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Cover: Gene Colan & Joe Sinnott

Captain America #121

Name: Captain America #121
Brand: Marvel
Availability: InStock

Jan 1970 · Marvel · 0.15 USD

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“The Coming of... the Man-Brute!”

About this Issue

Captain America #121 marks the first appearance of both the Man-Brute (Bart Dietzel) and mad scientist Professor Silas X. Cragg, who both debut and conclude their stories in a single, self-contained issue — Cragg dying by electrocution before the final page. The story is one of the earliest in the Colan era to reframe Cap's own origin from an antagonist's perspective, presenting a dark-mirror narrative in which a serum-enhanced streetfighter is pitted against his creator, not just his target. It also plants a narrative seed that bore fruit years later: the Man-Brute quietly resurfaced as the villain Blockbuster in the 1977 series Omega the Unknown, making this issue a quiet connective thread between the Bronze Age Captain America and an unrelated Marvel title. The letters page carries an early published letter from a then-unknown young reader named Marc DeMatteis — the future J.M. DeMatteis, who would go on to write his own celebrated run on the Captain America title.

In "The Coming of... the Man-Brute!", Captain America faces a new threat from the twisted mind of Silas X. Cragg, a man consumed by obsession who seeks to create a super-soldier more fearsome than the Star-Spangled Avenger himself. Written by Stan Lee and brought to life with striking art by Gene Colan and inks by Joe Sinnott, this 1970 issue delivers a chilling blend of sci-fi dread and Cold War paranoia. The cover, also by Colan and Sinnott, captures the menace of the unseen force looming over the hero.

writer Stan Lee · artist Gene Colan · inker Joe Sinnott · letterer Sam Rosen · cover Gene Colan, Joe Sinnott

ComicBooks.com Value

Our Model is In Beta

Raw (Fine) $17

CGC 9.8 · 2 in census $2,478

CGC 9.6 · 12 in census $456

CGC 9.4 · 23 in census $225

CGC 9.2 · 19 in census $186*

CGC 9.0 · 24 in census $141

CGC 8.5 · 13 in census $111

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CGC 8.0 · 9 in census $111*

CGC 7.5 · 8 in census $87

CGC 7.0 · 6 in census $85*

CGC 6.5 · 7 in census $77*

CGC 6.0 · 6 in census $74*

CGC 5.5 · 8 in census $56

CGC 5.0 · 5 in census $55*

CGC 4.5 · 1 in census $50*

CGC 4.0 · 2 in census $48*

CGC 3.5 · 1 in census $39*

CGC 3.0 · 1 in census $35*

CGC 2.5 · 2 in census $26*

* estimate — limited direct-sales data at this grade

Our model’s value — refined as new sales data arrives · CGC census counts shown where available

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CGC 8.5 ▾ $115–$300 2 listings

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History

The issue was produced by the regular Stan Lee–Gene Colan–Joe Sinnott team that had defined the Captain America solo title since its 1968 relaunch, with Lee serving as both writer and editor-in-chief. Colan's atmospheric, cinematically lit pencils — here inked by Sinnott — gave the story a noir quality well-suited to its Bowery-set villain-origin scenes. The on-sale date from Library of Congress records places actual newsstand availability in late 1969, despite the January 1970 cover date. No extraordinary production circumstances have been documented for this specific issue beyond its place in the ongoing Lee-Colan run.

Trivia · 8 facts

First appearance of the Man-Brute, whose civilian identity is Bart Dietzel — a down-on-his-luck ex-convict transformed by a bootleg Super-Soldier Serum.
First appearance of Professor Silas X. Cragg, a World War II-era enemy of Captain America who synthesized his own variant of the Super-Soldier Serum; Cragg dies in this same issue, electrocuted when he backs into a high-voltage panel after the Man-Brute turns on him.
Story title: 'The Coming of... the Man-Brute!' Written and edited by Stan Lee, penciled by Gene Colan, inked by Joe Sinnott, lettered by Sam Rosen.
Cap's wartime origin is retold in flashback, filtered through Cragg's obsessive perspective — an early example of the series reframing Steve Rogers's transformation through an antagonist's point of view.
Hank Pym (as Yellowjacket), the Wasp, the Black Panther, Vision, and Edwin Jarvis all appear in cameo at Avengers Mansion; Sharon Carter and Rick Jones appear only in photographs at S.H.I.E.L.D. headquarters.
The Man-Brute later returned, renamed Blockbuster, in Omega the Unknown #7 (March 1977) and #9 (July 1977), where he was killed — making this issue the origin point for a character who crossed over into an entirely separate Marvel series.
The issue's letters page ('Let's Rap With Cap') includes a published letter from a young reader named Marc DeMatteis — later the comics writer J.M. DeMatteis, who would become a celebrated Captain America writer himself.
Collected in Marvel Masterworks: Captain America Vol. 4, Captain America Omnibus Vol. 2, Captain America Epic Collection: Bucky Reborn (2017), and Essential Captain America Vol. 2.