Descrizione
CAPITAN AMERICA EDITORIALE CORNO
ALBO ORIGINALE DEL 1974
Sismobomba o non bomba, per dare una energica lisciata di capo e di chiappe allo sculettante Batroc e ai suoi patetici scagnozzi in questo episodio è sufficiente un CAP pure un po’ dimesso e scosso dai suoi soliti tormenti nostalgici e sentimentali
contiene inoltre : X-MEN
CONDIZIONI : BUONISSIME, DI BUSTA
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“In the Name of Batroc!” / NEL NOME DI BATROC !
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Featured Characters:
Supporting Characters:
- Bucky Barnes (Only in flashback)
Antagonists:
- Batroc
- Swordsman
- Living Laser
- Nazis (Only in flashback)
Locations:
Items:
Synopsis
Captain America is invited by a television crew to go over some old
footage of his battles during World War II so that he can narrate a
television special about his exploits during the war. However, as he
watches the old footage of he and Bucky in action, Captain America
becomes filled with grief over the death of his sidekick during the war ( seen in Avengers #4 – in Italy in THC #9 – this is YEARS before Cap learned that Bucky was still alive as Winter Soldier ).
Comparing this to his love of Sharon Carter, he fears that her life of
danger may also lead to her death as well. Walking out of the meeting
without committing to anything, Cap loses himself in thought over what
to do with Sharon Carter, and decides that with his life of danger he
should keep her out of it.
While elsewhere, Batroc the Leaper is hatching another criminal
plot and has hired on the Swordsman and Living Laser to aid him on his
mission. After commending the Swordsman’s skill watching him train and
scolds the Living Laser for the reckless use of his laser weapons, he
tells them that they are seeking out a weapon that a foreign power has
offered to pay them a million dollars to recover. The weapon is a
seismo-bomb, a device that the military are now briefing Captain America
on. They tell him that their spies have learned that the weapon has
been planted somewhere in Manhattan and that it will trigger three
earthquakes before finally causing one final gigantic quake. The only
lead they have is the location where they captured the enemy spy who
planted the weapon.
Captain America goes there and finds that Batroc, the Living
Laser, and Swordsman are already searching that area. The Swordsman
attacks Cap while Batroc and the Laser go looking for the device.
Despite the Swordsman’s skills and the high-tech weapons built into his
sword, Captain America manages to best him in one-on-one combat. After
defeating the Swordsman the first shock wave hits, prompting Captain
America to hurry. Cap catches up with Batroc and the Laser and attacks,
Batroc leaves the Living Laser to deal with Captain America. Even though
the Laser has the advantage of his weapons, Captain America easily
smashes them disarming them. When the second shock wave hits, Captain
America demands the Laser tell him the location of the bomb otherwise
they are all doomed. Realizing that Cap is telling the truth, he gives
him the location: hidden under a manhole at a nearby warehouse.
Captain America goes there only to be attacked by Batroc the
Leaper. As they fight, Captain America is more than a match for Batroc,
however their fight is interrupted when the third tremor hits, popping
the manhole cover out of the ground leaving an open passage to the
seismo-bomb. When Cap explains that the bomb is about to explode, Batroc
admits that he did not expect this turn of events and flees in order to
save his own life. Captain America dives down into the sewer and finds
the briefcase containing the bomb, and pushes its deactivation device
just seconds before the bomb can go off, saving the city with just
seconds to spare.
Notes
- Captain America goes back in time to the fatal battle with Baron Zemo in Avengers #56 (in Italy in THC # 68), then battles the Scarlet Centurion in Avengers Annual #2 (in italy in THC # 70) shortly after this issue.
