Crimson Avenger #1 (1988)

Crimson Avenger #1 (June, 1988)
"The Dark Cross Conspiracy, Chapter One: You Go to My Head..."
Writers/Editors - Roy and Dann Thomas
Art - Greg Brooks
Colors - Bill Wray
Letters - Helen Vesik
Associate Editor - Mark Waid
Cover Price: $1.00

Here's an issue I've wanted to talk about for quite a long time... but, never did.  Ya see, my interest has nothing to do with anything that happens within this comic (to be honest, it looks wickedly dull), but with some rather scandalous "rumor and innuendo" that surrounds it.

Lemme take you all back to the beginning.  Picture it: December, 2016... I was writing a piece for Super-Blog Team-Up's Christmas get-together, and I was very much in the "gotta go the extra mile to get noticed" sort of head space.  And so, I reviewed all skatey-eight hundred pages of Christmas With the Super-Heroes #1 from 1988.  In it, I happened across a strange little strip... a Cap's Hobby Hints strip, which I suppose isn't all that strange, Cap showed up all the time back in the long ago... and for a Christmas spectacular that ran the gamut of various "Comics Age" stories being featured, a Cap's Hobby Hints isn't exactly out the realm of possibilities for inclusion.

Anyhoo, not thinking all that much about it... and honestly, just happy it wasn't another story-page I had to dissect, I snapped a pic of the strip, and figured I'd include it as an "et-cetera" in the blog post.  After uploading it, and placing it into the piece, I noticed something that did catch my attention... the signature.  This strip was credited to a "Ty Templetoff"... which, sounded a lot to me like "Ty Templeton".  No-brainer, right?  It's gotta be him.  Well, rather than make an outright statement about that (because, people do rather love pointing out errors in blog posts), I decided to confirm my suspicions.  What I found... was something far more... um... weird.

If you notice, this Cap's Hobby Hints has to do with "hammer safety".  Fair play, right?  Kids, especially back in the long ago, weren't complete strangers to the concept of building things with hammer and nails... and so, Cap very well might've saved a tiny thumb or two with this thoughtful strip.  You might also notice that this gives Special Thanks to a... "Lee Travis of Cleveland, Ohio".  Well, I didn't know this then... but, Lee Travis is the civilian name of The Crimson Avenger.

Now, why in the hell am I telling you this... and how is it relevant?  I'm glad you asked.  Ya see, as I was trawling the internet for information/confirmation on this "Templetoff", I came across a message board post from 2013 about this very strip... which referred to it as "DC's disgusting joke".  Some of the replies assumed this had to do with insensitivity due to it appearing in a Christmas issue, and Jesus being nailed to a cross.  However, one of the posters did elaborate... and, again... so much of this is "rumor and innuendo", I'm not making any claims to any of this information... besides that which is part of public record.

So... it would appear that the artist on this Crimson Avenger miniseries... did a really bad thing.  But, could this be even remotely true?  Well, this rabbit-hole I'd dug continued to grow ever deeper... I mean, I was initially just confirming that Ty Templeton might've been giving a nod to original Cap's artist, Henry Boltinoff (which, I mean, has never been officially confirmed but... ya know, duh)... and here I was, learning about a murder?!  I decided to keep poking around... and finally found myself at the altar of... The Answerman!  Bob Rozakis, in a piece for The Comics Bulletin (September 16, 2002) shared the following:

Okay... well, that sure got real in a hurry, dinnit?  Seems like Brooks and Kessler had a rather tumultuous association there.  I'm not going to bother digging up actual police records here... because, to be completely honest, a) it kinda makes me feel a bit skeevy, and b) I wouldn't have the first idea how!  What we know from the Answerman's missive is that Brooks was arrested and in jail for around a decade... and if his timeline is right, he got out right around the year 2000.

Let's jump back to the Cap's Hobby Hints strip for a moment.  From an interview with Comic Book Creator #3 (Fall, 2013), Mark Waid recalls his days as a young editor at DC Comics... and how the inclusion of this strip actually wound up (in part) costing him his job!  Well, it put him on DC's s-list, at the very least.  Included in the below image is Mr. Waid's own recollection of the Brooks-Kessler situation.  Very sobering stuff here... 

