[ Captain America no.313 (1986) ]

Beim durchschauen der eingelagerten Comics fiel mir ein Heft in die Hände, bei dem es mir heute noch abschüttelt: Captain America no.313 (1986).

Wieso versuchte ich vor Jahren in einem Text für mein altes Blog zu erklären.

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Spoiler for a 30 year old comic in the following text.

Around 1990 my brother and i inherited a box full of comics. Most of them Marvel and DC issues translated and repacked into digest sized collections by then active german publisher Condor. Among them was Captain America Taschenbuch Nr.1.

It collected the issues 305 to 313 of the US Captain America comics, which were published around 1986. Like all the other comics in the box, we read this one from cover to cover until it came apart. This book also got confiscated because i read it during religious education[1]. But why this particular book stuck with me was because of issue no.313: Modok Screams Bloody Murder[2].
It starts with Bushmaster and Daimondback—of the Serpent Society—diving to a submarine used by AIM—Advanced Idea Mechanics, another villainous organization in the Marvel Universe—to discover that Modok was hiding there. They engage in battle.

At this point in my comic reading life, i was aware that no tears should have been spilled over whoever lost the battle, but nontheless i was startled by the actions taken to ensure Modok would not leave the craft alive and how helpless the character was without his chair.

Modok manages to save his hide, but with his chair badly damaged he hides in the hanger of a parked truck.
Bushmaster was severly damaged in the fight and Daimondback contacts the Serpent Society starting a hunt.

The thing that grabbed me here was Princess Python and Death Adder in the fourth panel one the lower right corner. It must be very dangerous to hang around in elevator shafts with trenchcoats instead of a slim fitting outfit.
Meanwhile, Captain America visits his hotline’s offices, where he learns of an attempted hack. His investigation on who tried to manipulate the line leads him to few computer savy people, who just wanted to help him filter and prioritize the calls that come in. Their system makes Cap aware of reports about an extraterrestrial craft. In following the trail the report includes, Cap stumbles upon the Serpent Society agents—who have Modok cornered in a Mall.
Cap engages in battle, which reminds us of the time this comic was written.

It would be a shame to send off such a hunk— lust was her undoing.
The next two pages „haunt“ me to this day.

They killed Modok.
That was something that i did not yet encounter in comics. At the most, people got wounded badly but recovered. Today we make a snide remark about the death of a comic character in a mainstream title, and since then Modok has seen the ink of a printer again and again—with his depiction in Ales Kot’s run on Secret Avengers being one of my favourties.

What i’m trying to say is: this was one of the moments where something i read provoked an emotional reaction. And its echo still rings with almost the same intensity into the present, where it’s being heard by a more seasoned set of ears.

And to bring this whole thing full circle, here’s Modok’s first appearance from Tales Of Suspence no.94 by the King, Jack Kirby and the guy who exploited a lot of talented people, but was necessary to make comics what they are today.

[1] A class you had to participate in if you were christened and your parents valued their freedom, which is strange considering the churches were nonetheless filled with the same people on sundays. And none of them were memebers of my schoolmates families.

[2] Modok auf der Flucht in german which translates to Modok On the Run

Screenshots taken from digital version for review purposes, copyright lies with the respective owners.