Issue(s): Captain America #369, Captain America #370
Cover Date: Mar-Apr 90
Title: "The Skeleton Crew / Out of his skull" / "House calls"
Credits:
Mark Gruenwald - Writer
Ron Lim & Mark Bagley / Ron Lim - Penciler
Dan Bulanadi & Don Hudson / Dan Bulanadi - Inker
Mike Rockwitz - Assistant Editor
Ralph Macchio - Editor

Review/plot:
Issue #369 has a Red Skull back-up drawn by Mark Bagley and Don Hudson. Issue #370 does not have a back-up.

Following up on his promise to keep in touch with Diamondback, Captain America visits her colleague, the Asp, who is working at a strip club (Cap got this "intel" from the Avengers' security chief, Michael O'Brien). The Asp initially assumes Cap is there to arrest her, so she blasts him and then tries to escape, but Cap subdues her...

...and gives her the message. The Asp refuses to admit that she knows where Diamondback is, so Cap just tells her to have Diamondback call his hotline if she sees her.

As he's leaving, Cap expresses his disapproval of Asp's downtime activities.

Meanwhile, Diamondback is picking up a new supply of trick diamonds from the Tinkerer. I guess the police didn't have much on him and he was let go after he was arrested in New Mutants #86.

A "dirty old man" comment from the Tinkerer as she pays him for his work.

Diamondback checks her messages and learns from Asp that Cap is looking for him. She then calls his hotline and tells him to meet her outside the Hellfire Club. She knows from Asp that the Red Skull's minions are interested in the Hellfire Club because they're looking for Red Skull after he was attacked by Magneto.

In fact, the Skull's minions, calling themselves the Skeleton Crew, are headed there right now.

Issue #368 implied (really, more than implied) that the Serpent Squad would be the ones checking out the Hellfire Club, but it seems plans have changed, probably to introduce the "Skeleton Crew", which consists of Crossbones, the Voice, Mother Night, and Machinesmith in the body of the Fourth Sleeper. "Skeleton Crew" is kind of a silly name, but i am glad that only one of them is skeleton themed, just like i'm glad that the Red Skull and Crossbones are rarely referred to as "Skull and Crossbones".

We know from our X-Men comics that the only proper way into the Hellfire Club is through the sewers, so that's where the Skeleton Crew goes. They encounter a group of Hellfire Club soldiers...

...as well as the Black Queen.

It turns out that Magneto wasn't actually holding the Red Skull at the Hellfire Club, so the Skeleton Crew is just trying to leave at this point. Diamondback has followed because she wasn't expecting to run into Crossbones and there's still a secret between her and Crossbones that she doesn't want Captain America to know about.

The Voice's power proves effective against the Hellfire goons, and it does actually work against Selene as well, but she's still able to use her powers.

And she is immune to Mother Superior's powers.

She can also take a crossbow bolt in the heart, even while she's using up her lifeforce.

Captain America shows up as Selene is getting tossed around by the Sleeper. Cap catches her and she's about to drain his lifeforce when Diamondback tosses a diamond from the shadows...

...and then jumps out to warn him.

Mother Superior then turns the Skeleton Crew invisible and they escape while Cap and Diamondback are fighting the Hellfire goons. Selene brings down the ceiling to end the fight, because she doesn't like an Avenger getting too close to the Hellfire Club's inner workings. The collapse leaves Cap and Diamondback buried in rubble.

And that ends the main story in issue #369 but we then go to the back-up featuring the Red Skull, who has also been buried alive. The back-up is really just a dream sequence, with the Skull going mad from solitary confinement and lack of food.

One point of interest is Arnim Zola saying that there's a "loss of fidelity" with every transfer into a new cloned body.

The sequence ends with a vision of Captain America, who urges the Skull to not give up because what's been done to him is vengeance, not justice.

Cap and Diamondback break out of the rubble at the beginning of issue #370. The Skeleton Crew, meanwhile, decide that since their investigation of the Hellfire Club turned up nothing, they're going to get Tristam Micawber, the psychic dwarf that Baron Zemo used during the Bloodstone Hunt, to locate the Red Skull. To find him, Tristam needs a personal effect of the Skull's, and Mother Superior pulls out one of his ties, which the Skull once left in her quarters.

