When we last saw Captain America and the Falcon, near the end of last month’s post about CA #173, our heroes had seemingly been successful in their subterfuge against the sinister Secret Empire — the clandestine organization behind both Cap’s recent woes (which include first having his reputation smeared by an ad campaign, then being framed for murder) and the mysterious disappearance of multiple mutants, including several members of Cap and Falc’s newfound allies, the X-Men. We rejoin them here on page one of issue #174, as they make their descent into the proverbial belly of the beast…
The creative team of writer Steve Englehart, penciller Sal Buscema, and inker Vince Colletta proceed from here to offer a recap of previous events (via the memories of the disguised Steve “Cap” Rogers) — but since you’ve got ready access to all that material (and then some) via the hyperlink above, we’ll go ahead and skip to the end of Steve’s reverie, where we find him still fretting over the fact that he and Sam “Falc” Wilson were forced to steal a device from the Brand Corporation to prove their bona fides as potential Secret Imperials…
In both our last Captain America post and in the one preceding it, we discussed how, while writer Steve Englehart’s “Secret Empire” storyline was strongly influenced by his thoughts and feelings over the burgeoning Watergate scandal, those concerns mostly found expression indirectly; that is, through his depiction of a dishonest public relations campaign (“The Un-Selling of Captain America”), rather than through the sorts of dishonest political and government-directed activities that constituted Watergate. Given that fact, it’s perhaps not all that surprising that it’s only with this scene, placed near the beginning of the saga’s penultimate chapter — and coming just one issue after a message from Englehart has run on the book’s letters page, explaining to readers that due to his storyline having been more or less “co-opted” by current events, he intends to wrap it up a couple of episodes earlier than originally planned — that we have a character (the Secret Empire’s Number One, no less) actually say the word “Watergate” for the first time.
After changing into their uniforms, Cap and Falc search for a way out. They rip open a metal panel, behind which they find water pipes, wiring — and enough room for them to climb into, just as the Falcon thinks he hears footsteps. As it turns out, they’ve made their move just in time…
Meanwhile, back downstairs, Captain America and the Falcon encounter a new obstacle…
This is of course the same antagonist who appears on the issue’s Gil Kane-Frank Giacoia cover (albeit colored completely differently here than he is there).
Having brought their tale’s plot to a complete halt for this completely superfluous — but, in the context of 1970s Marvel Comics, also completely requisite — fight scene, our storytellers thankfully resume moving their narrative forward on the next page…
It would eventually be revealed that Sam Wilson’s “paranormal mind” was the result of tampering by the Red Skull, rather than a sign of mutanthood… but we’ll save the grisly details of that messy business for our discussion of Captain America #186, one year from now.
As our heroic combo proceeds on towards where Professor X’s mental probing indicates the missing mutants are being held, we’re given a quick check-in with the other main front of the Secret Empire’s plot — the promotion of the faux superhero Moonstone as a “replacement” icon for the tarnished Captain America — as Moony holds forth on a morning talk show…
“Mutants! Mutants! Everywhere!” Well… everywhere on this double-page spread, at least. And, of course, that’s due at least in part to how much space the Blob takes up all on his lonesome.
From the perspective of 2024, where we’ve gotten used to the idea of there being enough mutants milling about the Marvel Universe to form their own nation (as they have, in recent years), it may seem odd that this long-running, cross-title subplot — the mystery of the missing mutants! — gets paid off with our heroes’ discovery of… nine people. But, back in 1974, that was in fact a respectable percentage of the known mutant population.
If I’m not mistaken, that last panel above is as much “explanation” as we ever get for why all the X-Men save the Beast have returned of late to their original, 1963-67-era uniforms… and it doesn’t make much sense, frankly. But, whatever. (I feel pretty sure that the real reason that the change was made is that these were the duds that the mutant heroes were sporting in their ongoing all-reprint title, and Marvel was trying to avoid brand confusion among more casual fans.)
