Captain America 365 - Acts of Vengeance

This is another series which resorted to a lead and back-up strip format, but both tie in with the crossover, with each featuring escaped villains from the Vault and at least one attempt at recruitment made by the mysterious stranger.

Captain America #365

Writer: Mark Gruenwald (all)
Penciler: Kieron Dwyer (main)
Penciler: Mark Bagley (back-up)
Inker: Danny Bulanadi (main)
Inker: Don Hudson (back-up)
Letterer: Jack Morelli (all)
Colourist: Bob Sharen (main)
Colourist: Nel Yomtov (back-up)
Editor: Ralph Macchio
Editor-in-Chief: Tom DeFalco

It's not clear what level the Cobra was being invited for in the back-up story but he simply isn't interested in revenge. Over in the lead, Namor the Submariner is invited to join the central leadership bit has no interest, having abandoned his campaign against the surface world. However the Red Skull is interested and signs up. This gives us our first look at the full list of leaders with the Skull, the Wizard, the Kingpin and Doctor Doom all shown whilst both the Mandarin and Magneto are mentioned (and have been glimpsed in earlier issues). It's a very traditional collection, consisting of the arch-enemies of Captain America, Iron Man, the Human Torch, the Fantastic Four and the X-Men, with the Kingpin filling a triple role for Daredevil, the Punisher and being the highest-ranking strategic foe of Spider-Man. This line-up could have been assembled at just about any time since the Silver Age and the absentees from the line-up are highly suggestive. It's also notable that the stranger announces the Red Skull's participation before he actually agrees, a sign that other villains may have signed up to a more speculative than yet achieved version of the alliance.

Both tales deal with the fallout from the escape from the Vault, with the back-up seeing the Cobra discovering that Mr Hyde has escaped and rushing to act before his erstwhile partner achieves revenge. The former sees the Red Skull (well Crossbones does the actual work) pick up the Controller, a traditional Iron Man foe, and send him to the site of the sunken Avengers headquarters to attack Captain America, using Namor the Submariner as his tool. This leads to a quick fight at both sea and on land until Cap spots the control disc on Namor's neck and realises what's happening. The Controller and Captain America had briefly clashed previously in the Captain Marvel/Thanos saga back in the 1970s, but it was a fleeting encounter and, in any case, if there's one hero who can be expected to have looked up just about every known weapon and tool of even villains he hasn't fought, it's Captain America.

With this chapter it feels like the whole "Acts of Vengeance" saga is really coming together but there's a general problem with events being scattered across multiple issues meaning that Captain America is jumping back forth across issues, but at least there's a clear explanation. As we'll see when looking at some future issues, Mark Gruenwald was often the man who stepped in to pull the event towards coherence and deal with some of the particularly odd moments. This issue is from near the middle of his epic run on the series and shows a series in its stride with the main character benefitting from consistency and a developed world.

Captain America #365 has been reprinted in:

• Acts of Vengeance Omnibus (2011)
• Captain America Epic Collection: The Bloodstone Hunt (2018)