Tales of Suspense #66
If I Fall, a World is Lost!
Tony Stark is visited at his office by Senator Harrington Byrd, who has come to see a demonstration of a new one-man submarine developed by Stark Industries. Growing tired of always being sidelined and wanting to impress Pepper Potts, Happy Hogan asks to pilot the submarine. Tony denies this request, saying that Iron Man will do the job instead. This annoys Happy enough that he quits on the spot and storms out.[1] Tony wants to go after him, but Harrington Byrd — who already has a poor opinion of Stark — insists that they go on with the demonstration.
Later, the Senator and military officials meet with Iron Man at the submarine launch site. Iron Man then takes the submarine underwater. There he spots two Atlantean warriors lurking around. When they attack him, Iron Man bails out of the sub and follows them back to a massive cannon that is being constructed by the Atlantean warlord known as Attuma.[2] He overhears Attuma telling his troops what the massive cannon intends to do. The weapon is constructed out of Natilum and will fire shells onto the surface that will change the moisture in the air so that Attuma and his warriors can breathe on the surface. With humanity unable to breathe without special helmets, Attuma intends to enslave the human race.
Iron Man’s cover is soon blown when he is spotted by a scouting party. Their attack also alerts Attuma to his presence and the warrior orders his men to destroy the intruder. Iron Man easily destroys their weapons. Battling Attuma one-on-one, Iron Man is led to believe his foe is fleeing the scene. In reality, Attuma is luring him into a trap and traps Iron Man in a cell closed off with radioactive bars. With his oxygen supply running low, Iron Man frees himself by reflecting the radiation off the lens of his chest spotlight, causing it to melt the bars. Iron Man then rushes back to the submarine before he runs out of air. With no other choice, Iron Man sends the sub on a collision course of Attuma’s weapon, destroying both.
When Iron Man returns to the surface without the submarine, he realizes nobody would believe his story and tells Byrd he doesn’t know why the sub exploded. That’s when Pepper arrives on the scene and tells Iron Man that Happy has left and she can’t find him anywhere.
Recurring Characters
Iron Man, Attuma, Happy Hogan, Pepper Potts, Harrington Byrd
Continuity Notes
Happy recounts how he got his job working for Tony Stark. He did so after saving Tony from a burning car wreck in Tales of Suspense #45.
Tony recalls how Giant-Man recently battled Attuma. This happened in Tales to Astonish #64.
The Fantastic Origin of the Red Skull!
Learning that John Maxon was not the real Red Skull, Captain America has come looking for the real Skull in Europe.[1] He gets more than he bargained for, as Captain America has just been captured and is now a prisoner of the Red Skull.
Before he kills his foe, the Red Skull decides to tell Captain America his life story. The Skull tells Captain Ameria that he was an orphan who was forced to steal in order to survive. However, he was small and weak and other orphans regularly beat him up and took the food he stole for himself. As an adult, the Red Skull regularly found himself arrested for vagrancy and on the nights he wasn’t in jail, he’d have to sleep in barns and stables to keep warm. Any work he did get was grueling manual labor.[2]
Captain America interrupts the Skull’s story to mock the Skull’s sob story, saying that his life before becoming Captain America wasn’t easy either.[3] The Skull throttles Cap, warning him not to interrupt and then continues his tale.
During the rise of Nazism in Germany, the man who became the Red Skull came to like the Nazis for rounding up undesirables. By this time, the Skull was working as a bellhop. One day, he was tending to a room occupied by Adolf Hitler himself. Entering the room, the Skull overheard Hitler scolding his minions for not following orders. He mocks them, saying that even a lowly bellhop could do their jobs better. That’s when Hitler noticed the evil in the young man’s eyes and decided to train him to be his perfect Nazi. At first, Hilter left the Skull’s training to his subordinates until he discovered they were merely training him to be a regular SS officer. Hitler insisted that his new acolyte had to be more and took over his training. Hitler then gave his new minion his costume with its trademark red skull mask, and thus the Red Skull was born.[4]
Captain America interrupts the story again to try and escape but is quickly subdued by the Skull again. Once Cap is under control, the Red Skull concludes his story…
Once Hitler’s training was complete, the Red Skull used his skills to aid the Nazi cause. However, the Skull had aspirations to be second only to Hitler himself and began making his superiors disappear one by one. He soon formed his loyal Wolf Pack squadron which was instrumental in helping capture Captain America.
With the story over, Captain America tries attacking the Red Skull one more time. However, this time begins entering a trance-like state as a mind-control drug he had been injected with has finally taken effect. Testing how effective this drug is, the Red Skull commands Captain America to salute to Hitler. When Captain America does this, the Skull is convinced and then gives his new slave his orders: He is to eliminate the supreme commander of the Allied Forces.
Recurring Characters
Captain America, Red Skull, Adolf Hitler (flashback)
Continuity Notes
George/John Maxon was an American operative that posed as the Red Skull stateside. Captain America faced him last issue/Captain America Comics #1. Maxon later died in another clash with Captain America in Captain America Comics #3.
There are conflicting accounts that expand upon the Red Skull’s childhood.
In Captain Ameria #298, the Red Skull states that he was born in 1899 to Herman m and Martha Schmidt. Martha died during childbirth and Hermann committed suicide a day after in grief over his wife. One of his employers as a young man was apparently a Jewish shopkeeper. and falling in love with his daughter At the time he told this account, the Red Skull was rapidly aging and was believed to be dying, putting this account into question.
in Red Skull #1-2, it is stated that the Red Skull was born in 1914. While the identity of his parents is unrevealed, he was orphaned when his mother died giving birth to him. He lived in an orphanage for a time until about 1923 when he started living on the streets. This account also involves him working for a Jewish shopkeeper and his daughter as well. It is also revealed that Schmidt also enjoyed torturing animals in his childhood. His coming of age occurred on the backdrop of the Nazi’s rise to power.
Captain America also brings up his own rough upbringing. Steve Rogers was the son of Joseph and Sarah Rogers, two very poor Irish immigrants who started their family during the Great Depression, per Captain America (vol. 7) #2. Per Captain America #255. his father died of influenza and his mother died of pneumonia, leaving Steve orphaned by the time he was in his teens. Steve lived in poverty himself until he attempted to join the military and ended up as part of Operation Rebirth. See Captain America #176, 255, (vol. 5) #25, 27, (vol. 6) #19, Captain America: Sentinel of Liberty #7, Marvel Super-Heroes (vol. 3) #3, Marvels Project #4.
Red Skull #3-5 reveals that Schmidt was actually a killer for hire in 1933. He later joined the Brownshirts but was beaten and abused by higher-ranking members of the SS. It is revealed here that he didn’t actually work as a bellhop at the Hansenblauer hotel. In reality, he was posing as a bellhop as part of his friend Dieter Lehmann’s plot to assassinate Hitler. At the moment of truth, Schmidt betrayed his friend and saved Hitler’s life. This is what inspired Hitler to make Johann the Red Skull. This happened in 1934.
