Captain America #245
The Calypso Connection
After helping the authorities clean up the mess following his battle with Adonis, Captain America realizes he is hungry and goes to a nearby diner for some food. The owner is delighted to have such a celebrity like Captain America in his diner and claims that Cap is an old regular. Steve plays along and after a slice of apple pie, he is offered a ride back to Brooklyn by a cabbie named Jake Lockely.[1]
The following morning, Steve Rogers’ neighbors Anna Kapplebaum and Josh Cooper go out shopping together. Stopping at the butcher to pick up some hamburger meat, talk about the “old days” causes Anna to think back to her life at the Diebenwald concentration camp.[2] She recalls how she an other girls were kept alive because of their musical skill and were forced to play for hours on end. Her violin skills garnered the attention of Doctor Menhaus who decides to get to know the girl more personally. When Anna slapper him in the face with the bow of her violin, Menahus slapped her across the face and the soldiers stomped on her instrument. Deciding to teach the young girl a lesson, Menahus told the general to break her spirit.
Wandering out of the butcher shop while reliving these memories, Anna bumps into a man on the sidewalk. When she turns to apologize she realizes that this man is Doctor Menhaus and faints. Spotting Anna falling to the ground, Josh rushes to her aid. It’s then that Menhaus notices Anna’s concentration camp tattoo. Cursing his past for always haunting him, the old Nazi makes a quick departure.
Anna wakes up at Brooklyn General Hospital for observation where she is visited by Steve and Josh. After they leave, Anna has yet another visitor, Aaron Heller, another Holocaust survivor and prolific Nazi hunter. Although he has a serious heart condition and requires regular care from his daughter, Marie, Aaron tells Anna that Klaus Menhaus has been spotted in New York and he intends to bring him to justice. Heller has taken particular interest in Anna because she is the only remaining survivor of Diebenwald, making her the only person who can testify against Menhaus once he has been captured. This is overheard by a janitor cleaning the floor and he fears that Heller’s hunt for Menhaus might mean he is close to learning about the Calypso Connection.
Later that day, Steve Rogers is coming home from another day of work as a freelance artist. When he arrives at his apartment he discovered that Josh and the other tenants have prepared a surprise birthday party for him.[3] As they celebrate, Josh tells Steve that this was all Anna’s idea and wonders why she isn’t present since she was released from the hospital hours ago. Steve decides to go up to her apartment and check and discovers that someone had turned the place upside down and Anna is nowhere to be found. That’s when Aaron and Marie Heller arrive and tell Steve that Anna must have been captured by Klaus Menhaus, her former tormenter. As the Nazi hunter heads off to find Menhaus, Steve decides to conduct a search of his own — as Captain America.
Meanwhile, Anna has been brought to an abandoned church along the shore of Long Island by a gang of Neo-Nazis who work for Menhaus. Although he has come to regret his Nazi past, Menahus is stuck seeking aid by those who still support the Nazi cause. They have commissioned a ride aboard a steamship called the Calypso so that Menhaus can be smuggled into South America where he will be free from being extradited to Israel to stand trial for his war crimes. That’s when Captain America comes crashing in through one of the church windows to save her. However, while Cap is busy with the Nazi goons, their leader leads Menhaus and Anna out at gunpoint. Outside they are confronted by the Hellers, who have arrived to take Menhaus into custody.
When the Neo-Nazi in charge tries to use Anna as a hostage, Menhaus decides to turn on the man who was willing to help smuggle him out of the country and the pair wrestle over their gun. When the weapon is knocked loose, Anna picks it up and is about ready to shoot Menhaus dead for everything he did to her back in Diebenwald. That’s when Captain America arrives on the scene and pleads with Anna not to shoot Menhaus, telling her that killiung Menhaus will solve nothing. A gun does go off and Menhaus is shot dead, but it wasn’t Anna who pulled the trigger. In the confusion, Aaron Heller succumbed to a fatal heart attack and his daughter, Marie, avenged her father’s death by carrying out his last wish — bring an end to Klaus Menhaus. Although Marie considers it all over, Captain America tells her that it can never end until people learn to tamper justice with mercy.
