Captain America Comics #6 (1941)
by Stan Lee & Al Avison
cover by Jack Kirby
Sadly we’re not here for Captain America…
No, it’s the far lesser known Father Time.
According to the first page, Father Time is a “famous character” created by Joe Simon & Jack Kirby. Stan Lee is only given the credit as “narrator”.
This is baffling, since A) this is the first Father Time story B) he’ll never be famous.
It’s possible Simon & Kirby created the character, but I’ve never seen any of them ever try to be recognized as Father Time’s creators.
Possibly because… well, he kind of sucks.
We begin with a guy being unjustly convicted of murder.
He’s telling the truth, by the way: his son Larry finds the actual murderer, but he’s knocked out.
This is going on just minutes before his father will be executed.
But he DOES manage to break free from his restrains…
…and in surprisingly tense scene, he does his best to provide the proof of his father’s innocence before the execution.
Man, Golden Age stories can be a real gut punch.
Larry fixates on the fact that, if only he had a little more time, he would’ve saved his father.
And now the world will learn to fear and respect Father Time.
CLICK FOR SPOILER
No it won’t.
Father Time then crashes into the criminal’s lair.
Father Time, your mask needs some work. Either go with a full one or the classic domino one, you look ridiculous with that nose hole!
Since he wields a scythe, Father Time fights by having other people run straight into it.
And to trap his enemies.
He also leaves his calling card, which is confusing.
In future stories, he will simply draw a clock on the wall, but here… is he hitting a clock that’s already there? He’s drawing a more complex clock? I have no idea.
And that’s the end.
Historical significance: 0 / 
Almost forgotten by time.
Silver Age-ness: 0 /
Not really.
Does it stand the test of time? 5 /
Father Time himself is extremely lame, but his story isn’t that bad. Considering the artwork is nothing special, it still has enough storytelling to be able to really sell the tension of that run against the clock.
How close is this to the modern character? What modern character?
Father Time appears in 7 issues of Captain America Comics.
Special mention by #8 where his costume is tweaked to be much, MUCH worse.
He drops the pointy shoes, but inexplicably this is his definitive look.
His only other two Golden Age appearances are Young Allies Comics #3 and Mystic Comics #10.
Aside from showing up in group shots representing Golden Age heroes, he hasn’t appeared in anything and we don’t know what happened to him.
The closest thing to Marvel using the character is Captain America #383, which is Cap’s 50th anniversary.
It’s a story Captain America meets various figures from American legends and folklore (John Appleseed, Paul Bunyan, John Henry, Uncle Sam) where a guy calling himself Father Time wants to collect Cap as a one of those legends.
But after he’s defeated, he resets time so that it was actually Hawkeye in disguise who only wanted to distract Captain America while the Avengers were preparing a party for his birthday.
My recap doesn’t give it justice, but it’s a good story.
That specific Father Time will eventually be retconned into being one of the Elders Of The Universe.
Considering Captain America never acknowledges that either the bad guy or Hawkeye are using the name of a hero from the Golden Age, and considering he’s only had extremely minor cameos… I kind of wonder if the original Father Time is not part of continuity anymore.
Not a huge loss if true.
What else was in the book? Unsurprisingly, a lot of Captain America.
In the modern reprint of Golden Age comics, this disclaimer shows up A LOT.
As if you couldn’t tell, the first story is by Simon& Kirby.
Man Kirby really liked the idea of a team of kids going around solving crimes, didn’t he?
You know, I’m actually glad Jack Kirby left Timely Comics (the predecessor to Marvel) to go work for DC in the Golden Age.
Not only because we got some interesting stories, but because we were THIS close to him introducing the Newsboy Legion at Marvel.
I’m going to assume the second story is the reason for the disclaimer.
Yep.
Somehow I suspect this is not actual Chinese.
America isn’t even at war with Japan yet and the comics are already THIS racist (against the Chinese in this specific case).
I am not looking forward for the war-era comics.
The third Captain America story is a murder mystery where the killer turns out to be a Nazi collaborator in a half-assed Red Skull cosplay, The Hangman.
Then there’s a prose story by Stan Lee, with just a Kirby illustration.
And finally there’s “Headline Hunter”. He debuted in the previous issue, and he’s sometimes credited to being the first published character created by Stan Lee.
Which would be neat but that’s incorrect: but Captain America #5 and USA Comics #1 (the first appearance of Jack Frost) share a cover date of August 1941, but the Jack Frost story had a release date of April while Headline Hunter had a release date of May.
And finally we have a Hurricane story.
