Captain America #392
The Superia Stratagem Part Six of Six: Superia Unbound
While on a rescue mission to save Diamondback, Captain America and Paladin have found themselves on the island of Femezonia. There, Cap has uncovered that the woman in charge — Superia — has just launched a missile that will make every woman outside the island sterile. This is all part of an insane plot to create the female dominated future that produced the warrior woman known as Thundra.[1] After making her big reveal, Superia grows tired of fighting Captain America and orders a number of her followers — Arclight, Bombshell, Mysteria, and the Wrangler — to deal with him instead. The Star-Spangled Avenger tries his best to defend himself but soon finds himself surrounded.[2]
Meanwhile, Paladin and Asp locate the room where Diamondback is being held prisoner. Still afraid for her life after a recent near death experience she is relieved that the woman in the guard costume is he friend.[3] As they try to make their escape they are cornered by Whiteout, Iron Maiden, Ferocia, and Ice Princess. Whiteout temporarily blinds them until Asp is able to knock her out with a venom blast. Rachel watches from the sidelines until she sees her friends need help and reluctantly comes to their aid. Grabbing some icicles created by Ice Princess she then leaps in to save Paladin from Ferocia.
At that same moment, Captain America manages to turn things around on his attackers. He takes down each one until only Arclight is left standing. Thankfully, Black Mamba recovers from Superia’s earlier attack enough to lend him a hand. With their foes defeated, they head off to find their allies and find a way to stop the rocket that threatens to sterilize virtually every woman on the planet. Using her illusion casting abilities, Black Mamba disguises Cap as Superia and gets access to a communications panel. From there, she contacts Peggy Carter at Avengers Headquarters to warn her about the rocket and tells her to send Quasar or Thor to stop it.
However, they are caught in the act by the real Superia who attacks them directly. Needing more room to fight, Captain America leaps out of the command room window and lures Superia outside. He quickly finds the invisible barrier that is supposed to protect Superia’s Femazons from the sterilization weapon. There he tricks her into unleashing her most powerful blast while he is standing in front of the barrier. Cap protects himself with his indestructible shield and he survives, but the ground all around him has been ruined by the blast. He then bluffs Superia, telling her that there is no way to tell if that blast compromised the barrier pointing out that if even one microbe manages to get through her scheme will be ruined. Realizing that Captain America is more than willing to gamble everyone’s future to stop her, Superia realizes that she has no choice but to shut her doomsday weapon down.
Cap and Black Mamba then head to the pier to steal a boat and make their escape. There they run into Paladin, Asp, and Diamondback who disguised themselves as Whiteout, Ice Princess, and Iron Maiden in order to slip away unseen. They steal a hydrofoil to escape the island but once they are out at sea the boat’s power is cut off leaving them stranded at sea. Luckily, the Vision soon arrives in a Quinjet to pick them up. As they make their way back to the United States, the synthezoid tells them that Peggy was able to get in touch with Quasar and he took the rocket to Uranus where it can no longer be a threat to anybody. When Cap decides to rally the Avengers to investigate Superia’s island, the Vision informs him that he saw no such place on his trip to pick them up as the villainess somehow made it vanish.
Recurring Characters
Captain America, BAD Girls Inc (Diamondback, Asp, Black Mamba), Paladin, Femazons (Superia, Arclight, Bombshell, Ferocia, Ice Princess, Iron Maiden, Mysteria, Whiteout, Wrangler), Vision, John Jameson, Peggy Carter
Continuity Notes
Per Marvel Encyclopedia: Fantastic Four, the possible future that Thundra hales from is designated Reality-715. For more on Thundra’s world see Savage Tales #1 and Fantastic Four #151-153. Thundra first came to Earth-616 in Fantastic Four #129 to defeat this era’s strongest man. Thundra has been trying to get back to her home dimension since Marvel Two-In-One #67. We’ll discover that she made it home in Avengers West Coast #75.
Here, Captain America notes that Bombshell now fires explosive energy blasts instead of juggling bombs like the last time they encountered one another. Cap first fought Bombshell when she was a simple juggler in Captain America #317.
Diamondback was thrown overboard and nearly drowned aboard the S.S. Superia by her long time enemy Snapdragon, as seen in Captain America #390. As explained in Captain America #403, their rivalry happened sometime after they went through Taskmaster’s school.
