American Nightmare Chapter II: The Growing Darkness

While investigating why successful Americans are going berserk, Captain America and Sharon Carter find them trapped under tons of steel and concrete after architect Mike Rainer ordered the Rhino to topple his latest construction project. Using his new photonic shield to keep himself, Sharon, and a construction worker alive, Captain America suddenly feels a strange sensation in his mind beckoning him to just give up and let go. This causes his eyes to briefly start glowing green. In order to avoid getting crushed, Sharon uses her gun to blast a hole in the ground beneath them, allowing them to fall into the completed basement of the ruined structure.

As they catch their breath, Cap — back to normal — suggests they get out before the roof collapses on them. Unfortunately, before they can do so they are found by the Rhino who had come down to finish them off if they survived. Captain America forces the Rhino to push himself so that he begins using up all the breathable air. This causes the massive brute to become winded and easily knocked out by the hero. Moments later, they are dug out of their prison by rescue crews.

Cap and Sharon then return to Steve’s apartment, where he changes out of costume. He is disappointed that Rainer went mad since he was hoping to convince him to hire Luis Ramirez, so he and his family can get back on their feet and get a place of their own.[1] Steve and Sharon then head out again, with Steve telling Luis and his family he’ll be gone for the night and that his furniture should be delivered in the morning. As he says goodbye to the kids, he notices that Javier Ramirez is reading a book. When he asks the boy what he is reading, Javier quickly hides it in his bookbag. However, Steve manages to catch the title before it is secreted away, he’s surprised to see that it is a law text book.[2]

Steve decides to check in with Andrew Bolt a congressional candidate to see if he can help with getting Luis a job. Once they are outside the apartment Steve’s attitude suddenly changes. He begins reconsidering the idea because he suddenly thinks that Bolt is a liar and a cheat. Sharon notices that there is something wrong with him and notices that his eyes have turned green. Steve quickly snaps out of it and reveals that this happened to him earlier when they were trapped under the rubble. He suspects that what is happening to him is the same affliction has Sharon has been investigating. He also knows how he might find a solution to this delima.

On the Red Skull’s island, the Skull is trapped in the form of a disembodied shadow and desperate to restore himself to normal. Unfortunately, nothing he has tried has worked and he howls in frustration.[3] He’s then greeted by someone who has been watching him for some time, who promises the Red Skull that if he pledges allegance to him, the future will be theirs.[4]

Meanwhile, Captain America and Sharon Carter have gone to Avengers Mansion to investigate things further. There are reports of people across the country suddenly going berserk and ruining their lives. A judge in Cincinnati shot and killed a man being brought up on unpaid parking tickets, in Miami a Nobel-Prize-Winning author is responsible for a massive book burning, in Los Angeles a student accepting a National Education Honor suddenly injected herself with a syringe full of heroin. Cap has determined that each of the victims all appear to be people who have achieved their own version of the American Dream. That’s when Sharon points out that if whatever is causing this is now starting to affect individuals, how will it impact other superheroes that are just as patriotic as Captain America.

As if on cue, that’s when Jarvis bursts into the room and informs Cap that the US Agent has gone berserk and is trying to steal a new experimental fighter jet in order to deliver it to a foreign power. When Captain America and Sharon arrive on the scene theycan tell that the Agent has been infected with this madness because his eyes have turned green as well. While Captain America is unable to stop the US Agent from initiating a take off, he manages to grab onto the plane and forces it to crash into the ocean before it can reach super-sonic speed and the windshear pulls him off the flying craft.

Captain America and Sharon then take US Agent to SHIELD for examination. There, Dum Dum Dugan has already had his best people examine General Ulysses Chapman to figure out why he gabbed secrets regarding top secret military operations.[5] They have determined that everyone who has been afflicted by this madness is actually in deep REM sleep.

Captain America decides to enter a machine that will allow him to connect with their dream states in order to determine what is causing this madness. Captain America soon finds himself in a dream scape where others are trapped and living out their baser instincts. One man is covets a huge pile of money and refuses to focus on anything else. Not far away, two children try to settle a debate over which toy is better by shooting at each other with machine guns. As Captain America takes the guns away from the two kids he is visited by Nightmare, the master of this domain. He welcomes Cap to his domain and informs him that the hero’s presence here guarantees his ultimate triumph and that soon he will have dominion over the entire planet Earth.

In the waking world, Captain America’s body has been stricken by the same madness as the others and is attacking Dum Dum Dugan as Sharon pleads for him to wake up.

Recurring Characters

Captain America, Nightmare, SHIELD (Sharon Cater, Dum Dum Dugan), Rhino, US Agent, Alma Ramirez, Marta Ramirez, Javier Ramirez, Luis Ramirez, Rosa Ramirez, Red Skull, Edwin Jarvis, Ulysses Chapman, Dreamstalker

Continuity Notes

1. The Ramirez family broke into Steve’s apartment last issue in order to get out of the rain. They had become homeless after Luis lost his job. Feeling sorry for the family, Steve is allowing them to stay in his apartment.

2. It’s later revealed in Captain America (vol. 3) #15 that Javier was studying law at Harvard before student aid snafus and his father’s unemployment forced him to drop out. He is studying the law books here because his family’s eviction from their home was illegal and he is trying to build a case against their former landlord.

3. The Red Skull’s body was atomized by an exploding Cosmic Cube, leaving him a disembodied shadow, as seen in Captain America #445-448. He will restore himself to normal in Captain America (vol. 3) #14.

4. This man-in-the-shadows has been teased as Kang the Conqueror since Captain America (vol. 3) #1. In reality, as we’ll learn in issue #17, he is actually Korvac in disguise. Why he poses as Kang is never really explained, just go with it.

5. Chapman spilled the beans on a commando raid in the nation of Moldavia on national television in Captain America (vol. 3) #8.

Topical References

• In the dream dimension two children are fighting over which is better: the Micronauts or the Transformers. While the Micronauts are real in the Marvel Universe and the Transformers are tangentially connected to its multiverse, these references should be considered topical. This is because the two kids are arguing about the toys, not the actual characters.