The just-rescued mutants are still too dazed to be able to join the fray, though of course that doesn’t stop Cyclops or Marvel Girl. As regards the latter, when Professor X advises her to be careful, Jean Grey blows him off:
We’re going to pause here, right at the climax of the issue, to note that the second panel from the end, above, is the last we’ll see of the lovely but lethal Linda Donaldson, aka the Secret Empire’s Number Nine — at least, for the next forty-eight years. (UPDATE 3/9/24, 1:50 pm: As noted by Anonymous Sparrow in the comments section below, there’s a reference to a “Linda Donaldson” in Iron Man #284 [Sep., 1992], but other than the name, nothing seems to connect the two characters.) It seems that Steve Englehart must have forgotten all about her when it came time to write CA #175 (in his defense, there would be a lot of ground to cover in that issue) as she’s not seen or even mentioned anywhere within its pages. Personally, I’ve always felt a little bit cheated that we never got to see the moment when Hank McCoy realized he’d been had through all those issues of Amazing Adventures back in 1971-72, when Linda was pretending to be his doting girlfriend while spying for the Secret Empire all along.
Cover to X-Men Legends (2022) #2 (Nov., 2022). Art by Kaare Andrews.
Imagine my surprise, then, when in doing my research for this post I discovered that Marvel had in fact published a follow-up of sorts — and as recently as September, 2022, at that. Hank and Linda do meet again face-to-face — sort of — in X-Men Legends (2022) #2, in a story written by Roy Thomas and drawn by David Wachter that serves as a sort of “side quest” to the events of Captain America #175. I can’t say that it provides complete closure to their relationship (and as a story devised primarily for the purpose of explaining why the design of Wolverine’s mask changes between Hulk #181 and Giant-Size X-Men #1 — yes, I am being serious — it probably wasn’t really intended to, anyway). But at least it’s better than what we had before, in my opinion.
And now, back to the conclusion of “It’s Always Darkest…!”:
Yeah… that’s pretty dark. But things are going to get darker yet for Steve Rogers — at least from a certain perspective — before they begin to lighten up once more, even by a little. I hope to see you here next month for our look at Captain America #175’s “…Before the Dawn!” — a story that, half a century later, remains one of the most memorable and consequential of our star-spangled hero’s 83-year-long career.
It’s nice to see proof that my memory’s not wrong about Colletta’s famed erasing as he inked failing to hurt Sal’s artwork. Was there any artist besides him and Kirby that could make that claim?
Does anyone else though think Englehart’s best comic work was when he was working within the industry’s confines rather than letting his full freak flag fly? As good as his F4 and West Coast Avengers were, thy were poor companions to his Avengers, Defenders, and Captain America.
Also, there is a moment coming up that has haunted me for almost fifty years and can’t wait ’til you get to it and see if I’m the only one!
Colleta was also a good inker for George Tuska, notably on Iron Man in the early 1970s and on that JLA on a fillfor Dillin in in the late 1970s and on that comic strip for a while..
I’ve got to agree with Steve McBeezlebub that Englehart’s 1970s work – dated though it is in some respects – remains unmatched in its power, as much as I enjoyed his work on Silver Surfer, Coyote, West Coast Avengers, Green Lantern, Fantastic Four, and his later Malibu stuff.
Rereading these books, I appreciate the little character grace notes in the dialogue, the captions, his love of alliteration (“lurid lances of lethal light”) and puns – and, of course, the long-term plotting, where a line of dialogue in one panel won’t have a payoff for a year.
And though this issue is an interesting set-up, how little we realized at the time what was waiting for us one month later. Thanks again, Alan, for bring back great memories!
Bill — I just discovered today that WordPress sent this comment into spam seven days for some unfathomable reason. Sorry about that!
The Secret Empire was less efficient than the Sentinels, who captured the Banshee (to be fair, we did see Mr. Cassidy in *CATF* #172) and the Vanisher before they went into the Sun in *X-Men* #59, although we wouldn’t learn that they had had done so with Mr. Porter until #60.
The Sentinels also captured Quicksilver, the Scarlet Witch and the Toad.
I suppose that Quicksilver being in the Great Refuge with the Inhumans and the Scarlet Witch being secure with the Avengers put them out of the Empire’s reach. Given what we learn in *Avengers* #138 about the Toad’s activities, the Empire probably just thought that he wasn’t worth seeking, let alone capturing.
May I make a correction about Linda Donaldson? She has an appearance in *Iron Man* #284 as a television commentator.
In fairness, The Sentinels also captured Mesmero and revealed the Magneto from X0Men 49 -51 was an android duplicate.
A.S., I came across a reference to that Linda Donaldson “appearance” on the Marvel Fandom wiki when I was researching this post; but when I looked up the issue of Iron Man in question, I decided that there was no real reason to conclude it was the same character. (The TV reporter’s name is used once, and her face is never shown.) The Appendix to the Marvel Universe and Marvel Chronology Project don’t list it with the appearances of “our” Linda, and I went with that.
