Cover art by John Romita.
Cover art by Ron Wilson, Frank Giacoia, and John Romita (?).
At the conclusion of the last issue of Captain America we looked at on this blog, the classic #176, our star-spangled hero, reeling from the revelations about the United States government that had emerged in the wake of the Watergate scandal downfall of the Secret Empire, decided to renounce his costumed identity — “forever!” As we discussed briefly in the closing paragraphs of our post about that comic, Steve Rogers’ decision held firm throughout the next two issues, as his former partner, Sam Wilson (aka the Falcon), was forced to go up alone against Lucifer — a relatively obscure antagonist of the X-Men who’d upped his game by splitting himself in two. The Falcon ultimately triumphed over the villain(s), though not without a sudden, spur-of-the-last-moment intervention from Steve, who went into action wearing a ski-mask and slinging a garbage-can lid in lieu of a shield — an action that Sam, having been earlier rebuffed by Steve when he asked him to reconsider his decision to give up being Captain America, wasn’t thrilled about…
That very tense moment, coming right at the very end of Captain America #178, sets us up pretty well for today’s examination of issue #179 — although before we get into it, we really ought to take a look at a couple of other brief scenes from #178 which will soon prove to have ramifications not only for #179, but for other issues further down the line. We’ll start with the following, which finds Steve having a workout at a neighborhood gym…
Something that’s notably absent from Steve’s ruminations about his extraordinary level of physical fitness is any reference to the “super-strength” he gained accidentally after being poisoned by the Viper, some twenty issues back. If I’m not mistaken, the last time this enhanced power level had been directly referenced was back in issue #169, where it served to spur the Falcon’s quest to secure an upgrade of his own, which led in turn to Falc’s scoring a pair of Wakandan-made wings off the Black Panther in #170. While Cap’s super-strength doesn’t actually get written out before writer Steve Englehart’s departure from the series, it is pretty well ignored by him going forward (as it also will be by his immediate successors).
This scene is the first appearance of Roscoe, who’ll turn out to be much more significant than the incidental, throwaway-type character he comes across as here.
Moving on, a turn of the page takes us to the second of our portentous moments…
“Baseball is a dying game, some say…” Obviously, the national pastime is still alive and kicking half a century later — though I’ll leave it to any fans of the sport who may be reading this to weigh in on whether it’s more or less healthy in 2024 than it was in 1974.
We’ll move ahead a few pages now, to the next (and last) appearance of would-be Captain America Bob Russo…
This latter scene accomplishes a couple of things: first, of course, it carries forward the new “who will be the new Captain America?” subplot kicked off by the previous Bob Russo scene; second, it satisfies the need that someone at Marvel must have felt to have the Captain America costume show up somewhere within the story’s pages, in addition to the “symbolic” representation of Cap back in the gym scene, as well as on the book’s cover.
Anyway, we’re now ready at last for the main event, as we turn past Ron Wilson and Frank Giacoia’s similarly symbolic cover for Captain America #179 to see where our storytellers — writer Steve Englehart, penciller Sal Buscema, and inker Vince Colletta (all of whom were also responsible for the pages and panels from #178 shown above) take their narrative next…
“Peggy”, for anyone coming in late, is Sharon Carter’s older sister, whom Captain America loved and lost back in World War II (as originally chronicled in Tales of Suspense #77) but has come back into his life as of late (as depicted in CA #161-162).
“How does this Golden Archer know my secret?” Steve wonders. But there’s no answer immediately forthcoming, as the narrative briefly shifts focus to the Falcon, whom we see pay a visit to the Harlem crime boss Morgan; telling Morgan that he knows that the gangster was responsible for sending the two Lucifers after him in the previous storyline, Falc delivers a stern warning for him to lay off. (Yeah, like that’s going to work.) Then it’s back to Steve, who’s once again working out at the gym — the name of which we learn here for the first time, and whaddya know, it’s a familiar one (at least to comic-book fans of this and later eras)…
As the above page suggests, the whole question of Cap’s “secret identity” had become a bit of a mess prior to Steve Englehart’s straightening things out in Avengers #107 (Jan., 1973); if you’d like more details, CBR’s Brian Cronin has got ’em here.
