Captain America #265: Review

Jan 1982

David Anthony Kraft, John Beatty

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Story Name:

Thunderhead!

Review & Comments

Rating:

Captain America #265 Review by Peter Silvestro (August 3, 2014)

Review: Guest writer David Anthony Kraft has the bad habit of making Cap deliver cornball lectures on patriotic themes at every opportunity. As a result a halfway decent story looks like a parody of itself despite featuring a Cap/Spidey team-up, a cyborg baddie, nuclear weapons, and a robot army. As it stands, the coolest thing is Nick Fury’s cocoon release, enabling his shirt to enwrap the robot behind him; that is a gadget that even Roger Moore-era Q would be ashamed of! So didn’t Marvel have editors to say to Kraft “If you don’t like Captain America, just say so?”

Comments: Part one of a two-part story. First appearance of SULTAN. The Biotron Constructs describe themselves as “indestructible;” judging by how easy they are to take out, I don’t think that word means what they think it means. Future comics writer Barry Dutter has a letter on the letters page.

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Synopsis / Summary / Plot

Captain America #265 Synopsis by Peter Silvestro

Peter Parker is on his way home after a late night party at the Bugle when he sees another partygoer accosted by a band of hoods. Peter starts to duck away to get into his Spider-Man duds but the intended victim trounces his would be assailants (we’re not surprised because we know it’s Steve Rogers/Captain America). Steve demands the film Pete snapped of the battle which the fearless photographer turns over. After Steve has left, the Spider-Sense starts tingling and Pete changes to Spider-Man and follows over the rooftops. When Steve stops at a pay phone, he is teleported away but not before Spidey tosses a tracer on him. Then Spidey is grabbed from behind by a pair of yellow-clad enforcers but when he tosses them away they vanish through a wall. Meanwhile, Steve finds himself in a strange location being attacked by an army of robots. Hastily donning his Captain America duds, he tears through them but they can repair themselves using parts of ruined robots so the Cap is eventually overwhelmed and taken prisoner….

Back at the alley, Spider-Man follows the two agents through the brick wall to discover it is a hologram secret entrance to SHIELD headquarters. Nick Fury is on the scene to enlist Spidey in a mission to rescue Steve/Cap from the baddies…..

The captive Cap meets his foe, SHIELD’s rogue computer designer Sultan who plots to destroy the USA as revenge for his treatment by the government. The villain is about to launch a nuclear warhead at Washington DC. Meanwhile, Spider-Man and Nick Fury, following the tracking device are ambushed by the robots and brought before Sultan in his lair on Thunderhead Island. At a secret signal from Fury, Spidey and Cap join him in fighting through the robots. As Sultan launches the rocket, Fury uses a hook and cable to hitch a ride and is soon lost from sight. Cap and Spidey exit the villain’s lair only to discover it is a flying fortress and they are now plummeting to their deaths….