Captain America #140: Review

Aug 1971

Stan Lee, John Romita

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Story Name:

In the Grip of Gargoyle!

Review & Comments

Rating:

Captain America #140 Review by Peter Silvestro (February 15, 2010)

Part two of a four-part story. The Grey Gargoyle’s origin is summarized from JOURNEY INTO MYSTERY #107.

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Synopsis / Summary / Plot

Captain America #140 Synopsis by Peter Silvestro

In the stone cutter’s yard, Captain America is attacked by the Grey Gargoyle, whose touch turns men to stone. Leaping away to avoid the villain’s deadly touch, Cap hurls his shield—but it is turned to stone and flung back at him. The Falcon arrives to aid Cap; the Gargoyle hurls the petrified Reverend Garcia at them and while they are attempting to keep the innocent from smashing on the ground, the villain makes his getaway. At this point the Gargoyle’s spell starts to wear off his victims. Cap changes back to his Officer Rogers guise and contacts the Police Commissioner. The discovery that Steve is the Commissioner’s pet does not endear him to the crusty Sgt. Muldoon, however, promising some trouble in the future. Elsewhere, the Falcon has located the Grey Gargoyle’s secret hideout and attacks him with the help of Redwing. The villain hurls Falcon into a batch of chemicals containing his new petrifying formula. Result: the Falcon is turned into living stone, under the Gargoyle’s control. Meanwhile, Steve goes to Sam’s office to talk to him but is met by the radical Leila who hates both white people and cops. Realizing his partner may be in trouble, Steve dons his Captain America gear and heads out to search for the Falcon. Contacting SHIELD’s hover-carrier, he is taken aboard the craft. After an affectionate reunion with Sharon, Cap learns about Nick Fury’s new headache: the safety of the lab experimenting with Element X, the most unstable element in the world. The only thing that will act as a shield against it is stone, so Fury is desperately trying to think of a way to launch a stone lab into orbit, protecting the Earth. The mention of stone causes Cap to realize what the Grey Gargoyle’s sinister scheme is…controlling Element X.

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