Not like most Marvel Comics heroes, Cap and Bucky have been created contemporaneously with the older DC heroes. Their dynamic feels particularly harking back to Batman and Robin, the latter of whom had debuted months earlier than “Captain America Comics” #1. A lot of the main DC heroes even have their very own Robin equal: Child Flash, Surprise Woman, Aqualad, Speedy, and so on. Few of the Marvel heroes do, although, as a result of Lee by no means grasped what made a child sidekick a good suggestion.
Within the 1974 guide “The Origins of Marvel Comics,” Lee wrote: “One in all my many pet peeves has all the time been the younger teenage sidekick of the typical superhero. As soon as once more, if yours really have been a superhero, there isn’t any method I would pal round with some freckle-faced teenager. On the very least, folks would begin to speak.”
That final half is not unfounded: Batman and Robin got here underneath fireplace within the Nineteen Fifties for supposedly selling homosexuality to youngsters. As for why Bucky died violently and pointlessly, that is Lee underscoring the hazard a baby can be in the event that they tried preventing crime; it isn’t simply foolish for superheroes to accomplice up with youngsters, it might be irresponsible.
Regardless of Lee’s protestations, there was a sidekick in a few of his early Marvel Comics: Rick Jones. Launched in “The Unimaginable Hulk” #1, Rick was a younger runaway and somebody for the Hulk to bounce off of. He later united the Avengers with an SOS sign when the Hulk was in bother. In together with Rick, it is clear Lee did perceive why superhero tales had sidekicks: The children have been there to provide the younger readers a personality through which to see themselves, and somebody the primary lead may speak to. If Batman is Sherlock Holmes, Robin is Watson (and Commissioner Gordon is Inspector Lestrade).
The distinction is that Rick Jones not often received concerned in precise battles and did not have a twin identification. In “Captain America” #110, Rick briefly dressed up in Bucky’s previous costume, however Steve determined this wasn’t a good suggestion. When Cap did get a brand new accomplice, it was the Falcon, who was a grown man and equal.
The better frailty and complexity of Marvel’s heroes is commonly described (together with by well-known figures like George R.R. Martin) as Lee’s best innovation to the superhero components. That is exemplified in Spider-Man, a young person who himself was a superhero somewhat than the loyal assistant to 1. The closest prior comparability can be Captain Marvel, a baby who turned an grownup hero by saying the magic phrase “Shazam!” However even that runs on the concept that youngsters would solely reply to an ideal grownup hero; Captain Marvel subsequent to Spider-Man is the distinction between an influence fantasy and seeing your actual struggles mirrored again at you.
Equally, although Johnny Storm all the time behaved like a bit child brother, he was nonetheless an equal member of the Implausible 4. Although led by Professor X, the X-Males too have been teenage heroes in Spider-Man’s vein, and, like him, ostracized from society, reflecting the sentiments of actual ’60s youngsters way more than plucky Bucky.