Appearing in "The Spoils of War!"
Featured Characters:
- Invaders (Main story and flashback)
- ⏴ Sub-Mariner (Namor McKenzie) ⏵ (Main story and flashback)
- ⏴ Captain America (Steve Rogers) ⏵ (Main story and flashback)
- ⏴ Human Torch (Jim Hammond) ⏵ (Main story and flashback)
Supporting Characters:
- United States Navy
- ⏴ Betty Dean ⏵ (Main story and recap)
- Will Fitzpatrick ⏵ (First appearance chronologically)
- ⏴ Robert Frank ⏵
- ⏴ Phineas T. Horton ⏵ (Main story and recap)
- United States Army (Main story and recap)
- ⏴ Gen. Chester Phillips (Main story and recap)
Antagonists:
- Axis (Main story and flashback)
- Nazi Germany (Main story and flashback)
- Franz ⏵ (First appearance)
- ⏴ Red Skull (Johann Schmidt) ⏵
- Several unnamed members
- Nazi Germany (Main story and flashback)
- Hydra (Main story and recap)
- ⏴ Baron Wolfgang von Strucker ⏵ (Main story and recap)
- Courier R-7 ⏵ (First appearance)
- Several unnamed agents
Other Characters:
- Adolf Hitler (Mentioned)
- Invaders (Only in flashback)
- ⏴ Toro (Tom Raymond) ⏵ (Only in flashback)
- ⏴ Bucky (James Barnes) ⏵ (Only in flashback)
- ⏴ Union Jack (Brian Falsworth) ⏵ (Only in flashback)
- ⏴ Spitfire (Jacqueline Falsworth) ⏵ (Only in flashback)
- Fen (Only in recap)
- Captain Leonard McKenzie (Only in recap) (Unnamed)
- King Thakorr (Only in recap)
- NYPD (Only in recap)
- God (Yahweh) (Mentioned)
- FBI Agent McCloskey
- United States Army (Only in recap)
- Operation: Rebirth (Only in recap)
- Dr. Abraham Erskine (Death in recap)
- Under-Secretary Simms (Only in recap)
- Agent X-13 (Shadow in recap)
- Operation: Rebirth (Only in recap)
- Nazis (Only in recap)
- Heinz Kruger (Death in recap)
- Leatherneck Raiders (Only in recap)
- Captain Simon Savage (Only in recap)
- Imperial Japan (Only in recap)
- Manhattan Project (Mentioned)
Races and Species:
- Atlantean-Human Hybrids (Main story and flashback)
- Humans (Main story and flashback)
- Androids (Main story and flashback)
- Human-Inhuman Hybrids (Only in flashback)
- Atlanteans (Only in recap)
Locations:
- Earth (Main story and flashback)
- Atlantic Ocean (Only in flashback)
- Europe (Only in flashback)
- United Kingdom (Only in flashback)
- England (Only in flashback)
- Southampton (Only in flashback)
- Birmingham (Only in flashback)
- England (Only in flashback)
- Germany
- Spain (Referenced)
- United Kingdom (Only in flashback)
- Antarctica (Only in recap)
- Atlantis (Destruction in recap)
- North America (Main story and recap)
- United States of America (Main story and recap)
- New York (Only in recap)
- New York City (Only in recap)
- Manhattan (Only in recap)
- Upper New York Bay (Only in recap)
- Midtown (Only in recap)
- Empire State Building (Only in recap)
- Brooklyn (Only in recap)
- Manhattan (Only in recap)
- New York City (Only in recap)
- Baltimore
- Washington, D.C. (Main story and recap)
- Alaska (Mentioned)
- New York (Only in recap)
- United States of America (Main story and recap)
- Pacific Ocean (Main story and recap)
- Banda Sea (Only in recap)
- Hydra Island (Only in recap)
- Banda Sea (Only in recap)
- Algiers (Mentioned)
- Australia (Mentioned)
- Japan, Asia (Mentioned)
Items:
- Captain America's Uniform and Shield (Main story and flashback)
- Super-Soldier Serum (Only in recap)
- Captain America's Triangular Shield (Only in recap)
Vehicles:
- German battleship Deutschland (First appearance) (Only in flashback)
- German battleship Bismarck (Mentioned)
- German submarine U-62
- Icebreaker Oracle (Only in recap)
- Captain America's Motorcycle
- ⏴ Dragon of Death ⏵
Events:
- World War II (Main story and flashback)
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 #28–29, 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 #2–4.
- 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.