I have to say that the thread drift about science in the Marvel Universe was very entertaining. I just want to add that maybe it was as hokey and impossible as the DC explanations, but Marvel was at least consistent with it throughout their early years. Unstable molecules are still " a thing" in the current Marvel world. DC's explanations were more of a throw away in their stories.

Completely agree with you on this, Kurt. Even a bad Spidey story was going to have one of his colorful villains in it, and a bad FF story would have some wild alien threat or some creature from another dimension, but too many Cap stories had generic bad guys that were just there as punching bags for Cap to fill pages between his pining for Agent 13 or lamenting Bucky's death.

A big detriment for the Cap series early on was the lack of compelling villains beyond Red Skull. Between issues #100 and #150, Red Skull appeared in at least 30% of those stories, while Batroc, Doctor Faustus, and Madame Hydra only appeared in 14% of the issues combined; MODOK was in another 10%, and Baron von Strucker was in 6%. Beyond them, it was a lot of other characters' villains (Grey Gargoyle, Scorpion, Trapster, Living Laser, Swordsman, Mandarin) and a bunch of one-off "villain of the month" types, like biker gangs, rogue AIM or SHIELD scientists, etc. There was really no effort given to develop a rogue's gallery for Cap like there had been for Spider-Man, Daredevil, FF, etc., and as such, the series suffers because the reader becomes painfully aware that the one-offs and borrowed villains are only there to kill time in between Red Skull appearances.

I see your point about the repetition factor being tiresome, but they introduced Doctor Faustus in issue #107 and he doesn't appear again until #161 (excluding the album issue #112), which is over 4 years.  Batroc appeared a bit more frequently, only having one year between first and second appearances (ToS #76 to ToS #85), then two years (Cap #105), two more years (Cap #'s 130 and 132), then 18 months (Cap #'s 149 and 150), although he then went over eight years until his next appearance in Captain America (#251).  Madame Hydra went six and a half years between appearances (#113 to #180).  It wasn't as though these characters, outside of maybe Batroc, were in heavy rotation.

I'm not necessarily arguing that he needed a costumed, flashy rogue's gallery like Spidey, Batman, or The Flash, because your point about him being positioned well to do the soldier stuff as well as the espionage stuff is spot on.  However, generic bad guys like the ones in ToS #'s 95 and 96 are just as bad as overplayed costumed villains, because there is no chance, outside of Roy Thomas getting a yearning to bring back Gunner Gates for some oddball continuity reason, these characters are ever going to be seen again.  

Heroes are only as good as their villains, and some random gunrunner or marksman with a contract doesn't leave an impression on the reader.  You don't want to see them again, because there is no draw to their existence.  They're space-fillers, nothing more, so maybe a little more Batroc wouldn't be a bad thing if the alternative is a personality-lacking, non-defining characteristic-having mobster.  

The mined rooftop: In real life, the Syndicate (AKA the Mafia) never cared about collateral damage when setting explosives. No precision bombing for them, so if innocent people got in the way and/or died, they just...died. 

Wouldn't one assume Black Panther--though far removed from America--had known of Cap's whereabouts through his own intelligence sources? That sort of mirrors the distant, yet knowing way he's portrayed in Captain America: Civil War.

Black Panther's craft: This is the same comic universe where the blast from a bomb using gamma radiation transforms a man into a giant, green powerhouse, Doctor Doom has a working, accurate time machine(!), and is fine with just about anything you might find in Reed Richards' lab. All things considered, a vehicle traveling at Mach 9.1--beyond the capabilities of a craft in the 21st century--should not raise eyebrows.

Tales of Suspense #98



"The Claws Of The Panther!"
Writer: Stan Lee
Art: Jack Kirby (pencils) and Joe Sinnott (inks)
Cover Date: February 1968

Synopsis
Cap soars across the sky in Black Panther's aircraft, and as he does, a ray from space streaks past him, striking and melting a mountain below. The craft begins to descend and Cap fears it is going to crash, but it gracefully lands in a hidden submerged landing field in the middle of the jungle. Cap exits the vehicle and is met by Black Panther and some of his men, who immediately attack Cap; he dispatches a couple of them with a kick, then faces off against the Wakandan ruler himself. They fight to a stalemate, at which point Black Panther tells Cap it was all just a test to see if Cap was the genuine article.

