Captain America #249 (1980)
By Roger Stern, John Byrne, Joe Rubinstein
Background: Over the past few weeks, Captain America has been attacked by mysterious robots, and is now fighting the bestial Dragon Man.
So, What Happens? Prisoner in the bone-crushing grasp of Dragon Man, Captain America throws his gauntlet at the creature's eye, causing DM to release him. The hero takes advantage of the moment's respite to destroy the flying metal ball responsible for Dragon Man's aggressive behaviour and tries to calm him down. Remembering who did this to him, Dragon Man takes flight, but Cap manages to hold on to him with a makeshift lasso. Eventually, Dragon Man lands in the countryside and smashes through what looks like a barn, but is actually the entrance to a massive underground laboratory. With Captain America a short distance behind, Dragon Man finds and attacks the maker of the flying metal ball, a scientist named Machinesmith, but is quickly taken down by his gadgets. Cap confronts the man, only to discover Machinesmith is himself a robot, capable of jumping from one body to another. With the hero busy fighting an onslaught of half-finished robot replicas and spare parts, Machinesmith gradually reveals that he fell to his death some time ago in a battle against Daredevil, only to be found by his robots, who could only save him by transferring his consciousness into a mechanical body. Now facing an army of Machinesmiths, Captain America notices they seem to be protecting a central computer and destroys it in the hope of identifying the real Machinesmith. Unfortunately, they all collapse as the central computer was Machinesmith. Made suicidal by this mockery of a life, and yet unable to go against his programming and destroy himself, Machinesmith had essentially manipulated Cap into killing him. Despite the dying villain's gratitude, Cap, who considers freedom the only thing worth dying for, is aghast at what he was made to do.
Notes: Despite his best effort, Machinesmith did actually survive and eventually got used to his mechanical existence. He has a detailed profile over at the Marvel Appendix website.
Review: This was the first Captain America story I ever read, and it was all a mistake. Back in 1990 (American comics were lagging several years behind in Italy at that time), I had been gifted my first ever Marvel comic - a Spider-Man story - by my mom as a reward for behaving at the dentist's. I really liked the character and started searching for more, so when I saw the Spider-Man robot replica on this book's cover I thought he would be inside. I vaguely remember being disappointed, but at the same time liking Cap (and the Avengers, who shared the book with him). Re-reading this story now, I can see why. Stern and Byrne craft a mature issue basically dealing with euthanasia, but they don't let the serious subject matter weigh the story down and only reveal it on the very last page. Up until then, it's a classic fast-flowing Cap adventure from the '80s, with enough twists to keep readers entertained despite the absence of a first-class villain. When the revelation does come it hits like a punch, but all the dwelling on it - both on Cap's and on the readers' part - has to happen later, off panel. There is no moral dilemma, Machinesmith makes a compelling argument about what life is or should be, but Cap isn't offered a choice and can voice his opinion only after the deed is done, when it's already too late.
Stern and Byrne are a perfect team-up, and their Captain America talks and thinks like a real person. Most writers tend to use thought balloons either to explain or describe what a character is doing or about to do, but Stern and Byrne offer far more insight. Their thought balloons can be compared to the commentary track of a movie, using whatever is going on only as a starting point before taking off in a related but different direction. When Cap jumps, he doesn't simply think "I have to jump", but is already planning ahead, assessing the situation and preparing a strategy, like the consummate fighter he is. Byrne's art helps tremendously. I don't like him much as a writer due to his tendency to ignore continuity and past character development, but there are very few artists who can draw so many subtle variations of human expression as well as he does. By observing his panels, one can notice a little smirk, a raised eyebrow, the wide eyes of a maniac laughter, and not only in close-ups but even on middle-distance characters. Even in the middle of the fight against the army of Machinesmiths, his figures are dynamic but natural, elegant even.
Embroiled in way too many company-wide events, Captain America in recent years has at times been portrayed like an obsessive authoritarian, ready to kill if necessary and expecting everyone else to fall in line and simply obey him, but this didn't use to be the case at all. I rather see him as a liberal conservative at his core, attached to the old values while still managing to stay open-minded and respectful on most issues, with a respect for any life as big as Spider-Man's. This duality is reflected in his closing line, where he reaffirms his own beliefs but without openly judging Machinesmith for his suicidal behaviour.
Final Verdict: A multi-layered story with a surprise ending and fantastic art. 5/5
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