Captain America #448
Operation: Rebirth Conclusion: American Dream
Captain America has been revived by Sharon Carter and the Red Skull in order to stop the Kubekult from using a Cosmic Cube with Hitler’s mind to alter reality to their perverted wishes.[1] However, in trying to prevent the Cube from falling into the hands of the Red Skull, Captain America is unknowingly trapped inside.
Steve Rogers then relives the moment when he under went the experiment that turned him into Captain America back in 1941.[2] This time however, Steve is able to save Abraham Erskine from getting assassinated by a Nazi spy. After the spy has been subdued, Bucky enters the room and congratulates Steve from saving the day.
This is all being observed by the Red Skull and Sharon in the real world. This is all going according to the Skull’s plan as the only way to stop Hitler was to send the man created to defeat him. Sharon questions the Skull’s motivations, and suggests that the Nazi was too afraid to face the man responsible for creating him.[3] This angers the Red Skull enough that he strikes Sharon. However, their spat is quickly interrupted when Kubekult members burst into the room and try to recover the Cube from them. When the Red Skull tries to use its power to destroy them he discovers that it is no working, likely due to the fact that Captain America is inside. With no other choice, the pair are forced to retreat. They barricade themselves in an armor and hope that Captain America can defeat Hitler in time to save the world.
Inside the Cube, it seems like Captain America and Bucky have been fighting the Nazis for six years. When demanding a soldier reveal Hitler’s location, Steve suddenly becomes aware of the fact that he’s somehow back in his old neighborhood in Brooklyn. Looking around everything is exactly how he remembered it from his childhood. However, not everything is as it seems as a reporter phones in Cap’s victory to the Daily Bugle on a cell phone. That’s when Steve is greeted by his mother and he is happy to see that she is still alive.[4] That’s when they catch a televised address from President Truman in a shop window displaying modern televisions. He is in the middle of declaring World War II will be over in a matter of weeks when, suddenly, the signal is hijacked by Nazi operatives who have taken over the TV station in the Empire State Building.
Captain America and Bucky race up and clash with the Nazis in the television studio. When the Germans flee up to the roof, the two heroes follow and witness them climbing into a futuristic airship. Following them aboard, Cap is suddenly transported to the airfield where he and Bucky had their final battle together against Baron Zemo.[5] This time, Zemo has tied Bucky to the drone plane alone and sends it off to attack Britain. Steve leaps aboard and this time he is able to disarm the bombs and fly the plane back to the Nazi ship. They then commandeer the craft and fly it to Germany so they can rendezvous with Nick Fury and his Howling Commandos and help with the attack on Berlin.
Meanwhile, Sharon and the Red Skull have used thermite and explosives to immolate their pursuers. This offers them a minor reprieve from fleeing and the pair start fighting over control of the Cosmic Cube once more.
Inside the Cube, Captain America and Bucky arrive in Germany and give Fury and his troops a much needed assist. They are soon joined by the the android Human Torch and the Sub-Mariner. This allows Captain America and Bucky to press on to Hitler’s bunk and finally bring him to justice. However, when they arrive at the front door, Bucky tells Steve that he needs to stop. Rogers can’t understand why, reminding Bucky that he was crated for the purpose of putting an end to Hitler’s tyranny. Bucky then points out that this isn’t his world anymore. He has noticed the modern world creeping into this fantasy world — the cell phones, modern televisions, and the like — and knows that this is all just some imaginary world. Bucky tells him that while these are good memories to have, it is time for Steve Rogers to move forward and face the future rather than always living in the past. As Bucky begins to fade away, he stresses the fact that going into Hitler’s bunker is nothing more than a trap and not to fall for it. As his former partner is moments away from completely disappearing he and Steve solute each other.
