Anniversary Countdown #28: Captain America 76

Third batch of the Captain America comics. We’ll actually see this story twice in this retrospective.

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Capitan America #76 (1975)
Published by: Corno

A few notes on the Italian edition.
The title is the direct translation of original “Queen of the werewolves”
The cover also boasts “Here are the stickers for the adhesive poster”. A lot of comics published by Corno included posters and stickers (which are nearly impossible to find nowadays and REALLY jack up the prices).

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Captain America #164 (1973)
by Steve Englehard & Alan Weiss

The original cover has dialogue on it (and pretty hilarious in hindsight to have Nightshade say she never lies). That almost never shows up in the Italian translation.

The story has an interesting use of a teaser page, something rare for the 70s, which shows Cap being attacked by werewolves.

Said werewolves are the creation of Nightshade, who makes her first appearance here.
Her name is translated as Belladonna, which is both the Italian and the scientific name of the toxic plant. But it’s also a bit of a pun, because the name literally means “pretty woman”.

Nightshade’s creations capture Captain America, except as you can see… it’s not really him.

The real Captain America and Falcon are on a road trip on their bikes, looking for an old friend of Falcon.

Tell that to the colorist, who thinks the dialogue should go to Cap instead. Whooops.

Falcon’s friend became a petty criminal. After his latest arrest, he managed to send a letter to Falcon asking him to help save him from what is SUPPOSED to be a prison but is 100% the castle of an evil overlord.

Complete with a dungeon full of werewolves!

Specifically there’s twenty of them. I don’t like these odds…

…for the werewolves.

How can you not love Nightshade when even Captain America has to admit she’s smoking hot?

She even managed to capture Falcon off-screen.

While she’s a fun character, Nightshade is one of the most blatant examples of fanservice I’ve ever seen in a 70s mainstream book. Seriously, there is absolutely no reason why she’s posing like this basically every other panel.

Well there IS a reason, but you’re not supposed to say it.

She leads Captain America to the same cell where she’s been holding Falcon…

…who then turns into a very muscular werewolf, as per the cover.

Cap will have to wait 19 years to get a similar transformation.
(and yes Nightshade is in that story too, because of course she is)

The transformation did make Falcon significantly stronger than Cap, but he also lost all reason.
So it’s not exactly hard to trick him into letting both escape the holding cell.

Nightshade doesn’t take this well.

And neither does her master, who turns out to be Yellow Claw of all people.

Since Nightshade proved to be a disappointment, he basically fires her.

Seems like Cap was right in thinking she’s still immature.
In fact future stories will imply that she’s quite young in this story, possibly even in her late teens.
Which puts Cap’s earlier thoughts in “we never talk about this” territory.

So Yellow Claw leaves, exploiting her inability to adjust her aim juuuuust a little lower.

This is when the prison is attacked by S.H.I.E.L.D, lead by Nick Fury in a truly ridiculous outfit.

Considering she was throwing a tantrum, Nightshade takes this surprisingly well.

Meanwhile Cap defeats Falcon-Wolf and his afro.

Then Nightshade rallies here werewolves to one of the towers.
I remind you that this is supposed to be a prison in Maryland, not Castle Doom!!!

And her creations follow her into MASS SUICIDE.

Without her presence Falcon returns human, and there’s no time left to dwell on Nightshad because the rest of the story will follow the Yellow Claw threat.

We will be looking at the follow-up story, but not this time. Because I actually had that in a later reprint.

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Nightshade won’t be in that one, but in 1978 we will learn on Captain America #190 how she survived the fall.

She’s been all over the place over the years: a Luke Cage villain, a M.O.D.O.K. ally and even an antihero for a while.
So despite her very minor first appearance, she seems to have made an impression on writers and readers!
I wonder why that is.

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Historical significance: 5/10
Nightshade is not a big supervillain, but she’s around.

 Personal significance: 7/10
As mentioned I had both the original and the reprint; that’s the only case for this retrospective.
And since I wouldn’t read new comics for years, I remember meticulously comparing the two versions to find any difference! They were extremely minor and not worth mentioning, but it gave me an appreciation for this kind of effort.
To this day I occasionally forget Nightshade is not called Belladonna in the US!
Don’t think she has just fanservice appeal. After all I read these issues when I barely knew how to read, so that aspect was completely lost on me, but I still liked her.
The story also has BY FAR the best artwork of all the Captain America stories of this retrospective.

Silver Age-ness: 8/10
The Yellow Claw hired someone to run genetic testing for him, and she works out of a prison in Marylan that is indistinguishable from a haunted castle.

