Captain America Theater of War: America First!

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Captain America Theater of War: America First!

Post by Col_Fury »

Captain America Theater of War: America First! #1
By Howard Chaykin!
February, 2009

Appearances:
Captain America IV(Steve Rogers II), Agent Nick Fury(of the CIA!), Senator Joseph R. McMurphy, Allen Welsh Dulles(real guy!), President Dwight D. Eisenhower

Synopsis:
Pg1-pg4: Late summer, 1955
Russian agents train themselves in a fake American town; they’ve dressed up another agent as Captain America but he sucks at it.
Pg5-pg10
Meanwhile, Senator Joseph McMurphy gives a Red Scare speech, drumming up Communist paranoia in the States. In New York, Captain America fights organized crime and ponders the intentions of McMurphy.
Pg11, pg12pn1, pg12pn5-pg12pn6
Meanwhile in Washington, Agent Nick Fury gives a briefing on this new Captain America. Meanwhile, Captain America runs around.
Pg12pn2-pg12pn4-FB
The origin of the new Captain America!
Pg13-pg14
Fury testifies in front of the Senate Committee led by McMurphy. It doesn’t go very well once Fury starts to get angry.
Pg15-pg44
Professor Steve Rogers lectures his class on Communism, then hears of Dieter Prochnow offering a German secret Weapon to the highest bidder. Meanwhile, Fury is informed by his boss that he’s not on the Prochnow case thanks to his grandstanding at the Senate hearings. Elsewhere the Russians decide to make Prochnow an offer, and that night Captain America appears on the television show “Of the People”, hosted by Ed Murtaugh. They chat about McMurphy and agree that his reckless tactics are stirring up irrational paranoia in the States. McMurphy isn’t happy about this, so hear starts a public smear campaign accusing Captain America of being a Communist. The US beats the Russians to making Prochnow an offer, and Captain America breaks into McMurphy’s house and learns that HE is actually a Communist himself. Cap decides to bring this information to Fury. Cap goes after McMurphy(who’s on his way back to Russia, having already acquired the secret weapon) while Fury lines up the paperwork. Cap retrieves the weapon but McMurphy escapes. Later, Captain America and Nick Fury are thanked personally by President Eisenhower, who doesn’t know this is a new Captain America. A Russian agent defects and gives Fury & Cap information on McMurphy’s whereabouts, and Cap goes about reigning him in.

References:
This occurs in late summer 1955, which would place this after Captain America Comics 78, which was published in 1954, and after CA@ 6, in which this Cap’s portion takes place in 1954 as well.

Don’t confuse Joe McMurphy with Joe McCarthy… even though their stories sound very similar. McCarthy was disciplined for his shenanigans in 1954, and even though he still served in the Senate for a couple of years after that, he was kept out of the spotlight. McMurphy MUST have picked up where McCarthy left off with his witch hunt. ;) “Of the People” hosted by Ed Murtaugh may sound familiar as well; “See it Now” hosted by Ed Murrow blasted McCarthy in a similar fashion in 1954.

The world, not even President Eisenhower, doesn’t know that this is a different Captain America… but Nick Fury does! Fury even knows about this Captain America’s origin, but doesn’t know what his ‘real name’ is. Speaking of that origin…

CA 155 (8:3-9:6)-FB
Professor Steve Rogers travels to Germany to find the secrets of the Super Soldier Formula. He eventually finds records of it.
CATOW: AF! 1 (12:2)-FB
He locates a sample.
CA 155 (10-11:1)-FB
Professor Rogers proposes to the Feds that he be the new Captain America, and with the rising threat of Communism and the war in Korea, a deal is struck.
CATOW: AF! 1 (12:3-12:4)-FB
Professor Rogers undergoes plastic surgery.
CA 155 (11:2-13:2)-FB
Professor Rogers comes out of surgery to find out the war in Korea is over, and the Feds don’t need him to be Captain America anymore. He’s upset, but accepts it and eventually starts teaching at the Lee School. He meets a young kid who’s into Captain America history who calls himself Bucky.
Young Men 24/2 (1-4)
Professor Rogers teaches his class, and afterwards he and Bucky hear of the red Skull’s return.
CA 155 (15)-FB
Rogers and Bucky shoot up the Super Soldier Serum and become the new Cap & Bucky.
Young Men 24/2 (5-6)
The new Cap & Bucky defeat the Red Skull.

Also included are two reprints. First is Young Men 24/2, and then Captain America Comics 77/2.