Steve swings himself up from the fire escape up onto the building’s roof; a brief rooftop chase ensues, and then…
As with Bob Russo’s misadventure in the previous issue, the sad story of “Scar” Turpin forwards the replacing-Cap subplot, while also giving any casual readers who thought they were buying an issue of Captain America, and are now wondering just where the heck he is, a quick look at somebody wearing the familiar costume.
The Golden Archer falls, but comes back with a swift kick that sends Steve flying. But, as a narrative caption assures us, our hero is relishing the familiar aches that come with this kind of action as much as he is the equally familiar thrills. “And even the archer’s violent response is like a long lost friend. They put him in touch with himself, past and present!”
It probably says a lot about how completely acculturated to superhero genre conventions your humble blogger had become by 1974 that I don’t recall being the least bit fazed by the obvious absurdity of Hawkeye wearing a rubber mask of the Golden Archer’s face (which even has its own painted-on domino mask!) over his own headgear. Of course, in 2024 I can see the absurdity of it, while at the same time appreciating how difficult it otherwise would have been for our storytellers to quickly and clearly convey the G.A.’s true identity. After all, how could anyone tell Clint Barton apart from Steve Rogers — or, for that matter, from Hank Pym, Johnny Storm, or any number of other blond-haired, square-jawed Marvel characters of this era — without reference to their masks or costumes?
Something tells me that Sal Buscema was expecting Steve Englehart to provide a footnote or two to accompany the first two panels in the last tier above; but since that didn’t happen, please allow me to fill you in. The head-shots of Daredevil and Spider-Man recall Hawkeye’s encounters with those heroes in Daredevil #99 (May, 1973) and Marvel Team-Up #22 (Jun., 1974); meanwhile, the jaggedy-faced fellow in the same panel is Zzzax, a menace the archer faced in Hulk #166 (Aug., 1973). And, of course, the group shot that follows references Clint’s brief stint with the Defenders, which lasted from issue #7 (Aug., 1973) to #11 (Dec., 1973) of that title.
As for the third panel… may I just say how impressed I am at the command of “corny Thor-talk” demonstrated by Hawkeye in this issue? I’d have never guessed he had it in him.
And that “A-ha!” — or should that be “D’oh!”? — moment for Steve Rogers brings us to the end of this issue of Captain America. Be sure and join us next month for the debut of Steve’s exciting new costumed persona, Nomad — complete with cape!
Dear Alan:
What? No comment about the “Liz and Dick! Dick and Pat! Pat and Nard!” headline?
Hawkeye wearing his regular headgear underneath the Golden Archer disguise bothered me — it must have been very uncomfortable: perhaps some of “Hank Pym’s growth juice” (those Particles are so helpful!) was used? — but the fact that he claimed to have “learned” Captain America’s secret identity from seeing him change on a rooftop did.
When something like “amnesium” (see *JLA* #19) removes the knowledge of alter egos, it usually doesn’t affect revelations made prior to a global reveal (as a reader put it in *JLA* #22, Flash and Green Lantern would retain their awareness of the other’s alter ego, as would Superman and the Batman, and Julius Schwartz did not contradict him), and Hawkeye has known that Steve Rogers is Captain America since he joined the Avengers in #16. I doubt that the Space Phantom’s machinations took that from him (it’s clear from your excellent analysis of *Cap* #176 that the Avengers know who Cap is underneath his mask) any more than it would have taken it away from Quicksilver and the Scarlet Witch, who joined at the same time.
Something like “I may not know who Goldilocks is when he’s not fighting Loki, or who Shell-Head is when he’s not bodyguarding Tony Stark. but every Avenger knows you’re Steve Rogers, and even an ex-Avenger like me isn’t likely to forget it, Methuselah” would have worked better.
Say…you don’t suppose that the Space Phantom altered things so that it didn’t take four years for the Avengers to discover that Hawkeye was Clint Barton, do you?
I don’t think so (Marjorie Taylor Greene, on the other hand, has some theories about Egghead’s death ray from the sky), but I do know that the question of Captain America’s super-strength from the Viper’s poison was resolved in #218, when Cap mused that it just plain wore off.
I fully agree about that bit with Hawkeye’s knowledge of Steve Rogers being Cap. For Hawkeye (or Thor, Iron Man, Hank, Janet, Wanda or Pietro) to forget that would have been akin to Stever Rogers himself forgetting he’s Captain America! A simple explanation to the effect that the Space Phantom’s machinations only affected anyone who hadn’t previously known of his alter ego would have been sufficient.