 Does it stand the test of time? 8/10
Everything that works is firmly in the “don’t think too much about this” category, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing! A couple explanations here and there for the minor stuff and it’s still an enjoyable story.
Honestly it kind of is more of a Golden Age story, if you just tone down the fanservice.
Seriously, A LOT of Golden Age Captain America stories are set in haunted castles.

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Amazing Adventures v2 # 16 (1973)
by Steve Englehart & Marie Severin

This is the series where Beast transformed into his blue form!

We begin with Beast, in his bestial form, being spotted by some civilians.

And not just any civilians: this is an extremely weird fourth-wall-breaking intra-company crossover!
Because those civilians are none other than Len Wein, his wife Glynis, Gerry Conway and Steve Englehart. Yes, as in the actual comic book writers (and colorist in case of Glynis).
As for why this is an intra-company crossover… let’s leave it for the end of the review.
(of course at the time I had absolutely no idea these were actual people and not just random bystanders)

Despite being transformed into a blue ape, Beast managed to keep a secret identity thanks to a shockingly realistic mask.
Even more impressively: his girlfriend also doesn’t know. (HOW?!?!)

If you’re not in on the inside joke that this is Steve Englehart, this little interaction with Beast makes no sense.
(also: Roy Thomas also shows up later in the story, so I was a bit confused initially whether this was Thomas or Englehart. As per later details, this is Englehart)

And then SUDDEN JUGGERNAUT!!!

Incidentally, the name “juggernaut” is basically untranslatable. So he was named Fenomeno… which literally means just “phenomenon”.
Presumably with the definition of “a remarkable person”, but the same word is used for all definitions of “phenomenon”… so it’s kind of a bummer he’s not a Fantastic Four villain, or we could’ve had the hilarious opportunity of having a phenomenon fighting a thing.
It’s a lame translation but it’s stuck: he’s still called Fenomeno in modern translations.

I can’t believe it took me this long in the retrospective to bring this up, but:

And then Juggernaut is sucked back into the Exposition Dimension.

This is just to recap the events of his last appearance, where he fought Doctor Strange.
Incidentally, unless I’m forgetting a cameo this is the last time Strange will show up in this retrospective! His name was NOT translated by Corno, since it’s literally his last name.

In retrospect, I should really have noticed these were not ordinary bystanders considering Marvel is namedropped.

Beast and his girlfriend are on a mission here, and it’s apparently an urgent one.
So it’s quite weird to see them waste time by dropping by a Halloween parade.
Also this won’t be resolved in this series, because this is the last issue of Amazing Adventures with the Beast serial. The subplot will eventually be resolved on the pages of Hulk.

Then the Exposition Dimension drops the Juggernaut right in the middle of the Halloween parade, getting reeeally close at breaking some copyrights.

Only to be IMMEDIATELY be sucked back before he has time to do anything.

As you might have guessed, one of the reasons for setting this during Halloween is to have Beast run around without his mask.

He does find Juggernaut, so this turns into a fight. Normally Beast wouldn’t stand a change against him, but his mutated form is much more powerful than the last time they fought.
Will this be enough to prove a challenge to Juggernaut?

No. No it will not.

Like most Juggernaut stories, this turns into an effort to find ANYTHING that can slow him down…

…which doesn’t work, because Juggernaut can BLA-ZRAK! through just about anything.

This is such an unfair fight that Beast basically gives up and leaves.

All so that he can join the Halloween party and meet Tom Fagan.
Tom was the organizer of the super-hero themed Rutland Halloween Parade that this story is based on. More information on that at the end of the review.

This is cute and all, but it seems to be a huge in-joke between writers. The parade WAS popular and is an important part of fan culture to be sure, but I have to wonder: how many readers would’ve caught the reference?

(also: Roy Thomas and his wife Jean are in that panel, leading to my confusion)

But Juggernaut manages to find Beast by “following his emanations”.
Well Beast DID fall into the water earlier in the story, and with all that fur I can imagine everyone is feeling his emanations.

This series really pushes the horror aspect: once he takes him to another room, Juggernaut is terrified of his appearance!!!

And that takes away Juggernaut’s powers? Uh!?

It’s even worse than that. Not only he’s now weak enough for Beast to defeat…

…but he’s old now! Turns out the Exposition Dimension was having a rough effect on him.

So, uhm, if hate prevents him from aging… wouldn’t be defeated by Beast make him hate even more!?

And that’s the end of it, with the band of cameos moving to another book…

…and Beast ending his series by being hijacked from a bunch of writers.

