Captain America #319
Overkill
In Cleveland, Captain Ameirca clashes with the villain known as Blacklash. Cap quickly wins the battle and as the police are taking him away, Blacklash mentions how desperate he has become because the Scourge of the Underworld has been killing super-villains, including his old ally the Melter.[1] This concerns Captain America since he had just recently saved the Constrictor from an assassin posing as a nurse and wonders if this was also the Scourge.[2] Regardless, the Avenger decides to look into this some more.
Meanwhile, Sidewinder returns to the headquarters of the Serpent Society with the body of Death Adder, yet another Scourge victim.[3] This angers the other members of the Society who want to get revenge against whoever killed their teammate. Sidewinder sends his team out to find out who did this. Once everyone is gone, Sidewinder takes off his mask and vows to Death Adder that he will be avenged.
While at the Bar With No Name, Gary Gilbert — formerly known as Firebrand — is continuing to recruit super-villains to deal with the Scourge problem.[4] His recent recruits are the Jaguar and Letha. Although Letha has given up crime to become a professional wrestler, she wants to join in because he friend Titania was also murdered by Scourge.[5]
Back in Cleveland, Captain America returns to his modified van and connects with his Stars and Stripes support network and instructs them to provide him with any and all information that might be relevant for his search for the Scourge of the Underworld. After mailing off his finished pencils to Marvel Comics for publication, Steve finds that the Stars and Stripes have finished collating the data of all of the Scourge’s victims. Steve is horrified by the list of victims scattered across the country and vows to make sure that Scourge doesn’t claim another life.[6]
At that same moment, the Serpent Society are busy tracking down leads to find out who killed Death Adder and why. This leads to clashes with both Advanced Idea Mechanics, but nobody has any information.[7]
The next day at the Bar With No Name, Gary Gilbert is talking with the owner, Jake, about the security measures he is putting in place for his meeting. With retinal scanners and weapon detectors, Gary believes that it will be impossible for Scourge to infiltrate the meeting and kill them all. A moment later, Anthony Craft — aka the Ringer — arrives to inquire about joining the meeting.
Meanwhile, Captain America has travelled to a mental health facility in Indiana to interview Greg Sallinger, the second Foolkiller. He hopes that their might be a connection between Foolkiller and the Scourge. However, he quickly discovers that Sallinger is still quite insane and that nobody has taken up the Foolkiller identity since he has been incarcerated.[8] As he leaves the facility, he catches Diamondback trying to break in. As it turns out, she too decided to investigate the possible Foolkiller connection and convinces Captain America that they should work together. Captain America is uncomfortable with the way Diamondback keeps throwing herself at him, but reluctantly agrees to work with her.[9] The two then board Diamondback’s Serpent Saucer, since it will allow them to travel around more quickly.
When they take to the air, Diamondback decides to tell Captain America her life story, saying that she’s not that bad a person, just a victim of circumstance. Diamondback was a tomboy growing up and always felt that she had to compete with her older brother Ricky. After their father died and mother was always working, the two got involved in petty crimes for the kicks. However, the fun and games had a tragic end when Ricky — when she was 15 and he was 17 — was fatally shot while trying to rob a fruit stand.[10] This pushed her deeper into a life of crime. She used decided to become a super-villain, and brags about how she seduced the Trapster into developing the weapons she now uses as Diamondback.
She then tries to convince Captain America that she wants to reform and tries seducing him. When Cap tells her that he’s not DTF, she decides to play chicken with him by pulling the key out of the Serpent Saucer and hiding it in her costume in an effort to force him to make a move by threatening to kill them in a crash. Captain America is having none of this and decides to end their partnership by bailing out with the ship’s onboard parachute. Realizing that she pushed him too far, Diamondback lands the Serpent Saucer and tries to follow after him in the cornfield they have landed in. The chase draws the attention of the farmer who owns the land who accidentally shoots Diamondback thinking she was an alien invader. Thankfully, she was only hit with buckshot and isn’t seriously wounded. This does force Captain America to come back for her so he can bring her to the nearest hospital.
Meanwhile, back at the Bar With No Name, Garry Gilbert welcomes all the villains who arrive for the meeting.[11] Although there is some griping about the security measures in place, everyone passes the sweep. Although Gilbert was expecting 50 people to show up, he is disappointed when only less than 20 show up. They include Steeplejack, Shellshock, Cyclone, Mind-Wave, Hellrazor, the Ringer, Turner D. Century, the Jaguar, Mirage, the Grappler, the Rapier, the Vamp, Bird-Man, the Hijacker, Commander Kraken, the Cheetah, and Letha. Once everyone is seated, the meeting begins. After going over the Scourge’s motus operandai, he opens the floor to suggestions on how they can stop the vigilante from killing any more of their kind. This turns into a shouting match where everyone gives wildly different answers. As Gilbert tries to control the discussion the bartender, Jake, offers a solution of his own. Pulling out two automatic weapons armed with explosive shells, he tells the gathered villains can die. Opening fire, Jake seemingly kills everyone in the room. As it turns out, “Jake” was the Scourge in disguise. Overjoyed about killing eighteen targets at once he proclaims that justice has been served.[13]
Recurring Characters
Captain America, Scourge of the Underworld, Diamondback, Blacklash, Firebrand, Serpent Society (Anaconda, Asp, Black Mamba, Bushmaster, Cobra, Cottonmouth, Death Adder, Sidewinder, Rattler), AIM, Ringmaster, Clown, Cheetah, Commander Kraken, Foolkiller, Grappler, Hellrazor, Hijacker, Jaguar, Letha, Mind-Wave, Mirage, Rapier, Ringer, Shellshock, Steeplejack, Turner D. Century, Vamp, Trapster (flashback)
Continuity Notes
The Melter was murdered by Scourge in Avengers #263.
