Captain America #104: Review

Aug 1968

Stan Lee, Jack Kirby

::: click cover to ENLARGE it :::

Story Name:

Slave of the Skull!

Review & Comments

Rating:

Captain America #104 Review by Peter Silvestro (February 15, 2010)

Conclusion of a four-part story. The Exile leaders are all named for the first time. Though Tony Stark plays an important role in the story, he does not appear.

From Our Blog:

Gwen Stacy, beauty queen of Standard High School, was Peter Parker's (alias Spider-Man) first great love.

Gwen Stacy: Classic Beauty

Synopsis / Summary / Plot

Captain America #104 Synopsis by Peter Silvestro

As the story begins Captain America is engaged in battle with a team of dangerous foes, whom he defeats in a whirlwind of action. They are revealed to be SHIELD’s LMD androids, in a training workout for Cap. Cap reports to the medic to see about the headaches he’s been having lately, when suddenly another, worse one strikes—courtesy of the Red Skull’s nuclear tape implanted on Cap’s neck. The Nazi villain then informs Cap by means of SHIELD’s own closed-circuit TV channel that the tape is the detonator for an H-bomb hidden in Washington, which will go off if anyone tries to remove the tape. The Red Skull issues his first command to Captain America: return to the Island of Exiles for one final battle before his death. After SHIELD has verified the Red Skull’s warning Cap has no choice but to obey his orders and head back to the enemy’s island. Arriving on the island, Cap tries to overpower the Skull but is rendered helpless by the villain’s neuro rod.

Meanwhile in Washington, Nick Fury and his team have located the hidden H-bomb but need the expertise of Tony Stark to deactivate it. On the island, Cap recovers to find he must battle the Exile leaders one by one. The Star-Spangled Avenger is attacked first by Cadavus, a cripple in a weaponized murder chair, then the whip-wielding Gruning, and Iron Hand Hauptmann. He then faces the Russian wrestler Krushki, the Italian Baldini with his deadly scarf (seriously), and the Chinese General Ching. Suddenly Cap strikes back, smashing Cadavus’ murder chair into Baldini and inflicting as much damage as he can on the others quickly. The Red Skull presses the detonator to destroy Washington and…nothing happens; Stark was able to defuse the bomb. SHIELD forces invade the island, the Red Skull and the Exile leaders escape in a mini-sub and Captain America raises the US flag over the island in a victory for democracy.

::: click cover to ENLARGE it :::