It’s funny: I remembered the allusion to “The Adventure of the Empty House,” but I didn’t get the nod to Shakespeare in the story’s title (Hamlet’s most famous soliloquy, though not my favorite: that’s “how all occasions do inform against me” from Act IV) until today.
It’s good remembering what Steve Englehart meant to me at twelve, even when he puts a foot wrong…and there’s an extra pleasure in recalling that the “Golden Archer” name would pass to the archer-member of the Squadron Supreme, whose original codename was “Hawkeye,” prompting a certain Mr. Barton to say:
“You’re Hawkeye? That’s addin’ insult to injury!”
See *Avengers* #85,* in which Goliath, Quicksilver, the Scarlet Witch and the Vision find themselves dimensionally mis-sent, on a world where Hubert Humphrey is President…
(Apologies to A.E. Housman, subject of a Tom Stoppard play {*The Invention of Love*} and the source of two titles for James T. Farrell {*A World I Never Made* and *No Star is Lost*})
*
The Squadron Supreme bowman took the “Golden Archer” name in *Avengers* #141.
Was McDonald’s the Golden Archer’s favorite restaurant chain? “Yon golden arches are just too alluring for me to resist …”
Someone (Don Thompson?) in *The Buyer’s Guide for Comic Fandom* made the hamburger connection for the Golden Archer in 1974. (I missed that one, too, perhaps because I grew up near a Burger King.)
Much later, we learned that the Hawkeye/Golden Archer/Black Archer of Earth-Squadron’s real name was “Wyatt McDonald.”
Makes you wonder whether he later acquired a young partner who went by the name of “Royale with Cheese.”
(Yes, I did see “Pulp Fiction” again for the first time in thirty years. How did you know? In any case, the Douglas Sirk steak is on me next time we’re at Jackrabbit Slim’s.)
When I first read this book in 1974 and now 50 years later, I cannot help but read Golden Arches in my mind instead of Golden Archer and get an urge for a McDonald’s meal. Talk about good advertising on the part of McDonald’s in general and unintentional free advertising from Marvel. The original Viper would have been proud.
“What? No comment about the “Liz and Dick! Dick and Pat! Pat and Nard!” headline?”
Only because I totally missed it, A.S.!
And thanks for the issue number reference for the “wore off” explanation re: Cap’s super-strength — I knew that that’s what Marvel had eventually done, but had no real idea when (and was too lazy to go try to look it up 😉 ).
Happy to have been of help!
Roy Thomas pays tribute to another Underground Comix series in *Avengers* #97 when Nick Fury asks the Avengers if they expected the Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers.
(Whatever happened to H. Warren Craddock?)
Thomas also had Captain America admit to being “a sucker for far-out fantasy” in *Avengers* #46.
Craddock was beaten to death by a mob whipped up by his own mind-control tech, after he reverted back to being a Skrull.
That’s true for the Skrull Craddock; however, there was a real Craddock, whom we meet at the end of “Godhood’s End” (Nick Fury explains to the Avengers that the Craddock who caused them so much trouble — “the first-class pain in the assignment” — was the fourth Skrull from *Fantastic Four* #2). This Craddock doesn’t say anything and looks as if he wants to shamble off to a Joe McCarthy Post-Condemnation* Lookalike Contest, but he is real, and, as far as I can determine, he never appeared after the Kree-Skrull War storyline.
Marvel didn’t make him their Morgan Edge after the Fourth World faded out, nor did they have him start a law firm with Larry Trask’s guardian Judge Chalmers.
C’est la vie.
*
While the general awareness is that the Senate “censured” McCarthy for conduct unbecoming of a senator at the end of 1954, it actually “condemned” him.
Ah, I see. You’re quite right, nobody ever saw Real Craddock again.
I have no idea who “Pat and Nard” are. I assume from Anonymous Sparrow’s post that they relate to an underground commix title?
By the way, now when I read the name H. Warren Craddock, I think of Billy “Crash” Craddock who had a top 40 hit called “Rub It In” fifty years ago right now.
Yes, “Nard ‘n’ Pat” was an underground comix strip by Jay Lynch. Don Markstein’s Toonopedia will give you the basics, here: http://www.toonopedia.com/nardnpat.htm
Thanks Alan!