With Bucky now gone, Captain America makes as though he is going to charge through the bunker door. Instead, he comes crashing into the room where Sharon and the Red Skull have been watching this whole time. Pummeling the Red Skull until he lets go of the Cube, Cap then pins himself on top of his mortal foe. Pressing the sharp edge of his shield up to the Skull’s neck, Cap tells the Skull to give him one good reason not to kill him. The Skull manages to fight Steve off of him and makes a run for the Cube. Tossing his shield, Cap’s throw is good and the weapon slices off the Red Skull’s arm before landing hard on the Cosmic Cube and cracking its surface. There is a sudden flare of energy that seemingly destroys the Red Skull, leaving nothing but his shadow burned onto a nearby wall. Believing his enemy is finally dead, Captain America proclaims that it is all over.[6]
With the Cube seemingly destroyed,[7] everything is returned to normal. Cap and Sharon then tie up the members of Kubekult for the military to deal with. Steve then decides to go to SHIELD to find out why they have been lying to him about Sharon’s survival all of these years. Carter decides that she wants to find out as well, but tells Steve to get any ideas of rekindling their former romance out of his head. The pair then drive off into the sunset together.
Recurring Characters
Captain America, Red Skull, Sharon Carter, KubeKult
Continuity Notes
There is a lot going on off the top, so let’s break it down:
Captain America’s Super-Soldier Serum was breaking down in Captain America #425. It brought him near death until his was cured last issue.
This was done thanks to a full blood transfusion and bone marrow transplant from the Red Skull. At the time of this story, the Skull’s body was cloned from Steve Rogers’ DNA after the Skull’s original body died of old age. See Captain America #300 and 350.
Up until last issue, Steve believed that Sharon Carter had died after being brainwashed by the Neo-Nazi group National Front in Captain America #237. We’ll learn later this issue that she faked her death to go on deep cover only to be cut loose by SHIELD for some unknown reason. Fury/Agent 13 #2 reveals that Sharon was abandoned because Fury believed she was killed on her mission as it only had a 17% survival rate.
In the Marvel Universe, Adolf Hitler was immolated by the Human Torch, as seen in Young Men #24. However, Hitler cheated death thanks to Arnim Zola a geneticist who devised a means of downloading Hitler’s mind into a cloned body upon his death, as explained in Super-Villain Team-Up #17. Hitler would pop-up in the present day as the Hate-Monger for the first time in Fantastic Four #21. The Skull later trapped thew Hate-Monger’s mind in an impure Cosmic Cube in Super-Villain Team-Up #17. The Cube was last seen in his possession in Captain America #370.
This scene is, of course, adapted from Cap’s origin story in Captain America Comics #1.
Adolf Hitler was responsible for grooming Johanne Schmidt into the Red Skull, as originally seen in Tales of Suspense #66.
Sarah Rogers originally died of pneumonia when Steve was still a teenager, as seen in Captain America #255.
This is retelling the events of Avengers #4. At the time of this story, Steve believes Bucky died in the drone plane explosion and it is this belief that shapes the fantasy world he is experiencing. A few years from now he will learn that Bucky actually survived and was transformed by the Russians into an assassin called the Winter Soldier. See Captain America (vol. 5) #14.
Except it’s not, as we’ll learn in Captain America (vol. 3) #1, the Red Skull will live on as a disembodied shadow until he’s restored to normal in issue #14 of that series.
Although his Cosmic Cube prison was destroyed, Hitler’s mind lives on and will be transferred into a newly cloned body in Captain America (vol. 3) #25.
Topical References
Here it is stated that World War II ended over 50 years prior to this story. This assessment of time should be considered topical. The Modern Age of the Marvel Universe operates on a Sliding Timescale, which bumps the “present day” forward in time. As such the gulf of time between the end of World War II and the start of the Modern Age grows larger with the passage of time. Click here for the math on that.
The type of cell phone that the 1930s reporter uses in Cap’s fantasy world is depicted as a flip phone with an antennae to pick up a signal. These were the most common type around the time this story was published in the pre-smart phone era. Since its supposed to represent the “present day” of the story its depiction should be considered topical.
Likewise this story depicts a bunch of “modern” televisions as being large CRT models made by Sony. This should be considered topical for the same reason as the cell phone, particularly since CRT televisions are obsolete. The reference to Sony should be topical as it is a real world brand.
