The villain retrospective doesn’t include EVERY supervillain, but after going through the major Captain America villains I noticed that I skipped an important one that had a VERY weird first appearance.
Let’s remedy that, shall we?
Captain America #168 (1973)
written by Roy Thomas & Tony Isabella
pencils and cover by Sal Buscema
According to a later interview with Tony Isabella, Roy Thomas provided the plot and wrote the first six pages.
Falcon is Cap’s sidekick in this period, but the relationship between the two is a bit shaky right now.
This is mostly because Cap is going back to his earliest Silver Age characterization: always moping about being a man from the past.
Even Falcon notices this is old stuff for Cap, and he wasn’t even around that early period!
It’s mostly due to a combination of meeting his WWII sweetheart and being written by Roy Thomas.
And then this guy shows up firing a machine gun at them!!!
This is The Phoenix. He’s utterly unrecognizable from his classic look, so it could be a fun surprise for anyone who doesn’t know who he turns out to be.
Also: more supervillains should go around shooting at the hero out of nowhere.
Falcon doesn’t think much of The Phoenix.
This is so early in Falcon’s career that he can’t fly yet: he’ll get his wings 2 issues after this one.
Still, even unable to fly, I thought he’d be better than THIS.
(also: The Phoenix’s gun completely changed shape between panels)
Then the villain just leaves because he’s out of bullets (!!!). And Captain America lets him go without even trying throwing his shield at him!!!
He really doesn’t deserve his “just desserts”. (WTF!?)
Yeah just stand around discussing about the identity of The Phoenix instead of FOLLOWING HIM THROUGH THE ROOFTOPS, guys. Great idea.
The Phoenix said he knew Cap, so he goes through his rogues gallery to figure out who it might be.
He dismisses the idea it’s the Red Skull because he’s currently considered dead.
If Isabella is correct, then this is the last page written by Roy Thomas. Which checks out because it’s where Cap makes an absolutely random reference to Baron Zemo thinking it couldn’t possibly be him. Leave it to Roy Thomas to waste any potential mystery right from to the start.
I mean the ONLY other suspect Cap brings out is Z-list villain Solarr (the second “r” is what makes him evil), despite the fact he also acknowledges it would be ridiculous for him to use a machine gun when Solarr can shoot lasers!!!
We are now in the Isabella part of the story, and it’s not off to a great start because this is some of the most forced infighting I’ve ever seen.
It’s obvious Cap is doing this because he doesn’t want Falcon to get hurt, but… come on, this is just silly.
Cap then goes on patrol looking for The Phoenix, and he finds him!
Aaaaaand then he IMMEDIATELY falls for a trap.
I just realized that The Phoenix could’ve easily killed Captain America RIGHT NOW and would’ve made his life easier decades ago.
Instead he decides to tie Captain America above a vat of Adhesive-X™.
Because The Phoenix is actually the son of the original Baron Zemo.
According to this story, the two Zemos never met after the son’s childhood.
Future flashbacks will change this, although the weren’t exactly close.
Falcon arrives to save Cap, and if this dialogue isn’t from Roy Thomas then I seriously need to lower my opinion of Isabella.
Falcon wants to beat the crap out of The Phoenix, but Cap has some sympathy for a visibly mentally unstable maniac and tries to reason with him.
So The Phoenix decides to kill Cap with his own shield…
…resulting in one of the most embarrassing losses in supervillain history.
And so we close with Captain America being sad.
Revolutionary stuff.
Historical significance: 0/10
Do yourself a favor and skip to Zemo’s return in the AWESOME DeMatteis run.
Silver Age-ness: 10/10
This could easily be a 60s story. A very dumb one, but still. 
Does it stand the test of time? 2/10
Yeah, uhm… this was pretty bad. The villain is a joke, the drama feels very forced, and the mystery… come on, did you REALLY have to bring up the first Zemo immediately!?
How close is this to the modern character? 0/10
Zemo will return in 1982 when he will get his facial disfigurement, his classic costume, and a personality. It will take him a little longer to become a major player… he’s mostly a pawn of the Red Skull in the DeMatteis run.
But he later grows into an amazing supervillain, mostly pivoting to being more of an Avengers villain than a Captain America one.
He went through MASSIVE character development, especially after the Thunderbolts… to the point I wish they told us the dumbass from his first story was a different son of the original Zemo.
My family had the Power Record of this one.
I still have mine somewhere.
Bad dialogue? Perhaps, but for years after, I loved using the expression, “Same difference. They’re both in Arizona” to perplexed family members.
Me too. Brilliant insult.
I had this one on power records too (which confused me as the Falcon had wings in the comics). I remember Steve Rogers sounded a lot like Sam the Bald Eagle from the muppet show.
As a kid, I though Falc was a badarse for trashing Zemo on his own, but as an adult I could see how Cap was trying to help a kid twisted by the cycle of revenge.
And Greg, I too, loved the “Same difference, they’re both in Arizona.” And have always been looking for an opportunity to use it in life. I still rank it as one of the best insults of all time.