Recurring Characters
Captain America, Anna Kapplebaum, Josh Cooper, Mike Farrel, Jake Lockley, Adonis
Continuity Notes
Anyone who knows a thing or two about a thing or two will know that Jake Lockley is one of Moon Knight’s alter-egos. See Moon Knight #1.
Anna’s time in the concentration camps were first detailed in Captain America #237. This fact has become problematic due to the Sliding Timescale. See below for more details.
So how old is Steve Rogers here? Well, that can never really be nailed down because of the Sliding Timescale will make him older as the gulf of time between World War II and the Modern age increases. I go into that in detail here. That said, we can figure out how old Steve Rogers is physically due to the time he spent in suspended animation.
Adventures of Captain America #1 and Avengers: Roll Call #1 state that Steve Rogers was born on July 4, 1922.
Captain America #176 (among many other stories) state that Steve tried to enlist in the military in the Fall of 1940, making him 18 years old at the time.
Captain America end up in suspended animation in 1945, as told in Avengers #4. Captain America: Sentinel of Liberty #11 (among other stories) pinpoint this as happening sometime after April 12 of that year, making him 22 years old at the time.
When Steve was thawed out he would have still been biologically 22 years old even though his is chronologically much older. Per the Sliding Timescale, about five years have passed between Avengers #4 and this story, making Steve around the biological age of 27.
Topical References
This story states that World War II happened forty years prior to this story. This should be considered topical as the Sliding Timescale moves the Modern Age forward the gulf of time between World War II and this story continues to grow wider.
Here it is stated that Josh Cooper served in the Vietnam War. This should also be considered a topical reference as the Modern Age moves forward.
Character Connections to World War II
This is yet another story where there are characters that have ties to World War II that become problematic due to the Sliding Timescale. As the Modern Age is pushed forward in time, it becomes increasingly impossible for anyone who was alive during World War II to be alive in this story. As the time of this writing (November, 2021) most people involved in World War II are in their twilight years.
At this time, Marvel has yet to explain how all the characters in question could still be alive and appear to be in their late middle age in this story. Marvel has yet to give an explanation for any of these however, typically some process of slowing, retarding, or stopping the aging process is usually at play to explain how these characters have retained relative youth since the war.
As stated in Captain America #237, Anna Kappelebaum survived the concentration camps at Diebenwald and was rescued by Captain America himself. That story states that she was experimented upon by Doctor Menhaus, a Nazi scientist. It’s not outlandish to consider the possibility that he created a process to slow the aging process, thus explaining how Anna could appear to be in her late middle age in this story. It also stands to reason that Menhaus was able to use the same process on himself as well, explaining how he too could still be alive.
Next we have the Nazi hunter Aaron Heller, another Holocaust survivor who has been hunting Nazis, who despite his weak heart appears to be younger than he should be. The idea that he too was part of a Nazi experiment seems unlikely. However, in a fictional universe where a number of Nazis have managed to cheat death by extending their life spans, it stands to reason that Nazi hunters would do the same so that there is someone still around to hunt down those Nazis who have avoided justice. The best example of this is Ernst Sablinova the father of Silver Sable who has been active as a Nazi hunter since at least the 50s as depicted in Avengers 1959 #1-5. Although Sablinova’s longevity is as yet unexplained, his association with Nick Fury (who had access to the Infinity Formula) makes access to a process to slow his aging probable. Given how devoted Nazi hunters are, even today when any surviving Nazis are in their 90s, it’s entirely possible that Sablinova could have shared this with other Nazi hunters.
Josh Cooper Serving in Vietnam
This story states that Josh Cooper served in the Vietnam War. Like those who served in World War II that are still alive int he Modern Age, this has become problematic as the Sliding Timescale pushes the Modern Age forward.
Like the other characters in this story, an explanation for Cooper’s military service has yet to be explained.
However, History of the Marvel Universe #2 has relegated the military service of Modern Age characters to the Sin-Cong Conflict, a fictional war that took place during the early Modern Age. This has been further reinforced Marvels (vol. 2) #1-8. Sin-Cong has since become the conflict to replace a character’s Vietnam War background. It stands to reason that Josh Cooper would now be considered a veteran of the Sin-Cong Conflict and not the Vietnam War.
