Young Allies Comics Primer
Series Overview
Okay, where to even start with Young Allies Comics? Well it paired Bucky and the Toro together with a bunch of other kids of various backgrounds and ethnicities and they fought everything from Nazi spies, Japanese invaders, and living mummies. What’s really problematic with the series, particularly by the standards of today, is the depiction of the other members of the Young Allies. Each character represents a stereotype more offensive than the last. You had Jeff Vandergill the wealthy nerd, Tubby Tinkle the fat kid, Knuckles O’Toole the poor kid from the Bronx, and Whitewash Jones the minstrel show caricature. Whitewash Jones was even introduced as playing a mean harmonica and an even meaner watermelon. We’re talking some pretty ignorant shit. So who created the Young Allies? STAN LEE AND JACK KIRBY. Yeah, that Stan Lee and Jack Kirby. The two guys responsible for creating some of the most iconic superheroes also created one of the most racist characters. To be fair, the character wasn’t created out of hate, just blatant ignorance. It doesn’t excuse it, but let’s not mince words on what it is.
The series were mostly centered around the Young Allies with the occasional filler story featuring Father Time and the Vagabond but they were short lived. The series featured book length Young Allies stories for the most part until issue #7 when the character Tommy Tyme became a back-up feature. Tommy Tyme was a school hating kid from the Lower East Side who had a magic pocket watch that could send him through time.
So is this stuff part of continuity?
Yes-ish. During Marvel’s 70th anniversary they revived the Young Allies and the writers had to work around the more problematic parts of the series. To this end in Young Allies Comics 70th Anniversary Special and the Captain America: Forever Allies limited series it was explained that the Young Allies weren’t kids on wacky adventures but actual soldiers that were of enlistment age that went on covert missions. Like Bucky the Young Allies were an American response to the Hitler Youth. To make them role models to young children, the United States military commissioned Timely Comics to create Young Allies comic books. While the stories were based on true events, the details were often changed for national security and to be kid friendly. So based on all that the issues of Young Allies Comics are kind of part of continuity but all of the facts might not be correct. There are connections with these stories and the rest of the Timely comics superhero run. The Black Talon and the Red Skull for example both appeared in the pages of Captain America Comics and later made appearances in this series, often the stories in the Young Allies Comics continued from the plots started in Captain America Comics. Also appearing in this series was the Python, a villain who fought both the Human Torch and the Angel.
Even the Tommy Tyme stuff is apparently considered part of continuity. Mostly because the Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe A-Z #7 entry on Merlin the Magician attributes his first appearance to Young Allies Comics #11, that appearance was in a Tommy Tyme story, so there you go.
There are still some retcons though
That said there are still some soft retcons since this series primarily features Bucky. Per What If? #4, Bucky went missing in action in 1945 and was replaced by Fred Davis. As such, Fred Davis takes over as Bucky in Young Allies Comics #18.
Index scope
Like many Timely books this series had a number of back-up stories, text stories, and funnies. Those stories are not indexed here because they’re awful and have no value to continuity.