The scene shifts to a group of scientist-looking guys who are being berated by an unknown individual. He is angry that they were unable to shoot Cap down, at which point they beg for mercy, knowing the penalty for failure; they present their argument and their assailant relents, telling them they have one more chance to kill both Captain America and Black Panther. Grabbing a communicator, they contact a group of soldiers (resembling those that Black Panther fought last issue at his abandoned outpost), ordering the soldiers to kill the heroes.

Back at Black Panther's headquarters, he explains where the ray Cap saw came from and that Cap will soon meet their enemy, whose identity Cap will not believe. Black Panther also explains how the ray machine works, telling Cap of its destructive capabilities; Cap asks if he's tried to take it down, to which Black Panther replies that he has, but that it is impossible to do with a direct attack, as only stealth, speed and cunning will allow them to prevail.

Racing across the jungle behind Black Panther, Cap starts to think of his own home, if he will ever see it again, and if he will ever find love, especially with the girl that he cannot forget. They come to a clearing and are attacked by the soldiers, and although they fight valiantly, taking down many of their foes, they are eventually shot with stun bolts and incapacitated. Elsewhere in the jungle, Agent Thirteen, still disguised as Irma Kruhl, meets with another group of similar-looking soldiers. They attack her, but she dispatches them easily, instructing them to take her to their leader.

Cap and Black Panther finally come to and try to escape, but they fall into a lion pit trap, becoming captured yet again. Staring up, they are confronted by their enemy, a man Cap has long thought dead, the villain named...Baron Zemo.

My Thoughts
First off, this is a great cover. It's simple, yet dynamic, and although it is a little misleading, if I'd been a kid seeing this in the spinner rack in November 1967, I'd have grabbed this in a heartbeat.

The Solar Ray missed Cap's ship by "inches", then strikes and melts a mountain!?!? How did that kind of heat not fry Cap to a crisp if it were that close to him?

Tying into the cover, you gotta love the old "we're both heroes, but we need to fight" set-up, which makes more sense than, you know, just getting Cap to produce his Avengers ID card or something like that.

I love the logic of Zemo's scientists, who argue that it would take Zemo too long to train their replacements, so he's better off letting them live to try again. It's really creative writing on Stan's part.

Black Panther seems to know an AWFUL lot about Zemo's orbiting death ray. Maybe someone from SHIELD should follow up with him after this is all over to find out how he's such an expert on it.

Solar Heat Projector, using a mirror to catch the rays of the sun, store them, and fire them at a later time as part of the weapon? Not how a mirror works.

Running through unfamiliar territory as he follows Black Panther, nice that Cap has his mind on the important stuff, like if he's ever going to find love with Agent Thirteen. Way to keep your head in the game, Super Soldier! I did like the swinging over the crocodile in the river panel, though; it was a cute touch.

Yet again, Agent Thirteen may be the only woman that Stan and Jack know how to treat as competent. She punches out one of Zemo's soldiers, kicks down another, and gasses the third. When they come to, she's the one giving orders, not being dragged off as a hostage.

Thank goodness they went with Baron Zemo here as the mystery reveal. It hasn't been long enough since we last saw Red Skull to make any kind of impact from the surprise, so kudos to Stan and Jack for going out on a limb here and bringing in someone unexpected.

My Grade: B
This is a pretty good story, but there are some goofy elements (the BP/Cap fight for no reason, Cap's mid-jungle daydreaming) that are just enough to drop this a partial grade from last issue. I like that last issue started to set this story up and this issue continued those threads, but resolution is not imminent, which is much better than boring one-and-dones with Gunner Gates and The Sniper.

I'd often thought that the Black Widow was the only competent female Marvel superhero of the 60's, but yeah, Agent Thirteen is pretty good, too.