Consume All Media! Captain America: "Chapter Three: Scarlet Shroud"

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 second chapter of Captain America. This time, they continue with the third.

Captain America: “Chapter Three: Scarlet Shroud” - 15:35 (Available on Archive)

Cap rolls out of the way and stops the mysterious farming machine. He frees Dodge and they get out of there.

Meanwhile, The Scarab goes on a crime spree and uses the Fire Bolt to steal jewels, paintings, and whatever else he can get his hands on.

So Grant puts Dodge’s genius to work and asks him to make a Fire Bolt Locator.

A henchman is sent to check on Grant and he overhears about how the Locator just needs some special bulbs installed and it will be complete.

The henchman then rigs Grant’s car to explode. There was a similar scene in The Adventures of Captain Marvel, but in that the bomb was triggered when the car reached a certain speed. In this, it’s when his car reaches a certain temperature. Or his engine? Look, I know about as much about cars as I do about farming.

Anyway, Gail looks out of the window and sees the henchman tampering with Grant’s car. She rushes downstairs to stop Grant from leaving, but she’s too late.

The henchman sees Gail and tries to shoot her, but she’s too fast.

This is the first time the leading lady has gotten a kill in one of these serials! (Though, as we saw in the animated Superman shorts, Lois Lane has been known to shoot a gun.)

Gail gets in a car and chases after Grant, but he thinks she’s with the Scarab and radios the police. The police pull her over and she explains the situation. The policeman radios this in and they radio Grant who jumps out of his car just before it explodes.

Grant arranges for a fake news story to run saying that he was injured and the Fire Bolt Locator was destroyed. The Fire Bolt is used again and Professor Dodge tracks it down by running a metal rod across a giant map.

Science!

Cap runs into the warehouse that Matson and a random henchman are breaking into using the Fire Bolt. Cap winds up fighting the random henchman inside of a giant crate. Matson proceeds to set the crate on fire using the Fire Bolt.

Should you watch it, though? This is fun and fast paced and exciting! There’s a lot of neat twists and turns, sci-fi guns and locators, and Gail gets in on the action! She just gets things done and not once is she a damsel in distress. I’m enjoying this a lot so far.

Though… I’m not sure what Scarlet Shroud means.

There is a theory that this serial was originally written to be for someone other than Captain America and was rewritten at the last minute. This would at least somewhat explain why the character differs so drastically from his comic counterpart. One theory suggests that Republic originally wrote this for Mr. Scarlet, another Fawcett character (like Captain Marvel and Spy Smasher).

However, by the time the serial was getting ready to be put into production, the popularity of Mr. Scarlet had waned, so it’s possible they wanted to go with a more popular character. But the Scarlet Shroud title still stuck around.

Tune in next time for Captain America: "Chapter Four: Preview of Murder" (Available on Archive.)

A version of this article was previously published on The Dipp.

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