Apparently, the gag here was so subtle that it went over the DC brass' heads for over a year... though, when it finally came to light (via a very perceptive reader of Comics Buyer's Guide), they didn't find it all that humorous.

And yeah, I suppose if this Cap's strip was written with malice... or as a way to poke fun at the very real situation... that's kind of a jerk move, and might just be informed by youthful "edginess", if that makes any sense.  I mean, I'd like to think we've all been in situations where we made light of or mocked a serious issue... sometimes it lands, sometimes it doesn't.  This might've just been a case where it didn't.

On another note... there was an interview done with Roy Thomas regarding all things RT@DC in the 1980's in Alter Ego: Centennial aka. Alter Ego #100 (February, 2011 - TwoMorrows).  In it, the issue of Greg Brooks and The Crimson Avenger eventually came up... to which, he said the following:

Now, that does add a little bit more about Elizabeth Kessler... and at least Alex Toth's point of view on the Kessler/Brooks relationship.  As an outsider looking in, everything seemed perfectly normal... which, I suppose is how things usually seem in stories like this.  Here is a piece of art Alex Toth signed and wrote a little note on for Elizabeth back in August of 1987:

Back to Roy's statement... more specifically, the part that stuck with me the most...

So yeah... an un-named DC Editor hung a Hammer on the wall at the DC Comics offices... and labelled it "The Greg Brooks Memorial Hammer".  Well, that's kinda taking "gallows humor" to the nth degree, innit?  This goes a step past "Other than that, Mrs. Lincoln, how was the play?" sort of territory... and into something far more personal.  I mean, if this is true (I ain't saying one way or the other!) this gag is about two former co-workers... one of whom is dead... and the other done did the deed!  Brooks worked on this Crimson Avenger miniseries, and Kessler worked as a colorist (on the Doom Patrol Bonus-Book we looked at a little while back).  Now, I wanna make it clear... Roy Thomas didn't name names... and I sure as heck ain't about to either!

There's a bit more to the scandalous "rumor and innuendo"... but, I feel like I've got my fill for now.  If you're interested in digging even deeper... the theories and speculation are out there, and I'll leave you to them to find and make up your own mind.

So now... with all'a that out of the way, is there any possible way for this issue to be even half as interesting as the controversy surrounding it?  Probably not...

--

We open on December 7, 1938... back before that was a day that would live in infamy!  We meet an American Nazi sympathizer in a parked car listening to the radio... over the air is a Professor Goldstein... a fugitive from Nazi Germany, and likely this fella's target.  Before he can peel out in pursuit, however... he is faced off with: The Crimson Avenger!  The baddie decides he's going to drive off anyway... and so, Crimson... get this, sets the dude's face on fire!  Yeesh.  Our hero then hops into his own hooptie and asks his driver, Wing follow dat car.

The chase is on... the bad guys unloads their guns into Crimson's cab, before finally being rammed off road and sent careening into a fire hydrant.  A brief fire-fight follows, with Crimson coming out on top.

As the dust begins to settle, we see that Wing got winged... shot in the arm!  Crimson chucks a baddie through a window and beats a hasty retreat before the police arrive on the scene.  We learn that "Crimson" is look at as though he's a "crook" in the newspapers... including the very paper that the Crimson Avenger's civilian identity owns!

We jump ahead to... probably the next day?  Crimson's in his Lee Travis civvies, and he and Wing are pulling into a large New Jersey estate for a charity auction.  We get our first (of many) references to a story that took place in Secret Origins #5... which, if I'm being honest, pulls me out of things.  Anyhoo, they notice a plane sputtering out of the sky overhead.  They hop in the hooptie and chase it down to ensure they are there to assist the pilot if need be.

Turns out, this pilot is a g-g-g-g-g-girl!  A Chinese woman named Su Ling Fang.  Turns out, somebody planted a... wool sponge (?) in her fuel tank.  Guess that's better than a banana.  Anyhoo, this Fang is a famous pilot, had a spread in Life Magazine and everything.  She's also here for the auction.