It was! Constrictor almost bought the bullet in Captain America #311.
Death Adder was fatally shot in the guts last issue.
One of the newspaper clippings that Gilbert shows Jaguar and Letha is about the murder of the Enforcer. He was killed by Scourge in Iron Man #194.
Titania was murdered by Scourge in Thing #33.
The list of villains on display (other than the ones mentioned above) are: Miracle Man (Thing #24), Megatak (Thor #358), and Basilisk (Fantastic Four #289)
The Serpent Society are attacking the Circus of Crime because their former member, Princess Python, was a member of the Serpent Society until she betrayed them to Captain America during their mission to kill MODOK. They then tried to ransom her back to the Circus of Crime. See Captain America #313 and last issue.
The Foolkillers were vigilantes that killed anyone they considered to be a fool. Usually those who took on this identity were either fanatics or insane or both. The original Foolkiller was Ross Everbest who was killed shortly after starting his career by the Man-Thing. See Man-Thing #3-4. Sallinger took up the identity in Omega the Unknown #8, after learning about the original. He has been incarcerated since being defeated by Spider-Man in Amazing Spider-Man #225. Greg will be succeeded by Kurt Gerhardt who takes on the Foolkiller identity in Foolkiller #1.
Diamondback convinces Cap to work with her by pointing out that she could have easily killed him during their last two encounters. These were in Captain America #313 and 315.
Diamondback is being very selective about her past. While the core of this story is true, Ricky only became a criminal after flirting with joining the Crims street gang, led by Brock Rumlow the man who would become Crossbones. After Brock raped his sister and murdered their older brother, Ricky went wild and fell into the life of crime that would eventually take his life. See Captain America #400 for more details on that.
One of the villains in the line up to get into the Bar With No Name thought that Bird-Man was dead. Birdy corrects him by saying only his teammates Ape-Man and Cat-Man were killed. Believe it or not, that doesn’t really narrow things down because there have been multiple Ape and Cat Men, and at the time of this story are all dead:
The originals, Gordon Keefer and Townsenhorgan, both died while in the employ of Count Nefaria. The original Bird-Man, Henry Hawk also died that time. See Iron Man #116.
They were both succeeded by Roy McVey and Sabastian Patante. They didn’t last very long with both men being killed by their employer, the Death-Stalker. See Daredevil #157-158.
One of the attendees brags about fighting one-on-one with the She-Hulk. This could only be the Grappler, who fought the jade giantess in Savage She-Hulk #18.
Scourge’s slaughter is not as cut and dry as it appears here:
Bird-Man, Cheetah, Cyclone, Firebrand, the Hijacker, Letha, Mirage, Turner D. Century, and are absolutely killed here. Years later, they are among Scourge victims resurrected by the Hood to use against the Punisher. See Punisher (vol. 8) #5.
Not all of Scourge’s victims were later resurrected by the Hood. They are:
Commander Kraken at the time of this writing is still considered to be deceased. He has since been seen in the Olympian underworld of Hades in Incredible Hercules #129-131.
The Grappler has remained dead, although he was seen in a flashback that took place prior to his death in She-Hulk (vol. 2) #3.
Hellrazer, the Jaguar, Shellshock, and were so forgettable that they have never been seen since or succeeded by anyone else.
Before they were resurrected, the corpses of the Cheeta, and were used by the shapeshifter known as Dead Wringer in Captain America #427.
Later, DNA samples from the Bird-Man, the Cheetah, Cyclone, Mirage, the Ringer, Turner D. Century, and Vamp were used by geneticist Arnim Zola to create Proto-Husk clones. See Deadpool (vol. 3) #0. Vamp has the distinction of being cloned by Zola twice, as seen in Deadpool (vol. 3) #6.
Cyclone would be succeeded by others who took up his identity: Gregory Stevens (Marvel Comics Presents #97 & Silver Sable and the Wild Pack #21-22) and Pierre Freeson (Thunderbolts #3 to present)
Firebrand was succeeded by Russ Broxtel in Web of Spider-Man #77 (until his death in Amazing Spider-Man #700.4), Richard Dennison (Iron Man (vol. 3) #4), a woman only known as Amanda (Invincible Iron Man #513), and another unidentified man (who appeared once and was killed in Deadpool (vol. 5) #27)
The Ringer actually survived and was rebuilt into a cyborg called Strikeback, as seen in Lethal Foes of Spider-Man #3-4. When he was believed dead, the Ringer’s identity was taken over by Keith Kraft in Marc Spector: Moon Knight #10. More recently, the identity was up for sale as part of the Hobgoblin’s super-villain franchise business as seen in Superior Spider-Man #25.
Steeplejack has also remained dead, but he his identity was another that became part of the Hobgoblin’s super-villain franchise business. See Superior Spider-Man #25.
Topical References
Cyclone asks for a bottle of Chateau Lafitte Rothschild with a vintage of 1929. Back when this story was published, this French winery produced some very expensive wines. However, the reference here should be considered topical for a number of reasons: Lafitte Rothschild is a real world business, a 1929 vintage at the time of this writing (December, 2021) would be exceedingly rare and even then would it still be any good? Questionable at best. Also, Rothschild wine has dropped in value over the years, at least that’s what my half-assed Google search is telling me.
