BHOC: CAPTAIN AMERICA #229

The next week brought more new comics to my local 7-11 on Thursday, which was delivery day for them back in those days. Among the new offerings was this issue of CAPTAIN AMERICA. The title had stabilized a little bit after a rocky couple of months and was now in the process of pulling the long-running subplot about the Corporation, the underworld syndicate that Jack Kirby had created towards the end of his time on both CAPTAIN AMERICA and MACHINE MAN. They had been a background element in this book and a few others for several months, but now Cap was on their trail and they were moving to front burner status. This issue was also my introduction to the quartet of lame-os called the Super Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. I knew who the Texas Twister was from a couple of FANTASTIC FOUR appearances, but here’s where I really came across the awkwardly-named Marvel Man, who would later adopt the alternate codename Quasar, The Blue Streak and the Vamp, the latter two of whom turned out to be (spoiler) double agents. It’s not a great batting average when half of your team turns out to be secret bad guys.

After losing track of his partner the Falcon, who had been recruited by SHIELD to oversee and mentor the Super-Agents program, Cap last month went on the hunt for his wayward sidekick. He instead found the Constrictor, who had been sent by the Corporation to put a stop to Cap’s investigation. This didn’t go so well, but both Cap and the Constrictor were caught inside the abandoned SHIELD headquarters when it was self-destructed for the sake of security. As this issue opens, we find that both men survived the detonation thanks to Cap protecting them from the falling rubble with his shield and being able to erect a makeshift safe area within the collapsing ruins. But short on oxygen, Cap still needs to dig the two of them out of the ruins and back out to the safety of the wider world.

Cap spends a page or so forcing his way past the barricades and collapsed areas, eventually winding up in the sewers. He questions the Constrictor once again about who hired him, and learns nothing apart from the fact that the Hulk’s friend Jim Wilson had likewise been a target, thus setting up a crossover with that series that was in the immediate future. Cap does have a suspect narrowed down, though–only Jasper Sitwell and the Super-Agents knew that he was going to be at that old SHIELD base at that moment, so only one of them could have tipped off the Corporation to send the Constrictor his way. But in order to get to the bottom of things. Cap is going to have to travel to the West Coast where the Super-Agents are headquartered.

Cap heads back to his apartment, intending to pick up a change of clothes and some cash in order to make the journey–but he’s forgotten that his place was demolished by a runaway Volkswagen a couple of issues ago. Undeterred, he heads over to Avengers Mansion in the hopes of borrowing some civilian attire and getting a lift to California. But the Avengers on duty–Hercules, Thor and the Beast–are of little help. You’d think that Thor could transport Cap in the blink of an eye without much effort, but for no really good reason, Cap muses that doing so would “attract too much attention”. So in the end, it’s steadfast Jarvis who is able to loan Cap the money he needs and who also provides him with a suit. And so, Steve Rogers takes a bus across the country. He winds up sitting next to a kid reading the latest issue of DAREDEVIL, which Roger McKenzie was also writing at this time. It’s a funny moment, one that unknowingly foreshadows that period to come in which Steve Rogers himself would be employed by Marvel to pencil the CAPTAIN AMERICA comic book.

But we’re halfway through the issue at this point, which means that it’s time for a fight sequence to break out. Arriving at the SHIELD base in California, Cap bursts in on the surprised Super-Agents declaring that he knows that one of them is a traitor. He’s hoping to startle the guilty party into revealing themself–not realizing that there is more than one Corporation spy among this crew. Realizing that the jig is likely up, Blue Streak hastily declares that Cap must be testing them, like he did in their first meeting, and signals the Super-Agents to the attack. The Vamp backs up his move, which causes the Texas Twister and Marvel Man to likewise join in the fight.

Artist Sal Buscema, here inked/finished by Don Perlin, draws a dynamic, fast-moving battle sequence, and this is no exception. Of course, even outnumbered four to one, Captain America is Captain America and the guys he’s fighting are a quartet of turkeys, so Cap goes through them like a hot knife through butter. But he fulfils the action requirement for this issue in doing so. Blue Streak cracks at this point, revealing conclusively that he’s been working for the Corporation. But before Cap can do anything with this knowledge, The Vamp leaps in to attack the Blue Streak, intending to “accidentally” kill him in her zeal in order to prevent him from revealing the Corporations’ secrets–like the fact that she too is a Corporation operative.

But before the Vamp can land a final, fatal blow, Cap relieves her of the special belt that give her her powers. But this is the end of the Super-Agents of SHIELD. The Texas Twister, sick of all of this craziness, takes off for other pastures. Blue Streak is pretty badly beaten up, but he’s able to tell Cap what he wants to know: the Corporation is holding the Falcon at Alcatraz Prison–which is where the next issue will be set. Speaking of which, the final promotional burb indicates that the next issue will guest-star the Hulk. It doesn’t reveal that the story will be a genuine crossover between the two titles–that would come next time. But the set-up was over, now it was time to get into the long-coming main event.

The letters page in this issue is pretty funny as well, as editor Roger Stern runs only a single letter, answering the questions posed in a novel-length response. I’m guessing that Roger only had the one letter to work with, mail to the letters pages having dwindled in the past couple of months as many Marvel titles missed running such pages. Roger assures any prospective letter writers that the problem has now been solved, and tells them that they should send along their comments again if they want to see them printed.