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Captain America: Patriot #3: Review

Oct 2010
Karl Kesel, Mitch Breitweiser

Story Name:

Part 3: Truth & Justice


Synopsis

Captain America: Patriot #3 Synopsis by Peter Silvestro

As doctors race to save the life of Bucky who was gunned down in an alley while investigating a jewel robbery, other members of the All-Winners Squad join Captain America in his vigil. When they offer to help track down the assailant, Cap startles them by insisting he go alone. Betsy Ross is the only one perceptive enough to realize that Jeff suspects who did it and hopes he’s wrong….

Mary Morgan, the former Miss Patriot is surprised in her bedroom by Cap—her former friend Jeff Mace—who breaks the news about Bucky and questions her about her whereabouts the previous evening. She is insulted by the suggestion that she shot Bucky, and with her enhanced hearing, detects a thug in a nearby bar bragging about the incident. Deciding to trust her, he heads off to the bar; after he leaves, Mary packs her bags and departs….

Arriving at the saloon, Cap cuts a violent swath through the assembled hoods, trying to discover who pulled the trigger on Bucky. As he questions some captured thugs, he is shot in the leg from the shadows. The gang leader is a glamorous woman who calls herself Lavender after her favorite scent, and proves to be a Nazi sympathizer. When Cap loses control, he is halted from harming her further by the mysterious Golden Girl—Betsy Ross in costume—who takes down Lavender. She explains that, in her costumed identity, she can join in the fight against crime while remaining FBI liaison. Cap visits Bucky in the hospital to tell him his assailant has been captured and that he will be working with a new partner until Bucky is well…. He then breaks the news to the All-Winners Squad that he is leaving the group to concentrate on battling street crime in New York where he can make a difference. As Jeff walks Betsy back to her apartment, they feel an attraction to each other but she does not want to complicate matters. In her room, however is her FBI superior, Agent Skinner, who reminds her to stay alert in her surveillance of Captain America—who is a security risk now that Mary Morgan is suspected of being a Communist agent….


 

Review / Commentaries

Rating:
4 stars

Captain America: Patriot #3 Review by (December 15, 2010)
Comments: Tis issue is largely a modernized version of CAPTAIN AMERICA COMICS #66 where Bucky was shot and Betsy Ross became Cap’s sidekick Golden Girl. The villainess Lavender made her only appearance in that issue, too.


Captain America: Patriot #3 Review by (January 18, 2011)
This issue also has Cap quitting the All-Winners Squad. They don't appear as a group again. AWC 70th Anniversary #1 occurs 1 week after AWC#21, early in last issue's timeframe. The AWS appearances in She-Hulk#22 and Citizen V & the V-Battalion #1 include Cap and Bucky, so must precede CAC#66. (In the Golden Age AWS actually only appeared as a group in All Winners Comics #19,21.) But the AWS must last until 1949 if they are to occupy the Baxter Building. And next issue mentions that there was at least 1 later occasion where CA and GG worked with the AWS. ***** CA:Patriot #4 will take place in the 1950s, after the end of the remaining CA stories that are attributed to Jeff Mace, which finish with CAC#74 Oct49. The 1950s CA was yet another person. Between this issue and next, CA trained GG in the rest of her CAC#66 origin, and then she appeared in some of his subsequent stories. Jeff's later career was told in CAC#67-74 and his run in MMC#87-94, along with single strips in AWCv2#1, HT#35 and SMC#31, plus a guest star role in a HT story in HT#33. The online Grand ComicBook Database lists Betsy as Golden Girl in more than half of these later stories in CAC and MMC. Some authorities suggest GG also appeared once without Cap, in a story with Namora and Sun Girl in MMC#88. But others claim this is not true. Perhaps one day the Golden Age Masterworks series will get that far.

The advent of Golden Girl was part of a trend. Timely had short-lived heroines before (the dubious Black Widow from Mystic Comics #4 Aug40 and Silver Scorpion from Daring Mystery Comics #7 Apr41). They had more success with Miss America from Marvel Mystery Comics #49 Nov43 and Blonde Phantom in All Select Comics #11 Fall46. Then in MMC#82 May47 and Sub-Mariner Comics #23 Summer47 they gave Namor a female companion Namora. Now GG replaced Bucky in Apr48. And later Sun Girl replaced Human Torch's pal Toro from Sun Girl #1 Aug48 and HT#32 Sep48. Roy Thomas's reimagination of Patriot in the pages of Invaders and What If didn't include the Betsy Ross GG. Indeed Roy invented his own teen Golden Girl in Invaders #27-28. In 1982's CA Annual #6 J. M. DeMatteis mentioned Bucky's shooting and replacement by GG. However early editions of the Official HandBook of the Marvel Universe had Roy's GG as Jeff Mace's partner. But a correction in OHOTMU Update '89 reinstated Betty Ross to the role. This issue of CA:P provides a justification for Betsy Ross to want to be GG. And also a justification for the FBI to let her, to keep a close eye on Jeff, tarred by association with Mary as a suspected Communist.

Issue #1 of this series was internally dated from Jul41 to Jul46, describing Jeff Mace's career as Patriot. Issue #2 covered Sep46-Apr48, Jeff's career as Captain America with Fred Davis as his Bucky. (I have already made some comments about alternative dating.) This issue is contained completely within 1 story from Captain America Comics #66, Apr48. In that story Bucky was shot (as seen at the end of last issue). CA tracked down his assailant Lavender, with the assistance of Betsy Ross as Golden Girl. When this happened in the Golden Age, CA (then Steve Rogers not Jeff Mace) and Betsy were schoolteachers together. CA:Patriot prefers Betsy in her earlier role as FBI agent, and Jeff still a reporter. Mary Morgan's involvement in this is a complete invention, which supplies closure for her story. Karl Kessel has given her suspicious Communist connections to support events in next issue.


> Captain America: Patriot comic book info and issue index

Elektra

Excelsioring your collection:
DIAMOND SELECT TOYS Marvel Premier Collection: Avengers Endgame Captain America Statue, Multicolor
Holy smokes, Batman!
(The Boy Wonder)

Mitch Breitweiser
Mitch Breitweiser
Bettie Breitweiser
Mitch Breitweiser (Cover Inker)
Mitch Breitweiser (Cover Colorist)


Characters

Listed in Alphabetical Order.

Captain America
Captain America

(Steven Rogers)
Human Torch
Human Torch

(Jim Hammond)
Sub-Mariner
Sub-Mariner

(Namor McKenzie)
Toro
Toro

(Thomas Raymond)

Plus: All-Winners Squad, Betsy Ross (FBI Agent), Bucky (Fred Davis), Captain America (Jeff Mace), Golden Girl (Betsy Ross), Mary Morgan, Whizzer (Robert Frank).