06/18/2026
Unlocking a forgotten piece of 1982 Marvel history! This is Captain America #269, featuring the first appearance of Team America. This crew of professional stunt riders shared a psychic link that let them summon a mysterious driver named the Marauder. Marvel gave them a solo series right after this, but it only lasted a year. Absolute peak 80s comic book weirdness!
Team America was a short-lived, quirky Marvel Comics team of superhero stunt motorcyclists that starred in their own 12-issue series from 1982 to 1983. If you think they sound like a bizarre mashup of Evel Knievel, G.I. Joe, and Ghost Rider, you are spot on!The team was originally created as a promotional tie-in for a toy line by the Ideal Toy Company.
Ideal wanted to replace their popular Evel Knievel toys after the real-life stuntman ran into legal trouble. Hoping to copy the massive success of Hasbro’s G.I. Joe comic, Ideal hired Marvel to build a backstory for their toy motorcycles. Marvel writers Jim Shooter and Ed Hannigan debuted the group in Captain America #269 before launching their standalone book.
I might just have to try to hunt down this 12 issue series.
Thanks for reading. Peace Out.