Captain America #208 (1977)
by Jack Kirby
The Kirby run on Captain America is a bit infamous among fans; after the revolutionary Englehart run, Kirby’s stories were a throwback to classic adventures that were a bit too silly for the character. Ultimately the Kirby run failed to leave a mark… with one important exception.
The first part of the story is a bit disconnected from the character I’ll focus on. It’s mostly about Captain America fighting a South American dictator.
As well as the terrifying monster lurking around.
Falcon is the co-star of the series (it’s even renamed “Captain America and Falcon” for a while), but he’ll spend most of this storyline looking for Cap.
His role as Cap’s sidekick will be taken by South American rebel Donna Maria, who alternates between being a certified badass and a typical Kirby woman.
Despite falling within a few stereotypes, Donna Maria is a fairly well-written character. Which is a breath of fresh hair because the Kirby treatment of the other women in the supporting cast tends to be… let’s say very 60s.
The REAL star of the storyline only shows up at the very end of #208.
Captain America #209 (1977)
by Jack Kirby
This is not a bad cover in the slightest, but… come on, you have the AWESOME design of Arnim Zola and he’s not the main focus!?
Donna Maria has possibly the most normal reaction anyone could have when looking at Arnim Zola for the first time. Except maybe “AAAAAHHH!!!”.
If you’re one of the people who thinks he was the one writing the dialogues for everything created with Stan Lee… I don’t know what to tell you because we’re not in the same reality.
Seriously, I have mostly positive things to say about this Kirby storyline, but… let’s face it, Kirby’s dialogues are just atrocious.
Zola is not alone: he brought his weirdest creation with him. Believe it or not, but Doughboy is actually one of the most terrifying and effective monsters in Marvel.
Certainly he’s the most disgusting. Just be thankful you can’t smell this thing.
You might be thinking: if Kirby wanted to give Cap a female sidekick, couldn’t he use his then-current girlfriend and SHIELD agent Sharon Carter?
Well… remember when I said Kirby’s women are stuck in the 60s?
Okay, to be completely fair to Sharon, she DOES vow to return to duty to help Cap.
But that only helps her so much.
Meanwhile Cap and Donna Maria are amazed by Doughboy’s ability to create a window.
Which okay, it IS impressive, but you can’t be equally amazed by that AND by the fact it just flew you to the other side of the planet!!!
I love how casual Zola is with all the insanity around him. Really sells how this is just normal for him.
Uhm, Cap, you okay there?
Arnim Zola then proceeds to narrate his origin story as the world’s most evil Swiss.
Interestingly, we’re never given a clear shot of his face.
Years later, Mark Gruenwald will link the origins of various Marvel super-geneticists as having received secret information from the father of his villain Maelstrom.
The fact that this fits SO WELL with Zola’s origin is amazing, but I wonder: did Kirby plan to connect this to anything else? The main suspects are from his Eternals series, but knowing Kirby this probably would’ve gone nowhere because he’d already have introduced another 100 ideas.
Probably THE most horrific thing about Arnim Zola is that HE CHOSE TO LOOK LIKE THAT.
That’s basically all Cap needs to punch him in his face-chest.
I always imagined Arnim Zola talked with a German accent since… well he’s Swiss and a Nazi… but apparently he’s from the South?
Cap, I know the usual joke would be “everyone did drugs in the 70s”, but I’m genuinely starting to worry about those eyes.
Zola is not a fighter, so he sends another pawn to fight Cap: the far less disgusting Primus.
He’s also hornier than Doughboy.
Captain America #210 (1977)
by Jack Kirby
It’s not often the first thing that comes to mind when considering Kirby’s artwork, but the man sure had an amazing talent for horror.
Poor Donna Maria. She does manage to be a badass in other stories, but with Zola around she’s hopelessly outmatched.
Although let’s face it, her purpose in this is being fanservice. Very, VERY weird fanservice.
I’m having a hard time accepting how Zola keeps Primus around. He’s constantly telling him he’s useless and how he’s inferior to Doughboy… why exactly does he tolerate Primus?
He does force Primus to fuse back with Doughboy, but why did he need him as a separate being in the first place?
Zola has trapped Captain America and Donna Maria in his castle. And while I just praised Kirby for being great at horror… I’m sorry, but this scene just made me laugh.
ALMOST as much as seeing Falcon face a supposedly terrifying Zola monster.
Sharon also rejoins the story, looking for Arnim Zola though a different channel: by hunting down an eccentric researcher who might know him.
Arnim Zola’s best buddy, however, turns out to be Red Skull.
In a well-executed cliffhanger, we learn that Red Skull and the guy meeting Sharon Carter are the same person.
