Tales From The 50 Cent Bin! - Captain America #247

Now, I’ve gotten to Captain America aka “Mr. Stars and Stripes.” While he’s not one of my top 10 comic book heroes, I’ve always liked the guy. To me, the Avengers don’t feel like a thing unless he’s around. Unlike the other two heroes, I’ve looked at, I actually own some stuff related to Captain America. I’ll be looking at two first issues that are part of trade I own. Today, I’ll be looking at Captain America #247 from the War and Remembrance trade.

This issue started a short but good run for the character. The writer was Roger Stern while the penciller is John Byrne. Both also co-plotted on the issue. I actually looked at an issue from this trade last year that had Cap almost run for office. Joe Rubinstein handles the inks for the issue.  So, let’s see what happens while Cap is out doing his thing.

Captain America #247

Writer: Roger Stern

Pencils: John Byrne

Inks: Josef Rubinstein

Colors: George Roussos

Letters: Jim Novak

Editor: Jim Salicrup

"By The Dawn's Early Light!"
We start out with Captain America doing his best Spider-Man impression. I guess he saw the Wall-Crawler running on buildings and buses and was like “I can do that!” He’s actually doing all of these acrobatics to reach SHIELD headquarters. In previous issues, it turns out that he’s got some conflicting memories. While he knows he was a teen orphan in New York, he has memories of being part of a rich family from Maryland. He thinks SHIELD may have the answers. Meanwhile at Steve’s apartment, Josh Cooper (Steve’s neighbor) leaves a letter at Steve’s door. He and another neighbor then go meet who looks to be a new tenant.

He gets there and finds Dum-Dum Dugan instead of Nick Fury. Since Fury’s busy, the bowler hat-wearing agent helps out Cap. Meanwhile, Nick Fury (the white variety in a weird suit) heads to a prison to see Baron Von Strucker. It turns out he’s being extradited to Israel in order to be punished fro his crimes. Unfortunately, Nick doesn’t get to carry out his orders. While Fury’s not looking, Strucker takes out a smoke bomb that knocks Fury out. Strucker then sets out to get his revenge on Cap.

At a warehouse in New Jersey, Dugan shows Steve his belongings from World War 2. Steve finds his old war journal and it’s revealed that the memories of the rich family were implanted in his mind. This was done in order to give the enemy false information in case Captain America was interrogated. Suddenly, Strucker attacks the warehouse in Fury’s car (Fury’s in the car knocked out). A fight ensues and Cap even gets to use his original shield (I really want one of those). Eventually, Strucker is beaten but before anyone can do anything, Strucker blows up. It’s revealed that this Strucker is actually a robot. Unbeknownst to the heroes, a villain called the Machinesmith watches them and plans for Captain America’s downfall.

What the heck is Fury wearing? I guess the 70's really were a bad time for fashions!

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I thought this was a nice issue. The story kept was interesting and the artwork was really good. I don’t know much about Steve at this time other than the fact that he actually had a secret identity (long story). Anyway, the whole thing about his memories was interesting. I also thought that it was cool we got a little SHIELD action here. Strucker was fine as the villain, but how did he know where Cap was? Maybe the Machinesmith has GPS or something.

As I said before, the artwork was really good. Byrne was at his best during this era. The inks and colors made everything look better than it already did. I do wonder what was up with Fury’s vest and green slacks. I think Fury needs to get that other eye checked out. Overall, this was a nice first issue to a really good trade. If you haven’t read War and Remembrance, check it out. Next time, it’ll be the first issue from Ed Brubaker’s first run on Captain America. Until then, Peace, God Bless, and don’t match leopard spots with green unless you’re a pimp.