Captain America: By Mark Gruenwald

A Spin-off to my “Diamondback in the Rough: The Rachel Leighton Story Post”, for Diamondback was the reason I (Ethan Stranger) loved “Mark Gruenwald’s 10 Year Comic Run on Captain America”, but in fact, there were several other concepts that I enjoyed for his run, so let’s dive deeper, shall we?

Through my Marvel Unlimited App, I’ve read various other Cap runs by other writers like “Stan Lee, Steve Englehart, Jack Kirby, J.M. Dematteis, Mark Waid, Ed Brubaker & Ta Nehisi Coates” and, while I’ve enjoyed Chris Evans portrayal of the Star-Spangled Avenger in the MCU, it was Mark Gruenwald’s Run that really got me hooked on the Sentinel of Liberty.

To begin with, Gruenwald started off as an Editor on the Captain America Title before taking over as head writer with Issue #307 in July 1985. During his early work on Cap, several of the stories seemed a bit “Weird” especially for Captain America (you tell by the covers, Below), also around the same time, Gruenwald also wrote the 12-Part Limited Series “Squadron Supreme (Marvel's Answer to DC’s Watchmen & Gruenwald’s Personal Magnum Opus)”, He did a Crossover with the Squadron Supreme & Captain America in “Captain America #314” & added the loving dynamic couple  “Hawkeye & Mockingbird” within the pages of “Captain America #316-317” (after writing/drawing a 4-Part Hawkeye Mini-Series).

Over the course of his run, Gruenwald attempted to beef up Cap’s Rogues Gallery, in the form of symbolizing aspects of contemporary American culture and the world political situation & who would be specific to Captain America, as opposed to generic foes who could as easily have been introduced in another comic, notable examples include…

-Madcap (USA’s own Disaffected Youth). 

-Armadillo (Cap’s Version of “The Rhino”). 

-Flag-Smasher (anti-nationalist). 

-Serpent Society (Trade Unions). 

-Superia (Feminism). 

-Blistik (“The quality of life" for the residents of NYC).

-Americop (Corrupted Justice System). 

-The Slug (Drug Trading).

-Brother Nature (ecological terrorism)

-Watchdogs (censorship and repression). 

-Crossbones (Neo-Nazism). 

-Super-Patriot (Patriotic Villain).

Mark also upgraded Cap’s Archenemy, “The Red Skull (Johann Schmidt)” from being a “scheme-of-the-month Nazi war criminal, who gains his goals from the sheer force” into a being that’s more motivated by Ideolgoly & Power, which leads towards destroying America from within by being one with society within it’s fields of business and politics, by manipulating the Commission on Superhuman Activities into having Steve Rogers resign as Captain America & replaced with “John Walker” (throughout the beginning part of Mark’s Cap Run within issues #332-350) before Steve returned to the role as Cap while the Commission on Superhuman Activities “faked John Walker’s Death”, had him (briefly) brainwashed to become US Agent. Eventually, John Walker’s Pal, Battlestar (Lemar Hoskins) aided him in regaining his memories before they went their separate ways, speaking of Battlestar (Lemar Hoskins), better read this for more about his time as “Bucky”:

 

 (https://www.cbr.com/captain-america-dwayne-mcduffie-racism/)

And Although Gruenwald stated that Rambo-izing Steve Rogers would be a violation of his principles, he did manage to get away with it in a story arc known as “Streets of Poison (with art by Ron Lim)”, it features Cap hooked on a street drug (ICE), that causes him to go berserk (during a gang war between The Red Skull & The Kingpin, which is a big deal, these 2 rarely met), but luckily Cap is cured but at the cost of losing the Super-Soldier Serum in his body which is further seen throughout Mark Gruenwald’s run (Especially within his final epic Cap Story, Fighting Chance within issues #425-443, which had him donning a clanky body armor that was poorly received by fans, plus the Story Arc saw the end of Cap & Diamondback’s relationship, but it was all because of the Super-Soldier Serum failing within Steve’s Body & Diamondback having murdered her enemy Snapdragon, due to having been injected with samples of Steve’s Blood, containing the Super-Soldier Serum.

