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Captain America #276: Review

Dec 1982
J. M. DeMatteis, Mike Zeck

Story Name:

Turning Point!


Synopsis

Captain America #276 Synopsis by Peter Silvestro

Things have been cleared up after the riot at the neo-Nazi rally; Nazi leader Harry Todd takes a potshot at Captain America who clobbers him with his shield. Anti-Nazi leader Sammy Bernstein thanks Cap for talking sense into him as he is being led away to jail. And Bernie Rosenthal looks at Cap in such a way that he realizes she knows his secret identity.

Interlude: An executive at the Coalition for an Upstanding America has the ideal of asking Captain America to endorse their organization….

Steve is afraid to go home because he can’t face Bernie; she sees him and runs out to meet him. They reaffirm their love for one another but are interrupted by Gail Runciter calling him to a meeting with "the boss." Cap goes to SHIELD HQ where Nick Fury tells him that Arnie Roth and Michael Bech were carried off by a monster (last issue) and the villains left an invitation for Cap to come rescue them….

At the late night rendezvous, Cap is approached by a mystery man who turns out to be an android which takes him for a ride in a small aircar to a dark castle in the wilderness. Walking down a creepy corridor, Cap is mobbed by androids which ooze out from the walls. He fights them off and enters a lab where he finds Arnie and Michael in life-support tubes. The lights come on, revealing his enemies to be the new Baron Zemo and Arnim Zola….



Story #2

Snapping: Part I

Writer: J. M. DeMatteis. Penciler: Mike Zeck. Inker: John Beatty. Colorist: Bob Sharen.

Synopsis

Sam Wilson, running for Congress, is enraged at the Daily Bugle printing a story raking up his gangland past and storms out of his office. Leila Taylor fills in campaign manager Carol Davis on the story: how Sam was a hood named "Snap" Wilson and the Red Skull used the Cosmic Cube to give him a new personality as the heroic Falcon as part of a plot against Captain America; eventually a third personality emerged, an amalgam of the first two…. Now Sam is wandering the streets, fearful of reverting to his Snap persona. In his rage he hurls a trash can lid which nearly hits a mother and child but he leaps and bats it away. A witness rebukes him for endangering the lady and Snap lashes out, nearly clobbering the man until Sam catches himself and runs off in despair….

 

Review / Commentaries

Rating:
4 stars

Captain America #276 Review by (October 29, 2014)
Review: Steve and Bernie make nice and Cap walks into a trap by Baron Zemo (2) who at the time was a new villain. The romantic scenes are very well done, making great use of panels without dialogue to suggest a love deeper than words—it’s just what one wouldn’t expect from a comic book involving Nazis (neo- and original). As for the rest of the issue it’s mostly setup for the following story arc. DeMatteis’ writing is still sharp and Zeck/Beatty’s art is cool in a non-flashy way. The real bonus this issue is the Falcon/Sam Wilson back-up story. His past was bizarrely tangled so no one would blame Marvel for pretending it never happened. Instead, J.M. DeMatteis tackles the issue head on, examining just what makes Sam tick. It’s a little too long but delivers more than we had a right to expect with its pop psychology for Marvel’s teen audience.

Comments: Both stories are part one of three-part tales. Arnim Zola is later revealed to have been the shape-shifting Primus in disguise. File 116 was a dossier on monster sightings introduced during Jack Kirby’s 1970s run on the title. The story of Sam’s strange background was related in CAPTAIN AMERICA #185


> Captain America comic book info and issue index

Elektra

Excelsioring your collection:
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Holy smokes, Batman!
(The Boy Wonder)

Mike Zeck
John Beatty
Bob Sharen
Mike Zeck (Cover Penciler)
John Beatty (Cover Inker)
? (Cover Colorist)


Characters

Listed in Alphabetical Order.

Baron Zemo
Baron Zemo

(Helmut Zemo)
Captain America
Captain America

(Steven Rogers)
Dum Dum Dugan
Dum Dum Dugan

(Timothy Aloysius Dugan)
Falcon
Falcon

(Sam Wilson)
Nick Fury
Nick Fury

(Nicholas Fury)

Plus: Bernie Rosenthal, Gail Runciter, Leila Taylor, Primus, Vermin.