Tristam is able to trace the Skull to Bergen County, New Jersey, but the effort causes him to either have a heart attack or faint (both possibilities are raised, but either way this is Tristam's last appearance). The Crew digs up the trapdoor to the bunker that Magneto trapped the Skull in, and Crossbones locates him.

The Red Skull is alive, but he's lost the will to live and asks to be taken home to Skullhouse to die. Crossbones tries to cheer him up by bringing him through his trophy room.

This doesn't work, but the Red Skull asks to see Captain America one last time before he dies.

Meanwhile, Captain America has taken Diamondback to the Avengers' current subbasement base and left her to play cards with the support staff while he meets with Eric Masterson to discuss the architectural plans for the rebuilding of Avengers headquarters. But the activity in Skullhouse triggers an alarm, so Cap and Diamondback go to investigate.

After fighting their way through some deathtraps (nice pose, Diamondback)...

...they find the Red Skull on his death bed. Mother Superior is using her powers to make the Skeleton Crew look like health care workers.

Seeing his old enemy rekindles his hatred, and therefore his will to live.

Captain America then just turns around and walks out, looking shellshocked.

It's worth observing that of the women depicted in this story, the Asp is shown to be a stripper, Diamondback is given the opportunity to pay for her new weapons with sex, the Black Queen is a seductress (i caught my partner Min giving the cover of #369 the hairy eyeball), and Mother Superior is revealed to be not just a valued super-villain minion but a sexual partner for the Red Skull. There's nothing wrong with female characters being sexual, but it's all a bit much especially when there's nothing equivalent for the male characters. In fact Captain America is depicted as a nearly sexless boy scout.

Beyond that, issue #369 was a fun cross-villain battle, but i found #370 to be weirdly sappy, with all the action in the issue (the deathtraps) feeling like filter, and the ending doesn't feel true to me. The idea that Captain America would just walk away from the Red Skull at the end seems completely wrong, regardless of a line inserted into the dialogue for Diamondback saying, "Unless you don't think you have enough evidence to convict him. Yeah, I'll bet that's it! Besides, you know where he lives and works -- you could come back any time, right?" Cap doesn't respond - too spooked by the Red Skull's eyes and the realization that it really is the real Red Skull. I also have to admit that i'm surprised at how short a period it was that the Skull was trapped in the bunker. I had issue #367 because it was an Acts of Vengeance issue, but i never followed this portion of Mark Gruenwald's run in realtime or sought it out until i got to this year for my project. I always kind of assumed that issue #367 was the last we saw of the Red Skull for a while. Him coming back 3 issues later kind of dilutes the impact of Magneto's actions. Too bad Magneto didn't put a tracker on him or something just in case, and show up in the middle of issue #370 to kill him this time or something.

Statement of Ownership Total Paid Circulation: Average of Past 12 months = 178,800. Single issue closest to filing date = 164,400.

Quality Rating: C

Historical Significance Rating: 1

Chronological Placement Considerations: It's been "weeks" since Captain America last saw Diamondback in issue #365.

References:

• Cap promised to call Diamondback again after Captain America #365.
  
• The Red Skull was trapped by Magneto in Captain America #367.
  
• Tristam Micawber was seen during the Bloodstone Hunt in Captain America #358-362.
  
• The Avengers are operating out of the subbasement of their former mansion since Avengers Island was sunk in Avengers #311.
  
• Among the items seen in the trophy room:
  • A picture of the Exiles, first seen in Captain America #103-104.
    
  • Models of the Sleepers. The first three were seen in Tales of Suspense #72-74 and the fourth was first seen in Captain America #101-102 (and it's been appearing a lot recently). The fifth Sleeper is from Captain America #148.
    
  • Several of the Red Skull's old costumes, including his Golden Age suit. The one with the fist is from Captain America #143.
    
  • The Bucky robot from Tales of Suspense #89.
    
  • Way in the back on a shelf is the fake cosmic cube that Hitler is trapped in, from Super-Villain Team-Up #17.
    
  • The head of the Ameridroid - or possibly just a statue bust of it. I'm linking to Captain America #261-263 since that's when the Red Skull used the robot; it wasn't actually created by him. I'm also not listing the robot as a Character Appearing since it really is colored to look like a statue (in a subsequent panel as well as the one shown).
    
  • The Death's Head Satellite, from Captain America #226-227.
• When Captain America met the Red Skull "several months back" in Captain America #350, he didn't believe it was the original.

Crossover: N/A

Continuity Insert? N

My Reprint: N/A