365 Days of KirbyTech, Day 70: Captain America's Wrist-Blaster

Whenever you involve S.H.I.E.L.D.* in the adventures of Captain America, there's gonna be a gadget-passing-out scene straight out of a James Bond movie, with Nick (or SHIELD's quartermaster, Sidney "Gaffer" Levine) acting as "Q." "Do pay attention, 00-1776!"


Panel from Captain America (1968 series) #102 (June 1968), script by Stan Lee, pencils by Jack Kirby, inks by Syd Shores, letters by Artie Simek
Where does Cap get those wonderful toys? Oh wait, we just saw. He got it from SHIELD, and they got it from Tony Stark, and he got it from the Archie McPhee catalogue. Anyway, here's one of those gadgets in action. And it shoots hot flaming death out of Cap's glove! Man, that's gonna be awkward the next time he shakes President Nixon's hand.


It's a handy-dandy wrist-blaster, and we never see Cap use it ever again. That's sort of par for the course for SHIELD devices, especially around this period in the pages of Nick Fury, where Jim Steranko would introduce a far-out spy gadget (and don't worry, I'm gonna feature plenty of 'em!) and then it'd be forgotten not merely after that issue, but after that page. I'm guessing Cap tossed this thing in his old Army footlocker after this adventure was over, and one day when Jarvis was cleaning Cap's room he accidentally set it off and burned off his eyebrows.


Later of course, Hasbro ripped off the whole shebang with their Marvel Captain America Super Soldier Gear Dualshot Gauntlet, and I bet Jack Kirby never saw one thin dime out of it. Work-for-hire, huh? I tell ya.




*Shooting Hand Inferno Electronic Laser Doohickey