Some placement suggestions:

CAPTAIN AMERICA IV/STEVE ROGERS II
NOM2 24-FB
CA 155 (8:3-9:6)-FB
*CATOW: AF! (12:2)-FB
CA 155 (10-11:1)-FB
*CATOW: AF! (12:3-12:4)-FB
CA 155 (11:2-13:2)-FB
{YOUNG MEN 24/2 (1-4)}
CA 155 (15)-FB
YOUNG MEN 24/2 (5-6)

YOUNG MEN 25/2

CAPTAIN AMERICA COMICS 78/3
CA@ 13-FB
CA@ 6-FB
CA@ 6
*CATOW: AF!
CA 155 (17-18)-FB

M/:LG 1-FB
{CA 153}


FURY, COL. NICHOLAS "NICK" JOSEPH

SGTF@ 1
*CATOW: AF!
M/:LG 9


DULLES, ALLEN WELSH
*CATOW: AF!

EISENHOWER, GEN. DWIGHT D.
SGTF 88-BTS (07/43)
SGTF@ 2
SGTF 108-FB
SAGAHT 4-FB
SAGAHT 4
*CATOW: AF! (1955)
AoATLAS 1-FB (1958)

As long as I’m here, I’ll suggest an update on page/panel ranges:

NOMAD III/JACK MONROE
NOM2 18-FB
NOM2 23-FB
NOM2 24-FB
CA 155 (12-13:2)-FB
{YOUNG MEN 24/2 (1-4)}
CA 155 (15)-FB
YOUNG MEN 24/2 (5-6)

YOUNG MEN 25/2

CAPTAIN AMERICA COMICS 78/3
CA@ 13-FB
CA@ 6
CA 155 (17-18)-FB
M/:LG 1-FB
{CA 153}
-Daron Jensen
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Re: Captain America Theater of War: America First!

Post by Enda80 »

Some confusion exists regarding whether or not "Steve Rogers" (i.e. 1950's Captain America/later the Grand Director) actually fought in the Korean War or not. Did the Marvel Atlas entry for Korea broach this subject in either its tradepaperback or original publication?

http://www.marvunapp.com/Appendix3/fift ... rontca.htm

Marvel Comics Presents#47/3 featured a story that seemed to suggest that "Steve Rogers" (the impostor/later the Grand Director) did serve during the Korean War.

http://www.marvelmasterworks.com/marvelhcs/caprwb.html
http://www.marvunapp.com/Appendix/rskul2.htm
Has anyone fit the Max Allan Collins 1950's Captain America story from the Red, White and Blue anthology into the Grand Director's listing? Although it kind of has the freewheeling feel of a Further Adventures of..... Bantam DC anthology of the late 1980's/early 1990's, they did it as a graphic novel, not a prose anthology. It featured the Red Skull posing as Senator Joseph McRooter, and the Captain American in that story identifies him as a Nazi working with Nazi war criminals. Of course, the Communist Red Skull (Malik) would have held the Red Skull role at the time, and while he did pretend to represent the original Nazi Red Skull rehabilitated as a Communist agent, I do not think that this ruse held up after his first battle with the Grand Director, and thus not long enough for him to recruit former Nazi agents in 1954 (year given for the story's events).

I am a little uncertain about the continuity status of some of the tales in this Red White Blue anthology; a lot of them were a tad outré, including one set in November 12, 1952 which featured Captain America facing an NKVD agent named the Red Bra (who was really Sharon Carter) alongside Black Mamba (from the Serpent Society). The Joseph McRooter story itself is entirely suspect to not being in-continuity, but fits more than others in the book. The one outstanding flaw is the inclusion of Ross, who was romantically involved with a previous Captain America (Mace, who retired in 1949), not the 1950's version. It's entirely possible that she continued to work with the new Cap, though.

(I have e-mailed Max Allan Collins a few times on other matters, but decided not to correct him on this. He primarily works as a mystery or crime fiction writer, a genre that largely works by excluding fantasy or science fiction elements, and he seems to prefer depictions of characters such as the Shadow which do not feature paranormal elements-in the original pulps by Walter Gibson, the Shadow did not have the ability to psychically render himself invisible. Thus, one would note expect Collins to stands as knowledgeable about finer points of continuity. http://www.comicbookresources.com/?page=article&id=1193 and I refer you to an interview in Amazing Heroes#119.)

Despite the above misgivings, Albert Malik's entry as the Red Skull in the Golden Age Handbook including the Joseph McRooter story as part of Malik's history and aliases.

