This Way Lies Madness!

Captain America, the Falcon, and Sharon Carter have found themselves in a strange recreation of war torn France, circa World War II. With Falcon in an American military uniform and their attackers dressed like Nazis, Captain America wonders what is going on. However, upon hearing one of the “Nazis” phony German accents, they all realize that someone is putting on a very elaborate hoax. Cap had gone looking for Sharon Carter, who mysteriously walked out on him and during the battle the couple reaffirm their love for one another. The battle abruptly ends when they suddenly hear a powerful shriek.

Looking up they see Cap’s old foe Doctor Faustus in a tower with a mysterious woman wearing a black veil. The tableau below has helped Faustus break through the woman’s amnesia and with that he blasts the trio on the ground with lightshow that cause Cap and the others to hallucinate. Faustus and his assistant, Doctor Johann Wolfgang, take the mysterious woman back to their office for questioning. The woman begins to remember her past association with Captain America which dates back to World War II, remembering how an explosion just prior to the liberation of France caused her to suffer amnesia and wander the country until she was recognized by a family friend in Belgium.[1] However, the woman cannot remember anymore, angering Faustus who hoped to use this woman to learn Captain America’s weakness and defeat him through psychology.

While down below, Captain America and his allies are made to see a massive creature by the hallucination device of Dr. Faustus. Cap realizes what they are seeing is an illusion and uses his shield to smash the device to stop its projection. However, their grasp on reality is tenuous and Cap is tricked into fighting an illusion of his old foe, the Red Skull.[2] Suddenly they are surrounded by illusions of some of Cap’s greatest foes such as Baron Zemo, MODOK, and Agent Axis. This is followed by an image of Cap’s wartime partner Bucky, telling Steve that he is still alive and needs help. Captain America knows that Bucky is dead but finds himself breaking under the pressure of this psychological onslaught until Falcon leaps through the television scream projecting Bucky’s image.[3] Watching from his closed-circuit security system, Doctor Faustus decides to use his patient in his next attack against Captain America.

Meanwhile, Cap and his partners break out of their cell and end up finding Sharon’s parents — Harrison and Amanda Carter — locked in one of the rooms. From them, Cap learns that this is all the work of his foe Doctor Faustus. Wondering why the Carters are involved in this scheme, Sharon finally admits the truth: She is related to Peggy Carter, the woman Cap loved during World War II.[4] Sharon explains that Peggy suffered from amnesia shortly after the war but recovered her memory not long before Captain America was reported missing in action and presumed dead in 1945. Peggy stopped speaking and started dressing all in black and wearing a veil to mourn the apparent loss of the man she loved. When a new Captain America surfaced in 1953, it had a negative impact on Peggy’s heath and she was institutionalized in order to shield her from memories of the past that might cause further damage to her mind.[5] When Sharon later became a SHIELD agent and became romantically involved with him, she began to feel guilty over their relationship and that was the secret reason why she kept turning down his proposals of marriage and eventually tried to leave.

Furious over having Faustus manipulating the people he cares about, Captain America fights his way up to the tower where Peggy is being kept. When he removes the veil from her head she instantly remembers him and begins to cry because she heard he had died. Cap promises to tell her the whole story. As they try to leave the tower, the pair are attacked by the militia hired by Faustus. Surprisingly, despite her age, Peggy is able to fight back against the soldiers as well.[6] At the bottom of the stairs, Captain America is incapacitated by Doctor Faustus who has resorted to using a ray that will make the heroes head-explode. Peggy quickly stops this from happening by throwing a small statue at their foe. Saved from a messy death, Captain America then beats Faustus into unconsciousness.

In the aftermath of the battle, the rest of the Carter family are reunited with Peggy, who now seems to be cured of her condition as a result of this entire episode. Invited to return to the Carter home for some downtime, Captain America and the Falcon agree to put off returning to New York to help Peggy settle into her new life.

Recurring Characters

Captain America, Falcon, Doctor Faustus, Sharon Carter, Peggy Carter, Amanda Carter, Harrison Carter

Continuity Notes

1. Peggy Carter is recalling the events first seen in Tales of Suspense #77. This story presents the idea that Peggy has had amnesia the entire time since World War II. This is not the case as Operation S.I.N. #1-5, and Agent Carter: SHIELD 50th Anniversary #1 depict Peggy as being active during the 1950s and 60s. Captain America: America’s Avenger #1’s profile on Peggy states that her mental health went through periods of recovery in the convening years since the war. How she managed to remain somewhat vital in all these years is unexplained. For more on this, see “The Carter Family” below.

