Captain America (vol. 3) #1
The Return of Steve Rogers, Captain America
This story continues from Heroes Reborn: The Return #4….
An American themed restaurant on Tokyo’s famous Ginza strip is being held hostage a nationalist terrorist organization called Strikeforce Ukiyoe. Their leader Akutagawa explains that his organization is against the westernization that is occurring in Japan that he believes is replacing Japanese culture. One of his men takes a torch from a replica of the Statue of Liberty and is about to light up an American flag when suddenly the torch is knocked out of his hand by the shield of Captain America. Catching both the torch and his trademark weapon, Cap tells the terrorists to not even think about it. Unfortunately, when Captain America tries to attack the terrorists, a mob of Captain America fans swarm him giving Akutagawa and his men time to get away.[1]
Breaking away from the crowd,[2] Captain America follows Akutagawa and his men outside, but by that time they have already disappeared in the large crowd. Confused over how he came to be in Japan — the last thing he remembers is the battle with Onslaught — the language barrier prevents him from finding anything out about what happened or how much time has passed.[3] As he walks away from a news stand, he misses a televised broadcast being made by the Fantastic Four announcing the return of the heroes lost to Onslaught. Reed Richards mentions how they have lost track of Cap, Iron Man, and Thor but hope they will return in due time.[4]
Meanwhile, Akutagawa has met up with Yuriko Oyama, aka the cyborg known as Lady Deathstrike to convince her to join his cause.[5] Yuriko is amused by Akutagawa as she knows he was once a follower of Masao Hashikura’s Haru Society, a group that was staunchly against Japan’s Post-War Constitution. When Hashikarua and his followers committed Bushido suicide for their cause, Akutagawa chickened out. Akutagawa explains that he formed Strikeforce Ukiyoe to make up for his past cowardice and explains how he attacked Uncle Sammy’s to make a statement before he was interrupted by Captain America. Lady Deathstrike is surprised to hear that the Avenger is still alive and since the Strikeforce intends to attack this evenings film premiere, Yuriko believes that this will give her the perfect opportunity to eliminate Captain America once and for all. However, she warns Akutagawa that should he turn coward again, she will personally end his life.
Later that evening, Captain America buys a trench coat so he can hide his costume so he isn’t mobbed by fans. Steve is wondering why he is apparently so popular in Japan when he runs into a huge statue of himself, part of a publicity campaign for a documentary film that has been made about his life. He then notices that there are vendor stalls that are selling Captain America merchandise, making Steve very uncomfortable as he feels that making him a celebrity and a commodity will negatively impact everything he symbolizes. However, this new film is not without its controversy and a local TV news crew is interviewing a city representative about the issue of westernization. He assures them that there is no threat to traditional Japanese culture. When one of the interviewers asks Steve for his opinion, he admits that Japan has a unique culture and that anything that encroaches on it — even western influences — might not be such a good thing. However, since western influences are being invited into the country, Steve admits that he’ll have to think about its impact. That’s when he spots Akutagawa in the crowd heading into the theater and tells the TV crew to call the police because there is going to be trouble.
Inside the The Legend of Captain America is playing on the big screen to a full house.[6] The movie goers are unaware that Strikeforce Ukiyoe are chaining all the doors shut and setting up a bomb. Steve changes into Captain America and begins clashing with the terrorists, sending them sprawling out in front of the large screen. Oblivious to the danger, the audience thinks that this fight is all part of the cinematic experience. He is then ambushed by Lady Deathstrike, Cap lures Deathstrike to one of the exit doors and tries to trick her into slashing open the chains barring it.[7] However, Yuriko sees through this attempt and stops short of doing so. The brawl continues, with the pair crashing through the theater screen into the back stage area where Akutagawa is still setting up the bomb. Cap is briefly distracted when he overhears the film’s narrator state how long it has really been since the Onslaught incident.
However, Captain America manages to regain his composure and uses his shield to cut down some stage lights, pinning Lady Deathstrike under them. By this time, the audience has come to realize that this isn’t a mock battle and are beginning to panic. Akutagawa then orders Captain America to freeze or he will detonate the bomb. Sensing that the Strikeforce leader is a secret coward, Captain America defies him by tossing his shield at the exit, shattering it so the locals can get away. He then calls Akutagawa’s bluff and, sure enough, when Cap leaps up onto the catwalk to confront him the terrorist crumples under his growing fear and surrenders.
Soon the authorities arrive to take the members of Strikeforce Yukiyo into custody. Unfortunately, Lady Deathstrike managed to escape. Captain America is celebrated by the locals even, something that still doesn’t sit right with him.
Meanwhile, in Istanbul, Sharon Carter is on a mission when she catches a report about Captain America’s return on a bar television. She is angered to learn that Steve alive, tired of him dropping in and out of her life.[8] After she finishes beating on the men she came to stop she tells her contact to get her tickets for the first flight back to New York.
