The Man Who Sold The United States!

My nation is nearly two hundred and fifty years old and faces its greatest challenge since the days of the Watergate Scandal or perhaps even the Civil War. A literally raving lunatic has gained control of one of the two major parties and is running for the highest office in the land. He is manifestly unfit for any public office especially the presidency, despite having held the office once before. He brings with him hate and division and all the things which destroy civility and ultimately freedom. But this story today was told before nearly fifty years ago, not long after the embers of the Watergate Scandal were beginning to fade, and the United States was about to celebrate its two hundredth birthday. 

Marvel Comics in 1975 was losing steam, when Jack "King" Kirby agreed to return to the "House of Ideas". It was not as big a bombshell when Kirby returned alas as it was when he originally left, since there was a general sense of inevitability about the whole thing. Kirby was not interested by and large in returning to his old haunts such as the Fantastic Four and Thor, but rather as he'd done before he wanted to do new things such as The Eternals and animation-inspired Devil Dinosaur.

But there was an exception made for Captain America. Cap had been under the control of writer Steve Englehart and artists Sal Buscema and Frank Robbins for several years, but Englehart had recently left creating a void. Kirby came in and largely ignored much of the topical continuity that Englehart had laid down with such skill in the preceding issues. This was a full-blown reboot. 

The Captain America and Falcon of this new way forward were not as angst ridden as they had been under previous writers, and they were very comfortable working in sync with the government, specifically SHIELD. Working on the first two issues with the reliable Frank Giacoia, it feels like Kirby his wheels under him on the strip. Perhaps due to editorial mandates. 

They are driven to join forces with the United States government when a threat to the whole nation is revealed dramatically enough as a wave of inexplicable hate overcomes both Steve Rogers and Sam Wilson as well as a large part of New York City itself. Struggle and destruction ensued and amid that rubble they are told of the secret conspiracy to destroy the whole nation with a sonic bomb dubbed "Big Daddy", an ICBM-sized device which would throw the country into an orgy of self-destruction.

Behind this scheme is a group of self-absorbed "one percenters" who dub themselves "The Elite". Cap and the Falcon track them into the western "Badlands" and find an underground complex in which a distorted society has reared itself, built on exalted privilege for a few and fueled by greed for those left to support those at the top. 

It's an Orwellian world in which hate is equated with love. Cap and Falcon are discovered by a girl named Cheer Chadwick, the daughter of William Taurey, the man behind this foul scheme to rid the country of the Constitution and return it to a monarchy with Taurey and his allies at the top.

They are forced fight in a brutal gladiatorial contest and eventually alongside the U.S. military are able to bring down the vast "Badlands" complex. But "Big Daddy" had already been moved. By finding its creator, a man named Mason Harding, they hope to find the bomb. But Harding is motivated by the love for his daughter who is overcome by a fatal disease. 

He is hidden by the Elite as Cap and Falcon and SHIELD descend on their hiding place. But eventually they learn that the bomb is hidden in Philadelphia and the Falcon leads a team to stop it. Cap on the other hand goes to a rich estate to confront Taurey and his Elite colleagues. It's a desperate battle and the Falcon takes the worst of it, but it is one at the end of which, as Cap reports that "the Nation Stands".

I well remember being disappointed by this storyline when I first read it, since it seemed to lack the topicality which had dominated Cap stories of the recent past. But now I see a more subtle symbolism in this yarn which escaped my literal-oriented noggin at that time.

The "Madbomb" in its shape and function at once stands for the nuclear might which both the U.S. and some other few countries wield, and the effect that awesome power might inflict on the psyche of the public. The concept of "M.A.D." (Mutually Assured Destruction) was a sword of Damocles which hung over the world for decades (and still does actually though we don't confront it nearly as much as we once did in those old "Cold War" times). That fear could easily be manipulated into self-destructive fury.

The world of the "Elites" is remarkable in that they hate democracy, the empowering of the masses. The desire to concentrate power into the hands of a few is a constant struggle in this country, in the world. For those few, currently dubbed "The One Percent", have goals and motivations which do not comport with what is best for the greater whole of humanity. They wish to end the American experiment in democracy and return to a culture which elevated some to nobility while others lived out their days as humble peasants happy for the crumbs they were given. 

The story is somewhat simple-minded in that United States military might is offered as a solution to the problem, which while not implausible does offer up a somewhat troubling image. That the Falcon is so easily co-opted into this mindset does run counter to much of his character development which had been the focus of so many previous issues (one of the things which I was annoyed with when I first read the story in its original run).

But one thing I did notice is that the Falcon is often key in much of the story for the success of the effort to stop the Elite. Captain America seems confounded sometimes by the clash of reality and his ideals and the Falcon is able to cut through the philosophy with a no-nonsense attitude. This does point out the value of their partnership. 

The story is clearly meant to give us insights into what makes America a successful nation, and in a reverse mirror sort of way it does just that.

More Cap next week. Happy Fourth of July! My next year's celebration be a happy one as well.

Post Scriptum: Given the Supreme Court Decision from a few days ago, this Fourth of July takes on added significance. We normally think of it as the remembrance of the beginning of battles to create our nation. Now we can think of it as the beginning of a great battle to preserve it in the modern day. We win this battle, or rights and liberties we've long taken for granted are in grave jeopardy. The loss of a woman's right to choose and have control over her own body was just the beginning for these bastards. They want to be our overlords. They want to rule us. They want us on our knees.  

This is a Revised Red, White, and Blue Dojo Classic. 

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