Captain America Joins… The Avengers!

This is a reprint of Avengers #4.

Blues in the Night

Following his revival in the present day, Captain America (Steve Rogers) breaks up a bank robbery with ease.[1] As the authorities are taking the crooks into custody, Cap is joined by his fellow Avenger, Iron Man.[2] Rogers wants Iron Man to send his thanks to Stark for putting him up after he was freed from suspended animation and promises to start paying rent as soon as he finds a job. Iron Man (who secretly is Tony Stark) says that is not necessary and gets into why he came.

Iron Man hasn’t arrived alone, but has brought Gabriel Jones from the Secret Service who wants to verify if this is the real Captain America. Cap remembers Gabe from his time on Nick Fury’s Howling Commandos during World War II, this is promising but Jones wants to perform more tests to confirm the truth.[3] Jones takes Cap to a military facility and checks dental, finger print, and RNA to confirm his identity. All where a match, but traces of the Super Soldier Serum in his blood is what really confirms his identity.[4]

With that out of the way, Jones then hands a cheque to Steve, it amounts for all the back pay he accumulated while he was missing in action. He also tells Rogers that he will be paid regularly since he is still considered a solider in the United States Army. He then takes Cap down to where the military was keeping his personal possessions since 1945. Among them are Cap’s original shield,[5] his record collection — which mostly consists of jazz music, and he and Gabe bond over this —, as well as a book title A Tree Grows in Brooklyn.[6] This saddens Steve because it belonged to his wartime partner Bucky (James Barnes), who is believed to have died on the same day that Cap was frozen in ice.[7]

Steve remembers how he borrowed it from Bucky but never got around to reading it. He decides to head back to Avengers Mansion. There he plays one of his old records and finally starts reading the book he borrowed all those years ago.

Recurring Characters

Captain America, Iron Man, Gabe Jones

Continuity Notes

1. This story, of course, happens after the events of Avengers #4.

2. Iron Man refers to Tony Stark as though they are separate individuals. This is because, at the time of this story, Tony was keeping his double life a secret. Cap will learn the truth in Avengers #221.

3. Cap and Gabe Jones first met in World War II. The first documented encounter was chronicled in Sgt. Fury and his Howling Commandos #13. How Gabe Jones could still be alive in the Modern Age is not explained here. However, his profile in Captain America: America’s Avenger #1 suggests that exposure to the Infinity Formula in Nick Fury’s blood had maintained his vitality in the years in between the end of World War II and the Modern Age.

4. This is because the formula used to create Captain America was lost when its creator, Professor Abraham Erskine, was murdered by Nazi spies early in the war. See Captain America Comics #1.

5. Cap originally used a triangular shield until he replaced it with his trademark circular one in Captain America Comics #2.

6. The discovery of Captain America’s belongings in this story contradicts Captain America #247. In that story, Nick Fury and Dum Dum Dugan were able to track down Steve’s belongings which they state as having been misplaced since the war. Since Steve is only depicted leaving with some records and the book here, one could assume it was misplaced after this story only to be found by Fury and Dugan later.

7. At the time of this story, Bucky was believed to have died in 1945 in a drone plane explosion, as told in Avengers #4. However, years later it will be discovered that Bucky is still alive. In fact, he was recovered by the Russians and brainwashed into being an assassin called the Winter Soldier. See Captain America (vol. 5) #11.