Travis offers her a ride... but, it looks like the hooptie's got a flat-tire.  Lee excuses himself to change it, while Wing entertains the lady pilot.  Our man pats himself on the back for knowing how to change a tire... and ensures us via narration panel that he wasn't always a rich man.  In fact, he'd only inherited the newspaper from his wealthy Godfather this very year.

From here, we head into the Estate for the auction.  Among the items is a Faberge Egg... which Lee notices catches the eye of a beautiful Russian woman.  He decides to outbid her, like a jerk... and then offer to hand it over if she goes on a date with him.  This woman is Sonya Nabotov, a dancer.  She says she'll meet with him later that night, after her performance.

Back at the office, our man pulls an all-nighter... or an all-eveninger, I suppose.  As he reads and attempts to respond to a threatening note, which is covered with iron crosses, and refers to him as a "Jew lover", he is interrupted by some of his workers, who are all about to head off to a... uh, Hitler Party?  I guess these were "all the rage" back in the late 1930's?  I guess these are parties where all of the attendees dress as Adolf... and walk around saluting one another?  I tried to research this to see if it was an actual phenomenon, but couldn't find anything relevant to this era.

Next, Lee is headed to the Manhattan-Russian Ballet to meet up with his date.  After the performance, she requests he take her to the top of the Empire State Building for caviar and vodka...

... unfortunately, upon arrival at the Empire State, they find that someone done jumped off the thing earlier that night!  The whole building is taped off... and our happy couple is going to have to figure out a "Plan B".

Well, Plan B involves going back to Travis' place for some heavy-necking.  He assures her that he lives in the penthouse of his building, but apologizes that it's only 22 stories up... so, definitely not as exquisite a view as the Empire State Building.  The make-out scene is... pretty weird.  We get an extreme close-up on their lips, but it looks more like they're bumping butts or something.  Very odd.

The make-out session is interrupted by a phone call.  Travis is informed by that very same Professor Hiram Goldstein from the beginning of the issue that there is a going to be a meeting of the German-American Bund in Yorkville later that night.  Initially, our man doesn't seem terribly interested... but, comes around to the idea quickly.  Before hanging up, Goldstein tells him he ought to stop slandering that "Crimson" guy in his newspaper... so, Lee's got him fooled at least!

After ending the call, Lee squeezes in one more snog session with Sonya, before assuring her that Wing will hand over the Faberge Egg the following morning.  She's cool with it.

With her gone, Lee changes into his Crimson Avenger togs, and head out to the Bund.  There, he finds what he assumes to be a wino passed out in an alley.  Turns out, this ain't no drunk... it's a corpse!

A pretty well beaten corpse, in fact... this stiff's had his eyeballs removed!  Overcome with shock, Crimson is taken unawares by a police officer's flashlight.

Before he knows it, he's surrounded by cops... who promise he'll be spending the rest of his days in Alcatraz.  Crimson assures them that this is a set-up, but they ain't buyin' it.  They do have one question though... just who's face is under the mask?

--

Okay, well this wasn't quite as dull as I feared it would be!  I've had this miniseries in my collection for... yeesh, probably a decade at this point... but, every time I made a run at it... I'd only get a handful of pages in before setting it aside.  I'm glad I finally powered through this time... though, it didn't exactly rock my socks.

I feel like having to read Secret Origins #5 as something of a prerequisite to fully appreciate this was kind of a cheat.  I know I've got that issue in the pile somewhere... but, I wasn't about to go digging.  Though, I suppose folks back in ye old 1988 might not have had that problem.  Still though, this miniseries does boast a #1 on its cover... I shouldn't have to read anything else first.

With that out of the way... this first issue does present a decent handful of potential story spurs.  Most of 'em were at least moderately interesting to boot!  The German "fugitive", the American Nazi sympathizers, the Empire State Building jumper, Su Ling Fang, and Sonya Whatsherface should provide more than enough story fodder to occupy the next three issues-worth of Crimson Avenger adventures!

