In his 2016 introduction to Marvel Masterworks — Captain America, Vol. 9, Steve Englehart refers to the cover John Romita produced for the subject of today’s post as “iconic”. That’s become a rather overused word in today’s culture, I grant you; all the same, I find it hard to disagree with him. For this grizzled old fan, it’s virtually impossible to think about this particular era of Captain America comics without the image shown above leaping immediately to mind — and that’s close enough to iconic for the word to fit, at least in my book.
On the other hand, I can see where someone experiencing this story for the first time might fault the cover for its spoilerific qualities, since it completely gives away the outcome of the 18 pages of soul-searching by Steve Rogers we’re about to encounter within the comic’s pages. Still, you have to figure that the statute of limitations has run out on that potential gripe; besides which, I don’t remember being at all bothered by any such concerns when I first read this issue half a century ago. Maybe because that’s I — and just about every other fan at that time — knew quite well going in that it could be just a “symbolic”, cover, i.e., a bait-and-switch fake-out. Hey, it wasn’t like we hadn’t seen that happen before, right? Of course, it turned out to be absolutely spot on… which was all to the good, no question.
But now, let’s move on from contemplating the cover, arresting as it is, and proceed to our story’s opening splash…
The “Secret Empire” story arc may be over; but clearly, its protagonist will be dealing with the ramifications of its Watergate scandal-inspired events for some time to come, as of course he should be (as Englehart pithily puts it in his Masterworks intro, “Cap had watched someone who symbolized America demolish both his brains and Cap’s illusions”).
What follows is yet another presentation of the oft-told origin story of Captain America; while Englehart and his artistic collaborators, penciller Sal Buscema and inker Vince Colletta do just fine by this familiar material, their version doesn’t really offer anything we haven’t seen before. So we’re going to skip ahead a couple of pages, picking up the narrative in the immediate aftermath of Professor “Reinstein”‘s successful experiment upon the body of young Steve Rogers…
This story may be nothing more, or less, than Steve Rogers dealing with his internal dilemma while being counseled by his well-meaning friends, with neither a supervillain nor any other kind of external threat to be overcome. Still, cognizant of the fact that this is still a superhero comic book, our storytellers have gone to some pains to ensure that “there are as many action scenes as we could make work” (as Englehart puts it in his Masterworks intro). With the exception of such generic tableaus as Thor’s smiting of some random trolls, above (or, a little later, Cap fighting some random Nazis), most of these get footnotes explaining where the scenes originally appeared. But since they’ve been overlooked on this page for whatever reason, allow me to clue you in: the dust-up with the Mole Man comes from Avengers #12 (Jan., 1965), while the one with Kang hails from Avengers #8 (Sep., 964).
Iron Man goes on to describe how, in addition to all this, Cap’s also lent his name (and skills) to raise money for worthy charities. “Right!” retorts Cap. “For my entire career, I’ve done almost nothing except try — in as many ways as I could — to help my fellow man — and what happened?”
Up to this point, one could easily slot this issue in neatly behind the conclusion of the “Thanos War” (as presented in Avengers #125 and Captain Marvel #33) in which Captain America was an active participant — but the Falcon’s comments in the last panel above suggest that it hasn’t been all that long — perhaps just a few hours — since the White House-set climax of CA #175; hardly long enough to account for all of Cap’s participation in said War, as chronicled in roughly the last year’s worth of Jim Starlin’s Captain Marvel issues (and established as following CA #175 in Englehart’s own script for Avengers #125). Oh, well.
Falc proceeds to narrate a highlight reel of some of his and Cap’s earliest adventures, concluding with this:
We’ve seen Thor argue for the glory of righteous struggle, Iron Man for using one’s advantages to help those in need, and Falcon for the importance of heroes as examples to others of what’s right — all arguments that might be made to any superhero thinking of hanging up his cowl, for whatever reason. But Peggy’s argument is more about what Steve Rogers’ secret identity means as a specifically American ideal, and thus cuts closest to the core of Steve’s current crisis; for that reason, it receives the longest and most detailed response.
The use of stereotypical head coverings to denote ethnic heritage and/or foreign origins is likely to make modern readers wince (and rightly so, in my opinion); but I suspect that it probably didn’t raise a whole lot of eyebrows in 1974.
The Vision’s pitch is the least idealistic of all the arguments Cap’s heard, as well as the briefest — but neither of those aspects make it invalid. Indeed, Steve Rogers’ love of the excitement provided him by the superheroing life has been a consistent (if not constant) element in his characterization ever since Englehart started writing the book. Can he give it up?
Has Captain America logically and thoroughly refuted every argument made to him by his friends as to why he shouldn’t quit? Perhaps not, but I don’t think that was Steve Englehart’s point. Rather, he wanted to show his hero seriously grappling with this momentous decision, so that we as readers would, for one, feel that Steve had earned the right to his choice; and for another, understand his reasons for it, even if we didn’t necessarily agree with them ourselves.
