Captain America #273
Cap and the Howlers… TOGEATHER AGAIN!
Captain America is in attendance of a reunion for Nick Fury and his old army unit, the Howling Commandos. The entire team is in attendance, including Dum Dum Dugan, Gabriel Jones, Dino Manelli, Eric Koenig, Izzy Cohen, Pinky Pinkerton, and Rebel Ralston, who is now a US Senator.[1] As everyone is reacquainting themselves with one another, Captain America notices some uniformed men lurking around.[2] Seeing them snatch Sam Sawyer — the Howler’s old commanding officer — Captain America leaps out the window to help him.
This kidnappers turn out to be members of the newly reformed Hydra. Although Cap and the Howling Commandos try to stop the terrorists from kidnapping Sawyer, they fail to do so. However, this is not before Sam can give Cap a coded message ordering him to check Sawyer’s discarded hat. Looking inside the brim, Cap some top secret data that Sawyer was hiding in it. Fury uses a device to read the data and they find fragmented information about Grand Forks Air Force Base, a fault line along the California coast, as well as Sawyer’s personnel file. Unfortunately, this doesn’t tell them anything about why Hydra would kidnap Sam. Deciding to investigate this further, Fury heads off with Captain America, Dum Dum Dugan, and Gabriel Jones. When the other Howlers — Dino Minelli, Eric Koenig, Izzy Cohen, Rebel Ralston, and Pinky Pinkerton — insist on coming along, Fury vetoes the idea, reminding them that they are all retired.
Later, the following morning, Sam Sawyer arrives at Grand Forks and uses his credentials as a member of the Joint Chiefs of Staff to get onto the base. There he helps seize control of the facility for Hydra so their leader, the Supreme Hydra can steal the United States’ mobile Strategic Air Command that is operated from a bomber, giving the terrorist organization remote access to America’s nuclear arsenal. When Captain America, Fury, Dugan, and Jones try to stop them they are quickly outgunned and taken prisoner.
However, they are saved when Rebel Ralston and Eric Koenig intentionally crash Reb’s private jet on the runway and the other Howlers come charging in on jeeps the borrowed from the car dealership owned by Izzy Cohen’s son. In the ensuing clash, Nick Fury shoots “Sam Sawyer” in the face, revealing that it is not his old commanding officer by a Life Model Decoy that Hydra used to pose as him, which Hydra used when brainwashing the real Sawyer failed. Not far away, Captain America unmasks the Supreme Hydra and is shocked to discover that it is apparently Baron Strucker himself, back from the dead.[3] Strucker has lined his uniform with an electrified mesh that shocks Cap into submission allowing Strucker and his minions to escape in the SAC bomber with Sawyer still their prisoner. Although all seems lost, Captain America vows to stop Hydra before they can use America’s missiles against them.
Recurring Characters
Captain America, Hydra (Baron Strucker), Howling Commandos (Nick Fury, Dum Dum Dugan, Dino Manelli, Eric Koenig, Gabe Jones, Izzy Cohen, Pinky Pinkerton, Rebel Ralston, Happy Sam Sawyer)
Continuity Notes
Here, the Howling Commandos are all depicted as men in the middle age. They all joke about how they don’t look as old they should be. That’s because each and every one of them have benefitted from some process that has slowed their aging:
For Nick Fury in particular, it has since been revealed that he maintains his relative youth thanks to regular ingestion of the Infinity Formula, which keeps him young. See Marvel Spotlight #31.
In the case of Dum Dum Dugan, however, things are a little different. It has since been revealed that Dugan was seriously wounded in 1966. In order to keep his buddy alive, Fury put Dugan’s body in suspended animation. Dugan’s mind then controlled Life Model Decoys of himself, although Fury would keep this a secret from Dugan for decades. See Original Sins #5 and New Avengers (vol. 4) #12.
As for the rest of the Howlers, profiles for the Howling Commandos and its individual members that have appeared in various issues of the Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe suggest that they have remained vital due to exposure to Nick Fury’s blood during the war, probably through blood transfusions when members were injured. The Howling Commando profiles in Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe #13, and Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe: Golden Age 2004, as well as Eric Koenig’s profile in Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe A-Z #6, Rebel Ralston’s profile in All-New Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe A-Z Update #1, Pinky Pinkerton’s profile in Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe A to Z Update #1, Gabe Jones profile in Captain America: America’s Avenger #1
The only people whose longevity have not been addressed is that of Sam Sawyer, and Gabe Jone’s fiancee, Clara Williams. Presumably, they have maintained her relative youth the same way the rest of the Howlers did.
Captain America is introduced to Eric Koenig, apparently for the first time, Eric also states that he never met Captain America during World War II as he joined the group after an encounter with Cap. There are some issues with this:
They are referring to the events of Sgt. Fury and his Howling Commandos #13, which featured a time that the Howlers and Cap fought side-by-side. Koenig did not join the team until issue #35 of that series.
However, this was not the only time the Howlers worked with Captain America during the war. There are too many issues to mention, but one particular story set in 1944 told in Captain America Annual #9 took place after Koenig was on the team. This omission is due to the fact that that story (and many others where Cap and the Commandos worked together) were published years after this one.
Even then, this is not the first time Koenig worked with Captain America. Since becoming a SHIELD agent, Koenig aided Captain America in his battle against Hydra in Captain America #145-146 and again against the Druid in issue #188-190.
Captain America can’t believe Strucker is still alive. This is understandable since the Baron was killed by his own Death Spore Virus in Strange Tales #158. It’s not the real Strucker by a malfunctioning Life Model Decoy who thinks he is the genuine article, as we’ll learn next issue. The real Baron Strucker won’t be resurrected until Nick Fury, Agent of SHIELD (vol. 3) #28-29.
Topical References
Sam’s records on the SAC Aerial Command Center is depicted as being kept on micro-film. This should be considered topical as this is an obsolete technology.
SAC Command is identified as being aboard an old B-52 Bomber. While these aircraft are still in use at the time of this writing (November, 2021) there might be some point where they will be retired from use and its specific reference should be considered topical.
Rebel Ralston’s private plane is identified as a Learjet. This should be considered topical as the Learjet company was purchased by Bombardier in 1990 and shut Learjet down in February 2021. A perfect example of his the reference of the B-52 above could become topical at some point in the future.