Now, Crimson Avenger... is a character I know next to nothing about.  I wanna say there was a version of the character in the JSA at some point, but I don't know diddly about Lee Travis.  I feel like he wasn't introduced quite as well as he could've been here... though, again, DC was looking to sell copies of Secret Origins #5... so, I'm not sure I can blame that on our creative team.  What we do know is... he's nouveau riche, he's tolerant of Jewish people, and his own newspaper refers to his alter-ego, the Crimson Avenger as a "crook".  I wonder if that's due to the writers at his rag... or, if he's trying to keep people "off the scent"?  I'm sure that would eventually be cleared up.

The art.  Do weee... talk about the art?  I mean, really... do I even comment, or just let it lay?  It feels weird, dunnit?  I mean, the art's... the art's good.  I really liked it, and feel like it fit the tone of this story quite well.  Outside of that weird extreme close-up on the warring-lips, I thought the art here was as solid as any.  I guess I'll leave it at that... though, if anyone wishes to discuss the art (or whatever) further in the comments, please feel free to reach out!

Unsurprisingly (at least to my knowledge), this miniseries has not been made available digitally.  It also, at least to my knowledge, doesn't look like it's ever been reprinted.

I wanna thank you all for reading... and apologize if this piece might've gotten a little too dark!

--

(Not the) Letters Page:

--

Interesting (Action Comics Weekly) Ads:

ACW #626 - Shazam!

Action Comics Weekly #626 (Shazam!)
"My Week in Valhalla, Chapter Four"
Writers - Roy & Dann Thomas
Pencils - Rick Stasi
Inks - Rick Magyar
Letters - Jean Simek
Colors - Nansi Hoolihan
Editor - Mike Gold

Today marks the first of two farewell chapters we'll be checking out this week.  Though it was never made plain in the published version, Shazam! was a short Showcase Presents feature, just like that four-part Catwoman serial we covered a few months back.  If I were to guess, they were both intended as sort of "pilot episodes" to future series'.  Catwoman would go on to receive a four-part mini series (not sure if that was initially pitched as an ongoing)... meanwhile, despite the promise of a follow-up coming out of this arc... the poor ol' Big Red Cheese would get bupkis.

Maybe that's for the best...

--

We open with the new Captain Nazi pitching a fit that he's going to be left out of the big San Francisco Cyanide Spill!  Ya see, he's quite keen to... uh, "lock kiesters" with Captain Marvel.  I'm... I'm not quite sure what it means to "lock kiesters", and don't think I want to.  Anyhoo, he's handed a belt that is equipped with a sort of Captain Marvel Locating Device... but that ain't good enough.  He informs the rest of the geeks that he's the one giving orders now.  I guess not even the bad guys can trust a guy called "Captain Nazi".

We jump ahead to the flaming gas station where Billy Batson... and an innocent pump attendant have been left to die.  Captain Nazi emerges from the smoke, recognizes Billy as a Valhalla Camper, and heads over to save him.  No sooner is Billy un-gagged than he shouts that magic word!

Captains Marvel and Nazi spend the next page and a half fighting... wrapping up with Marv' dropping a mountaintop onto Naz'.

Meanwhile in San Francisco, Billy's bunkmate Sam is having second thoughts about... ya know, poisoning an entire city.  The other campers start to dogpile him, and go to pour the cyanide into the drink anyway...

... when Captain Marvel arrives!  He catches the goop before it splashes down... then lunges toward the campers to ensure no more can be poured.

He then... well, I'm not quite sure to be honest.  I think he might chase the boys down... but, after he catches them he doesn't actually do anything with them?  He literally tells them that he's "gotta fly", and he just leaves them.  We close out with the revelation that Captain Nazi survived having a mountain dropped on him... and the promise of a monthly Shazam! series, which... if based on this outing, thankfully didn't follow.

--

This... never really came around, did it?

I'm pretty sure I expressed a bit of surprise after reading the first chapter of this... I couldn't quite wrap my head around the decision to open with such a sub-par outing... especially considering this has Roy Thomas' name on it!  Turns out the reason for the sub-par first chapter was because... well, this is just a sub-par story all around.  A friend on social media mentioned that this doesn't read much like a Roy Thomas story, and I definitely gotta agree!

Let's look at this as a chapter... we've had this threat of Captain Nazi built up over the past two weeks... and, the subsequent "kiester locking" lasts all of... four panels?  Kind of a letdown... though, if they were really considering launching this into an ongoing, I suppose the had to save something for that.