In 2024, superhero comics fans have long become jaded to the idea of a costumed hero giving up his secret identity for an extended period, but it was a real rarity fifty years ago. Which isn’t to say that anyone reading Captain America at the time expected that Steve Rogers would stay shield-free indefinitely — or that anyone writing it expected that, either. As Englehart writes in his Marvel Masterworks introduction: “I certainly knew I’d bring Cap back someday — I mean, let’s be real — but I didn’t know when that would be, and I wanted it to be as far off as I felt I could sustain.”
Cover art by John Romita.
Cover art by Ron Wilson, Frank Giacoia, and John Romita (?).
Naturally, Englehart had an obvious advantage here that he wouldn’t have had if writing, say, Amazing Spider-Man (at least not in 1974), and that’s that Captain America already had a costumed, cover-billed co-star in his book. Fans who picked up CA #177 and/or #178 looking for superhero action wouldn’t be disappointed, as the Falcon took center stage for a largely self-contained two-parter featuring a long-unseen X-Men villain named Lucifer.
That said, the only name in the book’s indicia remained “Captain America“, and the odds that Marvel was about to make any drastic change in that area were just about nil. This was still, and would continue to be, Cap’s book — a point that was underscored in the climax of issue #178, as civilian Steve Rogers, seeing his ex-partner on the ropes, flung himself into action wearing only a ski-mask as a disguise, and slinging a trasch-can lid in lieu of his absent shield. A change was coming, and soon… though just what that change would involve will have to be the subject of future posts.
Attack of the 50 Year Old Comic Books 
It’s to the credit of Englehart and Sal Buscema that an issue of talking heads would be so compelling. To me, this exemplifies how pictures, captions, and balloons can work together to tell what is essentially an interior story in a visceral way. I suppose film could do something, but you’d lose the literate captions and thoughts.
What’s great about this story is not just getting into the head of Steve Rogers but also the argument that each character makes to Steve. Yes, Thor would concentrate on the Cap the warrior. Yes, Tony Stark would feel a sense of noblesse oblige. Yes, Sam Wilson would be concentrate on the importance of role models. Yes, Peggy would be the idealist. I seem to remember some grumblings about the Vision’s apparently superficial comment about Cap craving adventure, but it’s worth noting that in a few issues, when Steve decides to adopt his new identity, the Vision’s comments are the ONLY ones from this issue that he specifically references. (“I guess the Vision knew me better than I knew myself,” he thinks, or words to that effect.)
Alan, as usual you do a wonderful job conveying both your feelings from 50 years ago AND your current perspective on this remarkable issue. The flaws you point out are ones that didn’t bother me at the time, such as (as you mention) the rather cliched multi-ethnic faces when Steve talks about America’s diversity. I like to think something like this would be handled with a little more nuance and consideration today – and, as the biggest Steve Englehart defender in the world, I like to think Englehart himself would do a better job himself. To quote a man who once lived in the same NJ county where I reside, “Those were different times” (like riding in a Stutz Bearcat, Jim) and all that, but the larger points being made shouldn’t be obscured by wince-inducing choices made under a deadline.
And yes, I remember being a little uncertain about the timing of this issue coming on the heels of AVENGERS #125 with its compression of the Thanos war. Granted, you could argue that CAPTAIN MARVEL #25-33 could conceivable take place in the span a couple of days, and the Falcon doesn’t say exactly how long he’s been away from Cap. But it’s a bit off, especially given how detail-oriented Englehart has been.
I’m guessing we’re not going to be looking in on this title for at least a couple of months, given your inclusion of the covers of #177 and #178, but I think that’s appropriate. I have no doubt that the arrival of Nomad and the revitalized Serpent Squadron will be the subject of a future edition of “Attack of the 50-Year-Old Steve Englehart Comics,” After all, you’ve got a couple of significant issues of AVENGERS coming up to discuss…
Thanks again for a wonderful read, Alan!
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One more thing: Notice both Sam and Steve use the same wording to describe their adoption of a new identity: “Nothing in my life, before or since….” I liked the way Englehart portrayed them as brothers of other mothers, and this was one more of doing it.
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I missed that particular nuance, Bill. Thanks for pointing it out!
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Great commentary on this landmark issue, Alan! So this makes for two iconic covers by Romita of a top superhero hanging up the gig, along with Amazing Spider-Man #50, although in this instance Steve Rogers would take quite a bit longer to put his old costume back on than Peter Parker did. I think this was the first for a title or series in which (a) the title itself wasn’t about to be cancelled (as with Giant-Man and Wasp); (b) someone else didn’t entirely take over the mag; or (c) the hero didn’t get back into costume within the very next issue (as with Spidey). Of course, as a kid reading this back then, I “knew” that sooner or later Steve Rogers would get back in costume but had no idea what it would take to get him to that point. But, you make a very valid point that Englehart likely wouldn’t have been allowed to take so much time getting there if Cap hadn’t had his co-star to keep up the action as well as having at least one of the co-stars regularly appearing in his usual get-up, even as Rogers put on a very different costume for a spell (uh, oh, spoiler alert!).
