Captain America #312Issue(s): Captain America #312 Review/plot: It's back pay for all his years of service. Cap tried to refuse the money but was told it was impossible. So, after just lucking into the letter from Bobby Hutchinson about the Awesome Android last issue, Cap decides he'll use the money to set up a call center that the public can use to contact him. Now, this is a decent idea, but it raises a couple of questions: Cap can only be in so many places at once, so why not set up the call center for the Avengers instead of himself? And why don't the Avengers already have something like this in place. How many stories have Jarvis (or the Avengers' cleaning lady) picking up the phone when someone's got an emergency? And half the time they assume it's a crank call. Why haven't the Avengers thought to set up an actual service that can screen and prioritize calls, funded by the Maria Stark Foundation? More cynically, this is potentially a really easy way to set up a storytelling engine that'll get Cap into any plot with no set-up. Still, it's an interesting development for Cap, but i hope he's prepared to be mighty busy. The second development is the introduction of the Flag-Smasher. He's an anti-nationalist. I guess an anarchist, but more Noam Chomsky than Johnny Rotten. Although a lot less sophisticated than Chomsky; i can't imagine Chomsky thinking flying around literally smashing flags would be anything but counter-productive. I'm not a big fan of metaphor characters or such obvious foils for heroes, but i could be persuaded if we got a good political debate here. There is some speechifyin' when Cap and Flag-Smasher meet at the opening center for Cap's call center, but Smasher's ideals are somewhat undermined by the fact that he's willing to kill innocent people just to make people listen to him. Cap's response doesn't really do it for me either. I think it would have been better to have Cap be somewhat rattled by the Flag-Smasher's ideas (which would require them to be presented better) or have him show some blind spots in his own ideals, but instead Gruenwald seems to go for an earnest defense of Nationalism and it just comes off preachy. I will give credit for this: when the Flag-Smasher explains his philosophy, the crowd just doesn't get it and they resort to calling him a "commie", which totally misses the point, and is hilarious. Bernie's preparation for law school continues. She says she studied "pre-law" in college, which isn't really a thing but she could be speaking in shorthand. And Diamondback and Bushmaster raid an old AIM base looking for MODOK. They leave a time bomb behind in case he returns. The Flag-Smasher is lame. He'll be used to better effect in later books, but that doesn't mean he isn't lame. Not a great costume design, either. Very cartoony (probably not helped by the Flexographics). Quality Rating: C- Chronological Placement Considerations: Takes place before Avengers #262, where Cap's call center is a minor point of discussion. References:
Crossover: N/A Continuity Insert? N My Reprint: N/A Inbound References (6): show Commentssorry, but I love the Flag-smasher. Villains who challenge a characters ideals are great. Lets face it, Steve Rogers is better than Captain America, the propaganda symbol. Its hard not to argue that the Flag-smasher, at his most basic is right, nationalism sucks. Its just his methods that are wrong. Posted by: kveto from prague | July 8, 2012 5:31 PM To be fair to the crowd, he trapped them and threatened them. It's not fair to fault them for not listening too closely to his beliefs after that. Posted by: Michael | July 8, 2012 5:39 PM yeah, I know. But it was still funny. Also, that he got so shocked that they weren't listening to him. "What? I'm not a communist! Weren't you even listening to me?" I saw it as a bit of a comment on "Red Dawn" style 80s mentality. A political baddie, well he must naturally be a commie. Posted by: kveto from prague | July 8, 2012 5:45 PM I think Flag-Smasher is a character with a lot of potential, but Gruenwald's writing couldn't elevate him to what he needed to be, and other writers mishandled him badly. Gruenwald would add a lot of other political villains to Cap's rogues gallery with various degrees of success. If Flag-Smasher predated the transnational progressives, the Watchdogs were an early "militia" style group, and he added a very bad feminist organization later on. I'm sure there are others, but can't think of them right now. It all shows Gruenwald was a very smart writer in many respects, but he also had plenty of dumb ideas. The entire "million dollar back pay!" angle is just absurd, and simply seems to be a stupid way to set up Cap #332. Posted by: Chris | July 8, 2012 9:19 PM Flag-Smasher was a nifty idea, but Gruenwald made him too much of