Still, I probably should have mentioned it in the interest of completeness, so I’m updating the post. 😉
Alan:
Thank you for your response.
Perhaps the Linda Donaldson of *Iron Man* #284 was a robot (we’ve heard of Doombots, but perhaps there are Donaldsonbots as well).
Or someone just liked the name (Captain America’s Betty Ross is now the great-aunt of the Hulk’s Betty Ross, but I doubt that Stan Lee thought of that in 1962).
Then again, when we meet Professor Moriarty in “The Final Problem,” he has no name…but he has a brother James, who’s a colonel.
In *The Valley of Fear,* the Professor’s name is “James,” and while we don’t hear of the colonel, we do learn of another brother, who’s a railway porter.
Holmesian scholars are convinced that his name is James, too.
“What’s in a name? That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet…”
If we get an update on Linda Donaldson after almost fifty years, maybe one day soon we’ll learn how Metamorpho went from rejecting Simon Stagg in *Metamorpho* #17 to going back to him in *Brave & the Bold* #101 and *Action* #413…
It really was a Victorian thing in some family to have brothers all named James or Conrac or whatever but with different middle names. Though yeah, it’s almost certainly that Doyle didn’t worry about such things.
My personal guess is that Haney liked the classic status quo better than the reboot, as I discussed at Atomic Junk Shop (https://atomicjunkshop.com/anybody-here-seen-my-old-friend-rex-can-you-tell-me-where-hes-gone/) but that’s only a guess.
Fraser Sherman:
About the only time Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (for he was that then, receiving a knighthood in 1902) paid much attention to consistency with Sherlock Holmes was in the stories collected in *The Return of Sherlock Holmes.* He brought Holmes back to life, eliminated Mrs. Watson and was aware that from 1894-1901 his hero was extremely busy and that he’d basically retired in 1903.
When he resumed the series with “The Adventure of Wisteria Lodge,” he set the story in 1892 when Holmes was believed to be dead. ”The Adventure of the Blanched Soldier” gives Watson a wife again and “The Problem of Thor Bridge” makes Watson “Late Indian Army” when he was “Late of the Army Medical Department” in *A Study in Scarlet.*
What rankles me about Metamorpho is that I grew up with the work of Steve Englehart, who fairly specialized in explaining things (why, he even gave us the story of Gabe Jones’s brilliant defeat of the Secret Empire in *Captain America and the Falcon* #175, something we’d been waiting for since 1966) and that someone like him (if not the Stainless One himself, to use Marvel’s nickname) could have spun a fine and satisfying story about how Rex Mason found his way back to Sapphire and her father…and how Urania Blackwell came to telephone Milligan too frequently.
But Metamorpho was just back in *Brave and the Bold* #101, and the sole mention of Element Girl I can recall prior to “Facade” in *Sandman* No. 20 comes in an early letter column in *Batman and the Outsiders* when someone asked if she would return, and the editor said that she would probably remain in limbo, because she would diminish the uniqueness of Metamorpho. (Remember, Mike W. Barr picked Rex for the Outsiders because he was so alien to the Batman’s world, while Black Lightning was so attuned to it.)
So she returns in “Facade” and dies, and becomes a marketing tool when DC put out the *Showcase* collection featuring the Element Man and just happened to use as its frontispiece one of the only two covers on which she appeared. (Aha, thought *Sandman* fans, there’s that character whose death moved me so much…I think I’ll pick that up and see what she was like in her first appearances…)
I’d better stop here. ”Facade” was my first issue of *The Sandman,* and thirty-plus years later, I still don’t like it, and I can be boringly thorough (and thoroughly boring!) on why.
Marvin Gaye could take “I Heard It Through the Grapevine” away from Gladys Knight and the Pips, but I think Dion’s version of “Abraham, Martin and John” remains the definitive one.
I heartily recommend Mott the Hoople’s cover of Dion’s “Your Own Backyard, as sure as blazes are blue and Hannah is holy.
I wasn’t thrilled by that Sandman story even though I have no great affection for Urania. You have a point about the TPB cover (I have that for the few stories I don’t have in the original). Rereading her debut I can’t see her as competition for Sapphire and she’s really an ethical mess: a US agent who took no action against Stingaree and Cyclops because she was in love with him, then becomes his mortal enemy after he dumps her.
I agree a retcon explaining the transition could have been fun, though I dislike the Metamorpho reboot enough I’m happy it’s gone.
