Posted in: Comics, Comics Publishers, Current News, Marvel Comics | Tagged: captain america, tom brevoort

When Marvel Put An Adult Chatline Phone Number On The Front Cover

When Marvel Comics put an Adult Chatline Phone Number on the front cover of a Captain America comic book back in 2005

Some stories need to be told. And Marvel Executive Editor, Senior Vice President and X-Men Group Editor Tom Brevoort is the man to tell them. Or should that be Group SeXXX-Editor? Because in his latest Substack newsletter, which should be required reading for all you, he recalls an comic he edited twenty years ago, Captain America #7 by Ed Brubaker and the late  John Paul Leon, published on the 22nd of July, 2005, and which "represented a bit of a necessary break in the ongoing Winter Soldier storyline. In the previous issue, Cap had discovered that the mysterious killer who had been keeping one step ahead of him since the run began just might be his long-thought-dead partner from the war, Bucky Barnes. But having gotten to this point, regular penciler Steve Epting needed a break to get things caught up again—so writer Ed Brubaker came up with this haunting story as a bit of a palate-cleaner before we dove into the second act of the overall storyline. A couple of issues earlier, it had been revealed that among the victims of the Winter Soldier had been Jack Monroe, who had been the replacement Bucky of the 1950s. It was just a throw-away bit of business, but here Ed took out an entire issue to tell of the noir-tinged final days of Jack Monroe's life. The bogus super-soldier serum that had helped to keep him young and vital for decades was now breaking down, causing him to have bouts of paranoia and hallucinations. It was a potent expression of mental health difficulties, and expertly rendered by guest-artist John Paul Leon, who turned in an absolutely stellar job on it. Cap himself doesn't appear at all within its pages, but it was an affecting enough tale to make a couple best-single-issue lists at the end of that year."

But there was another reason why this comic made it into some other people's lists. Tom Brevoort writes, "I seem to recall that there was a hassle with that phone number on the flier on that cover. The 555 exchange had been set up as a non-functioning exchange for use in television and film production, so we figured that we were safe in using it here. Turned out afterwards that despite that, this specific number connected to one of those call-porn lines. Nobody on our end had ever thought to call and check, something we're a bit better about policing these days." Well, Tom, I just called it, purely for research, you understand, and was told that "the number you have dialled is unassigned". Yeah, that's just their cover story… which is literally what this article is.

Captain America (2004) #7
June 22, 2005
Writer Ed Brubaker
PencillermJohn Paul Leon
Nomad is dead, struck down by the same hand that killed the Red Skull! Now in a special interlude issue, we step back into Jack Monroe's last days and trace his last steps. Where had Jack been all these years, and what was he drowning his sorrows in some dive bar? Also — what did Jack see that night, right before he breathed his last? You'll be shocked to find out!

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