Here is the latest in our year-long look at one cool comic (whether it be a self-contained work, an ongoing comic or a run on a long-running title that featured multiple creative teams on it over the years) a day (in no particular order whatsoever)! Here's the archive of the comics posted so far!

Today we look at a nifty two-parter by Stan Lee, Jack Kirby, Dick Ayers and John Romita from Tales of Suspense #75-76 starring Captain America, in a tale that introduced both Batroc the Leaper AND Sharon Carter!! I think I'm going to go with "The Gladiator, the Girl and the Glory" as the name of the story (that's technically only the name of the second part, but since the full story needs a name, that's what I'm going with).

Enjoy!

First off, in part one (Jack Kirby layouts and Dick Ayers finishes), check out this brilliantly ominous start with the mysterious bad guys...

Pretty sweet opener, huh?

After some stuff to wrap up the plot from the previous issue, we see Cap on the street and he encounters a strangely familiar woman...

You gotta love that Stan Lee pathos!!!

Of course, now we get to see the intro of...BATROC!!!

Oh baby, Batroc is awesome. And, of course, some more pathos (the deal is that Sharon's older sister dated Cap during World War II).

And then...MORE BATROC!!!

How freakin' awesome is Batroc?!?! What a great creation!! Besides the nonchalant way that he fights Cap (already making him a lot different than most villains), he then TEAMS UP WITH CAP! How cool of a character is that?!?! That's fairly novel NOW, but in 1966, that was practically unheard of!!

So that sets up part two wonderfully, which has John Romita artwork...

I'll leave you here. There are a lot more twists and turns to come, but I don't want to spoil them.

Still, two great intros in ONE story! While having great artwork and a fun plot! Plus an Iron Man story in the same issue with Gene Colan artwork! Fans had everything back then!