Featured Characters:
Supporting Characters:
- Vera Cantor (First appearance)
- Zelda
Antagonists:
- Mimic (First appearance)
Other Characters:
- Dr. Ronald Rankin – (Only in flashback)
- Unnamed construction workers
- Blackie – Calvin Rankin’s classmate – (Only in flashback)
- Unnamed baseball players – (Only in flashback)
- Unnamed students – (Only in flashback)
Locations:
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- New York City Public Library
- Calvin Rankin’s mine hideout
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Items:
Vehicles:
Synopsis
The X-Men
are in another training session supervised by Cyclops, the session is
once more interrupted by Iceman’s childish games, and the session is
preempted temporarily while Cyke takes Bobby down a peg. Cyclops then
tests Hank’s time record for dealing with a trap door test which Hank
passes with flying colors. The Professor enters the room and applauds
his students’ good work and tells them that after their great
performance against the Sentinels and Magneto, and the fact that they
are at their fighting peak, he has assigned them all a brief vacation.
The team then off their costumed identities and go into the city in
their civilian guises.
Hank and Bobby go to the library where they are to meet Bobby’s
girlfriend Zelda to join Hank on a blind date with Zelda’s friend Vera.
Hank has his reservations about meeting this woman, but becomes
instantly smitten when he finds that Vera works at the local library.
Along the way to their scheduled date, they run into Calvin Rankin, a
young man who has been trying to get Vera to go out on dates with him.
Jealous that Vera is out with Hank, the hot tempered Rankin starts to
fight Hank. Hank pulls his punches, attempting to hide his mutant
nature, however when Hank attempts to fight back he is surprised to find
that Calvin has somehow has powers the same as him. After he easily
trounces Hank, Bobby attempts to fight back, hitting Calvin in the face
with a snowball. Just then, construction workers noticing the fight
attempt to stop Calvin from beating up on Bobby, however Calvin manages
to dodge a thrown brick and suddenly create an ice wall to protect him
from other projectiles. Surprised at these new abilities, Calvin then
flees up the side of a building evading the arriving construction
workers.
Surprised, Calvin recognizes his new abilities as powers that
belong to two of the X-Men, and correctly deduces that Hank and Bobby
are secretly Beast and Iceman. He then tests out his new abilities,
hoping to use them to destroy the X-Men, however they eventually fade
away, Calvin forgetting that the skills he mimics from others fades away
once he is far enough away from the people he mimicked them from.
Returning to the streets and going out for coffee, Calvin runs
into Jean Grey while she is out shopping when she accidentally bumps
into her. After rudely shouting at her, Calvin sits down at the table
and realizes that he’s also mimicked telekinetic powers and realizes the
redhead he’s bumped into is none other than Marvel Girl. Realizing the
X-Men must be in town in their civilian identities, Calvin decides to
follow Jean back wherever she intends to go and learn where the X-Men’s
secret base is.
Showing up at the mansion wearing a pair of ruby quartz glasses
and a harness (so as to hide his mimicking of Cyclops and Angel’s
powers) Calvin shows up at the X-Mansion under the false pretense of
“apologizing” for the fight he enticed earlier before, and asking to
join Xavier’s school. He first mimics Professor X’s telepathy when the
Professor attempts to mind probe Calvin and finds that he cannot access
his mind. He then meets all of the X-Men, mimicking their powers upon
shaking their hands. The reception is less than warm, and Calvin
realizes that none of the X-Men trust him. Allowed to be excused to go
upstairs for a moment, the Professor tells his charges that he suspects
that Rankin is up to no good and since he has deduced the X-Men’s
identities that they should change into their costumes and be prepared
for an attack.
Sure enough, Calvin returns downstairs wearing a specially made
costume. Calling himself Mimic, he tells the X-Men that he intends to
destroy them with copies of their own powers. Mimic then defeats Angel
with a combination of his and Beast’s powers, deflects attacks from
Cyclops and Iceman by using the opposites powers as a defense against
the attacks. With one-on-one attacks ineffectual, the Professor orders
the X-Men to attack Mimic as a team. Mimic manages to defend himself,
and fight the X-Men off. As the team of mutants regroups, Mimic then
nabs Marvel girl and flees in a car, with her as his hostage. The X-Men
follow in their helicopter hoping to catch him before he can harm Jean.
