Captain America #203
Alamo II
Searching for his missing partner, Captain America passes through a portal to another dimension where the Night People live. He is joined by Texas Jack Muldoon, a wealthy oil tycoon who has been helping the hero track down the Falcon’s whereabouts. When they appear on the grounds of the dimensionally displaced Zero Street Mental Institution, they are greeted by Brother Wonderful — aka Abner Doolittle — a patient and brilliant scientist who invented the dimensional doorway that brought them here.
Doolittle is suspicious of the newcomers, but is convinced by Captain America that they mean no harm and are only looking to find their friend. Given a tour of Zero Street, Captain America and Texas Jack discover that the facility has been transported to a strange dimension where the sky above is filled with asteroids similar to the one that has become home to the Night People. It’s among the Night People that Cap spots Leila Taylor, the Falcon’s girlfriend. However, after being brainwashed by the Night People, Leila — now called Sweet Sister — no longer remembers her friend. That’s when the Falcon — also brainwashed — arrives and considers Captain America a threat and attacks his partner. However, the fight is quickly broken up by Brother Inquisitor, the leader of the Night People. He believes two super-heroes would be useful to ward off the creatures that live in this dimension. Captain America plays along until he learns that the Night People subject newcomers to a form of electro-shock treatment to brainwash them. Cap and Texas Jack are then given an ultimatum: join the Night People or die.
Luckily, the choice is taken away from them when the creatures that have been threatening the Night People begin attacking en masse. This has been the Night People’s greatest fear and in anticipation for such an attack, Brother Wonderful has created a massive portal device to banish the monsters to Earth. Playing on the collective insanity of the Night People, Captain America and Texas Jack pretend to go along with this plan. As Doolittle opens the portal he reveals that he has created a self-destruct device to destroy the portal after the monsters have been banished. Captain America grabs the device and then forces all of the Night People through the portal, including Sam and Leila. Once everyone is through, Captain America activates the self-destruct device and leaps through the portal himself. Moments later, the exploding portal device annihilates the entire asteroid that housed the home of the Night People.
This story is continued in Marvel Team-Up #52…
Recurring Characters
Captain America, Falcon, Night People (Brother Inquisitor, Brother Wonderful), Leila Taylor, Texas Jack
Topical References
In this story, the Night People use a shock treatment to recondition Sam and Leila. This was practice used to try and treat people’s mental health. Its use was always controversial and the benefits were not always worth the resulting side-effects. With the advent of drugs that can be used to treat mental illness became the norm the electroconvulsive therapy fell out of practical use. That said, the idea that the equipment for such a procedure being in the Zero Street Institution will become increasingly impossible due to the effects of the Sliding Timescale. One could assume that perhaps Zero Street had been in operation for a long time and outdated equipment could have been found by the Night People. Alternatively, one could assume that these devices were created by Abner Doolittle and were not equipment actually found at the institution.
Both Captain America and Texas Jack refers to the Zero Street Institution as a “mental asylum”, which is a dated term.
One of the Night People refers to himself as a schizophrenic and that he has another personality. This is not an accurate diagnosis of schizophrenia, which does not produce alternate personalities. This misidentification is likely due to the fact that the condition was not as widely understood when this comic was published in 1976. Still, one could accept that this Night Person thinks he is schizophrenic because (a) he’s not a mental health professional and/or (b) either way he’s still insane.
