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Appearing in "The Spoils of War!"

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Synopsis for "The Spoils of War!"

Baron Strucker realises that the course of the war is turning against Germany. He has been using the Red Skull's funds to conduct research into preservation of life through suspended animation, but the Skull has been aware of this and orders Strucker to send him samples of his findings. Strucker tells his aide Franz to prepare for a special mission.

Namor the Sub-Mariner attacks a German U-Boat and discovers a signal to rendezvous with "the Dragon" at a secret location. Before he can be questioned, the U-Boat captain commits suicide using a ring with a design of a tentacled skull. The Human Torch attempts to intercept Strucker and Franz who are in a jet-powered flying wing, but they evade him by engaging the craft's after-burner to travel at supersonic speed, and seemingly fly into the mouth of a giant sea-monster south of Alaska. Back on the home front, Captain America raids a meeting of Nazi spies whose papers also make reference to a dragon.

Meanwhile, Bob (the Whizzer) Frank and Will Fitzpatrick of Army Intelligence have been interviewing WAVES Ensign Betty Dean, Professor Horton and General Phillips on the Sub-Mariner, the Human Torch and Captain America. The three heroes are summoned to Washington where they are told of Baron Strucker's Hydra organisation, which is trying to obtain Manhattan Project secrets and has recently stolen a Japanese-built "Dragon of Death", a huge mobile underwater base.

Aboard the Dragon, the failure of his agents is reported to Strucker. Though irritated, he is confident of eventual success and takes from his desk copies of books from the future that have revealed to him how the war will end and the dawn of the atomic age.

Notes

  • The Whizzer's entry in Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe A to Z #13 states this story takes place in February 1945.
  • Frank and Fitzpatrick's interviews give an opportunity to recapitulate the origins of the Human Torch, the Sub-Mariner and Captain America, originally told in Marvel Comics #1, Motion Picture Funnies Weekly #1 and Captain America Comics #1 respectively, and retold many times since.
  • Fitzpatrick says that "Strucker got on Hitler's bad side a couple of years ago, and fled Europe to establish a new power base for himself in the East" but "over the past year, [he] managed to worm his way back into Hitler's good graces". Strucker was out of favour in Berlin after refusing a direct order to massacre the population of Cherbeaux in Sgt. Fury #2829, but Fury #1 gives a date of 1944 for those events.
  • Fitzpatrick relates how Hydra Island was discovered fifteen months ago, and a Marine unit sent to investigate, resulting in the island's near-destruction. This was in Capt. Savage and his Leatherneck Raiders #24.
  • Captain America mentions how he and Bucky helped capture the Dragon "nearly three years ago". This was in Captain America Comics #5, published August 1941.

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