Captain America (vol. 2) #1
Courage
This story continues from Heroes Reborn #½…
Steve Rogers wakes up from the same nightmare he has been having for many nights now. In it, Captain America stands over a battlefield during World War II as the words to the Pledge of Allegiance blare over everything else.[1] When Steve wakes up from this dream he contemplates waking his wife Peggy and telling her about it, but decides against it as he feels that doing so would be dangerous.[2]
The following is the start of another routine day in the Rogers home. Peggy serves up breakfast as Steve and their son Ricky get read for a day of work and school respectively.[3][4] Soon Steve is picked up by Nathan, one of his co-workers down at the steel mill. As they head into work, they listen to a radio report about about a rally being held by the World Party, a grassroots political movement that has ties to white supremacists and Neo-Nazi groups. This concerns Steve, but Nathan figures that the media is making a big deal about nothing. As they arrive, they pass by an old homeless man on the street who recognizes Steve and mumbles the word “Captain”. Steve also finds the old man somewhat familiar, but dismisses it as nothing.
At lunch time, Steve is sitting down with his co-workers in the cafeteria and he tells them all about the strange dreams he has been having. Hearing about how Steve has been dreaming about wearing a costume patterned after the American flag, Nathan excuses himself. He then runs to a nearby payphone and calls someone to tell them that they’re have a problem.
Later that evening, Steve is back home watching some late night television. As the station ends its broadcast for the day by playing the Star Spangled Banner, Steve falls asleep on the couch. He once again dreams about Captain America, this time the hero is leaping into German trenches as the lyrics to “God Bless America” boom. Steve is startled awake again and he begins to wonder who he can tell about these bizarre dreams, but doesn’t know who would understand when he doesn’t even understand them himself.
The following morning, Ricki Barnes is sitting out on the stoop of her apartment building sulking over the fact that she was turned down for a scholarship to learn dance at Julliard. That’s when her brother John and his friend Lunk come by to brag about how they are going to the World Party rally on Saturday night. Ricki tries to warn her brother that the World Party is a bunch of racists, but John has bought into their xenophobic ideals hook-line-and-sinker. When she tries to warn him that he’ll get in trouble with their grandfather, John says he won’t get in trouble because their grandfather will never know.
Elsewhere in the city, the World Party has set up operations in an old abandoned church. Inside its walls, the group doesn’t hide the fact that they are a Neo-Nazi organization as the room is filled with swastika flags and Nazi iconography. Their leader is a notorious war criminal known as Master Man. He thinks about how easy it has been to stoke peoples fear and hatred of those he considers inferior and is pleased by how gullible the masses are. Master Man’s thoughts are interrupted by his assistant, Hauptman, who informs him that the old man has been located here in Philadelphia. He orders his men to track the old man down kill him so that they can recover the shield he has in his possession. With this out of the way, Master Man presents himself as “Alexander the Great” to an audience of World Party followers. He gives them an electrified speech about how immigrants are ruining America. This load of horseshit is swallowed by the disenfranchised young people in the crowd, including John Barnes and Lunk.
Also in the crowd is SHIELD Special Agent Hunt, who has infiltrated the World Party to figure out what they are up to. Sneaking away from the rally, Hunt snoops around and discovers that the World Party has somehow managed to secure an arsenal of nuclear weapons. However, when he tries to radio this in to SHIELD, he is caught in the act by the man secretly backing the World Party.[5] As it turns out, the organization was well aware that he was a SHIELD spy, but now his usefulness has come to an end.
Meanwhile, Steve Rogers is out for a walk to try and clear his head. It is here that he is confronted by the old man who he saw earlier that day. The old man, named Abraham, tries to convince Steve that he has known him for decades and that he has been keeping something safe for him all these years.[6] Rogers doesn’t believe any of it, but since he doesn’t see Abraham as a threat, he agrees to accompany him to see just what it is he has been keeping safe.
In a boarded up house, Abraham pulls a trunk out of the cellar and presents Steve with Captain America’s shield. Abraham explains that Steve is Captain America but somehow he was made to forget his past. He explains that the shield was lost at the end of World War II when Captain America disappeared and Abraham has spent most of his life tracking it down so he could one day return it to its proper owner. Moments after this bombshell revelation, the building is blown up by Master Man’s troops. Emerging from the rubble, Steve Rogers fights off the World Party soldiers with the skill of a man who has had years of combat training. After defeating his foes, he rushes back to the ruined building and digs Abraham out of the rubble. Unfortunately, it is too late and Abraham is dying. His final words are to warn Steve that they know about his family and that they are not safe. Steve tells him to rest easy and promises to avenge him. As the anger wells up in Steve Rogers heart, the words of Oliver Wendell Holms, Jr., given in 1884 rings in his head.
