Captain America #122, “The Sting of the Scorpion,” (Stan Lee, Gene Colan) isn’t a good issue but it’s an interesting one.
The story is basic: Sharon’s on a mission for SHIELD busting some hoods. They know she’s onto them so they recruit the Scorpion to deal with her. By convenient coincidence, the Scorpion beats up a random passer-by to see if he’s still got his mojo — and guess who he picks? Steve switches to his other identity, pursues his attacker and ultimately takes him down (given the Scorpion has Spider-Man class strength, it wasn’t a convincing takedown). He leaves before Sharon can escape her bonds to talk to him (to be clear, he had no idea she was there). Oh, and he’s still living in cheap hotels, having no life of his own since he faked his death.
(Minor note, “assault mankind” seems rather exaggerated for a super-powered thug whose goals never rose beyond stealing money and whaling on Spider-Man).
I suspect the weak story reflects several problems. Martin Goodman’s decree all stories wrap up in one issue didn’t play to Stan’s strengths — not that he couldn’t write a good single issue but he did better with longer arcs that gave him more flexibility. Then again, given Stan’s dreadful Cosmic Cube/Red Skull multi-part story, maybe the problem was Lee. People have debated endlessly over what Stan brought to the table (as opposed to Jack Kirby, Steve Ditko and Stan’s other collaborators); I think he contributed plenty (though not as much as he would later claim) but by this point his work on the Star-Spangled Avenger has run out of steam.
Perhaps, as he acknowledges in this issue, he had no idea what to do with Cap as the 1960s ended. Stan has Steve Rogers lampshade the problem for us:
Stan has always written Steve as a man out of time, but never made such a big thing out of it. I imagine that Stan, like a lot of Americans in their forties, found the late 1960s as unsettling as Steve does.
Having raised the question and pondered it, Cap ultimately decides the rebels don’t have the definitive answer.
(Note the first: I was surprised reading David Kynaston’s social history Family Britain to learn “the establishment,” in it’s 1960s sense, dates back to 1955 England. Note the second: holding up Martin Luther King as a symbol of the Establishment is a real stretch, as he worked against the system most of his life).
This of course is the problem Steve Englehart cracked a few years later: Cap doesn’t represent the Establishment, he represent and fights for something more abstract — the American dream. As such, he has considerably more flexibility in what part of America he champions and ultimately the strength to maintain his identity even in the face of American corruption. That’s been the standard take ever since but it was radical when Stainless Steve introduced it.
Stan could diagnose the issue but he couldn’t identify the cure.
All art by Colan.
Great analysis, Fraser! Although I read at least a few Tales of Suspense era Captain America stories and saw those early very primitive cartoons of Cap (as well as Iron Man, Hulk, Thor and Namor) as a wee child in the 1960s, the first actual issue of Captain America that made it into my collection was #153, which happened to be Englehart’s very first. Between that and 169, I missed quite a few, but from that issue on I got it pretty regularly, getting the entire Secret Empire story, but then missing other issues here and there, including issues 182 & 183. in that same period, however, I also started getting the ToS reprints in Marvel Double Feature, which eventually morphed into Marvel Super Action reprinting the first baker’s dozen of Cap solo stories, up through the Steranko trilogy. I got originals of C.A. 113 – 119 about 20 years ago, but never felt inclined to fill in the gap between that latter issue and 153, as I got the feeling that whatever the merits of the art, the overall stories just weren’t that good. In the excerpts you included, I get the feeling Stan is trying to have Steve Rogers make sense of the modern world and of the U.S. in particular, but failing to really come to grips with reality, which reads more like it’s old Stan himself who is having difficulties in realizing that the nation that gave sanctuary and new opportunities to his parents, Jewish immigrants from Romania, too often did not live up its lofty ideals. By luck and circumstance, Lee was able to rise up from the poverty his parents endured and eventually become a very wealthy man, although he hadn’t quite gotten to that level in 1969, but still very comfortably upper middle class. Lee also seemed desperate to appear hip and understanding of the feelings of the younger generation – or, mainly, comics readers in their early adulthood, mainly men 18 or older who faced the possibility of being sent off to a war that struck many as unjust and unwinnable (and not kids such as I was back then who were barely aware of that war, unless their daddy happened to go off to fight and didn’t come back home). Englehart happened to be of that generation and actually was a veteran, even if he got out as a conscientious objector. More importantly, however, was that he brought a vastly needed new perspective to the series, culminating in issue 183, wherein he came to realize what he really stood for all along. I missed that issue when it was on the racks but did get it years later. I wasn’t a big ran or Frank Robbins’ art style, but still the story had a significant impact on truly defining Captain America for the modern era, for 1975 and for now as well, as far as I’m concerned. The USA has never been perfect but still, at least some prominent Americans have expressed great ideals of what our nation should stand for (and forcing other nations to cede land to us is NOT one of them, nor is ignoring or attempting to whitewash our history). At best, we should strive for greater justice and genuine equality of opportunity for all, and the application of the law to everyone within our borders no matter what their wealth or status. Ideals we have too often failed but still worth striving for, even in these exceptionally dark times.
I knew Cap almost entirely from the Avengers. Then my brother started collecting him, conveniently right at the start of the big Secret Empire arc. Which I know own, along with what followed, in TPB.
I’ll have more to say about Stan’s take on rebellious youth in a couple of weeks.