The Race For Element X!

Things looked pretty hopeless when we left Captain America and the Falcon following a harrowing battle outside of a secret S.H.I.E.L.D. mountain base. With an elaborate plan that should put him in the Hall of Fame of elaborate planners, the Grey Gargoyle, whose touch can turn an animate or inanimate object to solid stone, has maneuvered Cap and Falc into making it possible for him to board the SHIELD helicarrier, thereby giving him transportation to the secure mountain lab where SHIELD scientists are experimenting with the deadly Element X--a substance which, in the hands of the Gargoyle, will make him a threat to the entire world.*

And now, with the destruction of the helicarrier, only Cap, Falc, Nick Fury, and Sharon Carter (a/k/a Agent 13) remain to try to stop the Gargoyle from reaching his goal. But having already penetrated the lab's entry, the Gargoyle has wasted no time in seeking out his prize, whatever resistance he has to crush in the process.

*It's anyone's guess how the Gargoyle even learned of Element X. SHIELD security is looking like it must be child's play to hack.

And so we reach the climax of this story begun by Stan Lee, but who passes the baton to Gary Friedrich with his departure from the book. Do the Falcon and Cap have a chance against an invulnerable foe who's so far vanquished anyone who's tried to stop him?

The SHIELD agents assigned to this lab have already destroyed the helicarrier, due to the commandeered ship's failure to respond with a code word which would have allowed it to approach. But the hard-pressed agents prove to be no match against a super-villain whose power allows him to turn any object into a weapon--and anyone who opposes him into a living statue.

Artist John Romita, who came aboard after an impressive run by Gene Colan, is in the early stages of what would only be an eight-issue stay on the book before passing his pencil to Sal Buscema; yet his eye-catching work here demonstrates a firm grasp of Lee's plot and an obvious gift for telling a detailed story that Friedrich must be appreciating right about now. Both villain and hero(es), as well as supporting characters, receive equal time from Romita--and in this final installment of the Gargoyle's scheme involving Element X, his panels play like a clock ticking down its last minutes to doomsday, as the book's title characters prepare their desperate assault.

And that calls for--you guessed it--PLAN D!

(No, I don't know why the designers of this mountain base would install camouflaged, impregnable stone portals on its outer face, yet leave the installation completely vulnerable by having a glass dome as a roof, one that even two acrobats can breach.)

These were the days when Cap and Falc were always signalling each other with alphabet letters, indicating procedures or maneuvers that presumably their hard training together allowed them to work out between them. "Prepare to execute Maneuver K, partner!" Just wait until they come up against a telepath. "Fool! I know of your Maneuver K--it will fail! Maneuver G might have worked against me, but now it's too late!" Now we see that, like SHIELD, these two have their own Plan D--but where SHIELD's plan was code for self-destruct, theirs stands for... what? "Dive"? "Deploy"?

Friedrich also makes use of a concept Lee introduced which was meant to solve for SHIELD the quandary of how to experiment on Element X safely, by transferring it to a lab encased in a stone receptacle--which would be launched into orbit and thereby prevent disaster for Earth in case of an accident. Only we learned there was a slight problem with that plan:

Yet now, with the climax of this story upon us, our heroes--just at first glance, mind you--have apparently worked around the niggling details of weight and gravity and figured out the way to get this thing off the ground and into orbit: pull the switch and let 'er rip! Proving that the solution is always right in front of you, isn't it?

Meanwhile, the Gargoyle, reaching the cement chamber where the cannister of Element X is stored, basks in his well-deserved triumph:

Aside from the Gargoyle's plans for Element X, it's hard to see the reason for the consternation on the part of Fury and the others insofar as this dangerous substance ending up in his hands, since he seems to have covered all the bases regarding handling it and keeping it safe; in fact, it's probably safer with him than with SHIELD, since his power allows him to transport it without incident. (Unless he drops the cement cannister onto a hard surface, in which case we'd all better be prepared to meet our maker.)

As for actually escaping with the cannister, obviously the Gargoyle doesn't seem too worried about it given how things have mostly gone his way so far--but that's only because Cap and the Falcon haven't put Operation L into play yet! Now what does that one stand for?

"Lunge"? "Look at my shield"?

To take a leaf from Fury's book, I don't know what Sharon's "blabberin' " about--I only saw Cap mention the word "control" once, and completely in context, so it's hard to see how even a SHIELD agent could assume that Cap is clueing them in on a plan of action. (I guess we'd all be toast if I were on this mission instead of her.) By the way, is a falcon strong enough to lift and carry a cement cannister in flight? Is Redwing on a diet of steroids?

At any rate, the plan is in motion--get the cannister to the stone rocket, and hit that launch button. It's not clear why Cap thinks it's ideal for the Gargoyle to make the trip with it--but with the villain in pursuit, that's the card they're dealt regardless. And the Gargoyle himself inadvertently helps to secure his own fate.

With a little help from A.I.M., the Gargoyle later escapes his orbiting prison and plunges back to Earth--sans Element X, which you'd think A.I.M. would have been keenly interested in bargaining for in exchange for the Gargoyle's rescue but which scripter Len Wein decided to leave out of his story. Speaking of which, from what I understand, DC Comics had its own powerful Element X in the New Gods series; unlike Marvel's Element X, which doesn't really have a backstory, you can get a run-down on the competition's element.

Finally, a note to SHIELD:  If you have weaponry that can blast your own helicarrier from the sky, what gives with your arsenal not being able to shatter a villain made of stone?

Captain America #142 Script: Gary Friedrich Pencils: John Romita Inks: Joe Sinnott Letterer: Sam Rosen