Issue(s): Captain America #280
Cover Date: Apr 83
Title: "Sermon of straw"
Credits:
J.M. DeMatteis - Writer
Mick Zeck - Penciler
John Beatty - Inker
Mike Carlin - Assistant Editor
Mark Gruenwald - Editor

Review/plot:
Two subplots that were building in the last story arc are tied together for the main plot of this issue. We were introduced to the Coalition for an Upstanding America, and we saw people getting killed by the Scarecrow. Turns out the people being killed all had ties to the Coalition.

Cap stops by the Coalition's office to demand that they stop using his likeness to promote their cause. While he's there he finds out about the killings. Of course, Cap decides to look into the murders. He also, as Steve Rogers, agrees to work on the Coalition's ad campaign so that he can keep tabs on them.

As for the Coalition's politics, they are about returning America to the morals it used to have, and could have again. That's deliberately bland enough to imply a conservative worldview without getting into actual politics, but here's Cap's thoughts on the subject:

I understand the fire that drives men to want to improve our lot -- to see a return to a better -- more decent -- time.

But it's their methods that leave me cold. What happens to the individualist in a land where morality is wielded like a club? Where decency is dictated by those with the loudest voices - and the greatest wealth?

Anyway, no point in doing any detailed analysis since the above probably reflects J.M. DeMatteis' politics as much as Cap's.

The Scarecrow, on the other hand, is offended by the Coalition's sanctimony because it reminds him of his abusive father (or so he says; his brother will later say that Scarecrow has just been nutty since he got out of prison). And he proves via a tape recording that the the leader of the Coalition is actually just in it for the money.

Cap puts a stop to him pretty easily, but the Scarecrow's goal of discrediting the Coalition was a success.

Zeck's art continues to be the real selling point on this series (he still sometimes skimps on backgrounds, though).

He does a great job selling the Scarecrow as actually scary.

And makes good use of his acrobatic skills.

Quality Rating: C+

Historical Significance Rating: 1

Chronological Placement Considerations: This is self-contained and can fit between any of Cap's appearances in other books.

References:

• Captain America fought the Scarecrow previously in Captain America annual #6 (and, not referenced, once before in Captain America #159).
  
• When Steve meets the advertising client who introduces him to the Coalition for an Upstanding America, he apologizes for the anti-Semitic remark he made in Captain America #275.

Crossover: N/A

Continuity Insert? N

My Reprint: N/A

Amazing that they would think of a right-wing cable news channel as early as 1982 when CNN just premiered a couple years prior for just general news.

I vaguely re all that there had been a move by some right-wingers--maybe connected with Joe Coors?--to buy CBS sometime in the late 70s or early 80s, and when that didn't happen they mooted starting a cable channel. That could be what DeMatteis is referencing here.

A quick google shows me the CBS thing happened in '85. But I suspect moves like that were afoot earlier, and DeMatteis probably has something specific in mind. That, or he's Kang.

Pretty topical at the time considering the rise of Jerry Falwell's Moral Majority during the Reagan-dominated '80's, in addition to Pat Robertson's 700 Club and Christian Broadcasting Network and the spectacular fall of Jim and Tammy Bakker's PTL later in the decade.