Meanwhile, aboard the SHIELD helicarrier, agents Sharon Carter and Timothy “Dum Dum” Dugan report to their leader Nick Fury to tell him that Abraham Wilson managed to reactivate Captain America.[7] Fury isn’t sure if he should be happy or upset over this. What he does know though is that this time around Captain America is going to do exactly what he is told and if he refuses, they’re going to force him to comply.
Recurring Characters
Captain America, Rikki Barnes, World Party (Red Skull, Master Man), SHIELD (Nick Fury, Dum Dum Dugan, Sharon Carter), Hauptman, John Barnes, Lunk
Continuity Notes
In the Heroes Reborn timeline, Steve Rogers fought as Captain America in World War II. However, he protested against the President Truman’s plan to drop the atomic bomb on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. This prompted the government to deactivate Captain America and put him in a state of suspended animation. For years he’d be pulled out and used again but he’d always rebel. Ultimately, Fury revived him and placed him in a simple suburban life so he could live out a normal life in peace. See Captain America (vol. 2) #3 & 7. That said, some of these facts are late refuted in Captain America (vol. 2) #12. However, it’s all a moot point since these “past memories” are false, as revealed in Heroes Reborn: The Return #1-4, this pocket dimension was created by Franklin Richards to save the lives of the heroes who sacrificed their lives in Onslaught: Marvel Universe #1. This world is later determined to only be about a year old.
“Peggy” here is based off of Peggy Carter, the woman that Steve loved in World War II in the Prime Marvel Universe, see Tales of Suspense #77. However, this woman is a Life Model Decoy created by SHIELD, as revealed next issue.
I’m guessing that Ricky Rogers is supposed to be based off Bucky, Steve’s wartime sidekick. This is based on Captain America (vol. 2) #12, where Steve meets a Richard Barnes. For whatever reason, the writer of this series thought that Bucky’s first name was Richard. It’s not. His full name was revealed to be James Buchanan Barnes as stated in Captain America #252.
It should be noted here that, with the exception of Steve Rogers, everyone in this story are constructs created by Franklin Richards, as explained in Heroes Reborn: The Return #1-4.
This mystery person is revealed to be the Red Skull next issue.
Usually, the Sliding Timescale makes it increasingly impossible to explain how a character like Abraham — who doesn’t have any apparent super-human abilities — could still be alive in the Modern Age. Marvel hasn’t made an explanation for this, but I think there’s a reasonable one, which I will explain below.
The man who appears to be Nick Fury here isn’t the “real” Nick Fury, but a Life Model Decoy who took his place as we’ll learn in Captain America (vol. 2) #10.
Topical References
The Rogers home is depicted as having a CRT model television. This should be considered a topical reference as this is an obsolete technology.
This story states that World War II happened fifty years prior. The length of time between the end of World War II and the start of the Modern Age of the Marvel Universe should be considered topical due to the Sliding Timescale. As the Modern Age is pushed forward, the gulf of time between it and the war continue to grow larger. For more on that, click here.
Explaining Away the Anachronisms of Heroes Reborn
When the 2nd volume of Captain America was published in 1996-1997, it was reasonable to believe that people who survived World War II could still be alive in the Modern Age. However, as the Marvel Universe exists on a Sliding Timescale, it becomes increasingly impossible for people who lived through World War II to still be alive without some means of extending their lifespan.
This creates some issues with characters like Abraham who is stated as being Sam Wilson’s father and Richard and Peggy Barnes, Ricki’s grandparents. Under the usual Sliding Timescale rules, these close familial relationships would be impossible to explain without some means of slowing, reducing, or stopping the aging process. Marvel has yet to provide an explanation and given how much of a flop Heroes Reborn turned out to be, I highly doubt that will ever get around to giving one.
I think the simplest answer is the one that was given in Heroes Reborn: The Return #1-4: This is a pocket dimension created by Franklin Richards. Based on the Sliding Timescale, Franklin was about 8 years old at the time he created his pocket universe. I don’t know about you, but when I was that age I understood things like age and years in the most basic levels. My concept of the passage of time was very limited. I think we can accept the fact that any anachronisms in the Heroes Reborn pocket universe are the product of Franklin’s short grasp on the concept of time.