Also, that sequence on why Steve Rogers wanted to get involved in WWII, showing his outrage at what the Nazis were doing, goes to the core of why I think it’s important to have him becoming Captain America circa December 1940 (when Captain America Comics #1 hit the racks) rather than December 1941 (after the attack on Pearl Harbor), because, IMO, it bolsters Rogers’ idealism from the get-go — he didn’t become Captain America out of a desire for revenge due to the attack on America, but out of strong sense of outrage at the injustice and atrocities the Nazis were committing in Europe — and which his co-creators, Kirby & Simon, obviously felt as well.
Regarding the flashbacks to those early Avengers stories, in 1974, I didn’t yet realize how relatively short — only about a year from issues 4 – 16 – was the period in which Cap fought alongside Thor and Iron Man in the early days and how relatively recent it was that they all had become regulars in the Avengers again, back in Avengers #93, a little over two and a half years ago. Even with all their guest appearances in the Avengers between issues 16 and 93, the Big Three had still spent more time together in the ’70s thus far than in the ’60s!
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You’re quite right, Steve is clearly anti-fascist rather than “just” patriotic.
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I knew perfectly well reading this how these ” … No More” stories went: a lot of angst, then a realization you never, never give up. The ending was a shocker.
And yes, well done on keeping us hooked with an unconventional story structure. Reminds me of “The Legionnaire Who Killed” which is similarly unconventional in its approach to action.
The talk of being out of school when he volunteered reminds me how young Steve was, both in WW II and in the early Silver Age and how Marvel tended to ignore it (https://atomicjunkshop.com/captain-america-young-punk/)
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Excellent commentary on Steve Rogers’ age and relationship to his teammates, etc. Having been around long enough that now one of my younger brothers now has three grandchildren who have all graduated from high school as of last year, it did come to strike me as a bit odd that no writer (to my knowledge) ever showed Rogers’ trying to find and become reacquainted with anyone he knew from before he was frozen up just for the sake of renewing the relationship with someone who might have thought he had died during the war. The most he was shown was trying to get in touch with Nick Fury, but that was more for the possibility of a job opportunity than for the sake of friendship. As far as the comics seemed to be concerned, Rogers had no family and Bucky had been his only friend, aside from his brief romance with Peggy, and as far as he knew early on, they were both dead. Of course, in modern continuity, any normal adult (as in someone who never became a superhero or somehow magically preserved in relative youth) Rogers knew from before he was frozen would be either dead or in their late 90s or over 100. By the same token, all of Fury’s old Howling buddies should all be dead or very elderly by now.
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J.M de Matteis did a little of that when he write Cap in the early 1980s (when Cap’s contemporaries would have been around 60 or so.) It was a plot point in mark Millar’s’ The Ultimates.
I would guess it was not that big a deal in the Silver Age, when the autists and writers doing the stories were mostly late 30s or early 40s WWII vets who think of themselves as in their prime,
Also, since Cap was involved in Project Rebirth (which would probably still be Compartmented Information at the point Cap was “defrosted,” I would suspect Cap’s reaction to seeing one of his old buddy’s would be like Don Draper’s reaction to seeing an old friend from Basic at Sill, who knew him as “Dick Whitman” and not “Don Draper” in an early episode of Mad Men.
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The Captain America: Young Allies did an excellent job reunited Bucky Barnes with the aged members of the Young Allies. But yeah, that was the exception.
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I thought this was an excellent comic when it appeared. It did not get recognized by awards, but I thought it gave us insight into a very well-regarded hero.
Englehart’s run on CA&F was kind of based on this and, in large measure, why the charter was not viewed as old fashioned, patronizing or worse, vaguely fascistic. While it did not earn any awards, I have heard that Steve Englehart’s run changed CA&F from a mid-tier book into a solid seller,
That run essentially created CA’s modern characterization as a decent, honorable man who embodies the US at its best. tolerant. wise, brave and not without a bit of Henry Fonda’s view of his own image: “I ain’t Henry Fonda, that man on the screen or stage, Nobody could have that much integrity.”
I have no idea why Steve Englehart left CA&F in 1975, but it was a loss. I thought CA picking up the cowl again to face a Red Skull who was closer to his Simon & Kirby (and Ed Herron) roots was a neat development that I looked forward to seeing play out (less so his reinvention of The Falcon, which seemed stereotypical–but who knows what he would have done with it).
After Englehart left, I liked Isabella’s run that seemed to emphasize Cap’s wide circle of friends (The Falcon, Sharon Carter, SHEILD, The Avengers) since his rescue from the ice (which seemed to prefigure J.M. de Matteis’s run and its emphasize on Cap’s friends in Brooklyn). It was nice to see Kirby back on Cap in time for the Bicentennial Particularly, it was nice to see how (unfortunately) prescient the “Madbomb” story was when I re-read it in the mid-1990s in the days of Oklahoma City and Militias.
