This issue made me seriously overestimate the importance of when Captain America’s secret identity was a cop.
Capitan America #52 (1975)
Published by: Corno
A few notes on the Italian edition:
Unsurprisingly, “Capitan America” is the literal translation of the character’s name. Despite the translation it SHOULD be easy to keep the original logo… just move one letter… but they went with the most boring one.
The cover is from the second published story. The original title “The fateful choice” is translated as “A difficult choice”.
Captain America #138 (1971)
by Stan Lee & John Romita Sr.
Weird choice not using the cover of the FIRST story, since Spider-Man is there and he was as popular in Italy as in the US.
Falcon will be Captain America’s sidekick for ALL the issues I will cover, but this is the only one where he’s still in his original costume… he can’t even fly yet.
Once Cap leaves him, he’s ambushed by some mobsters and can only save himself thanks to his pet falcon Redwing.
Redwing needs more love. He’s arguably a better superhero than Falcon in the early issues.
Good thing Spider-Man has been keeping track of him, because they fought in the previous issue due to a Misunderstanding Fight™.
Yeah why would Falcon ever suspect Harry of being Spider-Man?
It’s not like he has a rich father that could pay for all of his equipment and is constantly around supervillains and weird events.
Meanwhile Steve Rogers is angsting about his own relationship problems. Perhaps it’s the influence of Spider-Man being around, he brings the drama with him.
He then learns from a kid and from Redwing that Falcon is in trouble.
Man everyone is looking for Falcon this issue! Captain America, Redwing AND Spider-Man.
Take a moment to appreciate the gorgeous Romita artwork. Spider-Man was his signature series, but his run on Captain America needs more respect.
The mobster who kidnapped Falcon is Stone Face. Who, sadly, doesn’t literally have a face made of stone.
He’s, uhm… you know what, as a white guy from Italy I don’t think I should make the call whether this is insensitive or not.
You could be forgiven for thinking this is Spider-Man’s book, because he’s the only one accomplishing anything!
Once Falcon wakes up, he’s convinced Spider-Man kidnapped him!
This story is doing Falcon no favors. He’s an ineffectual loudmouth who doesn’t even TRY listening to reason after his butt has been saved by someone else.
I can give a pass to Falcon since he’s new to the game… but you should know better than this, Cap.
But they eventually listen to reason and join Spider-Man.
Stone Face is an interesting villain. He’s blackmailing the authorities into giving him money by threating to cause riots in the streets.
But he’s not a big threat to THREE superheroes, so he goes down quickly.
And we end the story with Cap ghosting Falcon for a different story.
Historical significance: 0/10
Stone Face has a couple of appearances, but he’s a z-list mobster at best.
Personal significance: 0/10
I completely forgot this story until I looked back at it for this retrospective.
Silver Age-ness: 0/10
Not really.
Does it stand the test of time? 4/10
Oof, this one was rough. As a Spider-Man story it’s perfectly fine, but it’s not a Captain America story and it’s a TERRIBLE introduction to Falcon. Good thing I had other Falcon stories or I would’ve thought he sucks!!!
The artwork is fantastic. The scenes with Spider-Man on pursuit of Falcon are arguably even better work than what Romita did in his series!
Which is HIGH praise since Romita is awesome everywhere.
Captain America #139 (1971)
by Stan Lee & John Romita Sr.
Technically speaking the series was “Captain America and the Falcon” in this period.
Poor Redwing doesn’t get respect.
So what was the urgent matter Captain America needed to attend?
Being recruited by Commissioner McGuffin into going undercover as a police officer.
Angst in your own free time, Cap, you’re on the job.
One of the recurring themes of Captain America is his loss of connection to his civilian identity.
I’ve lost count of how many times a writer actually does the work to give Steve Rogers his own civilian supporting cast, only for the next writer to throw it all away.
Falcon DOES get a civilian life, though, as a social worker. And he gets his own love interest: this is the first appearance of Leila.
Leila is more than a bit grating, bordering on insufferable. But she was a VERY interesting character! At least until the Jack Kirby run, where he turned her into Interchangeable Love Interest #7.
But here, she’s the kind of character that you’d hate having around but that you love reading.
Be grateful Falcon eventually gained a costume that makes him fly, because we could’ve been stuck with him just having a grappling hook.
And then SUDDEN TRACTOR BEAM!!!
It’s not aliens: he was just kidnapped by S.H.I.E.L.D. who wants to know where Captain America is.