a caricature. Later appearances were even worse. Posted by: Luis Dantas | November 13, 2012 6:34 PM "I will give credit for this: when the Flag-Smasher explains his philosophy, the crowd just doesn't get it and they resort to calling him a "commie", which totally misses the point, and is hilarious". Actually, Communists and other Marxists do generally strongly oppose nationalism and other such forms of bigotry as dividing the working class of all nations from uniting against the corporations. On the other hand, Marx actually thought that corporations would try to discourage warfare, since he felt that corporations have their as their priority their class, not other members of their nation. Flag-Smasher's economic views remain unclear, but later on Roxxon persuaded him that as a *multinational* corporation they would encourage world unity as in their best interests. So, I suppose Flag-Smasher will encourage anything to bring about world unity, whether allowing for corporations or state ownership and control of means of production. I have to wonder if Flag-Smasher would countenance the oppression of the workers just as long as world unity stood in place. Patriotism actually stands as something different from nationalism. Patriotism refers to the support of one's form of government (not necessarily the current administration), as opposed to one's nation. The concept of a nation/race seems primarily a Hebrew concept. Posted by: PB210 | November 10, 2013 10:43 AM Patriotism actually stands as something different from nationalism. Patriotism refers to the support of one's form of government (not necessarily the current administration), as opposed to one's nation. The concept of a nation/race seems primarily a Hebrew concept. http://www.religioustolerance.org/intol_bibl1.htm# http://www.religioustolerance.org/god_cana.htm God orders extermination of residents of Canaan: Canaan is an area which includes modern-day Israel, the occupied territories, and part of Lebanon and Syria. Its borders are defined in Numbers 34:1-12. The Canaanites were well established there. According to the Bible, Joshua led the Israeli army into Canaan killing any adults and children who did not vacate the land. God's motivation for ordering this destruction appears to have been the religion of the Canaanites. Their carved stones, molten images, and open-air religious sanctuaries were to be desecrated and destroyed. Much of the book of Joshua describes the carnage. Posted by: PB210 | November 10, 2013 2:06 PM Hey, PB, i appreciate the thoughts and the research, but i think we're way into the weeds in terms of this relating to Captain America and Flag-Smasher. Saying that "the concept of a nation/race seems primarily a Hebrew concept" is bound to strike someone the wrong way, and i'm sure that's not your intention. I've always enjoyed your comments, especially how you tie things back to earlier pulp fiction and other pre-comics sources. I just don't want to derail this post too much with things that Mark Gruenwald & company probably never came close to considering, especially with stuff that skirts Thirteenth Tribe type topics that i don't want to see debated here. Posted by: fnord12 | November 10, 2013 2:34 PM I agree that Flag-Smasher's costume is too cartoonish. He looks like evil Space Ghost. Posted by: Alex F | July 24, 2014 4:22 PM I actually agree with Flag-Smasher's politics. It's a shame he didn't take Cap's advice and promote them in a heroic way. It would have been an interesting character dynamic if he ended up reforming. He and Cap doing the occasional team-up, loathing each others' politics while developing grudging respect for each other as individuals. fnord: Flag-Smasher isn't an anarchist. Anarchy is about no government. Flag-Smasher does want government, but he only wants ONE government. Posted by: Thanos6 | May 31, 2015 10:11 PM I don't know, Thanos. His first target in this debut appearance is the UN, which he describes as a "misguided attempt to promote unity among the peoples of the world". Strengthening the UN, not attacking and disparaging it, would be a better way to promote a one world government. It seems his father might have believed in a one world government, but as far as i've ever seen Flag-Smasher just wants to tear down the world's governments in the hope that something better will emerge (and that's before his Moon Knight and Ghost Rider appearances in the 90s when he just becomes a generic evil terrorist instigator). It gets back to the fact that he's never really been defined or depicted well. Posted by: fnord12 | June 1, 2015 8:14 AM I think F-S's problem with the UN is that it's NOT trying to be something that would eventually merge the world's governments into one. Rather, it's a place for governments to continue being independent