Sep 1983
Letting Go
by J. M. DeMatteis, Sal Buscema, Kim DeMulder, Diana Albers, Bob Sharen, Mark Gruenwald
Captain America rushes to the luxury apartment building where Jeff Mace lies dying. He stops a robbery in progress on his way there. Nomad follows him there but is barely able to keep up with him and stays outside while Cap visits with his old comrade. Nomad notices a flying drone spying on Captain America. Nomad follows it when it leaves.
The drone leads Nomad to the lair of the Porcupine, a supervillain, who has been hired by the reborn Secret Empire to kill Captain America. Nomad busts in and attacks the Porcupine after he hears him boasting about what he’s going to do. The Porcupine’s combination of skill and weapons prove to be a little too much for Nomad and he is knocked out.
Steve Rogers and Bernie Rosenthal are hanging out in her apartment with their neighbors Mike and Josh when Jarvis calls from Avengers Mansion. The doctor called for Captain America to tell him that Jeff Mace is about to die. Steve tells the others the truth, that an old friend needs him, and rushes out. Mike observes after Steve has left that he does that a lot.
Captain America rushes across town on his motorcycle. He gets attacked by the Porcupine before he reaches Jeff’s apartment. Cap has to rescue Nomad who is still unconscious when the fight begins but recovers just in time to help Captain America beat the villain.
Cap rushes to the hospital just in time to be there when Jeff dies.
Thoughts
This was my first time reading this issue. I knew nothing about the story going in other than what I learned about Jeff Mace while reading the previous issue. The Porcupine seems like a fairly standard one-and-done villain. There isn’t much in the way of personality or history.
Does Mike suspect that Steve has another life? What does he suspect about Steve’s sudden departure?
There isn’t a whole lot to this story other than what is going on at the surface level. The most significant development is the death of Jeff Mace. There are references in the editor’s notes to What If? 4 and Captain America Annual 6.
Nomad is feeling inadequate compared to Captain America and has his own little confidence building arc in this story.
The visual storytelling is decent but I’m not crazy about the look of this issue. It isn’t bad but it just has a very different feel to it than the issues drawn by Zeck and Beatty.
Letters to the Living Legend
All the letters in this month's column praise the return of Jack Monroe. One letter writer asks for a No-Prize but he is denied because there were hints dropped in the entry for Bucky III in the appendix to The Official Handbook to the Marvel Universe (1983) 2.
Special Announcements
- Readers should check out the Special Announcement section of Avengers Avengers (1963) 235 for more about future appearances of Spider-Woman. Her solo series was canceled around this time.
- One reader spotted a few comic books on TV shows
- Marvel Premiere 47 on The Ropers
- Captain America 256 on Soap
- G.I. Joe 1 on Square Pegs
Question of the Month - If you weren't doing comics, what would you be doing right now?
Bullpen Bulletins
A full page drawing by John Byrne of John Byrne at his drawing board surrounded by many Marvel superheroes. There are representatives from several teams (X-Men, Avengers, Alpha Flight, Champions, Defender, Fantastic Four) plus a few individuals that I associate with more than one team or no team at all.
Byrne is surrounded by 43 character: Beast, Storm, Colossus, Kitty Pryde, Cyclops, Wolverine, Nightcrawler, Banshee, Thor, Scarlet Witch, Vision, Captain America, She-Hulk, Iron Man, Power Man, Iron Fist, Puck, Northstar, Aurora, Marina, Sasquatch, Wasp, Snowbird, Guardian, Shaman, Ghost Rider, Swamp Thing, Doctor Strange, Black Widow, Hawkeye, Angel, Daredevil, Hercules, Captain Marvel II, Iceman, Wonder Man, Silver Surfer, Hulk, Mr. Fantastic, Invisible Woman, Thing, Human Torch, Spider-Man.
Byrne, at the time, was about two years into his historic run writing and penciling Fantastic Four (1961). He had just started writing and penciling Alpha Flight (1983) and writing The Thing (1983). The following books of his were published the same month as this issue of Captain America:
- Fantastic Four (1961) 258
- The Thing (1983) 3
- Alpha Flight (1983) 2
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