87. Captain America vs. Red Skull (T.O.S #80 vol 1)
The Red Skull, Captain America’s greatest enemy, returns from seeming death as well in the 1960s in the pages of Tales of Suspense #79-81, which is also the first appearance of the Cosmic Cube.
The Cosmic Cube gives the bearer of the cube basically absolute power, and the Red Skull possesses the Cube (for the first of a few times he’s handled the item).
Stan Lee and Jack Kirby tell the tale demonstrating just how heroic Cap is (and this is early Silver Age Cap, too!) that he is able to take on a villain with absolute power and still beat him!
A lot of that comes from the fact that Captain America just does not know how to quit - even though the Skull out-powers him tremendously, Cap keeps at it, and eventually he causes the Skull to doubt himself long enough for Cap to separate the Skull from the Cube, saving the day (and really, the whole world!).
It was one of the earliest classic storyline for Captain America - you could really tell how much affection Kirby had for his co-creation in this tale.
Most of the tale is Cap trying to keep Skull from getting the Cube, but when the Skull gets the Cube finally, the disorientation of the great power is the best asset Cap has, which is how Cap is able to trick the Skull long enough to knock the cube from the Skull’s hand (the battle takes place on Red Skull’s own island!).
Okay, yeah, there really should have been no way for Cap to last this long with a Cosmic Cube-holding Skull, but darnit, it was still awesome!
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