Mimic (now with all his stolen powers gone except for Marvel
Girl’s telekinetic power) takes Jean to an abandoned mine where Jean is
surprised to find a hidden living space within. There Mimic tells Jean
his startling origins: He explains that his father was a scientist who
disallowed Calvin to ever enter his lab. However, one day the defiant
Calvin would snoop around when his father was not around. He would
accidentally knock over a beaker filled with a chemical his father was
working on causing it to smash open and cover him in a strange gas.
Finding that he was okay, Calvin soon realized that the exposure to the
chemicals somehow changed him: When in a school yard brawl with the
schools boxing champ, he somehow developed his opponents boxing skills.
Later he would find that he would absorb the skills of those who were
around him, however is sudden bouts of perfection would cause his
students to become suspicious of him and shun him.
Learning what had happened to his son, and suspecting the people
in town would eventually turn against his boy, Calvin’s father relocated
them to an abandoned mine in the hopes of working on a way to make his
son’s powers permanent. However, the experiments required a heavy use of
power, and when the town’s people learned the source of the power drain
they would form a mob and converge on the cave. Warned of their coming
by his alarm system, Calvin’s father attempted to bar their attack by
blasting closed the main entrance. However, he underestimated the force
of the explosion, and this oversight would ultimately cost the elder
Rankin his life, and bury the machine that could potentially make
Mimic’s powers permanent. After his father’s body was buried, the young
Calvin vowed to get revenge on the world once he found a way to make his
power permanent.
With his story finished, Jean properly deduces that Mimic intends
to use the X-Men’s powers in order to clear the rubble and free the
machine that could make Mimic unbeatable. Mimic soon detects the arrival
of the other X-Men when Angel’s wings begin to sprout from his back
once more. Rushing to the cave in, Mimic then uses his returning optic
blast to begin clearing through the debris. Meanwhile, the X-Men
cautiously enter the cave and free Jean who would warn them of Mimic’s
plans.
Mimic meanwhile has managed to break his way through to his
father’s lab and before he can open the door to the device he seeks, he
is attacked by the X-Men, who have caught up with him. Mimic manages to
fight off the X-Men and grab the Professor as his hostage to keep the
X-Men at bay while he uses his father’s machine. However, instead of
making his mimicking powers permanent, the device actually strips Calvin
of this ability and knocks him out in the process. The X-Men, realizing
the machine is overloading, carry the Professor and Rankin to safety
before it explodes destroying the entire lab. The X-Men then change
Calvin back to his civilian guise and the Professor removes all memory
of his identity as Mimic and sends the boy on his way, hoping that he
can get a fresh new start. With the threat of Mimic ended the X-Men
return home.
Notes
- Werner Roth helped pencil this issue under the pseudonym Jay Gavin.
- credits:
- Story……..Stan Lee
- Pencils…..Jay Gavin
- Inking…..Dick Ayers
- Lettering..Artie Simek
- (All that, and Forbush * too!)
* Irving Forbush is a fictional employee of “Marble Comics” (a parody of Marvel)
Trivia
- When the X-Men reach the Mimic’s hideout, they probably first realize how Cyclops feels about Marvel Girl.
- This issue reveals Iceman’s formal name “Robert Drake”.
- The Mimic is the first villain to learn the true identity of any of the X-Men.
- This is Jack Kirby‘s last issue penciling X-Men.
- This is Stan Lee‘s last issue writing X-Men.
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“I Speak of the Haunted House” / PARLO DELLA CASA STREGATA !
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Featured Characters:
- Smith
- Rodney
Synopsis
Two friends make a bet about the existence of ghosts. One bets the
other a hundred dollars he will see a ghost if he spends a night at a
particular house and the other skeptical one accepts. He enters the
house at night proceeds to look around areas like the basement and attic
but sees nothing. Hours go by, and he is completely bored and
eventually drifts off to sleep. When he wakes at dawn, he happily leaves
the house to collect his hundred bucks. His friend tells him that he’d
like to show him something before paying, and at first he gets mad
thinking him a welcher, but when they drive back to house it is no
longer there. His friend explains to his astonished convert that the
house itself is the ghost appearing only one night a year for twelve
hours.
GRANDISSIMA DISPONIBILITA’ DI TUTTI I SUPEREROI CORNO E NON