This was a fun issue. Of course, that the Golden Archer would turn out to be Hawkeye shouldn’t have been too much of a surprise as he was pretty using the same type of arrows as Cap’s old teammate. My 12 year old self did find it a bit hilarious that Clint wore his Hawkeye mask under his Golden Archer mask but I can sort of understand Sal’s dilemma as while at least several dark-haired male super-heroes had distinct enough hairstyles or facial hair to make them distinctive, such as Peter Parker, Reed Richards, Tony Stark & Stephen Strange (although under some artists, the latter two may have been confused for one another), but nearly all of the unmasked blonde alter egos tended to look very much alike no matter who was drawing them. They all tended to look a lot like Robert Redford at the height of his popularity, at least when he was cleanshaven. Thor, of course, was the main exception.
The subplot with the substitute Captain Americas certainly began with some hilarity, at the painful expense of the would-be heroes, and echoing a subplot of the Lee/Kirby era from the last time Steve Rogers quit being Cap, albeit for a much briefer period. But we couldn’t yet know the tragic denouement Steve Englehart was leading to with the various strands he was weaving. By this point, having been getting CA&TF regularly since issue 169, and not being beset with serious memory problems, I certainly wasn’t befuddled by the absence of the real Cap in the mag named for him, although I can certainly imagine someone either several years younger or even someone else of the same age or older who’d never previously read the mag being a bit confused, although I think Englehart provides enough exposition to roughly explain the situation well enough for anyone but a profound simpleton to figure out.
Actually, to be honest, it was just these sort of complex, multi-issue storylines, and reasonably well-written characterization, that got me hooked on Marvel. If the writers were capable of making me care about these characters and what happened to them, I wanted to see what was going to happen next in their lives, with or without their costumes on. And Englehart was certainly a capable enough writer! Heck, he even got me interested in the fate of the Swordsman, a former grade D baddie trying his best to redeem himself and impress his lady, but beset by ill-fate and failures over and over and heading for his most heroic stand and final fall over in GS Avengers # 2 about 50 years ago this month too.
As to Mr. Rogers(!), reading this issue, I can almost wish he could retire to a quieter life with Sharon. Naturally, in this fantasy world that wasn’t a real possibility. Eventually, one way or another, he was going to return to his original, iconic costumed persona, and Sharon Carter would have to deal with that. But even before that, Clint’s intervention would destroy the idyll, and Steve Rogers would “get back to work” in another guise, even travelling across the world while chasing the latest threat to world peace and stability, at the expense of that of his own private life. Russo, Scar and Roscoe could only see the glamorous side of things for a crime-busting costumed hero, without any thought of the potential costs, until it was too late.
Thanks Alan! This was a very entertaining issue (and of course, review), and I am fairly certain that I did not guess at all that the “Golden Archer” was really Hawkeye back in 1974, which is funny since now it seems so obvious. I suspect that I wasn’t even thinking of Hawkeye who had only made one appearance thus far in 1974 (Marvel Team-Up 22). Yes of course having his mask on under the rubber mask does seem ridiculous but if we had seen the face of another blond haired guy that would have just been confusing as everyone else has noted. I really like the way Steve tied this back to Hawkeye’s early days with the Avengers. I had finally read those issues (either by back issues or reprints) at the time and Hawkeye had acted like a total jerk to Cap for about a year in the Avengers until he finally wised up. He did owe Cap a debt and this was a clever way to repay that debt.
I also noticed something interesting. Tom Orzechowski is probably well known now as the long standing letterer on X-Men during Chris Claremont’s long run on that book. But here he is, not just as letterer on Captain America, but on Avengers, Doctor Strange, and Captain Marvel, well before the new X-Men. I don’t think it’s a coincidence that he is on books all written by Steve Englehart…Do you?
Hawkeye was not appearing in any regular Marvel book, but Marvel Triple Action was reprinting his Kooky Quartet (plus the Pyms) run from the Avengers. I knew that was a reprint book, but I bought it before some of the new material Marvel was putting out, as I really enjoyed that run of the Avengers. So Hawkeye was out there, and cover featured usually, even if there weren’t new stories with him.
Based on the first self-titled issue of Master of Kung Fu. Orzechowsi and Englehart were good friends.
Englehart used Golden Arrow as the “Green Arrow” figure in Squadron Supreme in The Avengers about 18 months later where the Serpent Crown story (sort of ) gets resolved.. I don’t think he ever appeared before, but he had a doppelganger on the Squadron Supreme Earth in a related story. (But, with no major payoff, Englehart seemed less happy about his work starting in about the end of 1975.)
