Ted White’s Captain America: The Great Gold Steal represents one of Marvel Comics’ first forays into licensing its characters for different mediums. The story blends a retelling of Captain America’s comic exploits with a new story in which Cap battles against gold thieves attempting to rip off the Federal Reserve. Unlike Captain America’s comic book exploits, which often involved battles against larger-than-life supervillains or commentary on the changing nature of American society and where the nation falls short in applying the dream, this story generally fits the mold of other action-adventure novels of the late 1960s, specifically the work of Ian Fleming. The gold thieves may have laser weapons à la the early James Bond novels and films, but that’s the most fantastic element of the story.

What’s most interesting is how this story differs from the comics of the time. White alters Captain America’s origin story, expanding it and focusing more on DNA manipulation and the insertion of steel reinforcements into Steve Rogers’s bones rather than the vita rays and special chemicals, though White also adds references to LSD (pgs. 20-25). While Marvel Comics would challenge the Comics Code Authority in 1971 to allow for the discussion of drugs in comics, at the time of this novel’s publication in 1968 any mention of drugs was still forbidden. White also refers to narcotics in describing a knock-out chemical (pg. 85) and in one character’s analogy describing her life of crime (pg. 101).

In establishing the pattern of comic book characters rejecting their comic book origins when translated to another medium, White has Captain America say, “I may wear a fancy uniform, but I cannot see through walls, stop bullets with my skin, or do any of those other comic-book things. My strength, my powers of recuperation, my reflexes – they’re all superior, but they’re not superhuman” (pg. 70). Part of this dialogue may also serve as a parting shot at Captain America’s fellow World War II superhero, Superman, and his publishers at DC. For most of the novel, Captain America battles smart criminals like those in Ocean’s 11, though White does include the Red Skull at the end. His description of the big reveal is relatively brief and the Skull primarily works to link this back with the Cold War spy stories of the era (pgs. 115-117). Interestingly, the novel keeps the comic books’ practice of including editor’s notes referencing stories in other issues (pgs. 31, 35 [in this one, Stan Lee incorrectly lists the issue in which the Avengers discover Cap as no. 3 rather than no. 4], 76). This gives the novel an odd tone, as if White is both trying to tell a story that no comic book could while also including elements unique to the medium. Modern readers may find it dated, but it’s just as interesting as classic comics from the Silver Age! ( )

Introduction by Stan Lee. Second novel based on Marvel Comics characters ever published (following The Avengers Battle the Earth-Wrecker). At the point when The Great Gold Steal first came out, the Marvel era--which began with the release of Fantastic Four #1 in August 1961 (cover dated November)--was only seven years old. To give those familiar with Marvel's publishing history an idea, STEAL has a July 1968 publishing date. According to Mike's Amazing World of DC website (the "Amazing World of Marvel" part of it), these are some of the comics that were coming out in July 1968: Amazing Spider-Man #68, Avengers #56, Captain America #106, Iron Man #6, Mighty Marvel Western #1, Nick Fury, Agent of SHIELD #5, Silver Surfer #2, Tales of Asgard #1, Avengers Annual #2, Incredible Hulk Annual #1, and Fantastic Four #79.

As regarding novels based on comics characters in general, there were still very few of them at this point based on comic book characters. There had been a full length Superman novel for younger readers back in 1942 (just four years after he'd first shown up in Action Comics #1). Then, over twenty years later, the "Batmania" craze produced by the 1960s BATMAN television series led to a couple TV series tie-in novels (Winston Lyon's Batman Versus Three Villains of Doom and Batman Versus the Fearsome Foursome, both 1966). And that was pretty much it before the Avengers and Captain America novels I talk about here came out in 1967 and 1968. (For more info, see Wikipedia list page I put together on the subject: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_novels_based_on_comics .)

As for The Great Gold Steal, overall, I enjoyed it. I have to say right from the start that it is a *MUCH* better novel than The Avengers Battle the Earth-Wrecker. In that one, the author, Otto Binder, tried to emulate the then current style of the Avengers comic books in both plot and the "hip" dialogue. The end product was a novel that was at times a bit painful to get through.

The Great Gold Steal, however, is written by science fiction author, Ted White. By the time Steal came out, White had already had published seven or eight other novels, so he was much more experienced than Binder (which wasn't really a novel writer; he came primarily out of the comic book writing field, I believe). White wrote Steal as a much more "adult" novel (for instance, people--police and bank security officers mostly, but also some of the crooks--actually get shot and killed in this one). The plot deals with Captain America uncovering a plot to steal billions of dollars' worth of gold from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. White starts the novel off with just enough of the main plot to get you hooked, then jumps back in time for a few short chapters to World War II to introduce new readers to Captain America's origins, before returning again to the gold stealing plot.

The Captain America we read about here is a *bit* different from the one in the comic books (the World War II experiment that gave him his powers in the novel also included steel reinforced bones and the ability to completely control his body's various processes, like slowing down his own heartbeat or channeling all of his energies into healing from wounds faster), but not so much as to be a distraction for those familiar with the comics, I don't think. There is still that "fish out of water" element here--1940s Captain America adjusting to his new life in the 1960s; the Avengers are discussed but are all away so we don't see them--prevalent in the Captain America comics of the time.

The first two thirds or so of the novel (getting us into the plot and seeing Cap's origins) is better than the last part. Once it is time for the novel's climax, it starts to be a bit more predictable what's going to happen next. Still, I found it to be a pretty enjoyable novel. Enough so that at some point I might try to hunt up some of White's science fiction novels..)

The Great Gold Steal would turn out to be the last Marvel based novel for ten years. It wouldn't be followed by another Marvel novel until 1978's The Amazing Spider-Man: Mayhem in Manhattan by Len Wein and Marv Wolfman (which was the start of an eleven book series of Marvel books--ten novels and one short story collection--published by Pocket Books from 1978 to 1979). (Finished reading 4/16/10) ( )