Captain America #279, March 1983
Captain America vs.… Captain America?
The “impersonation” trope is one of my favorites in comics, and a long-standing tradition in Marvel’s history. In fact, the first time Captain America “appears” in the Silver Age in Strange Tales #114, it’s not Captain America at all. It’s a Human Torch villain, The Acrobat, in disguise.
And this trope was consistently employed throughout the early Marvel Comics. The Skrulls impersonate the Fantastic Four in issue #2, The Chameleon impersonates Spider-Man in ASM #1, and the Avengers are nearly defeated by the shape-changing Space Phantom in issue #2 of their launch title.
Stan was obsessed with this concept, apparently.
For the record, here on this terrific action page by Mike Zeck and John Beatty, the uniformed Cap is the “real” one. The clown impersonating Steve Rogers is Primus, The Mutate.
File that under: “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.”