This brongs back interesting memories of an interesting time . . . .
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The trope of bringing The Red Skull back to his 1940s roots seemed to influenced by O’Neil & Adams having done the same for The Joker in 1973. Elliot S! Maggin seemed to be trying to do the same for Luther in The Luther Nobody Knows later in 1975 in Superman,, but the whole thing was “in the air” at the time.
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Hi, John, I hope Alan doesn’t mind some “flash-forwarding” here. As for Englehart’s departure from CAPTAIN AMERICA & THE FALCON, my memory was that he had a few irons in the fire that made him “temporarily” step away from the book. Those irons included a couple of black-and-white titles (STAR-LORD and THOR THE MIGHTY, though neither got past the first story of each – the latter became THOR ANNUAL #5) and a proposed series of stories for MARVEL SPOTLIGHT focusing on solo stories featuring the Vision, Wanda, and Hawkeye & the Two-Gun Kid. But then things changed, and DR. STRANGE went monthly, and one thing led to another.
I know how you feel, though – I really wanted to know where Englehart would have taken the book, with Steve Rogers’ evolution, the change in his relationship with Sharon Carter, and so on. Most of all, I’m curious what he had in mind with the Falcon revamp – in retrospect, it seems like a poor move, but we don’t know where Englehart might have gone with it.
Have to say, though, that my feelings about the CAP book started to change when Frank Robbins took over the art. I liked his Bat-stories, and I ended up enjoying his style for a retro title like THE INVADERS, but it was REALLY jarring after Sal Buscema (and Sal illustrating a dream sequence later on didn’t help).
As with so many things, I wish I could visit the alternate universe where a certain editor didn’t take over Marvel, leading to the loss of some of its most distinctive and original creators – and besides enjoying longer Englehart runs on AVENGERS and DR. STRANGE, we could see a CAPTAIN AMERICA with the Steve and Sal team going forward.
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I’ve always figured Englehart wanted to move the Falcon away from the nice, friendly “model minority” to someone who wouldn’t be as easy for a white audience to accept. But if so, “Snap” Wilson wasn’t the best alternative.
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I think you’re right, but we’ll never know what Englehart’s plans for the Falcon were. I like to think it wouldn’t have been cliched or exploitive, but who knows? Those were different times…
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I recall; a fill in by Herb Trimpe that made me think Marvel might put him on CA&F, since Robbins was getting The Invaders, but that did not happen.
Instead, Kirby came back. He was well into his more abstract phase, but I liked his work on it. I thought it was a shame he did not always have people like Giacoia and Dan Green (or Windsor-Smith and Trimpe as on Bicentennial battles) doing the inking.
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Also, weren’t they talking about Englehart doing an adoption of The Prisoner around that time (which later became something Kirby actually worked on, although it was never published).
As the Cap/Nomad/”Disillusionment” Cycle and the Celestial Madonna Cycle in the Avengers culminated, it seemed like Englehart was losing interest. In the end, he did a year at DC to see what he could do there and went to Europe to write prose.
Englehart had an impact on comics. He had Lee’s sense of the Marvel Universe as an entwinned whole, Fox and Thomas’s love of complex plots and references to obscure things and Broome knack for creating round characters with actions and constancy of outlook (the Vision having great insight into character based on logic, for example.)
I have fond memories of Englehart’s career,
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Hi John,
Ah, The Prisoner – that’s an interesting tale. Englehart was scheduled to write it, and a first issue was illustrated by Gil Kane (over layouts by Joe Staton). Englehart actually turned in the script as his last work for Marvel. But then Marvel delayed and gave it to Kirby.
If you’re curious, a publisher released a coffee-table-size book that included both Kane’s and Kirby’s version, including Englehart’s script for #1 (with an introduction by him). Yes, of course I picked it up! It was interesting. I have since sold it as part of a listing that included two other Prisoner comics: The four-issue prestige mini that Dean Motter did for Marvel, and the more recent Peter Milligan-written mini. (Yes, besides being an Englehart completist, I’m a Prisoner junkie. In fact, when I had a radio show, I used the Prisoner theme as my opening music.)
Moving on…
I respectfully disagree about Englehart losing interest in Marvel at the time he left. He actually had rather detailed plans for Dr. Strange (including a three-parter with Shang-Chi, illustrated by Frank Brunner), and I know he was going to go forward with Avengers, though he was going to play it by ear with Wonder Man. (Englehart seemed to have a really interesting mix when it came to his long-term plotting – meticulous, but also seat-of-the-pants spontaneous.) He intended to stay with Marvel at least for a while longer, until the whole kerfuffle with an editor who shall remain nameless. That experience soured him on comics in general, and when he jumped to DC, it was with the intention that it would only be for a year.