The cyanide threat... was more much ado about nothing.  I mean, Captain Marvel didn't even drag the kids off to the police or anything.  For all he (and we) knows, they shook off the shock of being confronted by Captain Marvel... and remembered that they had a few more canisters of the stuff in the back of the bus... and went right back to poisoning the Frisco-ites.

I guess my main complaint is that this just feels "undone" and certainly lacks every bit of the polish we've come to expect from a story bearing Roy Thomas' name in its credits.  Part of me wonders how the promised ongoing series would have went... but, I'm mostly just glad it didn't.  This story (and version of Cap) has been retroactively relegated to Earth-85, and I think we're all better off for it.

Tomorrow: The return of... Gino?

--

Your Moment of Vartox:

From Action Comics #499 (1979)
Cary Bates (w) / Curt Swan (a)

After meeting... and immediately falling in love with Lana Lang, "Vernon O'Valeron" holds out all of five minutes before spilling the beans on his entire origin story.

ACW #625 - Shazam!

Action Comics Weekly #625 (Shazam!)
"My Week in Valhalla, Chapter 3"
Writers - Roy & Dann Thomas
Pencils - Rick Stasi
Inks - Rick Magyar
Letters - Jean Simek
Colors - Tom Ziuko
Editor - Mike Gold

Hard to believe we're already to the penultimate chapter of our Shazam! feature!  These "short-subjects" just fly on by, don't they?  Catwoman was similarly "blink and you miss it"... only difference tween that and this is, that one didn't fall apart until the very end!

--

Picking up where we left off last week, Billy has fallen through a rooftop window right into the arms of the newly-minted Captain Nazi.  After asserting that he has no "Jewish blood" in him, the big bad lets him down.  The Sons of Valhalla leaders are near-giddy that their experiment was a success, they don't even really mind the interloper.  In fact, Leader Davis appears to appreciate the boy's moxie.  He allows Billy-as-Duane to sit in and watch as they run Captain Nazi through his paces.

His fists are like hammers, and he has the ability to fly.  Davis takes it a step further when he brandishes a pistol and fires a shot right at the Captain.  C.N. manages to catch the bullet without even thinking... he then uses his "Eyes of Surtur" heat-vision to melt the piece.

Davis then turns his attention to Billy.  He feels he owes him an explanation of sorts.  If you remember the armored car standoff from Chapter One, well it turns out Leader Davis kinda knew how that would all play out.  He sorta sent Duane's (the kid who Billy is impersonating) father out as a sacrificial lamb.  He knew Captain Marvel was living in San Francisco, and also knew this standoff would cause him to show up.  When he did, the Sons of Valhalla recorded his "Alpha Wave Pattern" (whatever the hell that is), so now they'll always know anytime the Big Red Cheese is within 100 miles of them.  Convoluted? Nahhh...

We ain't done yet, though!  It's also here that we learn what Leader Davis has planned for Camp Valhalla's "Graduation Exercise".  The boys will bus into San Francisco, and... get this... dump cyanide into the water supply.

We jump to the next day, where all of the boys are getting loaded on the bus.  All of the campers are pretty gung-ho about the exercise... except for Billy/Duane and his bunkmate, Sam.  Once on the open road, however, the driver commands that "Duane McCullers" be bound and (naturally) gagged.  Ya see, Billy Batson's a pretty famous TV reporter... so, it stands to reason he might just be recognized.  Whoops.  Well, actually... no, nobody actually recognized him.  I mean, if a local station had a "kid reporter", I think most people in and around that city might be able to point him out of a line-up.  Turns out, the real Duane shows up and spills the beans.

The bus driver pulls into a gas station, smacks the attendant with the butt-end of his rifle, then sets the place on fire... leaving poor bound and (most importantly) gagged Billy among the flames!

--

Now, this just ain't very good, is it?

Before getting into the story proper, I feel like the bit on the bus drew a bit too much attention to Billy Batson-as-celebrity.  It's one of those things that, really, should be obvious.  I mean, how many major market television news outlets have a well-known "kid reporter"?  Stands to reason if one did, people might be able to recognize him... even if it's only to locals... which this whole gaggle of geeks happens to be!

