Steve Rogers has a terrifying nightmare that Captain America is fighting a cadre of Nazi monsters only to end up at Bucky’s grave, with the ghost of his late partner haunting him for his failure. On awakening he makes an appointment with Dr. Faustus, a psychiatrist he met a month earlier. What Steve does not suspect is that Faustus is an enemy: he has been causing Cap’s nightmares by having his sidekick Ferret, a bellboy at Cap’s hotel, slip him a drug. On his way to the doctor, Steve spots Sharon Carter walking down the street and hurries after her. Catching up he finds she is not Sharon and a passing police officer takes on the face of the Red Skull. Believing he’s going mad, Steve runs to Faustus’ office, unaware that behind him the woman and the cop reveal themselves to be Faustus’ henchmen, using masks to dupe Steve….
At Faustus’ office, Steve suddenly finds himself the prisoner of Nazi monsters, being shaken back to reality by the psychiatrist. Faustus prescribes stronger medication and sends Steve home, then shows us that the dream was created by actors in a concealed room….
Back home, Cap works out with a SHIELD plastoid until Ferret arrives with the new pills. Cap awakens in the middle of the night to find himself an old wrinkled man, with Bucky recruiting him for a mission—a recreation of Bucky’s final adventure. When Steve fails to save his partner yet again, he breaks down into a babbling madman. Dr. Faustus arrives to commend his staff—when Cap jumps up and beats all the henchmen. A surprised Faustus asks what happened and Cap reveals that he had been suspicious and sent the pills to SHIELD for analysis. He only pretended to take the final pill and is wearing an old age mask. As SHIELD agents surround Faustus, the evil psychiatrist challenges Cap to single combat. It lasts one punch.
> Captain America (1968 series) comic book info and issue index
Click pages to see them in the Comic Viewer.
Review: A new baddie comes onto the scene, evil psychiatrist Dr. Faustus, attempting to drive Cap insane by playing on his fears, worries, and guilt over his past, especially blaming himself over Bucky’s fate. It’s a variation on a Spider-Man versus Mysterio tale but minus all the mystery as we know the who, the how, and the why of the scheme from the beginning. The question is…how is Cap going to figure it all about? Well, Cap took a hint from the SHIELD guy in the previous issue, going along with it all until the baddies revealed themselves. And so Faustus challenges Cap to single combat—and it goes in a very satisfying manner.
Comments: First appearance of Dr. Faustus. His quote, “Whom Dr. Faustus would destroy, he will first make mad” comes from an ancient Greek or Latin original, referencing “the gods.” The quote also inspired the title of a STAR TREK: TOS episode, "Whom Gods Destroy."
