Captain America and the Campbell Kids

[vanhornluke]

Captain America and the Campbell Kids (1980)
By Bill Mantlo

APPEARANCES:
Campbell Kids, Captain America, attendees of the Energy Museum Science Fair, Soapbox, Clean Cara, Reading Ricardo, TV Tanya, Energy Drainers (Thermal Thief, Wattage Waster, Doomsday Man)

SYNOPSIS:
Captain America is the special guest at the Energy Museum Science Fair. He meets four kids who have entries included: Soapbox, Clean Cara, Reading Ricardo, and TV Tanya. While proud of their entries, each one is energy-inefficient. Cap is concerned about this and begins to explain how the US gets its energy, but the Fair is attacked by a group who call themselves the Energy Drainers, whose members are the Thermal Thief, the Wattage Waster, and the Doomsday Man, each of whom can absorb energy from their surroundings and use it in various ways to attack Cap. He momentarily stops the villains and takes the opportunity to take the kids to safety inside the exhibit where their entries are displayed. He explains to the kids the importance of saving energy and the kids take his message to heart. Then the villains return. Cap incapacitates the Thermal Thief and Wattage Waster, but their leader, the Doomsday Man, captures Cap. The kids realize that it’s up to them to save the day, so they decide to turn off all sources of energy they can, as well as block the sunlight through the sunroof, figuring that this may deprive the Doomsday Man of his power. They’re right, and he falls to the floor, helpless. Before there eyes, he disintegrates into smoke.

NOTE:
It’s not entirely clear if the Campbell Kids are supposed to be 616 characters. They are the narrators of the story, but they never appear within it. Since neither of the two Campbell Kids is named, I guess it doesn’t matter, since there’s nothing to list for a chronology.

Once again, I would appreciate suggestions for where in Cap’s chronology to place this story. I didn’t notice any specific clues, since there are no appearances of or references to any of Cap’s supporting cast or other adventures.


Chronologies:

CAPTAIN AMERICA/STEVE ROGERS
See above note

CLEAN CARA
CACAMPK

DOOMSDAY MAN II
CACAMPK

READING RICARDO
CACAMPK

SOAPBOX
CACAMPK

THERMAL THIEF
CACAMPK

TV TANYA
CACAMPK

WATTAGE WASTER
CACAMPK

[ShadZ]

The cover to this comic may be seen here: https://d1466nnw0ex81e.cloudfront.net/n ... 072913.jpg