If you want to know what happened in that story:

(Captain Amerca: Red, White, and Blue, eighth story - see comments) In February 1954, Malik killed a senator named Joseph McRooter, and took his place. Recruiting war criminals to help him, Malik decided to pursue a strategy of crippling America from within by accusing honest, law-abiding Americans of being Communists; by this ruse, Malik presumably also hoped to distract attention from the activities of true Communist saboteurs. (Curiously, Malik recruited some former war criminals to aid him in this scheme.)

As part of this scheme, Malik (impersonating McRooter) called for investigations into the U.S. military for possible Communist infiltration. As part of this, he demanded that Captain America and Brigadier General Zwiller appear before him. Captain America appeared with lawyer Ken Levine in Washington. "McRooter" demanded that Captain America take off the mask during his next appearance.

Speaking with FBI agent Betty Ross, Captain America discovered that she suspected that the real McRooter had been killed and replaced. She showed him pictures of contacts McRooter had met with, who Captain America recognized as war criminals.

At the next hearing, Captain America unmasked "McRooter" as Malik. An agent of Malik's grabbed for a gun, but Betty Ross shot him.
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Re: Captain America Theater of War: America First!

Post by wolframbane »

Alhough the OHOTMU indicates that Cap IV did not serve in Korea, other sources indicate he did.

Men’s Adventures 28/2 – July 1954
Captain America Comics 77/4 – July 1954
Captain America Comics 78/2 – Sept. 1954
http://chronologyproject.com/phpbb2/vie ... f=9&t=3261

Cap IV also met Clarence fighting on Pork Chop Hill in Korea.
http://www.marvunapp.com/Appendix3/fift ... rontca.htm
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Re: Captain America Theater of War: America First!

Post by Enda80 »

You could reconcile those stories as dealing with soldiers listed as POW/MIA kept in secret prison camps by the North Koreans for later leverage. (The fear of POWs being held in secret prison camps is a motif going back at least as far the Shadow novel the Shadow Unmasks. For Vietnam, this idea of missing veterans held in secret camps has been used in the following books and films: Mission MIA by J.C. Pollock, Uncommon Valor, Wolf, Missing in Action, Rambo: First Blood Part II, Executioner#43: Return to Vietnam by Stephen Mertz, as late as Executioner#209:Asian Crucible [released May 1996], and others).
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Re: Captain America Theater of War: America First!

Post by Col_Fury »

Enda80 wrote:I have e-mailed Max Allan Collins a few times on other matters, but decided not to correct him on this.
:shock:
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Re: Captain America Theater of War: America First!

Post by Enda80 »

Col_Fury wrote:
Enda80 wrote:I have e-mailed Max Allan Collins a few times on other matters, but decided not to correct him on this.
:shock:
I asked MAC what happened to the Dick Tracy novel that they had announced in a 1993 book about Dick Tracy, if he had heard of the film The Executioner II before creating Wild Dog, and if Chester Gould ever mentioned where he got the idea for the wrist radio watch (as Midnight and Doc Savage had such devices before Dick Tracy received his in 1946).

Anyway, those 1950's Cap stories do not show him participating in the Korean War (1950-1953). This makes sense, as this version of CA debuted in Young Men#24, published December 1953-even with the convention of it hitting stands a few months prior to cover date, with the armistice in July of that year, it would have hit stands afterward. Has any story specified in which month of 1953 the first battle between "Rogers" and Malik took place?
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Re: Captain America Theater of War: America First!

Post by JephYork »

(I have e-mailed Max Allan Collins a few times on other matters, but decided not to correct him on this. He primarily works as a mystery or crime fiction writer, a genre that largely works by excluding fantasy or science fiction elements, and he seems to prefer depictions of characters such as the Shadow which do not feature paranormal elements-in the original pulps by Walter Gibson, the Shadow did not have the ability to psychically render himself invisible. Thus, one would note expect Collins to stands as knowledgeable about finer points of continuity. http://www.comicbookresources.com/?page=article&id=1193 and I refer you to an interview in Amazing Heroes#119.)
Please stop.

-Jeph!
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Re: Captain America Theater of War: America First!

Post by JephYork »

(The fear of POWs being held in secret prison camps is a motif going back at least as far the Shadow novel the Shadow Unmasks. For Vietnam, this idea of missing veterans held in secret camps has been used in the following books and films: Mission MIA by J.C. Pollock, Uncommon Valor, Wolf, Missing in Action, Rambo: First Blood Part II, Executioner#43: Return to Vietnam by Stephen Mertz, as late as Executioner#209:Asian Crucible [released May 1996], and others).
Please just stop.

-Jeph!
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