2. Here, the Falcon says the Red Skull is dead. This is based on the fact that they last saw the Nazi war criminal as he fell out of his Sleeper robot to his apartment death in Captain America #148. He survived and will resurface in issue #182, and his survival explained in issue #185.

3. At the time of this story, everyone believes that Bucky died in 1945, per Avengers #4. What they don’t know is that Bucky survived and was transformed by the Russians into an assassin called the Winter Soldier. Cap won’t learn the truth until Captain America (vol. 5) #14.

4. This story presents Sharon as Peggy’s sister and Harold and Amanda as their parents. However, due to the Sliding Timescale this had to be changed. In Captain America (vol. 5) #25, Peggy became Sharon’s aunt and Harold Peggy’s brother and Amanda her sister-in-law. This likely change sooner rather than later. Again, see “The Carter Family” below.

5. This 1950s Captain America was William Burnside, who was a scholar obsessed with Captain America who took on the mantle after re-discovering the Super Soldier Serum. However, the process was imperfect and drove him and his partner Jack Monroe crazy. The US government then put them in suspended animation to stop them from attacking minorities accused of being Communists. See Young Men #24 and Captain America #155.

6. Captain America states here that only he and the Sub-Mariner are the only ones left over from World War II that are still young and vital. This is not entirely accurate as there are Nick Fury and the Howling Commandos, the Human Torch’s partner Toro, the Red Skull, and Baron Zemo who also managed to cheat the aging process that Cap knew about around the time of this story. There are plenty more but I don’t want this footnote to be 17 paragraphs long.

Topical References

• This story refers to Lost Souls as an insane asylum. This is a dated term that is no longer used due to the sigma associated to them. The correct term is now to call them mental health facilities.

The Carter Family

This story is an instance where the Sliding Timescale plays havoc with older stories requiring one of the few instances of a retcon rather than creating a work around. This story presents Peggy and Sharon Carter as sisters and that they share the same parents, Harrison and Amanda Carter. As the Sliding Timescale makes the gulf between World War II and the Modern Age of the Marvel Universe larger with the passage of time, this family tree becomes impossible.

However, for years Peggy and Sharon were depicted as siblings until Captain America (vol. 5) #25, which marks the first time the Carter family tree underwent changes. In this story, Peggy was now identified as Sharon’s aunt. Captain America: America’s Avenger #1’s profile on Peggy also clarifies that Harrison was now her brother and Amanda her sister-in-law. However, nearly 20 years later even this distinction becomes difficult to explain. As early as 2016, people have already been retroactively amending the Carter family tree as evidenced in a recent interview with Emily VanCamp who refers to Sharon as Peggy’s grand-niece. While she was referring to the Marvel Cinematic Universe, it stands to reason that this distinction will make its way to the Prime Marvel Universe (if it hasn’t already, at the time of this writing I haven’t read any Captain America stories post-2015)

With respect to this index, I will always be referring to Peggy Carter as a relative and that Sharon is her descendant and eliminate any reference to the pair being immediately related. This will be to avoid having to go back and make changes every decade. Marvel has already done this in the past when adjusting the family backgrounds of other characters, such as General Ross and his family’s military background.

What is not answered is how Peggy could appear to be a middle aged woman in later Captain America stories when the Sliding Timescale would make her much older or dead. A reasonable explanation is that of her association with SHIELD and other American spy agencies during the 40s and 50s. These organizations had access to technologies that could slow or completely retard the aging process. It’s entirely possible that Peggy had access to something akin to the Infinity Formula, which kept Nick Fury and his his closest confidants vital enough to continue serving the government well into the Modern Age of the Marvel Universe. Another possible explanation is that she was given anti-aging serums while under treatment from Doctor Faustus, who — as hinted at in his profile in Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe A-Z #3 — likely has access to these types formulas.

The other issue that is raised, are these aforementioned involvement with SHIELD. This story presents the idea that Peggy has suffered from mental health issues following the war and remained that was consistently until this point. Later stories, such as Agent Carter: SHIELD 50th Anniversary #1, depict Peggy as being active in the 1950s as an agent of SHIELD. This was to bring her character more inline with her MCU counterpart. While a full explanation has yet to be explained, Captain America: America’s Avenger #1 sheds some possible light on the matter. In the Peggy Carter profile it states “Over the ensuing decades, Peggy’s mental health improved enough that she had extended periods of emotional stability and mental clarity, during which she fully remembers her past.” This handbook was published just prior to the Operation S.I.N. mini-series and added that sentence above in anticipation of that series.

It also stands to reason that a lot of her activities with the 20th Century incarnation of SHIELD would have been classified due to their top secret nature. As such, some of her statements about the length of time she spent in treatment could have possibly been a cover-up for her covert activities.