Call Me Animus

CAPTAIN AMERICA — Issue no. 223, April 1978

Book: Captain America

Issue No.: 223

Published: April 11, 1978

Title: “Call Me Animus”

Cover Price: 35¢

Well heck. With this issue, this book dropped the “and the Falcon” from the title, and I never really got to see any Cap/Falcon team-up action. An informative couple of recap panels let us know that the Falcon is AWOL from his SHIELD job, so maybe he’s been missing from this book long enough that he lost his co-star billing. An editor’s note on the fan-mail page at the end of this issue basically confirms that. Apparently the creative team (at the time, which was 1978) has plans for Captain America stories, but they aren’t sure how to work the Falcon into those stories.

Other things that are going on — Cap has amnesia when it comes to his pre-superhero days (I love the soap opera aspect of Bronze Age books, and amnesia is a time-honored soap opera trope), and he’s suspicious about his love interest Veda (which he should be, because, even though he doesn’t know it, she’s working with “the Corporation,” a mysterious group that wants Cap dead).

But Captain America’s main problem in this story is a weird-looking dude who calls himself Animus. Animus’ shtick is he has the brute force of a caveman and the brain power (which includes telekinesis) of some kind of super-evolved future human. Animus is apparently responsible for animating the giant Lincoln Memorial statue that attacked Cap in the previous issue. Captain America and Animus have two big fights in this issue, and at the end of both fights, after Cap gets the upper hand, Animus just disappears. Poof.

There is a hint after the second fight that Animus has ties to the Corporation. And an editor’s note at the end of the issue promises Cap (and we readers) will get some answers in the next issue.

Next time — Swords, sorcery, and Red Sonja!