The Man Who Made a Difference!

Captain America is making an appearance at a high school in the Bronx to give a speech to the students. It’s your usual motivational speech about the American Dream and how you can accomplish anything in America if you work hard. After finishing his speech, Cap takes questions from the students. The situation turns violent when a student named Ira accuses Captain America for failing the common man as many Americans live in poverty and unable to achieve the American Dream. Ira then pulls a gun and tries shooting Captain America. Luckily, Cap’s lightning fast reflexes allows him to avoid the shots and disarm Ira before anyone is hurt. When the police arrive to arrest Ira, he is still demanding that Captain America answer for the failures of the dream and spits on the hero’s costume before he is taken away.

Captain America has no answers for the boy and his accusations give him a lot to think about. When Steve Rogers returns to his home in Brooklyn he has an evening in with his girlfriend Bernie Rosenthal. After some Chinese take-out, Bernie makes a move to kiss him and is annoyed when he doesn’t kiss back. Steve tries to explain that he has a lot on his mind but won’t confide in her because it would compromise his double identity. Taking this the wrong way, Bernie gets upset and storms out of his apartment as he struggles to come up with an explanation.

At that moment, in a Hell’s Kitchen apartment, a costumed youth calling himself Everyman is meeting with a number of disenchanted youth. Ira’s sister, Maggie, is upset that her brother got arrested for his actions, but Everyman insists that Ira’s sacrifice will help bolster their cause. He then tells them that to win their fight for the common man they must first destroy Captain America who, according to Everyman, represents the lie behind the American Dream.

Meanwhile, Captain America has decided to ride through one of Brooklyn’s more down trodden areas to get a sense of what Ira was saying. There he is shocked to see three kids playing in the rubble of a demolished building. The children are amazed to see Captain America, however the hero’s presence in the neighborhood isn’t appreciated by everybody. A trio of teenagers hanging out on a roof top think the Avenger is slumming it in their neighborhood and begin throwing garbage down at them. Captain America quickly scales the fire escape and confronts them, pointing out that the children could have been hurt by the debris. Two of the boys take off, but one remains to give Cap a piece of his mind. He tells Captain America that he doesn’t know what life is like for them while he is busy fighting villains like the Red Skull. For the second time that day, a young person spits on Captain America’s costume. However, one of the children Cap met on the street races up and pleads with Cap to go easy on his brother, Gilbert, as he is really a good guy.

By this time, Everyman has sent word to all the media outlets that he is about to start attacking people on the streets. As he expects, the reporters show up to film the carnage.

Meanwhile, Captain America has brought the children he meet in Brooklyn to Avengers Mansion to give them a tour of the facility. The children are happy to meet both Tigra and Iron Man, while Gilbert and his buddies develop a newfound respect for Captain America. That’s when they watch a news report about Everyman. After murdering a pair of cops on live television, Everyman challenges Captain America to a battle at the Statue of Liberty to prove whose ideology is the correct one.

Maggie is starting to question Everyman’s motives and when he returns to their hideout she questions his need to murder innocent people. He tells her that everything he does is justified by telling her a story about how his father was a single parent who slaved in a factory for years to try and provide for his son. His father ended up working himself to death, never achieving the American Dream he strove to achieve. This tragic life experience led to him becoming Everyman.[1]

Later that evening, Captain America arrives on Liberty Island as police are keeping back people who are supporting both him and Everyman. When the battle begins, Captain America proves to be the better fighter and, in a moment of desperation, Everyman takes Maggie hostage and threatens to kill her unless he surrenders. Asking why he would do all of this, Everyman reiterates the tragic tale of his father and says that everything he is doing is making him into somebody. Having gone completely insane, Everyman then decides he is going to kill Maggie anyway. However, Captain America manages to knock Everyman out with a trick throw with his shield. After Everyman is taken into police custody, Gilbert and his friends congratulate Cap for winning the fight. However, Captain America doesn’t feel that this is much of a victory. Despite their violent ways, Everyman and his followers opened his eyes up to the inequities that affect the American people. Despite this, Maggie has come to realize that the American Dream still provides hope for a better tomorrow and that they all need to work together in order to make that dream a reality.

Recurring Characters

Captain America, Everyman, Bernie Rosenthal, Iron Man, Tigra

Continuity Notes

1. Everyman’s real name is not given here. Marvel Team-Up #132 reveals it to be Larry Ekler. His father has been called both Milton and Josh in Marvel Team-Up #132 and 133. The Zeitgeist profile in All-New Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe #12 confirms that his name is Milton Josh Ekler.

Topical References

• This story states that Captain America’s speech is taking place at DeWitt Clinton High School, which is a real school in the Bronx. This could potentially become a topical reference as the the school board has been considering shutting the place down since 2013 due to low performance among students and issues with security.

• One of the DeWitt students is wearing a Star Trek t-shirt that features the USS Enterprise from the original Star Trek television series. Although Star Trek is quite ubiquitous among the pop-culture zeitgeist it could be considered a topical reference.

• This story states that Hell’s Kitchen is a slum full of broken tenements. Which was absolutely the case when this story was published in 1982. However, the region has since gentrified and is not what it used to be. A gentrified Hell’s Kitchen makes Everyman even more tone deaf than before and this is one topical reference that I enjoy immensely.

• A later scene in this story shows Captain America riding his motorcycle through a section of Brookyln with slum tenements and torn down buildings. Again, this was the reality back in 1982 when New York was a bankrupt city in desperate need of repair. However, Brooklyn like many neighborhoods in New York have since undergone revitalizations and gentrifications over the ensuing decades. Slums still exist in New York City, but they are not as prominent as they are depicted here.

• Everyman makes references to television networks CBS and NBC. He also refers the reporters at NBC as “Coneheads” which is a tongue-in-cheek reference to Saturday Night Live, the long running comedy show that airs on NBC. One of their most famous sketches from the early days of the show were the Coneheads, aliens with literal cones for heads. They made a terrible movie about that sketch in the 90s. Anyway, all of these references are topical because these television networks exist in the real world. Also if I needed to explain to you what the Coneheads were then that’s exactly why its reference here is topical.

• Tigra reminisces about underground comix, love-ins, Richard Nixon, and the Vietnam War as though she was alive to see these events. Again, this is topical.

• Tigra also drops another dated reference by referring to the kids Cap brings to the mansion as “The Sesame Street Squad” and “The Horrible Hordes of Captain Kangaroo”. Sesame Street is still a thing and owned by Disney, Marvel’s parent company so that wouldn’t necessarily be considered topical. The Captain Kangaroo reference totally is since that children’s show ended its 29 year run in 1984.

• Man, this story is chocked full of topical references, the TV’s in this issue are CRTs.