Well, the forces of the Scarab certainly want to keep Captain America down! Not only do they get into an all out brawl with the Star-Spangled Avenger, but they make sure he falls down a rocky shaft! Then, just to add insult to injury (serious injury, Cap had to have broken a limb o two in the fall), they drop a humongous weight down the shaft after him to finish the job. Never has a cliffhanger been so thorough and seemingly inescapable! You’ll have to watch chapter 7: Wholesale Destruction to see how Cap gets out of this scrape!

Wasn’t that exciting! Well, wasn’t it? Well at any rate, this is where I usually add the supplemental material for each episode, but I actually don’t have anything for this chapter. What I do have is a bit of history behind the serial itself. I have to give a Shoutout to commenter Bill who pointed out that the supposed reason that Captain America is so out of character in this serial is because it was never meant to be a Cap serial at all! This may have been originally intended as a serial starring the Fawcett Comics character Mr. Scarlet! It makes sense to me, Republic had already made two other serials with Fawcett characters, namely The Adventures of Captain Marvel and Spy Smasher. Also, in his civilian identity, Mr. Scarlet is a District Attorney, much like the serial’s rendition of Captain America. The speculation further goes on to say that Mr. Scarlett had been losing favor with readers and was relegated to back-up features. I can personally confirm this. Mr. Scarlet used to be the cover feature of Wow Comics, but was quickly superseded by Mary Marvel. To my knowledge, he never had his own solo title. While I can’t confirm this story, it’s extremely plausible. For comparison’s sake, here’s a comparison shot of both characters’ first appearances. Until next week, Keep Em’ Flying!