This was part of what is easily the most influential part of Englehart’s excellent run… and I was stuck with the worst part of it.
Capitan America #86 (1976)
Published by: Corno
Falcon has his wings by now. He does so little in the story that I never even noticed!!!
Captain America #174 (1973)
by Steve Englehard & Sal Buscema
cover by Gil Kane & John Romita
As previously mentioned, Corno didn’t like having speech bubbles on its covers.
This is part of the storyline that sees Captain America fight the Secret Empire, and we begin the story with him and Falcon infiltrating their base (with a dye job as a disguise).
The recap provides a useful insight into the part of the story I didn’t get.
I completely forgot that the original Moonstone was called Pietra Lunare (a literal translation); that won’t be used for his more famous successor, who will keep the name Moonstone.
I have a soft spot for the Secret Empire and I’m still hoping they will one day get the respect they deserve. Although I’m quite glad they dropped the “Salaam!” greeting.
(surprisingly enough, that’s kept in the Italian translation)
It’s a well-known secret that Steve Englehart wanted Number One, the leader of the Secret Empire, to be revealed to be none other than Richard Nixon.
That wasn’t approved and he was just stated to be “a high ranking government official”, but it makes his speech VERY interesting when he references the Watergate scandal.
(other sources say Englehart decided himself to drop the more direct reference to Nixon, but that doesn’t sound like Englehart)
The Secret Empire did not fall for the infiltration, and they attempt to kill the heroes.
Luckily, this is still the period when Cap had super-strength.
They also fight the robot from the cover, which is colored red instead of green.
This is also when they run into the X-Men… kind of.
At the time Uncanny X-Men stopped publishing new stories, so the X-Men were limited to having a few cameos here and there.
Falcon is explicitly stated to have SOME potential for telepathy; that’s because he can mentally communicate with Redwing.
Although Xavier saying that has an “uncommon rapport” with his hawk suggests something that they most definitely can’t show in a comic book.
Why are the X-Men here?
Because the Secret Empire has kidnapped a bunch of them.
We have fellow X-Men Angel and Iceman, Beast in his bestial form, supervillains Mastermind, Unis and Mesmero… and X-Men adjacent characters Havok and Polaris.
Although the latter is still called Lorna Dane.
Hilariously, Blob is on a separate table because there isn’t enough space for him.
The Secret Empire catches up with the heroes, and we get our requisite big dumb fight.
Until everyone is knocked out by an energy beam.
And that’s how the story ends!
So at the time I didn’t think much of the story. I didn’t have the previous chapters, and the recap didn’t sound particularly interesting.
Little did I know that the NEXT issue would be one of the most historically significant Captain America stories EVER.
The next story doesn’t show the face of the unmasked Number One, but the clues that this is the President are still there if you look for them.
While I understand Englehart’s intentions… he had to know there was no way Marvel would ever publish a book where Nixon shoots himself in the head!!!
This would prove to be of the utmost importance because it’s THE moment when Captain America really understands how the real America differs from his idealized version: it’s what will soon convince him call it quits for the first time.
It leads to significant character development for Captain America and to what is easily the best part of the Englehart run, not to mention one of the best parts of Captain America’s history in general.
Well it’s the worst part for him, but damn that was a good storyline.
Why couldn’t I get THAT story instead of this one!?
Historical significance: 10/10
It’s the setup of a pivotal moment in Cap’s history.
Personal significance: 4/10
Not that I could see that with just this story. I remember being more interested in who those mutants were, since I had never seen most of them.
Silver Age-ness: 6/10
Xavier really shouldn’t need Falcon to be susceptible to telepathy to contact him, right?
Does it stand the test of time? 7/10
If we were talking about the storyline as a whole, it could potentially get to a 9/10 with some peaks of 10/10 for the part after Cap quits. As a standalone, it’s a bit of a jumbled mess.
Power Man #18 (1974)
by Len Wein & George Tuska
At this point you wouldn’t be surprised to what series get to be the backup feature.
Also, the Corno aversion to speech bubbles on the cover is so strong that when this cover is used as a pin-up inside the issue… they STILL remove the speech bubbles!
This is the only Luke Cage story I read for years; to say that I’m not very familiar with the character is an understatement.
So imagine my surprise that a bunch of stuff I completely forgot and that I re-discovered in Luke’s Netflix series… that his real name is Lucas, that he has a dead wife named Reva, that he dated doctor Claire Temple… were ALREADY there in the first story I read!!!
As the cover promised, Luke fights the construction-themed Steeplejack.
Which would be such a mess to translate that Corno just calls him Grande Jack (“Big Jack”).
Steeplejack is supposed to be a regular human. Which naturally means he can casually swing a grown man like a bat to bend a steel beam.
