Captain America #296: Review

Aug 1984

J. M. DeMatteis, Paul Neary

::: click cover to ENLARGE it :::

Story Name:

Things Fall Apart

Review & Comments

Rating:

Captain America #296 Review by Peter Silvestro (April 4, 2015)

Comments: “Death of the Red Skull” part five. The titles of this and the previous issue come from “The Second Coming” by W.B. Yeats. The letters page includes one from future fiction writer Tripp Reade.

Review: Psychological horror tale reminded me of similar scenes in V FOR VENDETTA which began a couple of years before this but that doesn’t prove plagiarism, er, homage. Anyway, the tale is a bit more potent than one would expect from the 80s and improves by featuring characters we care about—or at least Cap.

From Our Blog:

Gwen Stacy, beauty queen of Standard High School, was Peter Parker's (alias Spider-Man) first great love.

Gwen Stacy: Classic Beauty

Synopsis / Summary / Plot

Captain America #296 Synopsis by Peter Silvestro

On a Harlem rooftop, the Falcon is under attack by the Sisters of Sin. He dodges and fights but their teamwork eventually overcomes him and he is carried off….

Meanwhile, Wasp and Starfox have entered Bernie Rosenthal’s apartment to find her missing, the image of skull burned into the wall. This calls for the Avengers….

In the dungeon of Skull House, Captain America and Nomad care for the injured Arnie Roth—only to learn that he is another robot duplicate. Moving through the halls they come upon the dead body of the Red Skull’s servant Horst (killed last issue by the Skull). A mirror appears suddenly and Cap sees that he has aged; this causes Nomad to freak out, recalling the nightmare he had in issue #290. They come upon a mock-up of a 1920s Berlin café where the staff and customers are all copies of Arnie Roth, made up to look like a doll. Nomad recognizes the singer as Scarlet (actually Sister Pleasure) who brainwashed him (issues #287-288) into slipping a drug into Cap’s food which cancels out the effects of his Super-Soldier Serum. The real Arnie then comes on stage to sing a degrading song about his own homosexuality until he breaks down in tears. Cap comforts him but it is too late, Arnie’s mind is gone. Mother Superior appears and fights Cap, all the while gloating over her superiority. Realizing she is Red Skull’s daughter, Cap tries to persuade her to reject her father’s training and be herself—but all this makes no sense to her. She unveils a glass cage which holds Nomad, Bernie, Falcon, and Arnie and when Cap is stunned with shock, she pierces his neck with a drugged dart. Then Baron Zemo steps in….