Okay technically the next issue DOES feature Beast, but it’s just a quick framing device and a reprint.

Historical significance: 0/10
Juggernaut will return the following year on the pages of Hulk. Not the same one that picks up the Beast plot, by the way.

Personal significance: 3/10
Even at a young age I didn’t buy the idea that Beast could pass for a regular guy with just that mask, and naturally the whole gag about having writers around flew completely over my head.
That last panel with the aged up Juggernaut did stay in my memory, but I wouldn’t become a fan of his until years later.

Silver Age-ness: 7/10
A bit of magic nonsense can help you buy how Juggernaut runs into Beast, but overall it’s all extremely forced.

Does it stand the test of time? 4/10
That is a terrible use of Juggernaut, and Beast himself is not particularly interesting here.
From a historical perspective, the whole meta-crossover with the Halloween parade is FASCINATING. But if you don’t know the entire backstory and only read the story, it’s shoved there for no reason.

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Speaking of that parade: I did promise to talk about it.

The Rutland Halloween Parade started all the way back in 1959, but it didn’t have anything to do with superheroes until the involvement of Tom Fagan (who would typically attend the parade dressed as Batman, hence why he’s dressed as his expy Nighthawk here).
According to Comics Buyer’s Guide’s obituary on Fagan after his death in 2008:

5,000 spectators watched the 11th annual parade in 1970, with marchers who included the Black Panther, Scarlet Witch, Black Widow, Medusa, Wasp, Quicksilver, Vision, Captain America, and Havok. Riding on a float were Thor and Sif, along with the Norn Queen. The Red Skull hitched a ride on the float for no known thematic reason. … Also present were Nighthawk, Batman, and Captain Marvel — and probably a few other DC heroes that Fagan was discreet enough not to mention. The parade kicked off, he noted, with the familiar cry of “Avengers Assemble!” and ended on the same note.

The parade shows up in A LOT of Marvel Comics. Here it is on 1970’s Avengers #83.

That probably has something to do with the fact that many comic book writers and artists from the 70s were regular attendees.

The parade is still an ongoing annual tradition!

The last comic book shout-outs I could find are Generation X #22 from 1996 for Marvel and (appropriately) Superboy And The Ravers #16 from 1997 for DC.

But as mentioned, it was also part of an extremely weird intra-company crossover because the parade immediately shows up in Justice League Of America #103, written by Len Wein.
It’s almost same set of characters… Len Wein, Glynis and  Gerry Conway… and notice the attention to detail: the car is the same and Glynis is wearing the same clothes of the encounter with Beast.

So while it’s not exactly a sequel to the Beast story, it’s at the very least an alternative take.

Just how ubiquitous was the parade? Fagan already knows Batman because they met in an earlier comic!!!

The “crossover” eventually ends in Thor #207, written by Gerry Conway.

According to THIS story, Glynis is not cosplaying as Legally Not Supergirl, but as Legally Not Power Girl.

Englehart did provide a bit of background in a 2010 interview.

It certainly seemed like a radical concept and we knew that we had to be subtle (laughs) and each story had to stand on its own, but we really worked it out. It’s really worthwhile to read those stories back to back to back – it didn’t matter to us that one was at DC and two were at Marvel – I think it was us being creative, thinking what would be really cool to do.
STEVE ENGLEHART

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Spellbound # 22 (1954)
written by unknown
pencils by Paul Reinman

We are STILL not done! Now you can tell why I started this countdown MONTHS before the actual anniversary.
As we’ve already seen, as the last story the Corno books could pick the most random things.
Like a 1954 voodoo story.

It’s about this ugly guy who fell in love with a beautiful singer.
The scans are from a reprint where she’s a redhead; she’s blonde in the Italian version, so I wonder what she was in the original.

She’s not into him, in fact she doesn’t hide that he disgusts her… but since he keeps bringing presents, she still invites him to her wedding.

He tries to get some love potion from a voodoo witch doctor, going as far as murdering him (!!!) when he doesn’t have the money for it.

He says the woman that the potion will preserve her beauty forever.

While this DOES make her fall for him…

…it also transforms both into cake decorations.

That is probably the most random ending for this kind of story I have ever seen.

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Historical significance: 0/10
What did you expect?

Personal significance: 0/10
I vividly remember some of those short horror stories. This is not one of them.

Silver Age-ness: 10/10
Voodoo love potions that turn you into cake decorations!!!

Does it stand the test of time? 5/10
It was perfectly fine until the end. If they turned into statues or something at least it would’ve made sense for this kind of stories, but… why cake decorations???