Remember that at the time the skull wasn’t his face: he’s wearing a skull mask and ANOTHER mask on top of that.
Captain America #211 (1977)
by Jack Kirby
Again: you have Arnim Zola! Why do you keep giving the cover to less visually interesting villains?
That thing is the monster that Cap and Donna Maria found so abhorrent in the previous issue. He’s probably the most normal looking Zola monster!!!
The monster… called Nazi-X but he goes unnamed in the story itself… is an AMAZING kind of body horror.
Thank you, Donna Maria, I was getting worried you wouldn’t do anything worthy of my earlier praise.
They make a run for it, but unfortunately for them Arnim Zola has two last weapons.
His Kirby Krackles™…
…and the fact that THE ENTIRE CASTLE IS ALIVE.
Seriously, this part is AMAZING.
Well I’m glad we kept the suspense of Sharon unknowingly cooperating with Red Skull FOR ONE PAGE.
Speaking of Nazis, remember that Zola used a brain for his monster? Specifically, that was HITLER’S BRAIN.
Although FOR SOME REASON the comic doesn’t say it’s Hitler? Come on, did Kirby seriously believe people had forgotten Adolf Hitler in 1977!?
This comic features a Nazi with his head inside his chest that wants to put Captain America’s face on a headless monster that has the brain of Adolf Hitler.
Have we reached peak Nazi yet?
Captain America #212 (1977)
by Jack Kirby
Okay NOW we have reached peak Nazi.
Unlike the previous issue, this one DOES acknowledge it’s Hitler’s brain.
Although you would expect CAPTAIN AMERICA (and Kirby, who was a WWII veteran) to remember that Hitler died in 1945, not 1944.
After all that hype… Arnim Zola can be dealt with by Donna Maria just throwing random chemicals around.
Captain America should never say “I love you, baby!”. It feels wrong.
Meanwhile Sharon is approaching the castle with Red Skull, after the two made a shady deal.
You just have to know how Red Skull is just THE WORST at anything.
Captain America and Donna Maria keep throwing explosives around, until they are forced to confront Zola’s monsters. This is where she REALLY shines.
Cap gets blinded for his troubles.
He’ll get better.
The castle then explodes, and it’s basically how it ends.
Zola is considered dead for five years, returning in the FANTASTIC DeMatteis run on Captain America in 1982.
If you’re wondering: how could Hitler’s brain be in this thing if Hitler was also the Hate Monger?
That was explained in Super-Villain Team-Up #17: all of these are clones.
Historical significance: 8/10
Arnim Zola is a quite significant addition to the Marvel lore.
Silver Age-ness: 10/10
Captain America has seen some s#it.
Does it stand the test of time? 8/10
Taken as a whole, Kirby’s run on Captain America is pretty stupid. But the Zola arc is BY FAR the strongest one!!!
Kirby’s strength in crazy visuals and creepy imagery is in full display here: the entire storyline is a spectacle, and there’s something truly disturbing in everything Zola does and says.
At the same time, it’s not without fault. Cap is barely a character in this, reduced to shouting vague heroic stuff and punching monsters.
I can’t really say Kirby doesn’t get Cap’s voice (he DID co-create him after all), but he feels pretty shallow in this.
Donna Maria has some good moments, but they’re separated by large chunks when she’s just the damsel in distress.
As typical of Kirby, there’s stuff that is introduced and given a lot of pages only to then disappear. From the beginning you would think Primus would be a major player, revolting against Zola to help the heroes… but no, he just leaves the story.
Red Skull is his usual delightfully evil bastard, but ultimately his part of the story doesn’t amount to much. Plus Falcon is simply lost in the shuffle.
How close is this to the modern character? 10/10
This is already a long review so I won’t go into Zola’s history, but for a relatively late addition to Captain America’s rogues gallery he fits perfectly: sometimes it’s hard to remember Zola wasn’t there right from the start. And honestly, other than exploring his relationship with the other super-Nazis, he hasn’t changed all that much over the years.
He’s also very useful for the Marvel Universe at large when you need a source for some crazy monsters and absurd genetics.
For a guy with an admittedly silly design, he sure can be scary!
James Robinson did the same plot in “The Golden Age” with Ultra-Humanite playing the Zola role. While saving Hitler’s brain is a common sci-fi trope, I hadn’t realized that it had been used before in super-hero comics.
I randomly bought issue 212 when I was a kid. I had it for decades, it even got partially chewed on by my dog. If you think the story was horrifying now, imagine how it was for a six year old! Just the way Kirby drew Cap’s eyes when he was blind freaked me out.
Thanks for the grat review – and reawakening some repressed nightmares, lol.