Jul 1984
The Centre Cannot Hold!
by J. M. DeMatteis, Paul Neary, Brett Breeding, Diana Albers, Bob Sharen, Mark Gruenwald
Captain America and Julie Cox hangout in her husband’s hospital room. Dave Cox is still unconscious. Cap fears he is dead but Julie holds out hope that he will pull through. Cap blames himself for what happened to Dave but Julie does not hold him responsible.
Baron Zemo and Mother Superior torment Arnold Roth in his apartment until he passes out. Zemo wants to kill him but Mother Superior has other plans for Captain America’s old friend. They carry him away.
Steve Rogers meets up with Bernie Rosenthal and Jack Monroe outside a movie theater. They went to see a science fiction movie while he was in the hospital with Dave and Julie Cox. They are getting ready to go and get a bite to eat when Steve decides to check his phone messages. One of the messages is from Arnie Roth.
They rush over to Arnie’s apartment. They find a robot version of Steve’s friend. It has a message for them from the Red Skull. It tells them where to go if they want to rescue Arnold, as it disintegrates.
Horst, the Red Skull’s valet, has died. The Red Skull is not saddened by the passing of his faithful assistant. He has something he wants to discuss with Baron Zemo.
Captain America and Nomad arrive at Skull House. There they are met by the Sisters of Sin. The sisters prove to be tougher than they look but Captain America and Nomad defeat them after the women get the upper hand early in the fight. Cap and Nomad next encounter Baron Zemo. Captain America attacks him, knocks him down only to discover afterward that beneath the mask is his friend Arnold.
Cap and Nomad are trying to figure out what’s going on when they realize that they have walked into a trap.
Bernie gets abducted by Mother Superior just as she is getting ready for a visit from Wasp and Starfox. Cap asked them to check up on her because he knows that the Red Skull knows about her.
Thoughts
The title for this issue also showed up in the Deathlok story, although it wasn’t used as a title for a story there. I wonder if there is supposed to be some sort of connection between that story and this one. I don’t see it at the moment.
I think I prefer Josef Rubinstein’s inks over Paul Neary’s pencils to the inks of Brett Breeding. That judgement is based on comparing the last couple issues so maybe I should give Breeding a little more time.
This issue flowed very fast. This story continues, I think without interruption, through issue 301. I was thinking about taking a break after one more issue but now I’m thinking I might just keep reading Captain America until I have finished off this story.
This is a decent read but it is hard to judge this story on its own since it it part of a bigger story.
American Graffiti
The letters this month are all about Captain America 291, the fill-in issue. A number of the letter writers seem to want the Tumbler to return. One even invokes the name of the Committee to Return the Tumbler. The powers that be don’t seem to have any plans to bring back the Tumbler. There is one letter that is critical of the story in issue 291.
Bullpen Bulletins
Jim Shooter writes about his trip to the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, NV. He was there for the launch of the Marvel Comics computer games by Adventure International.
He also writes about the Questprobe comic book limited series that will be coming out soon and are meant to promote and/or tie-in to the computer games. Each game and each comic book featured a different character. Each comic book in this 3-issue limited series was written and drawn by a different creative team.
The Hype Box focuses on Marvel Fanfare which features a story about the Thing which is written and drawn by Barry Windsor Smith. It also casts a spotlight on Alpha Flight 12, which I talked about on Dave Talks Comics 58, and in which a member of the team is killed.
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