True, Doyle cared little about continuity. That’s what makes Holmes fandom so much fun, working out the explanations for why things don’t add up.
I like your description of Urania as “an ethical mess.”
Another new direction around the same time occurred in *The Metal Men,* but it got to run nine issues (#33-41) rather than ending with two (and when the heroes returned in *Brave and the Bold* #103, we were aware that Dr. Will Magnus was still nuts and a dictator to boot). Do you have any thoughts about that?
The 1940s Holmes radio show has Dr. Watson commenting occasionally on the Holmesians and Sherlockians who take issue with some of his accounts of his association with the Great Detective.
The game will always be afoot, and the year 1895, for some.
And for me there’ll always be a pleasure in finding radio shows taking inspiration from the untold adventures in the Canon (or Conan, ha ha), such as the Paradol Chamber, the Amateur Mendicant Society and Colonel Warburton’s Madness…and the case so dear to Christopher Morley, the Story of the Politician, the Lighthouse and the Trained Cormorant.
I’ve succumbed to the Untold Tale temptation too (https://dimension-919.com/pages/issue2/issue2home.html).
The Metal Men reboot was just a bad idea all the way around, like turning them into the X-Metal Men, hated and feared by the world they protect or something like that.
Oh, my! The repulsive story of the red leech and the terrible death of Crosby the banker, with James Phillimore included! This will be a treat indeed.
Are you familiar with Jay Finlay Christ’s poem “The Old Tin Box”?
Curiously, the first adventures I saw of Metamorpho and the Metal Men were their introductions, both in reprint. The last panel of “The Flaming Doom” (in *Flash* #214) changed the original text from *Showcase* #37: where Colonel Casper had once asked readers to write in if they wanted to see more of the Metal Men, now he assured 1972 readers that this adventure wasn’t the end of the Metal Men, who returned to have many more adventures.
I hope it is indeed a treat. I just looked up the poem online and it’s delightful.
My first Metamorpho story was when “Metamorpho Says No!” to JLA membership. With the Metal Men it was the second Missile Man story. IIRC at six I found the story with all these robots, and evil duplicates, and the whole team getting killed but Doc saying he’d rebuild them again, confusing. But it didn’t stop me buying more.
I’ve enjoyed going back and looking at this storyline again, but my main disappointment is that Englehart felt the need to rush it to a conclusion once the Watergate Scandal broke. Not sure how I would have felt about it back then at age 16, with Watergate being my first real introduction to American politics, but I think I would have been able to separate fact from fiction fairly easily if that’s what Steve was worried about. Still, I also remember getting plenty frustrated by the way Marvel tended to drag a story out unnecessarily, just to sell another couple of issues. I guess you’re damned if you do and damned if you don’t.
Aside from his absolute failure at giving the Falcon (a hip, cool African-American) hip and cool things to say (“Mr. Stars and Spangles”), Englehart’s story was right on the money and the Buscema/Coletta team were quite effective here as well. There was something about Sal’s artwork during this period that I found to be very attractive and I feel the tug of it even now.
Looking forward to seeing how all this wraps up. As long as “Number One” doesn’t wind up being a carrot-topped megalomaniac with delusions of grandeur, I’m sure it will be great. Thanks, Alan.
I felt the same about Sal’s art too back then – Mr Reliable. I preferred his brother’s stuff, but unlike Sal he rarely stuck around for long on a superhero title at that stage. That said, I didn’t think this issue was anything special.
Was the Falcon ever written as hip? My memory is that he skewed more to the square side of things.
Fraser, maybe he was a Huey Lewis fan and thought it was “Hip to be Square.” Actually, I remember several attempts to make, not only Sam Wilson, but also Luke Cage and others sound hip. Since the writers were usually middle-aged white guys, you can imagine how successful they were.
Yes, I’ve witnessed plenty of examples (see: Bob Haney).
Apparently ‘DontheArtistformerlyknownasfrodo628‘ supports politicians who support border security for other countries but not their own, who have sold out to China and as a bonus have dementia.
Jive Turkey, I’d appreciate you keeping your Trump-supporting B.S. off my blog. Your next remark along these lines will be deleted without response.
Wow, you must be proud of the positive and incisive comment.
Always good to see people raise the level of the discourse on any forum.
Or, to quote Stan Lee, “Sheesh!”
