Captain America Comics #16

Aug 2

Aug 2 Captain America Comics #16

The Horror of the Seas

At Camp Lehigh, following a football game, Gen. Haywood assigns Steve to accompany Betty Ross to Valley Port to investigate multiple bus accidents. From Littleton, Betty takes a bus to Valley Port, and Steve, as Cap, follows. At a diner, the counterman drugs the driver's coffee. Soon after, the bus crashes. Cap pulls Betty and the dead driver from the wreck. Reaching Valley Port, Betty checks into a hotel, but the manager alerts the Hooded Horror, who sends his followers and Sea Monsters to capture her. Bucky, who has followed Cap, tries to rescue Betty but is captured, and both are taken to an underground city. Cap finds the captive Laison King, freeing and accompanying him to prevent the Laisons from sacrificing Bucky and Betty. When the King reveals the Nazis' deception, the High Priest declares all humans must die. Although Cap and company escape, the Laisons and Monsters massacre Hooded Horror's Nazis. The King directs Cap to dynamite the underwater city, but when Cap departs, reveals that the blast will kill Cap as he abducts Betty for his Queen. Bucky defeats the King, alerts Cap, and they escape as the city is destroyed.

Recurring Characters

Captain America, Bucky, Betsy Ross, Nazis, Sgt. Duffy, General Haywood

Red Skull's Deadly Revenge

The Red Skull escapes prison, learns archery, then recruits former henchmen Shores, Igor, and Benson, killing Benson when he rebels. Cap and Bucky find Shores and Igor robbing City Bank, but while Cap defeats them, the Skull shoots Bucky with an arrow. Cap rushes his friend to a doctor, then returns to Camp Lehigh, unaware the Skull has followed. Consulting his files, Cap travels to the Skull's last known hideout, but the Skull takes him by surprise, pinning him to a dungeon wall with arrows and pounding him unconscious. Learning Cap's secret identity from his wallet, the Skull takes Cap's costume & shield. He embarks on a month-long nationwide crime spree, then impersonates Cap to steal defense plans. Reports of the crime motivate the still-recovering Bucky to locate the Skull's hideout and free Cap. The two acquire replacement costumes and track the Skull and company to an airport. They make short work of Shores and Igor, but the Skull takes off in a plane. Cap and Bucky manage to cling to the plane's tail. While fighting Cap, the Skull falls, and Cap and Bucky land to find his corpse, with evidence he, not Cap, stole the plans.

Recurring Characters

Captain America, Bucky, Nazis (Red Skull), Sgt. Duffy

Continuity Notes

Although the Red Skull appears to fall to his death at the end of this story, Young Allies #4 reveals that the Red Skull was wearing a secret parachute and survived the fall.

Murder in Cross Lane

Roddy Colt sees his friend Jerry Dash off on his vacation. The following day, Roddy is shocked to learn that the Jerry has been accused of murdering Elle Wright. When Spud points this out to Roddy, the newspaper boy gets a punch across the face. Meanwhile, Titus Locke, the owner of the Freetown News and the Tool Works sees the district attorney about breaking the story before taking the evidence to the authorities first. There Titus turns over the murder weapon to the D.A., a gun that is registered in the name of Jerry Dash. He tells the D.A. if ballistic tests are done they can match the weapons.

Meanwhile, later on in the day, Roddy runs into Spud Sickles once more. Spud shows off a good-luck charm he found near the scene of the murder while he was on his delivery route. Recognizing it as part of Jerry's watch case, Roddy decides to investigate the allegations of murder as the Secret Stamp. As Jerry is being taken into police custody, the Secret Stamp, knowing that Jerry was on a train out of town while on vacation, the Stamp pays a visit to the train station and questions the ticket agent to turn over the receipt of Jerry's ticket. When the ticket agent refuses, the Secret Stamp knocks him out and takes it. Bringing the evidence establishing Jerry's alibi, Jerry is released.

However, Titus works up a lynch mob that seeks to hang Jerry for the crime anyway. Learning of this, the Secret Stamp rushes to warn his friend, however Jerry refuses to flee the lynch mob. When the mob arrives and attempts to string him up, the Secret Stamp notices a number of reports from the News on the scene. He also spots that one of them has Jerry's watch. Realizing that this is a frame up, the Secret Stamp stops the mob by reminding them that a lynch mob mentality is not the American way, and that Jerry has the right to a fair trial, reminding them that their fellow Americans are fighting overseas to stop this sort of barbaric mentality in the war.

Realizing the errors of their way, the mob stops, but Titus Locke attempts to further rile them up. The Secret Stamp accuses Locke for killing Elle Wright and tackles him. Later, in court, Jerry reveals that Elle Wright had obtained information regarding how Titus was involved in war profiteering and labor crushing with his Tool Works company. When she turned the information over to Jerry, Titus had her murdered and Jerry was framed for it.

With overwhelming evidence, Titus is found guilty and Jerry's name is cleared. Later, Spud tells Roddy that he intends to give his good luck charm to the Secret Stamp. Roddy smiles, telling Spud that he had probably gotten luck from it already on his last case.