I'm all for "suspending disbelief"... I mean, this is comic books.  But, if we're going to accept that Billy Batson can work "undercover", we need not draw attention to the fact that he's a pretty famous kid!  This is like pointing out that Superman hangs around with Lois Lane a bit much... or Batman endangers the lives of children... it's stuff we (the readers) can know and point out, but when the folks inside the story do, it kinda opens a novelty can of spring-loaded worms.  Least it does to me!

With that out of the way... the story.  Now, I'm on record as being mostly ignorant regarding all things Captain Marvel.  He's a character I really want to dig... but, I've never actually "put in the work".  I can own that... I'm not going to pretend I have this deep fandom when I actually don't (that's a rarity on the internet, ain't it?!).  That being said... I have this nagging feeling that this just isn't "right".  Ya know?  This doesn't feel like "Captain Marvel" to me.

I couldn't tell ya what Captain Marvel should actually feel like... for one, I'm not digging the current Geoff Johns "Burger King Kid's Club" Shazam! stuff... but, this feels even a step behind that.  Really not sure how an ongoing of this sort of Cap would have worked.

Overall... it looked pretty okay, but at the end of the day, this was a three-chapter build-up to a likely underwhelming Captain on Captain fight scene.

Tomorrow: The Secret Six are back to business-as-usual... groan.

ACW #624 - Shazam!

Action Comics Weekly #624 (Shazam!)
"My Week in Valhalla, Chapter 2"
Writers - Roy & Dann Thomas
Pencils - Rick Stasi
Inks - Rick Magyar
Letters - Jean Simek
Colors - Nansi Hoolahan
Editor - Mike Gold

So, last night I found myself sitting in front of the television. Outside of a few shows (usually the same ones I've seen dozens of times), I don't watch a whole lot these days... but, last night I figured I might as well check out some of the streaming services we pay for every month.

Well, I stumbled into Amazon Prime, and was shocked (bamboozled, even) to learn that they have... Supermarket Sweep!  I was floored.  Couldn't imagine A) Why a streaming service would carry that show? and B) Who in their right mind would watch it?  Well... for the answer to that second question, look no further than your humble host.

Suddenly, I was transported back to the dawning of the 1990's.  I thought about how much fun this show was... ya know, during the three or so minutes people are actually "racing down the aisles" and not solving word jumbles to see if a mass of letters actually says NABISCO or TRISCUIT.  Then, ho boy... the host.  David friggin' Ruprecht comes charging to the front of the "store"...

Who in the heck dressed this guy?  I mean... uh... part of me really wants that sweater, and would probably wear it unironically... but, holy smokes... if we zoomed in on that pattern, it'd be like the opening to Saved by the Bell.  Ya know, the more I look at it... the more I want it.  I have a sneaking suspicion that I'm not the only one who feels that way...

David Ruprecht's sweater collection is coveted by many an otherwise normal individual.  Anyhoo, I sat through an entire episode, and... as always, the team who had earned the most "sweep seconds" during the boring question-and-answer segments won the game.  They even won the $5,000 grand prize and celebrated with all of the folks they'd beaten during the end-credits... which included...

Ed... Flesh?  Well, at least now we know who skinned all the clowns it took to make Ruprecht's sweater!

I decided to stick it out, and check out a second episode... not so much for the actual "Sweep" action... but, more to see what ol' David was wearing.  Lemme tell ya, homeboi didn't disappoint:

Yikes... and Gadzooks... so that's what happened to Great-Nana's tablecloth!  I'm gonna try and watch more Supermarket Sweep in the next few weeks... and so, you might see a "David Ruprecht Fashion Watch" section show up here every now and again.  Heck, we might even be able to include the contestants (warning: you might want to dim your screens for this).

Well, thanks for coming everybod... err... oh yeah!  Wait a minute!  We're here to talk about Captain Marvel today, ain't we?  Well... let's get right to it!