Regardless, I concur that he was a game-changer when it came to scripting, and I don’t think he gets the love he deserves for his approach to characterization and plotting. I think he and Gerber and McGregor – in their way – paved the way for the innovations of Moore, Morrison, Gaiman, Milligan, and others in the 1980s and 1990s.
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“Be seeing you,” Bill.
The degree to which “the Editor who shall remain nameless” was responsible for a lot of things that happened to Englehart later in his Marvel tour is debatable (and has been debated).
I think Wolfman was upset about the late books that Englehart was having. Conway was coming aboard for his (abortive) tour as Marvel EIC (with a pay package that based on his writing more than Thomas, Wein or Wolfman had. Shooter was, as I remember, the Assistant Editor at that point.
I’m not sure how accurate this is, but it is fairly detailed R. S. Martin: The Jim Shooter “Victim” Files: Steve Englehart (rsmwriter.blogspot.com). (Martin tends to defend Shooter in social media.)
I think, at that point in his life, Englehart wanted to write novels and the year at DC sort of let him close out his comic career and helped finance a move to Europe to write.
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Hardly closing it out as he had West Coast Avengers, Vision and Scarlet Witch and Green Lantern in the future after leaving DC the first time.
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It would be more correct to say, “He thought he was closing it out.” In between, he did a Swamp Thing, Mister Miracle and Creeper DC Comics Presents probably for pin money.
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John, I remember liking that Trimpe fill-in, though it seemed a little rushed. Englehart used to say that Trimpe (along with Brunner and Rogers and maybe one or two others) was one of the few artists who gave him MORE than he expected.
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The interesting thing is he was not expecting Rogers at all! Walt Simonson did the first two issues of that run, intentionally using a style that harkened back to the 1940s. Englehart was working full script and was surprised to see Simonson replaced after two issues.
Apparently, someone at “Echelons Above Julie Schwartz” (but probably also “Echelons Below Jenette Kahn”) decided it looked “too old fashioned.”
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John,
I realize now that I SHOULD have named the editor in connection with Englehart’s departure from Marvel. I was referencing Conway, not Shooter. I always blamed Conway for coming in and taking over AVENGERS and DEFENDERS (the latter making a rather smug point about “returning it to more conventional superhero work” – read, well-scripted but boring and predictable – after the delirious idiosyncrasies of Gerber’s run.) Conway also started a supremely superfluous second SPIDER-MAN title, which I thought and still think was a bad idea and was something DC (with its concurrent and unrelated ACTION/SUPERMAN and DETECTIVE/BATMAN) would do.
As far as Rogers go – yes, I recall Englehart writing an appreciation in which he said that a handful of artists gave him more than he expected, such as Trimpe and Brunner. But in the case of Rogers, it was without ever having met him that the art surpassed his expectations.
Unfortunately, Marshall NEVER got very much love from DC editors. When Englehart turned in a Batman script for Paul Levitz after Levitz took over the Bat-titles, Marshall offered to draw it. Levitz’ reply? “Batman doesn’t look like that any more.” Ouch. (Marshall said this at a convention where I met him.)
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As far as I can recall, it’s the first time since FF 1 that the Red Skull is written as a hard-core Nazi rather than Doctor Doom with a swastika. My reaction as a teen was that the Skull was also obviously insane — imagine believing in Nazism 30 years after we crushed it! Sigh …
The Madbomb arc was a very poor substitute for Englehart.
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Unfortunately, in the real world there are still Nazi true-believers, some of them whose grandparents hadn’t even been born yet when Hitler put a bullet in his brain. All about the power of hatred of the “other” and ultra-nationalism and “restoring” a glory that never was.
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Yes, it’s depressing.
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Ah, you bring back memories.
In *Tales of Suspense* #80, the Red Skull uses the cosmic cube to force Wolfgang Brenner, who was in suspended animation with him, to kill himself. (When he’s stepped outside.)
In *Fantastic Four* #143, Dr. Doom has two of his acolytes, Gort* and Harrison, made loyal followers (Winston Smith couldn’t have loved Big Brother more…) and then commands them to shoot one another.
A few years later, it would become clear that they could never be allies, natural** or otherwise, but, once upon a time…
*
Klaatu barada nikto to you and you and you…
**
Doom insists to the Sub-Mariner that they are “natural allies” in *Sub-Mariner* #20.
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The scene where the Skull sends him off to shoot himself because the Skull isn’t the sort of common person who likes to watch is effective, but not really in keeping with the rest of Silver Age Red Skull.
One thing I enjoyed about the early Super-Villain Team-Up is Doom realizing that he’s kind of a dick and that to make a real ally, he needs to change.