I don’t like Sharon Carter in this period. She went from being a badass superspy to moping around crying every second Cap is not with her.
Meanwhile Captain America joins the police.
Complete with a yelling Sargent that REALLY reminds him of his WWII Sargent.
His looks are DEFINITELY based on Jack Kirby’s.
At first I thought this was an exaggeration, but… yeah come to think of it, isn’t this the FIRST TIME Steve Rogers has an actual job that is not being Captain America?
This being 1971 New York (and the Marvel version at that), it takes no time whatsoever running into crime.
Old habits die hard.
The fight is broken up by Reverend Garcia. He will be a recurring character for a couple of issues.
Cap’s investigation leads him towards the man responsible for the disappearance of the cops: Grey Gargoyle.
I didn’t have the following issue, so sorry Grey Gargoyle fans: you’ll have to wait for quite some time before he shows up in this retrospective.
Against Thor.
In space for some reason.
Historical significance: 7/10
Leila is quite important for Falcon, if not for Captain America.
Cap doesn’t stay a cop for long, but it does have a minor impact: he’s the reason the protagonist of 1997’s “Code of Honor” series gets into the force. 
Personal significance: 7/10
Because of this story, I was convinced that Stever Rogers was a policeman for MUCH longer than he actually was.
Silver Age-ness: 4/10
S.H.I.E.L.D. has a tractor beam that they use a bit too liberally.
Does it stand the test of time? 7/10
WAY better than the previous issue! Cap spends the vast majority of the story angsting, which get a bit repetitive after a while, and the action is very light.
X-Men #49 (1968)
by Arnold Drake, Don Heck & Werner Roth
cover by Jim Sterakno
The Corno books typically had 3 stories: two main ones and a backup feature, which was often a random short story from the pre-Fantastic Four days.
The X-Men were the main second story on the book, but this time it’s just the second half of X-Men #49.
Specifically, the story begins at page 9 of the original! So I had barely any idea of who the X-Men where or of who were they fighting.
Despite the Steranko cover, we’re dealing with Don Heck and Werner Roth on pencils here. So even a splash page is not a very good show of the team’s powers.
Angel is not very lucky on this site. I keep running into stories where he sucks.
The X-Men save a civilian that will turn out to be x-tremely important to the franchise: this is the first appearance of Lorna Dane, the future Polaris.
I couldn’t know it at the time, because he doesn’t show up in the pages I had to deal with, but the bad guys are sent by Magneto… except the Magneto appearing here will be soon retconned into being a robot.
Comics, everybody!
Smooth save on the secret identity, guys.
This was all a plan by Mesmero, a follower of Magneto and the poor man’s Purple Man.
Jokes aside, I actually think Mesmero is an underrated villain that has A LOT of untapped potential.
Not that I discovered that here: once he hypnotized Iceman into being immobile, the story is over.
Spoiler alert: “the truth about Lorna Dane” turns out that she’s the daughter of Magneto, only to turn out that’s a lie, only to turn out decades later it’s actually been true the whole time.
Comics, everybody!
Historical significance: 10/10
It’s the debut of Polaris.
Personal significance: 2/10
This one DID stick in my mind, if only for the idea of Lorna’s hair being green.
Silver Age-ness: N/A
Does it stand the test of time? N/A
Not a real review so I’m not giving it a score, but this is not a good period for the X-Men until we get better artwork.
Speaking of which…
Why couldn’t I get the NEXT issue, which has Steranko pencils AND has Polaris in her costume!?!?
A costume designed by Mesmero, by the way. Told you he’s cool.
If you think Redwing is underappreciated, dig up some episodes of the old Hanna-Barbera cartoon Birdman. The original from the Sixties, not the much later parody where he’s a lawyer. His inexplicably-purple sidekick is an eagle named Avenger, who saves Birdman’s life in about 70% of the stories while only needing a rescue of his own a couple of times. He and Redwing could start a union. 🙂
The cover makes the policeman work seem like a big deal, but it really wasn’t. IIRC it was used in about four different storylines in a period of about eight years (roughly #138-235 – mid-early 1971 to mid-early 1979) and half the time it was unceremoniously left aside due to more important things happening.
Cap has probably travelled to London during that same time period more often than he has actually wore his police uniform. He has definitely teamed up with Spider-Man more often. There are many more issues where he acted as “Nomad” than issues where he acted as a police officer.