He also has a gun that fires red-hot rivets. She it’s a bit of a pity they have him fight an invulnerable guy, because he’d be a much tougher opponent for a non-powered hero.
Luke saves the guy that Steeplejack wanted to kill, and then hands over his calling card.
Fans of the Netflix show might remember the (disappointing) villain of the second half of the first season, Willis Stryker. He looked just a liiiiitle different in the comics.
I wish I knew more about this series because the urban cowboy Wichita and the barfly Professor sound goofy enough to be memorable.
For some reason, the translation completely skips the mention of the dog being an alcoholic.
Steeplejack gets a rematch with Luke Cage. Who was still going by “Power Man” in this period, but mercifully never tries to make “Captain Afro-America” a thing.
By this point, asbestos was no longer a guaranteed Kryptonite against fire.
Eventually Steeplejack dies when he takes a fall and his tank explodes.
He never returns from this, so perhaps he really didn’t have powers.
There’s a second Steeplejack that fights Ms. Marvel a couple of times, but no relation.
Historical significance: 1/10
The very last page namedrops Cottonmouth, one of Luke Cage’s most important villains, but he doesn’t show up until the next issue.
Personal significance: 5/10
I clearly forgot everything I was supposed to know about Luke Cage from this story. I remember finding Steeplejack not very entertaining but finding Luke himself rather interesting. But I really liked the artwork.
Silver Age-ness: 8/10
Seriously he HAS to be at least a mutant, right!?
Does it stand the test of time? 8/10
Not the strongest Luke Cage story of the era, but it does lack some of the tropes that make the series as a whole feel dated. The amazing artwork certainly helps.
Uncanny Tales #6 (1953)
written by unknown
pencils by John Forte
Imagine my surprise during this project to find out A) this was a story from when Marvel was still Atlas Comics, but more importantly B) it’s a John Forte story, despite the artwork definitely not looking like the John Forte we know from the Legion..
The scans are from a reprint. I don’t know what Corno used for the translation, because the coloring is WILDLY different!!!
The story is about this guy who is nice to his rich aunt exclusively because he wants to inherit her money, and can’t wait for her to die already.
He’s frustrated both by the fact that a fortune teller tells her that she’ll live a long life, and that she can easily spend 100 dollars on this.
Which would be about 1,174 dollars in 2024, so no wonder he’s upset!
She’s so much into these things that the nephew starts to get ideas.
So he pretends to see the “mark of death” on her hand, to convince her she’s about to die.
But it doesn’t work. She’s more immortal than Aunt May.
This is when the nephew’s plan backfires in the most spectacular way: she saw the same sign on HIS hand that he pretended was the Mark Of Death, and she likes him so much she doesn’t want him to suffer!
There are so many layers of irony here.
From the fact that both his act about palm reading AND his act about loving his aunt worked perfectly… to the fact there is NO indication that she really will live a long life, or that she’s wasting too much money.
He would’ve achieved all his goals if he simply did nothing!
Historical significance: 0/10
Unsurprisingly forgotten.
Personal significance: 8/10
Out of the many backup horror stories, I always found this one to be the best.
Silver Age-ness: 0/10
Not really.
Does it stand the test of time? 10/10
Stunning work on multiple levels. Seriously, you can print this today without changing a single panel and it STILL reads great!
I agree completely about Englehart’s run and this storyline in particular. I was 10 when these issues were published and when the Watergate scandal broke. It blew my mind that a comic book would address a contemporary issue in such an overt way. (Yes, Number One was Nixon. Come on.)
Oddly, the story seems even more relevant in 2024, but I digress.
I also loved the two-page spread featuring the X-Men and other mutants. Like you, I was curious who they were. I couldn’t wait for them to show up in other comics.
As for Luke Cage, my first exposure to the character occurred six issues earlier when he fought a villain called Chemistro, known for his gun that turned people and objects into glass. Unlike Steeplejack, Chemistro survived the story but was left incapacitated due to his own stupid choice (I won’t give away the spoiler)–a rare and realistic downfall for a supervillain.
The Forte story is a treat–I would never have guessed it was his artwork. The story is typical for the horror genre in comics, but it leaves me impressed with how a complete story can be told in just a few pages and leave the reader with something to take away. If we identify with Victor, it’s because we all have some greed in us. Victor’s choices set up a cautionary tale but also leave us with the impression that if he had behaved differently, he would have gotten what he wanted as you said.
The Secret Empire story blew my mind as well. I was only 10 myself at the time and Englehart’s Cap undoubtedly helped lay the groundwork for my lifelong comic book fandom. I recently met him at a convention and told him so, although I was a bit starstruck and wasn’t quite as eloquent as I hoped. 🙂