scheme and Cap reveals that he had already disarmed the bomb and easily knocks the butler out. Meanwhile, back at the auditorium, Bucky follows the Fiddler to his dressing room. Spotting the boy following him the Fiddler pistol whips Bucky and then begins playing his violin at a note that would kill a person. However, when it has no effect he plays higher and higher until he eventually dies from his own music just as Captain America busts in. Cap finds that Bucky survived the musical onslaught by stuffing his ears with cotton.

Returning to Camp Lehigh, Steve and James are met by Sgt. Duffy who tells the pair that Bucky has won the camp contest and has won a brand new violin. To Duffy's confusion both Steve and James faint at the mention of the instrument.

Recurring Characters

Captain America, Bucky, Sgt. Duffy

Justice Laughs Last

The cigar store owned by Solidus Scriggles is the next in a series of establishments that are being pressured by the local mob to pay protection money. When Scriggles refuses to pay up the protection fee, he is beaten up and told he better pay up the next day or else. When Harry Cane comes into the shop and helps the battered store owner, Scriggles notices his new customer resembles the hero known as Hurricane. Harry tells Scriggles that when the mobsters return they are in for a rude surprise.

Scriggles' suspicions about the strange customer turn out to be true when Hurricane uses his super-speed to rough up the returning mobsters. With "Speedy's" aid, Hurricane then pays a visit to the mobsters' leader, a man named Petro. With Speedy's help, Hurricane defeats Petro and his mob. In the fight's aftermath, Hurricane agrees to take Speedy on as his partner in his battle against crime.

Recurring Characters

Hurricane, Speedy Scriggles

Headline Hunter

Nazi spies led by a British traitor named Reginald gun down a famous American actor and frame Reginald's brother Jerry in order to turn the United States against Britain. When Jerry pleads his innocence, the story gets the attention of Headline Hunter who decides to investigate Jerry's claims. The Nazi spies, fearing that Hunter might expose their plot. Getting the drop on Hunter, they knock him out and attempt to eliminate him by throwing his body into a nearby river.

Reviving before he can drown, Hunter hitches a ride on the back of the Nazis' car back to their hideout. There he gets the jump on the Nazis and their leader, revealing him to be Reginald. As Hunter knocks out Reginald he figures out that not only did the traitor do the job for the money, but also to win his brother Jerry's inheritance of the family fortune as well.

Recurring Characters

Headline Hunter

Race Against Doom

Hal Saxon, a friend of Larry Scott, is arrested for murdering and stole the cargo aboard the Southern Princess. Larry, knowing that his friend could never do such as thing decides to sit in on the court case and listens as the prosecutions lawyer plays a recorded confession seemingly made by Hal. Meeting with Hal in his jail cell, Larry learns how Hal was tricked into saying the incriminating words by a man posing as a detective.

Seeking to find a means of clearing his friends name, Larry goes out for dinner and overhears one of the members of the jury bragging how they were paid off by the prosecution. Attacking them, he confiscates one of the gold coins that the jury member has in his possession and identifies it as a counterfeit. Larry scours the entire city and soon finds that the owner of a bank is the leader of the counterfeiters.

Following them back to their secret hideout in the country, Larry leaves them a warning that Father Time will come for them at 11 o'clock if they do not confess their crimes. Scoffing at this, the crooks continue their operation and when the 11 o'clock hour passes, Father Time tips off the police to their location, photographs them in the act but the crooks escape.

Taking the photograph to the District Attorney, Father Time is shocked when the D.A. dismisses the photo. Realizing that the D.A. is in cahoots with the crooks, he knocks him out and takes him to the crooks other hideout in clock tower. Dousing the D.A. in phosphorescent paint, Father Time forces the D.A. to pretend to be a ghost and order his cohorts to surrender to the law. Soon after, the D.A. awakens just as the police arrive and arrest all the criminals and take them into justice. Hal's name is cleared of all crime and he is released from prison and is appointed the new District Attorney by the Governor.

Recurring Characters

Father Time