Captain America #341 (May 1988)

Before we begin here, I would like to apologize for the delay in posting this. I got my 2nd COVID vaccine last Friday, and it knocked me for a loop. But I’m all better now, so here we go!

For the past few weeks, Marvel Studios has been releasing installments of the mini-series Falcon and the Winter Soldier on Disney+. It's an awesome show, and I highly recommend it. One of the things I love about the series is that it uses elements from one of my favorite runs of Captain America's comic: The Mark Gruenwald run. For ten years, Gruenwald wrote what is in my opinion, some of the most underrated Cap stories of all time. We've entered into Gruenwald's run before with my reviews of Captain America #332, and #333. And since elements of his run are being used in Falcon and the Winter Soldier, I thought I’d return to it. So let’s look at Captain America #341!

The cover is a Ron Frenz piece. I am a bit of a fan of his artwork, but I have to admit, I think the figures do look a bit...wonky here. It's like they're overly bulky. I do get that Frenz is going for something Kirby-esque here. After all, he's been known to imitate Kirby in his Thor work.

"Break-In"
Writer: Mark Gruenwald
Penciler: Kieron Dwyer
Inker: Al Milgrom
Colorist: Bob Sharen
Letterer: Jack Morelli
Editors: Ralph Macchio, Marc Siry
Editor-in-Chief: Tom DeFalco

The first story begins with Tony Stark, aka the Invincible Iron Man, coming home with a date. But he has company waiting for him.

"Oh Tonyyyyy! Stevie's home!"

Cap wants to speak to the genius billionaire playboy philanthropist in private. Tony sends his date home, and the two get to talking. Tony figures that Steve Rogers is not happy with their clash at the Vault (a prison for supervillains), in Iron Man #228 (March 1988). But that's not the only reason. He's also here to return a new shield that Tony made for him.

He also wants to turn Tony in to the authorities. Tony tosses the shield as a distraction and switches to his Iron Man suit. But Steve Rogers is not intimidated by the Silver Centurion armor or any of Stark's techno-tricks. Steve feels he has the advantage because Tony's not going to go all out and wreck his own home in the process. The two brawl, the entire time debating. 

The debate is argualbly the most interesting part of this story. 

Time to look at the second story!

"Free Speech"
Writer: Mark Gruenwald
Penciler: Kieron Dwyer
Inker: Al Milgrom
Colorist: Bob Sharen
Letterer: Jack Morelli
Editors: Ralph Macchio, Marc Siry
Editor-in-Chief: Tom DeFalco

This one begins at Fort George M. Meade Army Base. Lemar Hoskins, who had previously been operatiing as the new Bucky, has got himself a new look.

"John, I look good!"

John thinks Lemar looks great. He does wonder how he was able to convince the Commission on Superhuman Activities to give him his new costume, as they wouldn't let John make even one minor alteration to his Captain America uniform. 

You see, the two government heroes had helped deal with a breakout at the Vault the week earlier. One of the guards approached Lemar and wanted to speak to him. The guard was a Black man, but asked why he went by the codename "Bucky". The guard felt the name was a bit insulting. After all, the original Bucky was a white teenager, and Lemar is presumably Cap's age himself. Lemar is also as tough as Cap, and is a bigger man, to boot. 

Also, the word "Buck" is an offensive term for Black men. That's because it was used as a term for male slaves before the America Civil War. Lemar discussed this with the Commission, and they were very reasonable about it. As such, he's now got a new look and a new name: Battlestar.

In real life, Mark Gruenwald was unaware of the racial connotations of giving a Black character the codename of "Bucky". Gruenwald grew up in Wisconsin, which is...very white. It was Dwayne McDuffie who made him aware of this. The two tried to come up with a new codename for Lemar, and it was Kieron Dwyer who came up with the name Battlestar.

In front of the Washington Monument, Walker and Hoskins announce themselves as the new Captain America and Battlestar. The two of them make speeches for the crowd, but then John notices that a news copter is flying a bit low. Two men climb down and leap on the stage.

Meet Left-Winger and Right-Winger. Yes, those are their names. I am not making this up. They do come off more as villains for a parody of Cap than an actual Cap story. Anyway, the two are revealed to be two of John's old BUCkies from his Super-Patriot days. They expose Walker's identity to the crowd, and a fight breaks out. 

The two villains are arrested and carted away, but as far as they're concerned, they already won. They managed to upstage the new Cap and Battlestar, and John hopes that the public will be understanding.

"In Our Midst!"
Writer: Mark Gruenwald
Penciler: Kieron Dwyer
Inker: Al Milgrom
Colorist: Bob Sharen
Letterer: Jack Morelli
Editors: Ralph Macchio, Marc Siry
Editor-in-Chief: Tom DeFalco

The third story begins with a meeting of the Serpent Society.

I have always liked the concept of the Serpent Society. Imagine that if a bunch of supervillains got together and basically formed a labor union. Yeah, imagine if you got to have things like medical benefits by being part of a supervillain team. 

Anyway, the Serpents are doing some business. Mainly, they're nominating three new snake-themed villains for membership: the super-strong blade-wielding Fer-de-Lance, the technological suit-packing Copperhead, and the speedster Black Racer.

No, not that one.

That one! You may be thinking, wait, Black Racer? How's that fit the snake theme? Well, the black racer (or the eastern racer) is a species of non-venomous snake native to North and Central America. Their range goes from Canada to Belize. The black racer is also the state reptile of Ohio.

Thanks to a heist in Las Vegas in Captain America #338 (February 1988), these four new recruits demonstrated skills and qualities that showed that they should be considered full members of the Society. As such, they'll spend the next three months as probationary members, doing assignments for the Society and the like. Rachel Leighton, aka Diamondback, shows Fer-de-Lance to her quarters in the Society's HQ. However, the snake-themed villainess has a secret of her own.

Yes, Fer-de-Lance (as well as the other three Serpent Society newbies) is actually an agent for the vicious villainess known as the Viper. The green-haired terrorist heads towards Black Mamba's room. She knocks out the woman, and slips into her maid outfit.

It's here that she enters Sidewinder's room. Sidewinder and Mamba have a little thing going on between them at the time. Viper takes advantage of Sidewinder's being distracted by looking over some papers to bite and inject him with venom.

And Viper wonders why people make vampire jokes...

That's gonna hurt. And rather unhygenic. Despite his being weakened by the poison, Sidewinder is able to reach his teleporter cloak and flee. He teleports into Diamondback's room, and she saves his life thanks to having some universal anti-toxin. The two teleport to the communications room just as Puff Adder bursts in doing his best Kool-Aid Man impression.

“Hey, Puff Adder!” “OH YEAH!”

Looking over the security cameras, there's chaos erupting. Viper's agents are causing a ruckus, and Diamondback is unsure who to call for help...until she gets an idea.

There is one person to call that anyone can trust. Even crooks like the Serpent Society. She grabs the phone and dials for Captain America's hotline. Yeah, at the time, Steve Rogers had a hotline that people could call if they needed help. I imagine it got regularly swamped with calls. 

This comic was really good. Gruenwald does a great job with giving fair space to all three stories. The three stories are all short, but they do push plotlines forward. Being a continuity man, Gruenwald manages to smoothly tie in the events of the Armor Wars that was going on in Iron Man's book at the time in the story focusing on Tony and Steve. We also get a bit of a look at the inner workings of the Serpent Society. As I have said, I like these guys. 

Join me next time when we look at an adventure of Superman when the Man of Steel discovers that he's got an invader in his Fortress...