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In looking up the first battle between Dr. Doom and the Red Skull in *Astonishing Tales* #4-5, I learned that it was later reprinted in *Super-Villain Team-Up* and that Doom crossed paths with Magneto in a story begun there and concluded in *The Champions.*
As villains go, the Skull is not exceptionally deep — indeed, the best thing I can remember growing up with him was the way three years elapsed between his use of the Fifth Sleeper (yawn…) and his discovery that the Captain America he’d defeated was the ill-fated Roscoe (we hardly knew ye) and that the long wait made me glad to see him again, which overuse before *Captain America and the Falcon* #148 would have made me think impossible — but Doom is, and my favorite story featuring him finds him helping the Fantastic Four against the Over-Mind in *Fantastic Four* #116, doing so because the Invisible Girl (not yet Woman) suggests that he is behaving as “a man who is childish and petty, and perhaps a little afraid.” Many demons rule him, he admits, but childishness and fear are not among them.
I once read a contrast of Magneto and Doom which declared that while both wanted to take over the world, once Magneto did so he’d retire to a nice little cottage and let others take care of things, while Doom would very much be hands on governing. My problem with the Mutant Master of Magnetism is that while I know what writers have striven to do with the character — make him El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz returned from Mecca rather than Malcolm X speaking of the chickens coming home to roost — if you go back to the stories before 1981 or 1982, there aren’t any hints of the complexity you find with Doom. I give an honorable mention to the Savage Land two-parter in *X-Men* #62-63, where his “Creator” fools the Angel so completely, but away from that, I can still quote the Toad’s rejection of the man he so long called “Master” and who treated him so shamefully in *Avengers* #53.
And ever feel “good on you, Mortimer Toynbee!”
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One of the best uses of the Skull is a Super-Villain Team-Up where he and the Hatemonger/Adolf Hitler are on the brink of reactivating the Cosmic Cube and they both realize neither one wants to share power. The Skull has a soliloquy to the effect “All the years they called you a madman, I kept the flame of your genius alive! We shared so many years of struggle — why can’t we share victory?”
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“Victory has a thousand fathers, but defeat is an orphan.”
We credit that line to John F. Kennedy after the Bay of Pigs, but it turned up earlier, in the diaries of Benito Mussolini’s son-in-law, Count Galeazzo Ciano.
How fascinating to find its inverse with the Skull and die Fuhrer, with victory meant for Adolf and not for Johann.
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Funny thing about Henry Fonda:
The only time he played a character named Henry onscreen is in “Sometimes a Great Notion” (also known as “Never Give an Inch”), where his Henry Stamper is a pretty nasty guy whose politics would make the true Fonda cringe.
Something I just realized: in the same month that Steve Englehart had Steve Rogers give up being Captain America, he also had T’Challa leave the Avengers.* Cap would return to active duty with the team with #141, but Englehart never used the Black Panther again.
Now, Cap, Iron Man and Thor were known as “the Big Three,” and there was, according to the letters column, a minority (but a vocal one!) that wanted them to leave the group…and when the Panther got his strip in *Jungle Action,* calls arose for removing “the Big Four.”
It was the last of the quartet who’d leave…and he’d also been the last to join,** and after pondering the headgear panel in this issue, I wonder if it was a case of “last hired, first fired,” or simply something as coincidental as Dr. Mid-Nite remaining with the Justice Society from *All Star* #8 through #57, but not appearing on the last covers of the book.***
*
In *Avengers* #126. Klaw would have made a terrible king of Wakanda!
**
In *Avengers* #52, which introduced the Grim Reaper in a terrible costume he happily and quickly discarded.
***
Thoughts on Dr. Mid-Nite come via the letters column in *Secret Origins* #20, courtesy of Roy Thomas (who wrote *Avengers* #52 and filled in some pieces of T’Challa’s origin in #88).
If you can’t only connect, as E.M. Forster urged, recognize that connections exist anyway!
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This was a seminal comic for me because in 1974, I was already a dedicated young cynic in training, and to me, in the age of Watergate and all that came before it, I disliked Captain America as a book and as a character, simply because I believed he had blinders on. I didn’t necessarily believe that the America of the 70’s was all that different than the America of the 40’s–I mean, can you imagine if Cap found out FDR knew about the attack on Pearl Harbor and let it happen anyway, and let all those men and women die, just to have an excuse for the US to finally enter the war?–Or how about if he’d still been out of the ice during McCarthyism or any of the other black marks on American history? To me, this isn’t Cap realizing that America isn’t what he thought it was, it’s him discovering that it was NEVER what he thought it was; that men, even Americans, were always grasping, power-hungry junkyard dogs fighting over every scrap they can find. However, even though Cap completely missed the point, Englehart’s argument landed anyway, because he wasn’t talking to Cap. He was talking to us.
