Captain America (vol. 3) #12
American Nightmare Chapter IV: Nuclear Dawn
While investigating why people who are living the American Dream have suddenly gone berserk, Captain America has ventured into the realm of dreams to discover that this is the work of Nightmare.[1] However, in doing so, Captain America — the embodiment of the American Dream — has now accelerated the process. Worse, his sleepwalking body has made its way to NORAD and is attempting to launch America’s nuclear arsenal. Sharon Carter attempted to stop him and was knocked out in the process, trapping her conscious mind in Nightmare’s world as well.
Now his prisoner, Nightmare revels in making Sharon relive the days when she was abandoned by SHIELD while on a deep cover mission and had to fight for her survival.[2] He then shows Captain America and Sharon that their sleep walking bodies are not making their way to launch America’s nuclear arsenal, Nightmare is convinced that their combined skills will prevent anyone trying to stop them from accomplishing their mission. Sure enough, all of the soldiers who do try and bar their path are easily knocked away.
When Captain America’s sleepwalking form arrives at the retinal scanners needed to access the nuclear launch computers he lets it scan his eyes. Ordinarily, Captain America would have authorization however the process of making him a sleepwalking zombie has altered his eyes — turning them green from their normal blue — and this change is sufficient enough for the scanner to reject entry. Nightmare completely loses his shit over being denied victory over something so trivial. When he turns to take out his anger on the dream forms of Sharon and Cap, he discovers that they have slipped away while he wasn’t looking. Nightmare then summons a swarm of flying demons to hunt them down.
Elsewhere in the dream dimension, Captain America and Sharon are trying to get people to snap out of their perverted fantasies to join the fight against Nightmare. That’s when they come across Dum Dum Dugan and realize he too has now fallen under Nightmare’s spell. Their attempts to snap people out of things takes a turn when Captain America is swarmed by Nightmare’s flying demons who carry him back to their master’s castle. Sharon tries to get Dugan and the others to snap out of it, but they all start turning their back on her and walking away.
In the waking world, Captain America’s sleepwalking form is undaunted by the security door and uses his photonic shield to slice through it. Inside, he and Sharon try to convince the technicians to step away from the computer insisting that there is a Presidential emergency that requires a nuclear response.
However, this is where things turn against Nightmare, as Captain America figures out a way to tap into the same essence of the American Dream that Nightmare is using against them. His strength is magnified by its power that he can finally physically fight his foe. This causes Nightmare’s hold on his victims breaks, snapping them out of of their perverse fantasies. Seeing the horror all around them, the people finally listen to Sharon’s rallying cry and she leads an army to attack Nightmare’s castle. Overpowering his foe, Captain America vows that no matter what, he will continue to fight Nightmare for all eternity unless he lets them all go.
Realizing that he has lost, Nightmare willingly sets everyone free. With the nuclear launch codes entered into the NORAD computers, Captain America races to physically stop the missiles form launching while Sharon uses her hacking skills to shut the computers down. Cap has to fight his way through the soldiers who have finally arrived in answer to the security alert and makes it down to the missile bay. With the missile about to launch, Captain America rips a hole down its side with his photonic shield. Once down in the launch pit he uses his shield to protect himself from the flames form the ignition. With the silo doors jammed shut, the missile crashes into them stopping it.
Soon, SHIELD takes over the situation and Cap and Sharon are cleared of any wrong doing. Dugan tells them that the spy agency is no stranger to arcane forces and are coming up with a plausible explanation for the public in order to avoid a panic. As Cap and Sharon leave SHIELD headquarters, Steve admits that although he has had experience with magic in the past, it still makes him uneasy. He says this as they are passing a giant American flag. Sharon looks at it and asks him “since when”, understanding what she means, Steve she has a point. He then decides to have some fun by teasing Sharon over getting caught in Nightmare’s spell, proving that she has some belief in the American Dream despite her outward cynicism. Something Sharon denies, much to Steve’s amusement.