While in a government facility in Wisconsin, a shadow burned into the wall of the facility suddenly comes to life and leaves the room.[9]
Elsewhere in time and space, all of this is being watched by Kang the Conqueror. He finds Captain America’s return to the present day interesting. However, Kang has some chilling surprises in store for Rogers.[10]
Recurring Characters
Captain America, Sharon Carter, Lady Deathstrike, Fantastic Four (Mister Fantastic, Invisible Woman, Human Torch, Thing), Red Skull (unidentified), “Kang the Conqueror”
Continuity Notes
The frenzied mob and the celebrity status that Captain America finds himself in is thanks to the machinations of a Skrull calling himself the Supreme Hydra. This is all part of a covert plan to elevate Cap to a position where nobody will question a thing he says. Basically, the Skrulls are trying to Orson Wells the public into thinking they’re being invaded by aliens in order to destabilize the planet and undermine people’s faith in authority in order to weaken it for the real invasion. See Captain America (vol. 3) #5-7.
Here were given a montage of Captain America’s origins as well as his revival in the Modern Age. See Captain America Comics #1 and Avengers #4.
Captain America was among the members of the Avengers and the Fantastic Four who seemingly sacrificed their lives in Onslaught: Marvel Universe #1. In reality, he and the others were transported to a pocket universe created by Franklin Richards where they lived reimagined versions of their past lives. Cap’s exploits were mostly covered in Captain America (vol. 2) #1-13 and Avengers (vol. 2) #1-13. The heroes were eventually discovered to be alive and returned to the Marvel Universe proper in Heroes Reborn: The Return #1-4.
Cap and the other core Avengers got split up after Heroes Reborn: The Return #1-4. Iron Man will turn up in New York City in Iron Man (vol. 3) #1. Thor on the other hand got lost in a dimensional portal while trying to prevent Doctor Doom from kidnapping Franklin Richards. He’ll eventually make his way back to Earth however. See Thor Annual 1999 and Avengers (vol. 3) #1.
Here, Lady Deathstrike states that she had recently been possessed by an ancient spirit that reminded her of her true path. This happened in Wolverine (vol. 2) #114. She also mentions how different things were during her father’s time. She is referring to Kenji Oyama who was also known as Lord Dark Wind. He died after a clash with Daredevil. See Daredevil #196-199.
On the screen here is a scene where Captain America is fighting the Red Skull. Judging from the fact that the Skull has a Cosmic Cube in his hand this is likely from their battle in Tales of Suspense #89-91.
On the screen here is footage of Captain America’s battle with Nuke. See Daredevil #232-233.
Weird flex on Sharon’s part since she was the one who dropped in and out of Steve’s life. Sharon faked her death in Captain America #237 in order to go on a deep cover mission with SHIELD. She was cut loose while on this operation and spent years doing whatever it took to survive. She re-entered Steve Rogers life in Captain America #445.
This is the Red Skull, whose body was incinerated by an exploding Cosmic Cube in Captain America #448. He will remain a disembodied shadow until he manages to restore himself in Captain America (vol. 3) #14.
This isn’t the real Kang. In fact, he is Korvac in disguise as we’ll learn in Captain America (vol. 3) #17.
Topical References
The American themed restaurant “Uncle Sammy’s” features a lot of American iconography both in national symbols (the American flag, the Statue of Liberty) but also by having displays of American pop-culture and brands. A bank of TV screens is showing an episode of Popeye, there are models of the Goodyear blimp and the Stealth Bomber. There are posters for the Dallas Cowboys, Coca-Cola and the Marlon Brando film On the Waterfront. There are employees dressed the Marilyn Monroe, Dennis Rodman, and Elvis Presley. Things like this would usually be considered topical references on their own, but since this is an American themed restaurant that celebrates everything American, these things wouldn’t necessarily be considered topical in this context.
On the other hand: Billboards for Marlboro cigarettes, McDonalds, and Burger King that are on display in Tokyo would be considered topical because they are presented out of the context of Uncle Sammy’s. They are topical because they are real world businesses.
Many of the TVs in this story are depicted as CRT models. This should be considered topical as this is an obsolete technology.
In this story, Akutagawa is stated as being one of the followers of Masao Hashikura, who protested the Post-War Constitution of Japan after their defeat in World War II. This Constitution was drafted under the supervision of General Douglas MacArthur of the US Navy and other Allied occupiers following Japan’s surrender. This story doesn’t give a time frame as to when this happened. I think it’s implying that Masao Hashikura and his followers committed suicide in protest shortly after the Post-War Constitution was signed. This creates some issues with Akutagawa still being alive in the Modern Age. That said, so far as I can tell Hashikura and his organization are apparently fictional so this protest/suicide pact could have happened sometime in the Pre or Post-Modern Age rather than any actual date.
In seeing the “Capmania” merchandise, Steve compares himself to G.I. Joe, a military themed toy line released by Hasbro. His reference here should be considered topical as G.I. Joe is a real world brand.
Steve also name drops Starbucks. This should also be considered topical for the same reason as all the other brand references in this story.
Here it is stated that the heroes who “died” during Onslaught have been gone for a year at the time of this story. This is a measurement of time between publications and should be considered topical. Per the Sliding Timescale only about four months would have passed.