Captain America #417
Termination Day
In the Savage Land, Ka-Zar has freed himself from the mental control put on him by Advance Idea Mechanics, who are in this region illegally mining Antarctic Vibranium. Traveling through the jungle, he comes upon a massive footprint in the ground and fears that the creature responsible for previously destroying the Savage Land has returned and cries out in anguish.[1]
This menace is Terminus, who does indeed appear to be back as its massive suit of armor is attacking the citadel of the High Technician, a geneticist who is working with AIM. As the massive form rips into the fortress and grabs the High Technician, Captain America and Black Panther leap onto its arm while Falcon and Diamondback take to the air.
Diamondback tries to attack Terminus on her sky-cycle but she suddenly sees the image of Snapdragon reflected in its massive visor.[2] Taunted over killing her enemy, Rachel loses control of the sky-cycle and crashes it into the metal behemoth. Seeing the accident unfold, Cap leaps off Terminus and grabs her in midair then breaks their fall thanks to the vines growing in the trees below.
The crash manages to crack the visor on the helmet of the Terminus armor, allowing the Black Panther to crawl inside. There he discovers that the massive suit isn’t being piloted by Terminus, but rather an Advanced Idea Mechanics operative named Mark Macross is piloting it with his mind. Macross is far from harmless however, as he uses his mental control over the suit to sommon tendrils down to subdue the Wakandan ruler.
Back on the ground, Falcon joins Captain America who confirms that Rachel is unharmed but unconscious. Leaving Sam to watch over her, Steve then flies back up to the Terminus armor riding on Falcon’s detachable wings. When he arrives at the base of armor’s feet he finds Ka-Zar and the two put their heads together to come up with a way of destroying the Terminus armor. Remembering that Antarctic Vibranium — the material that AIM has been illegally mining — has the property to “melt” metal, they head down to the dig site and begin tossing chunks of the volatile material at the Terminus suit.
Sure enough, the Anti-Metal does its magic and the Terminus armor begins to collapse as its internal components melt. As Captain America and Ka-Zar take out the last of the operatives on the ground, the Black Panther emerges with Mark Macross as his prisoner. With the immediate threat over, Captain America summons his pilot Moonhunter to pick them up. However, the Black Panther decides to stay behind, telling Steve that he intends to remain behind to help Ka-Zar drive out any remaining invaders from the Savage Land.
Recurring Characters
Captain America, Terminus, Falcon, Ka-Zar, Black Panther, Diamondback, AIM (Mark Macross, High Technician), Lorelei
Continuity Notes
The whole Terminus situation is complicated and Captain America doesn’t explain it very well. Here are the details:
Terminus first came to Earth to strip mine the entire planet and was defeated by the Fantastic Four, who used a magnetic device to trap the creature in the center of the Earth, as seen in Fantastic Four #269-270.
Digging its way partway to the surface, Terminus encountered a Deviant named Jarro and sent him to the surface disguised as Terminus to recover his power lance. During this time, Jarro destroyed the machines that preserved the prehistoric jungle of the Savage Lands turning it into a frozen wasteland, as seen in Avengers #256-257. Jarro’s identity was later explained in Thor Annual #15. Jarro died during this encounter.
The Savage Land was later restored by the High Evolutionary in Uncanny X-Men Annual #12.
Meanwhile, the real Terminus managed to get free was was launched into space by Quasar and a cosmic powered Spider-Man in Quasar #7.
Terminus soon returned to Earth where he was repelled into deep space by the Avengers again during the Terminus Factor event. See Captain America Annual #9, Iron Man Annual #11, Thor Annual #15, Avengers West Coast Annual #5, and Avengers Annual #19.
Diamondback had seemingly killed Snapdragon back in Captain America #413 and has been haunted by images of her foe ever since. Despite being dead, Snapdragon will turn up alive again in Moon Knight (vol. 6) #2. A profile in Captain America: America’s Avenger #1 states that Snapdragon faked her death.