When Steve Englehart left CA&F in early 1975, a lot of neat concepts (and one not so neat one) just got dropped. I thought Tony Isabella (typically for him) had a clever idea for CA&F (taking it back to its roots with SHIELD) but he got out of Kirby’s way and Kirby had great ideas but it seemed like a different series.
It took about 7 years to get CA back to where it was when Englehart left . . . .
All in all, this issue was a piece of fluff. Can’t call it filler or a “bottle ep” because it does move the over-all story forward in the tiniest of ways in that Clint gives Steve the idea to pick a new super-hero identity, but it’s fluff. How did it never cross Steve’s mind that the Golden Archer might be Hawkeye? Shakespearean lingo aside, is Clint that good at disguising his voice? And besides, why couldn’t Clint just walk up to Steve and suggest a new supe id in person without going through all the dramatic fiddle-faddle?
As for Clint wearing his Hawkeye mask under is Golden Archer mask, why didn’t he just put a domino mask over his own face? According to comic book-logic, that little mask would have concealed Hawkeye’s identity even if Clint Barton and Steve Rogers had been best friends.
I would completely discount the value of this entire issue if it weren’t for Steve summarily and finally breaking Peggy’s heart-callously, I thought-and the lead-in to Nomad, which was a storyline I followed back in the day. Thanks, Alan!
Yeah, aspects of it are very silly. As to Steve Rogers’ handling of dealing with the situation with Peggy, at least Steve E. had Steve R. recognized he screwed that up, which is rather realistic, at least as based on my observations and experiences of humans doing really dumb things when trying to deal with difficult situations. In this case, there was really no good way for Steve R. to deal with the situation without causing Peggy emotional distress. They’d had a very brief budding romance decades earlier just before he was iced up for 20 years, while she experienced a mental breakdown that lasted nearly 30 years, and after being deiced, he happened to meet and become romantically involved with her younger sister, Sharon, having no idea that they were related or even that Peggy was still alive. And Peggy only knew him as Captain America, having never seen him without his mask or gotten to know his real name. And after her recovery, and becoming reacquainted with Cap, she had the mindset that she & Cap could pick up their romance from where it had left off 30 years ago, but Steve & Sharon both feared breaking the news to her that that wasn’t in the cards. Until this issue when Steve finally tells her, but from the shadows, in a public setting. Well, yeah, as he was still set on never wearing his Cap uniform again but didn’t want to reveal his civilian ID to her at this point, it made some sense, but still one of those things that he should have known would not go over well. Still, to me, it’s just the sort of thing that made Cap relatable — that he could make such screw ups and wasn’t Mr. Perfect Example in everything he did or said, much as some other writers seemed anxious to portray him that way.
I also enjoyed her hooking up with Gabe later in the series.
I’m glad you wrote that because when I read (actually re-read, I don’t remember if I picked this up on my original read in 1974) Steve’s blow-off of Peggy in Alan’s blog post stills, I was completely baffled at the weird way he did it and how heartless it was. I forgot that Peggy had only known Captain America and never knew that he was Steve Rogers. As a result, it makes sense that Steve would hide himself in the shadows and talk as Captain America from a distance. I guess what he said was a lot nicer than if he had said the specific truth like “you are an old woman now and I’m a young man and I want a young babe” or worse “I love your sister now, I didn’t know she was your sister, and I thought that you were dead but hey, that’s what happened and that’s the way it is now.”
I always thought that Cap calling her “Mademoiselle” was cruel although apparently as the years went on in the series and Peggy started working with the Avengers she didn’t care because Cap STILL called her Mademoiselle.
I don’t have a problem with not simply saying “get a new identity” — first he had to convince Steve that yes, he missed the life.
It’s true about the mask but that’s generally true of comic-book disguises — if Hero slips into Henchman’s clothes the clothes always fit (as Raiders of the Lost Ark mocked). And it’s not as bad as when the Beast, in his first Avengers arc, gets on the Stranger’s ship and disguises himself as Edward G. Robinson — where the hell could he keep a mask and a suit of clothes?
Rereading the Silver Age I’m around 25 issues into Roy Thomas’ run and a constant element is Hawkeye reminding the others how Cap (who wasn’t on the team at that point) was so awesome.
