"THE MERCENARY AND THE MADMAN"
Beginning: An all-new excursion into the life and times of America's Living Legend, as chronicled by:
Writer: Roger Stern | Penciler: John Byrne | Inker: Josef Rubinstein
Letterer: Jim Novak | Colorist: Bob Sharen | Flag-Waver: Jim Salicrup
Editor-in-Chief: Jim Shooter
Beginning: An all-new excursion into the life and times of America's Living Legend, as chronicled by:
Writer: Roger Stern | Penciler: John Byrne | Inker: Josef Rubinstein
Letterer: Jim Novak | Colorist: Bob Sharen | Flag-Waver: Jim Salicrup
Editor-in-Chief: Jim Shooter
Cap travels out to the tanker but springs a trap on the villains; however Hyde is too much for him to handle and he is captured. Tied to the tanker's bow, Cap has a front row seat as Hyde sets course for Manhattan at ramming speed.
Continuity Notes: At the story's outset, Cap recalls getting his memories in order in issue #247, then spends the first few pages of the issue recapping his life in the present day, since the Avengers thawed him out of suspended animation in AVENGERS #3. Among his recollections are his battles with the Red Skull, his partnership with the Falcon, and his love of SHIELD's deceased Agent 13, Sharon Carter.
Hyde is sprung from Ryker's Island penitentiary, which at the time was the Marvel Universe's main prison for super-criminals.
Bernie also brings Hyde's escape to Steve's attention, though when she mentions "the big breakout at Ryker's Island", Steve initially assumes she's speaking of the Cobra's escape a week before, as seen in the Stern-scripted PETER PARKER, THE SPECTACULAR SPIDER-MAN #46.
Upon learning that the mercenaries who broke Hyde out had French accents, Cap suspects Batroc may be involved, and pays a visit to District Attorney Blake Tower. While at Tower's office, a footnote reminds readers that Cap nearly ran for president last issue.
Cap references a previous encounter with Mr. Hyde in CAPTAIN AMERICA #152, where the villain had a glass jaw. Roger Stern, who is on record as believing that certain super-strong characters had been gradually de-powered over the years, gives Hyde a moment to gloatingly retort that he was not at full strength during that battle.
Also -- a while back, I wondered if being evil was a required job qualification to work for Roxxon. As it turns out, maybe not. When Hyde attempts to blackmail the corporation with his intention of ramming their tanker into New York Harbor, he gets ahold of Pierce Benedict, Roxxon's Director of Sea-Going Operations, who is horrified at the loss of life the scheme could cause. I wonder what Benedict thought about that time Roxxon killed an entire town in Iowa.
ReplyDeleteMy favorite part of the issue is that until the newscaster mentions the French accents Steve is figuring “nah, somebody else’ll probably get Hyde” and if not then he can step in. That’s an entirely rational thought in Marvel Universe NYC. As great as his sense of duty is, Steve’s aware that he hasn’t slept in too long and has stuff to do, which is a refreshingly sensible assessment in keeping with his character.
When I call that my favorite part I don’t mean to downplay how nice it is to see Cap's history, um, recapped at the hands of Byrne & Rubinstein or read Stern’s dialogue between Bernie and Steve. I’m at a loss to explain why I didn’t pick up this short run off the racks or even have much of an awareness of it until years later.
I feel like this run flew under a lot of radars. Maybe I'm mistaken, but from what I've gathered, I get the impression it didn't have a ton of buzz at the time. Though I guess it was popular enough that Marvel reprinted in a trade paperback about ten years later (when collected issue trades were still fairly uncommon and reserved for major things like "Dark Phoenix"), so who knows!
DeleteYeah, I think I actually learned about this run by seeing that War and Remembrance TPB at the comics shop where I worked in the mid ’90s; oddly, instead of just buying the book I started hunting down the back issues with the result that I didn’t read it all for a while.
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