The First Avenger: Captain America – The Howling Commandos Are In and How The Film Ties To IRON MAN 2


According to Kevin Feige, President of Marvel Studios – The Howling Commandos will appear in the Joe Johnston directed, The First Avenger: Captain America starring Chris Evans….but they may not be specifically called The Howling Commandos.

According to Devin over at CHUD.

“‘The characters will be there as part of the larger Marvel Universe,’ Feige told me. One character he would confirm was Gabe Jones, a black guy known for carrying his trumpet into battle.”

So, who are The Howling Commandos?

The first group of Howling Commandos was an elite special unit formed in World War II. The original team consisted of Nick Fury, Corporal Thaddeus Aloysius Cadwallander “Dum Dum” Dugan, Private Gabriel Jones, Private Robert “Rebel” Ralston, Private Dino Manelli, Private Isadore “Izzy” Cohen and Private Jonathan “Junior” Juniper who was killed in action after the first few issues. He was replaced by Private Percival “Pinky” Pinkerton, a British soldier, in issue #8. Later, Private Eric Koenig, a defector from Nazi Germany, joined the squad in issue #27. Occasional other members would join for an issue or two before being killed, transferred, or otherwise leaving (such as Fred Jones in issue #81). Also daringly for the time, the series killed Fury’s girlfriend, British nurse Pamela Hawley, introduced in issue #4 and killed in a London air raid in #18.

In other Captain America news…

Iron Man 2 director Jon Favreau recently revealed to the LA Times that the history of the Stark Expo will be present in the other Marvel films:

“It does figure in to the other films because in the Captain America movie you’re going to see the early one, which I think is a lot of fun. They’re going to have a reference to Tony’s father, Howard Stark, played by John Slattery, and his earlier Expo. But I don’t want to say more than that.”

“The Expo dates back to the 1930s, but the last one was in 1974 when Tony’s father was still alive and Tony was just a kid. Now Tony is reintroducing this concept of the Expo at the start of the film and it’s presented a part of peace dividend — now that Iron Man is keeping the world ‘safer,’ this is Tony’s way of turning guns to butter and changing the conversation about the future.”

The First Avenger: Captain America is slated to hit theaters on July 22, 2011.


Jason Moore
Written by Jason Moore

is a member of the Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror Films and the Founder/Editor In Chief of SciFi Mafia®