Steve talking to Sharon suggests that rather than simply blot out his identity, the Space Phantom erased people’s memory that Cap ever went public with his real name. Which would explain why anyone who knew his identity before that wasn’t affected — except then we have Hawkeye explaining he did forget.
Clearly, the Space Phantom screwed up Steve Englehart’s memory of how his scheme worked! And in the present, no one remembers that Peggy used to be Sharon’s elder sister, rather than her great-great aunt, or 3rd cousin, 2 times removed or whatever it is now, and which will have to be totally ignored for the rest of Cap’s publication history because it’s now far too complex to have to keep explaining and revising as Cap’s WWII history recedes ever further and further into the past. And no one wants to deal with the fact that Sharon should now be 80 some-thing and Peter Parker right around 77.
I periodically debate with myself what’s the most awkward Marvel retcon caused by the sliding timescale. Nick Fury is a strong candidate because a)he works for the government, they have to notice and b)having Dum-Dum and Gabe around doesn’t make sense (though they’ve tried).
Though the idea of Namor walking around as an amnesiac Bowery bum from 1950 to what’s now almost the end of the twentieth century offends me on an aesthetic level.
And they should never have made Natasha Romanoff’s WW II experiences canon.
Rereading the Whatever Happened To Peter’s Parents story it struck me the Soviet Red Skull is a problem — battling the fake Captain America in the 1950s, then killing the Parkers in what, the 1990s? — but easily resolved: he died, someone else took over the role in the years the real Johann Schmidt was supposedly dead. After all, being the Red Skull is primo branding, so why not? Germany’s films about crime genius Dr. Mabuse went a similar route, with several villains taking over his identity (the original Mabuse died in the nuthouse in his second film Testament of Dr. Mabuse).
When I read this back in the day, I didn’t give a second thought about Clint having his Hawkeye mask under the Golden Archer disguise. It was simply the artist’s way of quickly showing what was going on.
It was good to see Clint just doing a good thing since he had been acting like a jerk on several occasions since returning as Hawkeye, such as hitting on Wanda, having a temper tantrum and leaving the Avengers, trying to hook back up with the Black Widow while she was living with Daredevil, being happy to fight the Avengers with the Defenders, and trying to hook up with Valkyrie.
Seeing Steve dressed in bell bottoms really takes me back 😀
Makes sense that Clint would suggest that Steve take on a new superhero identity since he had spent some time as Goliath.
My strongest memories of this issue aren’t with the story itself, but rather how I acquired it. The book came into my possession through my grandparents, who bought about fifty comics from a garage sale, knowing I liked them. The vast majority of the books were war comics (lots of Our Army at War featuring Sgt. Rock). The two issues that stood out were this one and a shopworn copy of Conan the Barbarian #7. The Cap was the oldest issue of the book I’d ever seen up to that point, having first encountered the character’s solo title around issue 199 (the Kirby Mad-Bomb saga).
A little late (!) but I have now read this, as part of my own 50 year anniversary ( the comic would not have hit the shores here in the UK until the bleak days of November 1974). I really enjoyed CAatF#179, and found it a good character driven tale. Yes, far from perfect, but it moved the storyline along and gave a meaning as to the Nomad storyline of the next few issues. Hawkeye has to make his point in the only way he knew how, and Hawk has always been an action jerk, not a man of words ( the Thor style speech was contrived though).
Some parts where I would have added improvements on as editor: during the rooftop chase scene, I would have had Cap thinking ‘with an aim this bad, it’s obvious this guy is no Hawkeye’, putting some rationale as to why Cap didn’t put 2 and 2 together to suspect that Golden A was Haweye; then on the mask uncovering scene/panel, I would have has Clint’s actual face, under the GA mask, but with a cameo of Hawkeye’s masked face next to the speak balloon, which would have started ” Hey Cap, it’s me, Clint, Hawkeye…..”
Otherwise nice art by Sal and Vince. I doubt Sal put in lots of backgrounds anyway for Vince to leave out.
One of the things that I appreciate about Englehart in the 70s is he really tried to keep the flame going for heroes in limbo, as he did with X-Man, the Beast, and of course Hawkeye. The 1970’s were so much Englehart’s golden age, and it still confounds me how much I found his 80s work dull, uninteresting and the caracterisation forced.