Consume All Media! Captain America: "Chapter Fifteen: The Toll of Doom"
- Joseph Heath
- 3 hours ago
- 3 min read
Joe Heath is a big fan of comic books and watching things in order. So they made this spreadsheet containing every serial, short, film, television episode, commercial, motion comic, and web series based on a comic book. Now they're watching them all. Previously, Joe watched the fourteenth chapter of Captain America. This time, they finish with the fifteenth.
Captain America: “Chapter Fifteen: The Toll of Doom” - 15:36 (Available on Archive)
Captain America grabs Hillman and gets out of there before the barn explodes.
Hillman has a brain injury so Grant calls a surgeon. The Scarab reads about this in the paper, but it doesn’t say what hospital he’s going to. The Scarab kidnaps Gail and threatens her with a truth serum that will cause her permanent harm. She says she doesn’t know the hospital Hillman has been taken to, but she does know the brain surgeon’s name, Rodlam Baracs.
The Scarab sends a fake Rodlam Baracs to Grant’s office. “Rodlam” gets the location of the hospital and says he needs to call his assistant. Grant dials the number for him and “Rodlam” tells Matson where to go.
After “Rodlam” leaves, Grant reveals to some random guy that works with him that Gail must have used a fake name to tip him off, so he sent “Rodlam” to the wrong hospital. Grant arranges to have the police go to that hospital while he tracks down the location of the number “Rodlam” called.
Grant finds Matson and handcuffs him. Grant says that he knows Maldor is The Scarab and takes a moment to explain that Rodlam Baracs is Scarab Maldor backwards. He even provides Matson with a visual aid.
The fake “Rodlam” calls into the Scarab and tells him the hospital was a trap. The Scarab says he’ll come get him as soon as he mummifies Gail.
Grant drives to the museum and shoots the shoeshine boy and a random henchman.
Then he enters the museum and shoots Gruber.
This is the new record to beat, heroes.
In his dying moments, Gruber turns on the fog that will mummify Gail. I’m pretty sure that’s how mummification works, right?
Meanwhile, Captain America and The Scarab get into a big brawl. Cap finally knocks him out and saves Gail.
Later, everyone pats themselves on the back for what a good job they did and it seems like everyone now knows that Grant is Captain America. We also learn that The Scarab has been sentenced to death by the electric chair at midnight.
The clock strikes midnight and the bell of doom tolls for The Scarab.
Should you watch it, though? The ending is a little rushed. The map to the Mayan treasure plotline was completely dropped. Gail being mummified kind of went nowhere as well. And the reason why Grant finally figures out that Maldor is The Scarab is a bit of a stretch. What if the Scarab had been a name that didn’t make sense spelled backwards? But there’s still some good action and everything is tied up well enough.
Overall, it’s not a bad outing for the first Marvel (or Timely) comic book adaptation! It may not be remotely similar to the comic it’s based on, but it’s written well with good performances and fantastic action! That being said, it’s not a huge surprise that Marvel would be reluctant to lease out their characters after all the changes that were made here. In fact, the next Marvel adaptation wouldn’t appear until The Marvel Super Heroes premiered in 1966! And another Captain America film wouldn’t show up until 1990. But that shouldn’t stop you from checking out Grant Gardner, the alternate universe gun-toting shieldless Captain America.
And that's it for 1944!
Tune in next time as we hop to 1946 for... Hop Harrigan!
