All this talk about Captain America and his creators Jack Kirby and Joe Simon lit my fire to once again savor those classic Golden Age tales of the raucous Steve Rogers and his sidekick Bucky Barnes kicking the crap out of Nazis and other assorted hate-mongers across the World War II globe. For any fool to conflate the patriotic colors which adorn Cap's costume with the vile slagheap words and murderous actions of Adolph Hitler is the height of absurdity. These comics are not without philosophical flaw, but loving the race-baiting Jew-hating rhetoric of the Third Reich was not among them. Many will find fault with some ethnic presentations, typical in the heat of the day but egregious now for sure. But even so no one can say that these two men -- Kirby and Simon -- had anything good to suggest about history's most famous mass murderer. To suggest otherwise, either by direct comment or implication when manufacturing symbols, is the kind of thing which must be called out and rejected out of hand.
This is some fine reading from a time not as long ago as we sometimes think. As these days fall from living memory we need to more than ever make certain that the ideas of madmen like Hitler and his cronies find no purchase in a country dedicated to the equality of all men and women. There's no space for saying otherwise and anyone who does properly deserves a clock on the chin, as Cap so eloquently demonstrated on his very first comic book cover appearance. As Bucky says in just the second of two word balloons to appear on these ten covers by the Simon and Kirby team -- "Nice Work Cap!"
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