As I’ve blogged about before, by the end of the 1960s Stan Lee had no idea what to do with Captain America. How do you make the quintessential representative of the establishment relevant in an age of dissent, dropping out and protesting? Lee diagnosed the problem but didn’t have a solution; neither did Gary Friedrich, who took over Captain America with #142. While Lee was running out of steam, Friedrich never had any steam to begin with.
His first issue, #142 (cover by John Romita) wrapped up a plotline Stan Lee and John Romita started a couple of issues earlier. The Grey Gargoyle has a plan to seize the ultimate doomsday weapon from SHIELD. His biggest edge will be his new power to petrify people, then endow them with movement under his control. One touch and the Falcon becomes his sleeper agent.
It’s not a standout story but it’s better than a lot of what Lee’s been doing with the series. For one thing, after Lee’s stupid Sharon/Steve breakup story, they get back together.
However we also have a scene where Sharon senses the Falcon’s under control because, well, she’s a chick.
This stuff about Sharon as a SHIELD psychic comes out of nowhere. Which might be forgivable but nothing comes of it and SHIELD already has an ESP unit. It feels like a gloss put on old cliches about women’s intuition.
With the next issue, it’s time for Friedrich to fly free with a plotline of his own. He face-plants.
In “Power to the People,” Sam tries to get together with Leila, a sexy black activist. She looks down her nose at his career in social work and what she considers his Uncle Tom role as Cap’s loyal black sidekick. Sam reluctantly accompanies her to a local black power meeting hosted by the “People’s Militia.”
Even if the cover didn’t announce unmasking Mr. Sack would be a big deal, I’d probably have smelled something rotten. Marvel, after all, has a history of black radicals turning out to be criminal schemers, such as the Diamondheads, the Thunderbolts and Stoneface (whom I haven’t blogged about — suffice to say, he’s more of the same). And sure enough on the last page, the militia leader unmasks as — the Red Skull! Nyahaha, Captain America, look how easily I can fan hatred and set Americans against each other!
I can’t blame Friedrich for wanting to use the Skull. It’s SOP for new writers to try a story or two with one of the classic villains as a way to get a handle on the character. And he’s really trying to think about the Falcon’s role and whether focusing on Harlem and his own people isn’t a better choice for an African-American hero than working with the Star-Spangled Avenger (though keeping Falcon’s name staying on the cover makes it pretty clear their bromance will stay strong). And I’ve always liked the idea of heroes who prioritize watching over their local community.
I can, however, blame Friedrich for doing a bad job with all that. Here’s a glimpse of the black activists after the Red Skull has whipped them into a whitey-hating frenzy.
Damn, black people are scary, aren’t they? Especially when they’re being riled up by race hustlers (this is a trope that goes back to the 1950s)! They’re almost as irrational as Earth-616’s women! It’s a much more alarming portrayal of black power = black dupes than any of the previous fake revolutionaries.
Oh, and this scene of Cap spying on the Falcon feels less being concerned about his partner’s politics and more just creepy.
Yes Cap, you are eavesdropping. And no, Sam walking away is not an excuse — it’s not like he’s being mind-controlled by Modok.
To be fair, Friedrich also face-plants writing women. Marvel has generally been matter-of-fact that SHIELD has women agents in the field, and that they’re fully qualified. In the scene below (Stan Lee, Jack Kirby), even AIM doesn’t question Sharon’s qualifications.
But it was the 1970s, feminism was in the news and Friedrich apparently decided to get relevant. Which meant SHIELD’s women agents have to be fighting for recognition from the patriarchy as — the Femme Force!
This annoys the heck out of me. And to top it off, Friedrich has to resort to the oldest of cliches for women’s characterization — there are two women in the book so naturally they’ll fight over a man. First the Contessa butts in when Sharon and Cap want privacy (art below by Gil Kane)
Then she makes her interest clear.
The Bechdel Test, based on a joke in Alison Bechdel’s comic strip Dykes to Watch Out For, is that a movie passes the test if it has more than one named woman character, the two women talk to each other and they discuss something other than a man. A lot of movies fail; very few fail the “reverse Bechdel Test” (more than two men, they talk, they discuss something besides a woman). Here Friedrich seems to go out of his way to flunk the Bechdel Test (not literally, it was well in the future). The last time we saw the Contessa she was banging Nick; there’s no reason to have her hitting on Cap other than to bring Sharon almost to the point of a catfight. And what’s the point of that?
To be fair, it’s not as bad as when Wonder Woman and Batgirl fought over Batman. Even so, it’s the kind of crap that makes me think no, I do not want to keep up my Bronze Age reread much longer.