while still theoretically cooperating. Hence F-S's description of it as misguided. Agreed on him losing his way in later years; I think the low point was when he took over the country of Rumekistan. The man who loathes nations, running a nation, and at no point did the story comment on the irony or describe this as him selling out or anything. Posted by: Thanos6 | June 1, 2015 9:09 AM I can only assume that Mark Gruenwald does not have a good grasp of that irony. He is, after all, writing Captain America and also the creator (and for a good while the main writer) of John Walker/USAgent. One would expect someone with a good grasp of the dangers of nationalism to handle that character is a more decisive way. Yet he consistently fell short, to the point that the best story of John Walker-as-Captain America is actually written by Gerry Conway: http://www.supermegamonkey.net/chronocomic/entries/spectacular_spider-man_138.shtml Posted by: Luis Dantas | June 1, 2015 10:08 AM Not sure why Gru is being accused of not understanding irony? I don't think he had anything to do with the Rumekistan story, which I think was by Nicieza. Spectacular 138 seems a reasonable use of the John Walker Cap, but it's never struck me as anything exceptional. I don't see what it does that wasn't done in the main Cap title. Posted by: Jonathan | June 1, 2015 10:32 AM Gruenwald's John Walker has lots of issues that are never fully acknowledged, despite an abundance of lampshades. Gerry Conway brought and run with those issues head-on. Posted by: Luis Dantas | June 1, 2015 9:11 PM A little surprised that no one has mentioned Flag-Smasher in relation to what Alan Moore will have Ozymandius do in Watchmen just a year later. I definitely think that kind of trick is something Flag-Smasher would be all for - wiping out large groups of people in the hopes of getting all people on the planet to unite. Posted by: Erik Beck | June 3, 2015 10:09 PM What the frigging what, Erik. That is exactly what Flag-Smasher hopes to avoid. What you describe is classic, basic nationalist justification for deaths such as his father's. Unless you picture Flag-Smasher as utterly insane, I suppose, which would be very much a waste of a superb concept but is at least consistent with Marvel's depictions of the character. Posted by: Luis Dantas | June 4, 2015 12:23 PM @ Luis Dantas - Either we disagree on Flag-Smasher's ideas or Ozymandius' motives (or both). I'm approaching Flag-Smasher as less of an anarchist than someone who wants people to unite without the concept of nationalism. He certainly has no problem with killing people to further his goal. I view what Ozymandius did as attempting to unite all people on the planet against a (perceived) common threat. He believes that the sacrifice of 3 million against the survival of the planet is an acceptable trade-off. In my notion, they are both attempting the same thing (uniting all people on the planet). I don't see that Ozymandius is doing anything that is nationalistic - he's trying to counter-act the nationalism that's driving the US and USSR to war. In a sense, I treat their difference like Oscar Wilde does the woman beside him - we've established what they are, now we're just haggling over price. As to your last point, well, Flag-Smasher is a terrorist, so I don't think sanity is high on his list of attributes. But feel free to disagree with any of my assessments. Posted by: Erik Beck | June 4, 2015 2:47 PM Kurt Busiek explores the idea of a call center for superheroes in issue 3 of the most recent Astro City series. A big part of the plot is training the phone operators to filter out crank calls or emergencies that don't require superheroes. Posted by: Charles R | January 14, 2016 12:29 PM There's a "Miss Steckley" in this issue who seems to be the coordinator or office manager Cap hires to set up his hotline. Gruenwald will later reuse that name -- and a simialr sort of job -- in Quasar, though the "H.D. Steckley" there turns out to be Moondragon in disguise. I wonder if Gruenwald worked for or with someone by that name during his time as a bank clerk. Posted by: Omar Karindu | March 30, 2018 8:38 AM Interesting! It's possible you have discovered the original H.D. Steckley! She may have intended to approach Wendel for work and Moondragon telepathically sent her away and took her place. Then Erishkigal stole her name ("Holly Deborah Steckley") as well. Poor woman never did get a job with Quasar... ;) Posted by: Jay Demetrick | March 31, 2018 12:16 AM Haha, that's a great idea. In one letters column (or maybe in a Mark's Remarks), Gruenwald did say there must have been an actual H.D. Steckley before Moondragon impersonated her. Posted by: AF | March 31, 2018 3:32 AM Comments are now closed. |
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