Star-Spangled Gamesmanship!

Love this Tales of Suspense cover showcasing an iconic Jack Kirby and Sol Brodsky Captain America figure. This story is the climax of the Sleeper trilogy  which served as a kind of bridge story moving Cap's adventures from the  World War II era into the modern. It was one of those outstanding Marvel Comics heroes cartoons. Get a look at it here.

This ad from Milton Bradley for a Captain America game makes good use of that classic Cap pose. Sprinkled around are images of game cards featuring Goliath, Wasp, Bucky, Spider-Man, Thor, Iron Man, and Marvel Girl. There's also a drawing of the box for the game, an approximate image with a Kirby feel to it.

Here's the actual box, showing a Captain America who seems smooth and slick and not much like Kirby's cap. I'm guessing Joe Sinnott might've had something to do with  it.

And here is the gameboard, a vivid yellow play space.

This game board, despite it lively color is filled with some rather random elements. In addition to valid Cap characters such as Bucky and Baron Zemo, we are given some Avengers such as Wasp, Giant-Man and Thor. Spidey is included for no particular reason, as well as X-Men baddie Lucifer and Thor's Loki and Cobra. The odd parts are the inclusion prominently of Iron Man foe The Mandarin and the Thor enemy The Destroyer. And I don't know what the "Sky Spider" is.

Clearly it appears that the makers of the game had been given access to some Marvel comics, but not necessarily just Cap comics. But it all seems in good fun.

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