Recurring Characters
Captain America, Nightmare, SHIELD (Dum Dum Dugan, Sharon Carter)
Continuity Notes
Nightmare has been slowly taking over American Dreamers since Captain America (vol. 3) #8.
Years earlier, Sharon Cater had faked her death in Captain America #237 to go on a deep cover mission for SHIELD. As explained in issue #446, Sharon was cut loose and left to survive on her own until she resurfaced in issue #444. As explained in Fury/Agent 13 #2, Nick Fury terminated the mission when he believed Sharon was killed in action, he was wrong obviously.
The Skull is Dead. Long Live the Skull
A special feature that details the origins of the Red Skull and chronicling all of his appearances to date.
Continuity Notes
The opening paragraph explains how the Red Skull was seemingly killed prior to Heroes Reborn. This happened in Captain America #448 when his body was incinerated by an exploding Cosmic Cube. After this, Cap seemingly sacrificed his life with the rest of the Avengers and the Fantastic Four in Onslaught: Marvel Universe #1. In reality, they were taken to a pocket dimension where they lived reimagined lives until they were found and brought back to their proper reality in Heroes Reborn: The Return #1-4.
This summary outlines the Red Skull’s birth, life as an orphan, his homelessness growing up and how he murdered a Jewish shopkeeper’s daughter when she rejected his affections. This version of the account is taken from the origin given by the Red Skull in Captain America #298 and retold in issue #350. Other facts were pulled from the Red Skull’s profile in Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe #13. It’s later been revealed that some of the facts of this story may have been untrue or fabricated. See Red Skull #1-5.
This write up also tells the tale of how the Red Skull became a bellhop and was selected by Adolf Hitler to become his greatest soldier, transforming him into the Red Skull. This was originally told in Tales of Suspense #66. This was also expanded upon in the aforementioned Red Skull series.
Details are also given how the Red Skull — seeing the writing on the wall near the end of war — send Baron Strucker to Japan to form a new subversive organization called Hydra. These events are later detailed in Marvel Universe #1 and Fury #1.
Mention is also made about how the Skull created the Sleeper robots to be used years later in the event that Germany lost World War II. At the time of this story, there has been five sleepers that have been reactivated. See Tales of Suspense #72-74 (the first three), Captain America #101-102 (the fourth), and Captain America #148 (the fifth).
How the Red Skull was defeated in World War II after being buried alive in his bunker and was put in suspended animation and later revived in the present day. This tale was told in Tales of Suspense #72. He was revived in issue #79, a story that was expanded upon in Captain America Annual #13.
It also details how Captain America himself ended up in suspended animation and was revived in the present, circa Avengers #4.
The narrative then states that the Red Skull was more obsessed with destroying Captain America than any other agenda since his revival. This is more or less true. See Tales of Suspense #79-81, 88-91, Captain America #101-104, 114-119, 128-129, 143, 147-148, 168-169, 182-186, 210-212, 226-227, and 261-263.
A lot of time is spend on the time the Red Skull’s body was physically aging and launched one final revenge scheme to force Captain America killed him. Steve resisted the urge and the Skull died of old age. This epic story was told in the page of Captain America #293-300.
However, the Red Skull cheated death by downloading his mind into a body cloned from Captain America’s DNA. Not long after that his face was altered by his own Dust of Death making it a literal Red Skull. See Captain America #350 for both of these events.
The narration then skips ahead to more recent events, recapping how the Red Skull saved Captain America’s life after his own Super Soldier Serum started breaking down. This began in Captain America #425 until he was left completely disabled by issue #443. The Skull kidnapped Cap and gave him a full blood transfusion and bone marrow transplant to save his life in issue #445. This of course led to the events wherein the Skull was incinerated in issue #448.
Since Captain America (vol. 3) #1, the Red Skull has lived on as a disembodied shadow. He will be restored to normal in issue #14.