Other notable Story Arcs throughout Gruenwald’s 10 year Run on Captain America include several hits and misses (not even sure if they’re MCU adaptable), they are:

-The Serpent War (#341-344) 

-The Bloodstone Hunt (#357-362)

 -Diamondback Trial (#380-382)

-Superia Stratagem (#387-392) 

-Man & Wolf (#402-408) 

-Welcome to the Jungle (#414-417)

  

What I (Ethan Stranger) find relatable/remarkable about Mark Gruenwald’s 10 year run on Captain America was the amount of creativity & effort that he was really putting into the old shield slinger (especially when it came to the stories he was writing or the new characters within his stories). In fact, I felt like Gruenwald was trying to make Cap more fun (for I’ve always seen him as a serious Superhero who always cares about protecting his country no matter what, plus we hardly ever saw Steve Rogers Social life away from superheroes, thus Grunewald decide to show the readers more on Cap’s social life, as well as give him more adventurous adventures (even weird ones) as well as hand somebody else the title as Captain America, only to learn that trying to live up to a living legend is difficult, especially when under the influence of the corrupted Commission on Superhuman Activities, that’s what John Walker learned before becoming US Agent (Picture, below). 

Plus I’m also glad that Gruenwald had Steve break up with his girlfriend at the time, Bernie Rosenthal & had Diamondback (Rachel Leighton) step in as Cap’s Girlfriend throughout his run, for she attempted to make Cap’s life more fun & open him up more (as both a partner in the field & siding with him whenever they’re not fighting), while it wasn’t easy for the 2 to stay together until the end of Gruenwald’s run (you can read more about their relationship experience on my Diamondback in the Rough: The Rachel Leighton Story Post or read the most Offbeat Cap Tale By Gruenwald himself within #371 where the duo finally went out on their 1st date with no costumes whatsoever). Plus you can read Mark Gruenwald’s own words (Picture, Below) on why he stayed on Cap for 10 years (this was written in his last issue, one year before he passed away) his creative motivations have inspired me for whenever I’m doing my own writing (both blogs & other writing projects of mine) they come in handy for somebody on the spectrum.

(https://anchor.fm/capcomicbookfans/episodes/11-Mark-Gruenwald-Remembered---Interview-with-Catherine-Schuller-Gruenwald-epv737) (here’s a podcast by Gruenwald’s Wife explaining more on his Cap Run)

Most of Gruenwald’s Cap Run would later influence Disney+’s Falcon and the Winter Soldier, like the introduction of John Walker taking over the role of Captain America (before becoming US AGENT),  Battlestar, an alternate version of the Commission on Superhuman Activities (known as the Global Repatriation Council'' & a gender-swapped version of Flag-Smasher. The series dived deep into what it means to take on the mantle of The Star-Spangled Man (since at the end of Endgame, it was Falcon that Steve chose to take on the legacy), but Falcon just didn’t feel comfortable about being Captain America (heck during Gruenwald’s Cap Run, the Commission on Superhuman Activities (picture, Right) were close to making falcon the new Cap, but back in the 1980s, Gruenwald knew America, knowing that readers back then weren’t ready for a black man being Captain America (even though back in the 80s, James Rhodes took on the mantle as Iron Man before becoming War Machine) somebody taking on the mantle of the Star-Spangled Man is a much bigger responsibility & if Steve Rogers isn’t willing to follow the Government’s orders, then they can find someone else who can.  In fact, you can listen to Captain America (Sam Wilson)’s speech from “Falcon & the Winter Soldier, about how (without the government's approval), many people will hate him for picking up Cap’s shield, but goes on to say that he doesn’t Super-Serum, Blue Eyes or having Blonde hair… for the only real power he has… is he believes that they (the People) can do better (and that’s what being Cap is all about) (no matter the race or gender), for, over the years, Marvel Comics have introduced various alternate versions of Captain America (Picture, Left), heck they’ve now introduced an LGBTQ Captain America (makes me wanna soon see a version of Cap with Aspergers/ADHD):  

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eoTXf5cW0PU

If Mark Gruenwald was still alive, I’m pretty sure he be pleased with how his vision of Captain America was (somewhat) portrayed within Falcon and the Winter Soldier, not sure about his reaction towards a Gender-Swapped version of Flag-Smasher (though I do hope that when “Captain America 4 (Starring Sam Wilson as the Star-Spangled Man)” more of Gruenwald’s Cap Run would possibly influence the film (like could we finally get an MCU-adaption of Diamondback, maybe attempting to have feelings for the Winter Soldier/White Wolf with Steve Rogers too old for a woman like Diamondback, plus he got married to Peggy Carter at the end of Avengers: Endgame). Mark Gruenwald’s 10-year run on Captain America will forever be a classic & I hope to write a Cap Run based on his run someday...

So until my Next Comic Book Commentary, Ethan Stranger & Diamondback said…”Candygram”

(Cap was Lucky to have a Girl like you, Diamondback)