Beschreibung:

AVENGERS No. 4 Author: Place: Publisher: Date: Description: Marvel. March, 1964. CGC certified: Fine/VF (7.0). Cover pencils by Jack Kirby inks by George Roussos. Script by Stan Lee. Art by Kirby with Roussos inks. First modern appearances of Captain America and Bucky. Sub-Mariner wanders the frozen north lamenting his lost kingdom, a victim of postwar displacement. He encounters an Inuit tribe worshipping a "figure frozen within a cake of ice." Outraged by this apostasy, he hurls their tribal totem into the sea, "where the rock-hard outer ice sheathe begins to slowly melt." The tribe scatters, their flight echoing Sub-Mariner's own exile. Sub-Mariner succumbs to a sudden bout of self-loathing ("Is THIS all my strength is good for?? To lash out at uncomprehending Eskimos??"). Meanwhile, the Avengers, pursuing Sub-Mariner, retrieve the frozen figure. Giant-Man strokes his massive chin. "Who can he BE? Why is he frozen solid?" Thor leans in and says, "LOOK! Beneath his tattered clothes—some sort of colorful COSTUME!" Iron Man's immobile grille somehow registers shock as the winsome Wasp exclaims: "WAIT! Don't you RECOGNIZE it?? It's the famous red, white and blue garb of—CAPTAIN AMERICA!" Captain America was one of the titans of the WWII comics boom, with wartime sales of close to a million copies per issue. But after the war ended, Cap's adventures no longer resonated with the public and he was mothballed along with Timely-Marvel's other heroes. When Marvel rocketed to success by retooling the superhero concept in the early 1960s, Stan Lee and Jack Kirby decided it was time to resurrect the star-spangled hero. After all, America had a handsome young leader in President Kennedy and the national mood was bright—the moment seemed auspicious to revive the patriotic hero. Cap's debut was slated for Avengers #4, and Kirby, a Democrat who had drawn Kennedy in early Marvel Comics, rendered Cap's alter ego Steve Rogers with a Kennedyesque cast throughout. And then, on November 22, 1963, tragedy struck. Sean Howe relates the events in Marvel Comics: The Untold Story: "Captain America picked a particularly disconcerting moment in history to reemerge. Avengers #4 was still in production on November 22, when news came that President Kennedy had been shot. 'We were coming back from lunch, and people were listening to their car radios with the doors open,' [Stan Lee's assistant] Flo Steinberg said. 'We didn't have a television in the office, so everyone just sort of gravitated to a big room and sat around listening to the radio until they announced that he had died. We all left... just wandered.' "Everyone, that is, but Stan Lee. 'He was still working on the comic books,' noted Mario Puzo [who worked for publisher Martin Goodman at the time]. 'Like that was the most important thing in the world.'" Lee and Kirby were both "devastated" by Kennedy's death, according to Ronan Ro's Tales to Astonish: Jack Kirby Stan Lee, and the American Comic Book Revolution. The timing of Kennedy's death, as Stan and Jack were applying the finishing touches to Avengers #4, makes it likely that the elegiac tone of Stan's words was a direct response to the tragedy. Consider a policeman's tearful soliloquy upon meeting the newly-risen Cap: "All these years—all of us—your fans—all your admirers—we thought you were dead! But you've come back—just when the world has need of such a man—just like fate planned it this way! Forgive me, Cap, willya? I—I seem to have something in my eye!" A limited edition of 100 softcover and 15 hardcover catalogues are available. Over 200 pages, fully illustrated. Fun reference, great keepsake. Softcovers $40, dust-jacketed hardcover with limitation plate $200. To order, contact ivan@pbagalleries.com or visit: https://www.pbagalleries.com/content/comics/. R. Crumb says, "I found [PBA's catalogue] so interesting that I am saving it for the texts that accompany the comics which were put up for auction. This is some of the best commentary