Captain America #241
Fear Grows in Brooklyn!
Captain America ambushes a pair of muggers attacking a man on the street. The fight draws two beat cops who take the men into custody. They tell the Avenger that these men have been brought in from out of town by the local mob to add to their muscle. In the aftermath of the bust, Cap notices that the man he saved had run off but has no time to look for him because he is due for an interview for a prospective job as Steve Rogers. The man in question hid in a near by alley, and looking for a place to lay low for a while notices that a nearby apartment — the one Steve Rogers lives in — has a room for rent.
Soon, Steve Rogers arrives at the office of Non-Parellel Publications whose owner, Cynthia Maxwell Kramer, is looking for an artist to provide work for Tough magazine. Although Steve is put off by the small operation and its somewhat sleazy publication, he is pressured into taking the job because he needs the work. After stopping for lunch, Steve returns to his apartment building where his neighbors Josh Cooper and Mike Farrell are watching the game on TV. Suddenly, their landlord — Anna Kappelbaum — screams, pompting the three men to check to see if she is ok. She assures them that she’s fine, but after Josh and Mike leave, she tells Steve what caused her sudden fright. She explains that she saw what she thought was a Nazi soldier lurking in the alley out back and thinks she might be losing her mind.[1] Steve tells her he believes what she saw and that she’s not going crazy, pointing out that she went through hell to survive the concentration camps of Nazi Germany. This sets Anna’s mind at ease for the time being.
Steve soon returns to his apartment to get to work on his assignment when he suddenly hears a gunshot coming from outside. Changing into Captain America, he goes out to find the source. On a nearby rooftop he comes upon the Punisher trying to shoot the man he saved earlier and comes to his rescue. Captain America has heard of the Punisher before and is empathetic to his losses but won’t allow the vigilante to kill someone, even a criminal as they still have rights.[2] When this doesn’t work, Cap tries to incapacitate the Punisher with his shield, but the mercenary deflects the weapon with his rifle. Since he already got what he wanted, he wounds the man he had been chasing and flees knowing Captain America won’t leave a man to die. Slipping away in his disguised battle van, the Punisher then heads off for his true target.
Captain America tents to the wounded man and learns that he also works for the mob and that he told the Punisher the location of a mob meeting on the sixth floor of the Arber Rubber Products building. When a police officer arrives on the scene, Cap leaves the wounded man with him so he can try and stop the Punisher from committing murder. When he arrives at Arber Rubber, he discovers the building only has five floors but deduces the meeting must be taking place in a secret room hidden inside the building’s water tower. There he catches the Punisher setting up explosives.
A fight breaks out between the two and the commotion draws out the mobsters meeting inside. They begin shooting at the two combatants, prompting Cap to leap behind the Punisher and deflect the gunfire with his shield. The Punisher returns gunfire, but Cap insists that this situation can be sorted out without guns. Rushing at the mobsters, he begins beating them all into submission single handedly. The Punisher contemplates detonating the explosives but can’t bring himself to do it because he has too much respect for Captain America.[3] In the aftermath of the battle, one of the mob bosses body guards turns out to be an undercover police officer and she puts the Punisher under arrest with the rest of the mob. Surprisingly, the Punisher complies. However, as they are all being escorted off the roof, the Punisher tosses the detonator on the ground in such a way that it sets off the explosives. Although nobody is hurt in the blast, it provides a suitable distraction for the Punisher to get away.
In the aftermath of his encounter with the Punisher, Captain America can’t help but see that they are both very much alike. However, despite their similarities, he knows that the vigilante is a danger and vows to bring him in when they meet again.
Recurring Characters
Captain America, the Punisher, Josh Cooper, Mike Farrell, Anna Kapplebaum
Continuity Notes
Steve recounts how he, as Captain America, saved Anna from a concentration camp during World War II, as detailed in Captain America #237. This raises some issues, as explain below.
The Punisher makes reference to the fact that his family was murdered by mobsters. This was first detailed in Marvel Super Action #1.
The Punisher’s respect for Captain America dates back to his time in basic training when he was whipped into shape by one of Captain America’s successors who took on the role during the period Steve Rogers was MIA. See Punisher War Journal (vol. 2) #3.
Topical References
The TVs in this story are depicted as CRT televisions that need antennas to pick up a signal. This should be considered topical because that shit is old.
Anna Kappelbaum’s World War II History
Anna being a prisoner at the Diebenwald concentration camp during World War II raises some issues due to the Sliding Timescale. As the Modern Age of the Marvel Universe is pushed forward in time it becomes increasingly impossible for a Holocaust survivor to be as young as Anna is depicted in this story, let alone still alive.
Still, Anna Kappelbaum’s time at Diebenwald is intrinsically tied to her relationship with Steve Rogers and Captain America since they first met during the War. As such, it would be difficult to change her backstory without significantly altering continuity.
That said, Marvel has yet to provide an official explanation for how this is possible.
Typically, some plot contrivance is made to explain how the aging process of a character was slowed, suspended, or stopped to account for their vitality. As a survivor of a concentration camp that sort of thing seems unlikely. However, Captain America #237 states that Anna was experimented upon by Nazi doctors. Although it is a stretch, one could assume that one of the experiments she was subjected to slowed her aging process.
