Marvel 1975.07 - Captain America #187

Captain America and the Falcon #187

Title: The Madness Maze!

Writer: John Warner

Artist: Frank Robbins

Villain: Druid, Alchemoid

Regulars: Peggy Carter

Guests: Gabe Jones

Captain America, Gabe Jones and Peggy Carter are standing over the unconscious Falcon. They still don't know what to think about the things the Red Skull told them last issue. Suddenly Cap is gone. Gabe and Peggy don't know what's happened, but he's been beamed up into an overhead flying saucer. It flies an unspecified distance, then drops him into an enormous maze. He's told that when he reaches the centre he'll die, so he obviously doesn't want to find the centre.

There are various creatures attacking him, some of them obviously robots. What he doesn't know is that an unseen character is watching him, constantly moving the maze's walls, guiding him towards the centre. Cap doesn't want to play the game any more. He smashes the maze's walls to move in a straight line. He comes across a laboratory with hooded scientists. He easily fights his way through them, until an electric blast knocks him unconscious.

Cap wakes up and finds himself in the middle of the maze. The previously unseen enemy is the Druid, who we last saw way back in Strange Tales #145 (June 1966). I know that this issue's writer is John Warner, but I strongly suspect that Steve Englehart planned his return. That's the sort of thing Steve does. He likes to revive old, forgotten villains.

The Druid intends to destroy SHIELD, and he's attacking Captain America because he (incorrectly) believes that he's an agent of SHIELD. He tells Cap that he'll be destroyed by a creature called the Alchemoid, "a walking storehouse of alchemical energies, specifically trained to be unbeatable". We'll see if he lives up to this description next month.