More great insight on this ongoing saga. Not quite as cosmic as that going on in Captain Marvel or as loopy as that in Daredevil, but still very compelling as we get to nearer to the end and the beginning of more momentous happening in this mag. I had more comments I tried to post earlier but for some odd reason they wouldn’t go through. Hopefully these will make it!
Reading Number 1’s reference to Watergate in this issue, as phrased, doesn’t seem to cohere with his being Richard Nixon as would not clearly be revealed next issue but which Englehart has stated was his intent. I’m not sure if Englehart had already made up his mind about that when he wrote this issue. Also, I think that at this point, 50 years ago, Nixon’s role in the Watergate break-in and attempted cover-up afterwards had not yet been fully revealed — that would be about 5 months later, finally leaving Nixon with the option of either resigning or being impeached and removed from office as in this instance, unlike with Andrew Johnson, Bill Clinton and that other guy, there would have been more than enough votes in the Senate to find Nixon guilty. I also wonder what other twists Englehart had originally planned but dropped when he decided to make it shorter. Even as it was, this was still the longest Cap story ever told thus far. Meanwhile, in the real world, “our long national nightmare,” as President Ford referred to the Watergate scandal, still had several months to go.
Another unusual aspect on this issue that comes to me is Professor X joining Cyclops and Marvel Girl into the Secret Empire’s lair. At this point, 50 years ago, I don’t think I yet even had a dozen issues of the X-Men in my collection, all recent reprints. Being much more familiar with those original stories now, however, it’s notable that aside from when some baddie like the Juggernaut was trying to kill Charles himself and he couldn’t help but be in the direct danger zone, Xavier never personally joined his team on their missions, instead keeping in touch with them mentally and trying his best to keep the public unaware of his connection with the X-Men as well as to keep himself physically out of the way so as not to be a hindrance during the fight given his physical limitations. I suppose in this instance, Xavier felt it was best to be physically present to be able to better help find the missing mutants.
fred, I took Number One’s mention of Watergate to be a clever bit of misdirection… since Mr. Black had already clued him in as to the two new recruits’ true identities, he was intentionally throwing Cap and Falc off the scent of his own secret ID!
Ah, that makes sense, Alan! Of course, at the time, at age 11, I had no idea who #1 was meant to be and didn’t suspect at all that it supposed to be the actual then current President of the USA! I’d missed what I believe was Tricky Dicky’s then most recent appearance – sans a hood – during the FF’s then most recent fracas with Galactus and don’t think I’d yet ever seen a President in a comic, although I’d eventually see quite a few, both in later stories and in reprints.
Funny, while I remember reading these issues I don’t remember any of the feelings they generated, whereas I remember much stronger feelings about the Nomad arc that followed. Possibly I was just skimming them in stores and my brother only started buying them right after this so I read the second arc more closely.
Regardless, this is some great work. But by what logic do the Secret Empire members greet their leader with “Salaam” — it’s an odd choice.
Even odder is a line by Linda Donaldson the issue of Amazing Adventures before she comes out as a Secret Empire agent. Interrogated by Buzz Baxter, Hank asks Linda to back up his unexplained absence with a lie but she refuses, then tells him afterwards that she loves her country too much to lie to a military man, then thought-balloons that “It’s not the country you think.”
This makes no sense in the context of the Secret Empire. My guess is that Englehart imagined Linda as a Soviet spy (or Latverian, Chinese, etc.), then the ideas for the Secret Empire came together (the Beast story comes out as 1950s Cap is wrapping up) and he course-corrected. Perhaps had the Beast’s series taken off we’d have seen him fighting the Secret Empire too.
I checked out those X-Men Legends issues on the Marvel app. In fairness the two part story isn’t just about the cowl, it’s about retconning Wolverine’s first battle to Hulk to show that everything that makes Wolverine Wolverine (https://tombrevoort.com/2024/02/19/when-was-wolverine-wolverine/) was in place — the mangled memories, the unbreakable bones, healing factor, etc.
That said, it’s not a good story — the first part with Logan and Jack of Diamonds is okay but fitting part two into the Secret Empire saga was clunky as crap. Still, it was good to give Linda/Hank (Beastinda?) some resolution as you say — and anything longer would probably bog down in cliches. What really puzzles me is the constant reference to mutants as “extra-normals.” I tried looking that up online without success — is it something Roy coined as a Canadian government term or is this the Marvel equivalent to “metahuman.”
The Beast did fight the Secret Empire, if not with stunning success . . . .