--

We open with Billy Batson arriving at... sigh... Aryan Acres.  I probably don't need to explain the "gimmick" of this campground, but the jist of the story is: Billy has taken the place of Duane McCullers, the brother of that girl who chucked the lamp through the television set last week... and the son of the fella who Captain Marvel accidentally "killed".  Anyhoo, our boy is greeted by a motley crew of Neo-Nazis and some Neo-Nazi-hopefuls.  I mean, this one kid is wearing an "Adolf Hitler European Tour" t-shirt.  Ay yai yai.

The Neos immediately slip into their archetypal roles... we've got an overbearing "camp counselor", a just-following-orders "youth leader", a bully, and a kid who we can immediately tell has a good heart... and is only there because he has to be.  The good-hearted kid, who we'll call Sam... because that's his name, escorts Billy to their cabin.  Along the way, they pass the "Main Building"... and find out that it's completely off-limits to campers.

Arriving at their cabin, Billy takes in the sights of some pretty over-the-top propaganda posters they've got hanging up.  Sam goes on and on talking about all the fun they'll have... but our boy is lost in thought, reflecting on the actual purpose of his "vacation".

We get a page of training montage, where Billy learns to fire a gun (at pictures of prominent Jewish and Black leaders, naturally), he sits in on sermons about the coming "White Revolt".  He also wrestles, and learns how to stab a dummy?  Okay.  Anyhoo, we jump all the way to the final night of camp, and Billy-as-Duane checks in with his bunk-mate, Sam... who is really struggling with some second-thoughts.  Sam tells him he's not buying all of the racist ideology being spouted... and he's got a sneaking suspicion that "Duane" feels the same way.  Billy stammers for a moment, nearly blowing his cover, before affirming that... he's all-in on the teachings of Aryan Acres.

We learn that something big is gonna be going down in San Francisco in the next few days... to which "Duane" wonders aloud how they're going to get around the "Captain Marvel Problem".  Sam reveals that he'd heard through the grapevine that the Sons of Valhalla have thought of that... and are currently working on something to that effect in the main building.  That night, Billy sneaks out of his cabin and climbs atop the main building... which, conveniently has a pretty big skylight.  Boy, I hope he doesn't accidentally fall through!

He (and we) looks on as Steve Rogers is injected with a Super-Soldier Ser... err, well... some blonde dude is injected with something.  Suddenly, this 98 lb. weakling explodes into a mass of muscle!  An aura around him reads "Hero of the Reich"... okay, okay... no it doesn't.

Just then... Billy, sigh, falls through the skylight... and right into the arms of the brand-new... sigh... "Captain Nazi".

--

Here's the thing about this story.  It's over-the-top to the point where I can't take it seriously... but it's not so over-the-top that I can start to find it funny.  Know what I mean?

I feel like this is all supposed to be taken "straight"... as though there'd actually be a campground called "Aryan Acres" with anti-Semitic and anti-Black sentiment on their banner.  Maybe I'm just naive... but this seems a little too outrageous.  You'd think that maybe this place might be raided by the authorities, no?  Especially considering one of the "Sons of Valhalla" had a widely-publicized (and fatal) run-in with Captain Marvel.

The assortment of characters we meet here are your standard fare.  Slipping immediately into archetypes, we'll never have to question their motivations... they just are "what they are"... with nil in the way of subtlety.  I mean, from the moment we meet Sam, we can tell he's going to wind up being one of two things... an ally, or a victim.

The Captain Nazi reveal... well, it works... the original Captain Nazi was a Captain Marvel villain, so why not?  If we look at the DC Wikia for this fella, it looks like this take on him was a one-and-done for this Showcase story... which is (for some reason) relegated as having taken place on Earth-85.  Ya see, Earth-85 is numbered as such because that's the year Crisis on Infinite Earths happened... and it's kind of a repository for all of those "problematic" post-Crisis debuts that DC eventually decided didn't really fit.  So, like a lot of Hawkman stuff... also, the Milligan/Bachalo Shade the Changing Man... that Catwoman story we covered a few months back, and, the Roy/Dann Thomas Shazam!.  Here's a snip of their list:

So, yeah... this was "something".  Still not digging it all that much.  I feel it's walking the line between "straight" and "satire" just a bit too well, if that makes any sense.  As it won't commit to being either, it sorta fails at both.  Ya follow?

I'll leave you today with that Billy Batson Training Montage:

Tomorrow: Tony's Story