BHOC: CAPTAIN AMERICA #237

After a steady run, CAPTAIN AMERICA was about to enter the doldrums, a period of frequent fill-ins and creative instability. I obviously didn’t know any of that when I picked up this latest issue at the Stationery store, but I did find that I didn’t especially care for it. It was fine, but not a comic book that especially excited me or blew me away. What this issue is remembered best for is being the story that confirmed definitively that Cap’s longtime girlfriend Sharon Carter had actually been killed off in the previous adventure. Even at the time, this felt like a weird way to go about dispensing with a character of such importance, and so it was no real surprise when Sharon was resurrected 15 years later, given that the evidence of her death was an easily-doctored video tape.

This was a transition issue, in which the storylines of the past few months were wrapped up and a new beginning was set up for Cap, or really for Steve Rogers, his alter ego. Nobody had really done a whole lot with Steve Rogers in all the time the book had run. His appearances would mostly be about marking time until a problem broke out that Captain America had to solve. But it never felt like he had an actual life in the manner of a Peter Parker. Efforts would be made to change that over the next year or two, and they’d work to a certain degree. This particular story was plotted by Chris Claremont, filling in for some reason, though the final dialogue and copy was provided by regular writer Roger McKenzie. I have to assume that McKenzie directed Chris in the specifics of the character set-up stuff, since Claremont wouldn’t have simply gone off and done all of that worldbuilding on his own.

The story opens in the aftermath of last issue’s triumph over the Grand Director and his National Force. Cap gives a press conference in which he attempts to establish his innocence, claiming honestly that he was brainwashed into saying and doing all of the hateful things that he’d done the past few issues. Apparently, despite some skepticism among the crowd, everybody bought into this, as the matter never comes up again. While there, Cap is summoned by a CBS News reporter whose crew happened to have captured footage of Sharon Carter immolating herself under Doctor Faustus’ mental control. This serves as proof to Cap that his lady love is no longer among the living.

But Cap wasted little time (read: none) in mourning, and by the next page, it’s a week later and the Falcon discovers that Cap’s apartment is empty. Heading over to Avengers Mansion in the hopes of locating his erstwhile partner, he find Steve Rogers there, who tells him and the assembled Avengers that he’s moving to a new place in Brooklyn Heights. He’s also setting out on a new career for himself as a commercial illustrator. This was really the point where it was established that Cap had artistic aspirations in his youth, though I seem to recall that there was a one-off line buried in some earlier story that pointed in this direction. In any event, the idea here is to set up Steve Rogers in a new place with a new job and a new cast of supporting characters surrounding him.

And so, the story wastes no time in introducing us to some of the new players in Cap’s life. Approaching his new place, Steve is almost bowled over by firefighter Mike Farrell who is on his way to an active blaze. Then, after making dinner, he runs into neighbor Josh Cooper, who has come to invite him to a dinner being hosted by their mutual neighbor Anna Kapplebaum. Anna is an old woman, but Steve has a vague sense of having met her someplace before. Upon meeting her, Steve notices that Anna carries a number tattooed on her arm, a remnant of the days she spent as a prisoner in the Diebenwald Concentration Camp during the war. As the two speak, we get an extended flashback to Anna’s memories of those dark days.

This of course leads to the moment late in the war when Captain America showed up to liberate the camp, just as the guards were readying to execute all of the remaining prisoners before taking off for safer ground, Patton’s army nearing the area. it’s pretty nasty stuff, though sanitized for a Comics Code-era comic. This next section unfortunately plays just a little bit too much like any number of Sgt. Fury stories of the period, where the American super hero takes out the bad guys without any apparent loss of life, and while an effort is made to showcase the horrifying reality of the Holocaust, this too is blunted in a frankly unsatisfying way. I suppose it had to be enough that such a serious subject was being tackled in a super hero comic aimed at a young audience, but it was still a far cry from being much more than naked propaganda.

Anyway, the evening ends, and Steve retires, contemplating his career as Captain America which he was toying with giving up in the wake of Sharon’s death. But obviously, he isn’t going to do that. Then, in a last page which shows some evidence of other hands–I’d bet that Al Milgrom either penciled or inked it, or both–Cap gets a phone call from Nick Fury about an urgent matter. In recent issues, Cap had been on the outs with SHIELD, but the fill-in job that will occupy the next two issues is a mission that Cap goes on at SHIELD’s behest (possibly it was commissioned before the falling out between the two parties) and so a page was needed to set it up and make it make sense. This does mean that after an entire issue in which Steve overtly dedicates himself to having a regular life, he immediately puts all of that on the back burner to jet off as Captain America again. What’s more, it’ll be a while before the new set-up can really be used effectively, as assorted fill-ins and a lack of a stable creative team get in the way. Writer Roger McKenzie won’t be back in the driver’s seat until issue #243, six months later.