Crime Waves and Unexpected Super-Strength!

Last week, I talked about my strong memories of reading a three-part Captain America story as a kid. It's a strong story--the sort of skilled, entertaining storytelling I like to celebrate on this blog. But I wasn't sure why this particular story stuck out in my mind to such a degree.

This week, we'll look at the second part of the story from Captain America and the Falcon #158 (February 1973), with the script by Steve Englehart and art by Sal Buscema. I still don't remember exactly why I loved this story so much in 1973, but it might have been my inherant good taste was already active and appreciative of well-told adventure tales. This story isn't an innovative classic in the history of graphic literature, but it does a great job of simply telling a fun story.

Remember that we left off last time with Cap and Falcon dying slowly from poison on a rooftop, while the villainous Viper makes a getaway. But Viper leaves behind an antidote he had tossed to the roof earlier as a distraction, gloating that Cap has no chance of getting to it before dying.

This is such a stereotypical villain thing to do that it can be justly argued its a weak spot in the story. But Englehart and Buscema make the most of it, following it up with a legitimately tense scene in which Cap painfully drags himself across the rooftop to reach the antidote, showing the determination that is such a key part of his character while saving both himself and Falcon.

The partners decide for Cap to try to track down the Cowled Commander--the head bad guy behind the Viper's attack--while Falcon trails the Viper personally. I really like how the rest of the issue is constructed. There's plenty of action, but the story around it is solid, with the two parallel investigations progressing in a logical manner.

Well, logical as far as Cap is concerned. Not everyone he questions seems to be thinking things through properly. His first stop is to talk to Sgt. Muldoon, who has been suspended recently while corruption charges against him are being invesigated.

Remember that at the time, Cap had been working as a cop while in his Steve Rogers identity. This had been an undercover assignment for an earlier case, which had meant he had often disappeared while on duty. This has led poor Muldoon to suspect that Steve is in fact the Cowled Commander.

(Gee whiz, I'll bet as a kid I just accepted the Cowled Commander as a cool villain name, but for now it sticks out as the one consistantly annoying part of an otherwise great story. It's a terrible villain name.)

Falcon, in the meantime, has first paid a visit to a local crime boss with whom he's been clashing, looking for information. He has to take out a trigger happy bodyguard, but afterwards can't make the crime boss talk. It's a nice bit of characterization for a secondary character--the boss is obviously scum, but he's not without physical courage, forcing Falcon to realize he's underestimated his opponent.

We switch back to Cap--the script does a fine job of juggling the action between the two heroes, helping keep up a nice level of suspense throughout the issue.

Cap encounters a gang of bank robbers and easily takes them down. In fact, he takes them with surprising ease. Possibly because of the poison and/or antidote interacting with the Super Soldier serum, Cap suddenly has increased super strength.

One of the crooks also spills the information that they are just the beginning of a crime wave that is about to be unleached on New York by the Cowled Commander.

Falcon, meanwhile, has tracked down Viper by tracing the drugs he would have had to buy to make his poisons. Between Falcon and Redwing, they take the villain down.

I should mention that Sal Buscema continues to do a great job with drawing and choreographing some wonderful fight scenes.

Cap has gone back to his apartment, only to find it's been searched. Soon after that, he's ambushed and captured--by Sgt. Muldoon!

Simultaneously, Falcon also learns about the impending crime wave, which will be led by a number of second-tier villains.

 It's very much a judgment call, but I think Marvel had better depth in their villain "bullpen" than did DC. They had a larger variety of secondary villains who weren't necessarily a part of one hero's Rogue's Gallery, but could be pulled out of storage and used in any story in which the writer thought they would fit.

So there you have it. A well-constructed story with a strong plot and some great action scenes. I really think I particularly remember this story primarily because my extraordinary good taste in such things was already developed. I was an unappreciated genius, by golly.

Next week, we'll look at the final chapter of this story arc.