I would imagine that Cap was a difficult book to write in the 70’s for young socially-progressive writers like Englehart who grew up and formed their political identities in the sixties. How do you make a guy who wears a literal American flag on his back seem cool and relevant in the days of Watergate and Viet Nam? Captain America #176 was Englehart’s dialogue on the subject, not with Cap himself, but with the reader, as to whether Captain America could exist in a world so far out of sync with the American Dream. In creating Cap’s internal debate, he was able to juggle both sides of the issue with the audience, many of whom, like myself, needed to be convinced that Cap was still relevant and worth reading. I remember that, in my mind, Cap had become a tarnished symbol, a relic of my parents’ generation that still believed in a God, Country and Apple Pie version of America, that not only no longer existed, but had probably never really existed at all. Like the Batman ’66 of the TV show, Cap had (to me, guys, this is ONLY my opinion) become a caricature of himself that could no longer be taken seriously. Englehart was talking directly to me with Cap #176, and do you know what? He changed my mind.
As Englehart went through all the arguments from Caps friends and allies, I began to see Cap as they did; not as a symbol of something that USED to exist, but a symbol of something that SHOULD exist; the America that we should all strive to be. And while all of Cap’s friends made excellent points–even Vision–the one that put me over the top came from dear old deluded Peggy Carter, suffering from amnesia and character neglect who told Cap, “This is bigger than you, Steve,” I’m paraphrasing here because I’m too lazy to scroll back up to get the actual quote. “This is bigger than all of us!” and I finally got it. The symbol of Captain America; of any hero or symbol, is to show us all, not what is, but what’s supposed to be, and somehow, Englehart managed to shake me out of my proto-cynicism and see that and I’m grateful he did.
Today, in 2024, it’s a different America, and I can imagine from time to time Steve looking around at where we are as a nation and thinking, “where did I put that Nomad costume again?” Perhaps now would be a good time for Hickman or Bendis or one of Marvel’s really great writers to once again tackle the idea of “What Captain America Stands For.” I, for one, think we could use it. I know I could. Thanks, Alan!
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“If I am not for myself, who will be for me? And being for myself, what am I? And if not now, when?”–Hillel the Elder
I think (both from reading Englehart’s CA&F in the 1970s (and reading about the run since, that you really understand what Englehart was trying to do here,
But, I’m also reminded of what John Ford had to tell Henry Fonda to get him to play Lincoln in Young Mr. Lincoln. ”You think you’d be playing the Great Emancipator? He’s a jake-legged lawyer in Springfield!”
People get better over time and through trial. It is not a sure process.
Lincoln demonstrates that. Jack Ford understood that. It looks like Steve Englehart did, too.
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Please not Hickman. He’s on my “avoid the book if he’s writing it” list. Though since I’m not reading that much current Marvel anyway that’s not particularly relevant.
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Sal Buscema does not get the respect he deserves. That double page spread of Cap’s career, with the figures against a white background, culminating in Number One’s suicide and a devastated Cap, is an amazing piece of work.
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Agree, Ben – and by the way, from this angle, that sure looks like Nixon’s hair on Number One.
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I think the one time he did was when he did Thor for a while with Simonson writing using a looser style.
Englehart (speaking of CA&F & The Defenders) and J.M. deMatteis (speaking of Spider-Man in particular) rave about his work.
In the 1970s, he was the Marvel House style . . . .
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The cover of CA&F 176 is definitely iconic…I certainly agree. And that word is way overused but not in this case. John Romita is very much an underrated and incredibly talented artist (although certainly not underrated by Stan and Roy). John Romita drew some of the greatest covers of all time, and while many of them were for Spider-Man, he drew many other wonderful covers. I have often studied this cover…very cool, very dramatic and very impactful…yes it is a bit of a spoiler but the first page has Cap declaring “Captain America Must Die!” so we could suspect which way the story will proceed.
This comic left a huge impression on me when I first read it, and it is a testament to Englehart’s writing skills that we were riveted by what is an essentially a “talking heads” story with no (usually required) Marvel style action. What’s amazing is when this issue ended I literally had no idea what direction this book would take..and that was both interesting and exciting.
You raised an interesting point regarding the timing issue between the Cap comic and the Avengers, and that may have been an unintentional mistake on Englehart’s part. He probably should have said that Cap was brooding over what to do about his identity for a few days (not hours) and then have Falcon and Peggy show up days later. Steve was in a bit of a corner about how to reconcile both books goings on since he was about to remove Cap from The Avengers for a long while. This seems to demonstrate Stan’s reasoning for removing Cap, Iron Man and Thor from the Avengers, since reconciling events between the various books could be tricky. Of course Marvel was much more conscious of continuity than DC back then. In the Silver Age, DC never really cared about continuity with the JLA and the heroes therein and their own books, and only maybe a little more in the Bronze Age.
By the way, it appears that someone went in and put the “nose” on Iron Man’s mask after the fact all over issue 176 (one of the strangest “mistakes” In retrospect ever made in comics). I was not reading IM at the time but of course became aware of the “nose” and learned later of the alleged reason behind it..which is pretty strange if true.
