Captain America #107
☆ Be the first to review + Add to your collection — Join freeCaptain America #107 marks the first appearance of Doctor Faustus (Johann Fennhoff), one of the most enduring and conceptually distinctive villains in Cap's Silver Age rogues' gallery. Rather than pitting Steve Rogers against a physical powerhouse, Stan Lee and Jack Kirby built the threat entirely around psychological warfare — a psychiatrist who weaponizes Cap's WWII survivor's guilt and grief over Bucky Barnes to push him toward a breakdown. This made the issue a quiet early precursor to superhero stories that treat trauma and mental health as genuine dramatic terrain, a thread that later writers like Ed Brubaker would pull on extensively when Faustus became the architect of Sharon Carter's brainwashing and Steve Rogers' assassination during the post-'Civil War' era. The issue is also notable for depicting — for the first time in the series — what Steve Rogers would look like if his body had aged in real time since World War II, an image that resonates differently now that the concept has been revisited on screen.
In "If the Past Be Not Dead—", Captain America faces a chilling psychological duel unlike any he’s known, as his own mind becomes the battlefield against the sinister Dr. Faustus. Written by Stan Lee and brought to life with dynamic, bold artwork by Jack Kirby—both on the cover and inside—this 1968 issue delivers a tense, mind-bending confrontation where the hero’s past and present collide. The cover, a striking collaboration by Kirby and Frank Giacoia, captures the intensity of the struggle in a single, unforgettable image.
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We Buy Collections ▸History
The issue was produced during the closing stretch of Jack Kirby's original Silver Age run on the title, with Kirby plotting and pencilling over a Stan Lee script and Syd Shores providing inks — the same creative pairing that had defined the look of the 1968 solo series from its launch. The cover was inked by Frank Giacoia rather than Shores, a detail confirmed by Grand Comics Database research credited to Nick Caputo. The Complete Marvel Reading Order lists a release date of August 1968 against a cover date of November 1968, placing it squarely in the final third of Kirby's tenure on the book before his departure to DC. A letter to the editor from future comics historian Peter Sanderson Jr. appears in the issue's letter column, a small footnote of fan-history interest.
Trivia · 8 facts
- First appearance of Doctor Faustus (real name Johann Fennhoff), an Austrian psychiatrist and criminal mastermind created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby (Captain America #107, November 1968 cover date).
- Story title: 'If the Past Be Not Dead—'; written by Stan Lee, pencilled by Jack Kirby, inked by Syd Shores; cover pencilled by Kirby and inked by Frank Giacoia.
- Faustus's scheme exploits Cap's recurring nightmares about Bucky Barnes's death, using drugged medication, actors in lifelike masks, revolving-wall stage sets, and a replica of the wartime drone-plane hangar to simulate hallucinations.
- The issue includes the first visual depiction of Steve Rogers aged to his true chronological age — a rapidly elderly Cap who believes decades of suspended animation have suddenly caught up with him.
- Doctor Faustus was named after the protagonist of Christopher Marlowe's Renaissance play 'The Tragical History of Doctor Faustus,' and self-styles himself 'Master of Men's Minds.'
- Faustus went on to become a recurring Captain America villain across decades, playing major roles in the National Force storyline, Ed Brubaker's post-'Civil War' run (manipulating Sharon Carter into shooting Steve Rogers), and the 'Secret Empire' storyline.
- The character was adapted for the MCU as Johann Fennhoff in Season 1 of Agent Carter (2015), portrayed by Ralph Brown, with the 'Faustus method' of hypnosis referenced in Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.
- The issue has been reprinted extensively, including in Marvel Super Action #9 (1978), Essential Captain America Vol. 2 (2002), Marvel Masterworks: Captain America Vol. 3 (2006), and the Captain America Omnibus Vol. 1 (2011, revised 2023), among others.
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Reprints
Reprinted in Capitaine America #1 (1970), Thor #4 (1978), Marvel Super Action #9 (1978), Essential Captain America #2 (2002), Marvel Masterworks: Captain America #3 (2006), Captain America Omnibus #1 (2011), Marvel Classic #3 (2011), Marvel Gold. Capitán América #2 (2012), Marvel Masterworks: Captain America #3 (2014), Captain America Epic Collection #2 (2016), Captain America (Penguin Classics Marvel Collection) #[nn] (2022), Captain America Omnibus #1 [Third Edition] (2024), Capitán América #22, Capitan America #23
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