Since it appears you won’t be discussing CA&F 177-178, I’ll just mention that I remember those stories as being entertaining but in looking back, not sure why Steve bothered to use Lucifer, who was kind of a C-level villain who did not make sense as an X-Men villain (despite his guise he was an alien from another world), but Archie Goodwin (IM 20) and Englehart tried to justify his name (which made no sense in X-Men) by making him somewhat of a tempter giving out power.
It’s worth pointing out that although his work was getting better and more confident in 1973 (with his work on Doctor Strange and the Avengers-Defenders War), I would suggest that 1974 was really the year of Steve Englehart. He had quit Defenders in 1973 (according to later interviews to focus more on the Avengers), and was now doing some of his best writing specifically on Captain America, The Avengers and Doctor Strange, which have been the subject many of your posts this year, and I expect, more to come. We have even stronger stories coming up and I suspect you will be addressing many of those stories (such as Avenger 129 and Giant Size Avengers 2). Looking forward to those posts! Thanks Alan!
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Bruce, I’m with you on 1974 as the year of Englehart for precisely the titles you mentioned. As much as I enjoyed his 1972/73 work (particularly DEFENDERS, select issues of HULK, and the Beast feature in AMAZING ADVENTURES), 1974 was the year when he truly kicked it up several notches. I think the fact that the Avengers-Defenders Clash had worked (supposedly, Roy Thomas was a little nervous that something might go ker-flooey with deadlines, thus messing up TWO titles), Englehart was given a little more rein to try new things like the mind-tripping stuff in DR. STRANGE, the shuffling of THE AVENGERS, and especially the then-new idea of spending several issues with the main character not appearing, while addressing in an indirect way the state of the United States.
Couple that with Gerber’s great MAN-THING work and his terrific take on the Defenders, McGregor’s two titles, and the Wolfman/Colan/Palmer TOMB OF DRACULA, these really were glory days at the House of Ideas…
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Thanks Bill. I agree with your comments completely. In fact I was going to mention that 1974 was an important year for Steve Gerber as well but thought I would leave the focus on Steve Englehart. It is true that Gerber was getting more confident on Daredevil (although he would soon leave), Tales of the Zombie, Marvel Two-In-One, and Man-Thing, and Man-Thing was especially impressive with the addition of Mike Ploog. Not sure if Alan will be discussing any of those issues (well 5-7 have already passed the 50 year mark) but there is still 8-11, and of course, GS Man-Thing 1, which came out 50 years ago this month and features a villain who looks suspiciously like a certain president with the initials “RMN”. Also, Gerber began his run on Defenders in the fall of 1974, and was also responsible for the return/revival of the Guardians of the Galaxy (before 1974 they had been completely forgotten). Yes I was a big fan of Tomb of Dracula, and the Black Panther series, but around this time I am sorry to say I dropped War of the Worlds, so for years I never saw (or even knew about) Craig Russell’s great art. I would eventually get those books as back issues…many years later. Oh well…
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Hi, Bruce,
Yep, 1974 was definitely a good year if you wrote for Marvel and had the name “Steve.” Gerber really was coming into his own – and I have the feeling that Alan will get around to discussing Mr. Gerber in connection with the DEFENDERS (and possibly even the MARVEL TWO-IN-ONE issue that led into his DEFENDERS run).
I’ve already resigned myself to the fact that we’re not going to see any discussion of Don McGregor on this blog; Alan has admitted that he wasn’t picking up either of Don’s books at the time. Too bad, because as overwritten as they were, they had some SUPERB character stuff and some inventive ideas.
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There’ll definitely be some Gerber Defenders posts later in the year. Marvel Two-in-One #7 might or might not get a full post, but if it doesn’t make the cut, I’ll still need to write about it when I cover Defenders #20. 🙂
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Agreed. McGregor’s Panther was remarkable as entertainment, and as the first attempt to flesh out Wakanda as a country, even if much of that (valleys of dinosaurs) got dropped later.
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Man-Thing #8 is in queue for later this month. 😉
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This book was one of the first Englehart issues that I bought. It was only a few years ago, I’d come straight from reading the very enjoyable Byrne/Stern and Zeck/DeMaitteis runs..and August 1974 is the month and year of my birth – and I looked at the cover dates for Aug ’74 and what a great range of books, so figured it would be a fun little collecting strain…
So I tracked this down and thoroughly enjoyed it…and I went and got those X-men ‘lost years’ issues after it too…but after that it all spiralled down very quickly…So that meant going back to #153 to collect the whole Englehart run…and It’s been great fun!
As an Australian It’s quite interesting that the initial characterisation of Cap America being a zealous patriot is still how many local collectors see the character, they aren’t aware of this run and that Steve Englehart transforms the character by exposing him to the issues/problems of his country…a lot of non-US readers avoid the book thinking it’s just cover-to-cover pro-USA drivel, that’s a loss because the stories through Englehart/Stern & DeMatteis are anything but that!
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