Captain America (vol. 3) #23
Land of the Free
Mandan Chakura had his hopes and dreams set on immigrating to America so he could reunited with his brother, Kanu. However, his American Dream quickly became a nightmare. His immigration papers were discovered to be forgeries and now an undocumented immigrant he finds himself detained with hardened criminals in a commercially run facility. There, he lives in unsanitary conditions, hardly fed, and regularly brutalized by guards and prisoners alike. Getting a letter to his brother on the outside, he pleas for help, unable to believe that this is allowed to happen in America.
Meanwhile, in nearby New York City, Steve Rogers goes out on a date with lawyer Connie Ferrari. He takes her out swing dancing and Connie is impressed with his skill, little knowing that this was the popular dance craze when Steve was growing up. Taking a break, Connie tells Steve how she has taken up the case of Mandan Chakura and has been hitting roadblocks with government officials in trying to investigate the case. She tells him about the privately run prison that Chakura has been living in and the deplorable conditions it operates under. Steve takes keep interest in the case and tells Connie that he has some government connections he can look into for her.
What Steve doesn’t tell her is that he has these connections as Captain America. He has been reluctant to tell Connie about his double-identity due to her negative opinion of the military after her brother was killed in a hazing ritual while serving.[1] He goes down to the immigration department where he learns that they are conducting an investigation the prison where Chakura is being held. The FBI has suspected that the company running the place has been spending as little as possible on the inmates and pocketing the rest of the money. While they are about to send in a spy to scope the situation out, Captain America volunteers to go undercover instead.
Under the alias of Buck Jones, Steve is welcomed by the warden and is forced to sign a non-disclosure agreement preventing him from speaking out about what goes on behind the prison walls. Given a tour, Rogers is disgusted to see that the place is filthy and infested with rats. The men are rancid and forced to sleep in cramped bunks together. He also discovers that the other guards mostly work there to beat on the inmates since the pay is so low. As he prisoners are being herded to an inspection, the staff begin piping in the smell of good food to further torture them. When the warden arrives for inspection he deems that the inmates were too slow and is withholding breakfast in the morning as punishment.
Searching the yard later, Steve finds Mandan Chakura locked up in an isolation pen like an animal and breaks him out. Chakura, not aware of who this guard is then spits in Steve’s face. When the other guards come and demand to know what “Buck Jones” is doing there is a scuffle that rips open his shirt revealing his Captain America uniform underneath. With his cover blown, Captain America changes out of his disguise and confronts the warden over the conditions. Hiding evidence in his desk drawer, the warden tells Cap that he has no authority and that his prison passes all government regulations.
Suddenly, the prisoners begin rioting prompting the warden to order a lethal response in order to stop the uprising. Trying to avoid deaths, Captain America attacks and disarms the guards and prevents the prisoners from hurting anybody. After the situation has been contained, the warden races up to his office to destroy the evidence but Captain America arrives to stop him. When the administrator tries to flee, Captain America gives him chase. Ironically, while trying to evade Captain America’s bouncing shield, the warden ducks into one of the isolation pens for safety. Catching up to the warden, Captain America muses that working a prison will give him good experience for his eventual prison term.
A week later, Steve Rogers is out with Connie Ferrari in Central Park. She tells him how Captain America’s investigation prompted the prison to be taken over by the government and is undergoing sweeping reforms. As for Mandan Chakura, he has a happy ending. Released from prison his citizenship has been granted and he has since been reunited with his brother.
Recurring Characters
Captain America, Connie Ferrari, Sharon Carter
Continuity Notes
Steve learned about Connie’s brother back in Captain America (vol. 3) #20. Although Connie believes that her brother died, this was actually a cover story. In Captain America (vol. 3) #35-36 that he was secretly a SHIELD agent. After using an a bioweapon called the Omega Compound to destroy the enemy while on a mission, he was believed dead for years. However, he faked his death and has been secretly operating as the Answer and plotting to take over the world. See Captain America (vol. 3) #41-43
Topical References
This story deals deeply with the issue of immigration in America, while a lot of the elements of this story are (tragically) still a reality a lot of the terminology in this issue has since become dated and should be considered topical. For example, the term “illegal immigrant” is no longer commonly used, instead the less negative term “undocumented immigrant” is now the common term to be used. The government agency in this story that deals with immigration is identified as Immigration and Naturalization Services. This organization was dissolved in 2003. As of this writing these duties are now carried out by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
The original twin towers of the World Trade Center are depicted as part of the New York City skyline in this story. This should be considered a topical reference as these buildings were destroyed in a terrorist attack on September 11, 2001. They were subsequently replaced by the Freedom Tower.
One of the guards states that he works for $5.15 an hour at the prison. This is just below the minimum wage when this comic was originally published in 1999 which was $5.65. That said, this amount should be considered topical since minimum wage is always changing. As of this writing (August, 2022) minimum wage in the USA is about $7.25 an hour. Which is way below inflation, which states that $5.65 an hour would be worth about $10 an hour today. But that’s America for you.
The warden’s evidence of criminal activities are conveniently stored on a CD. This should be considered topical as this type of data storage medium is now considered obsolete.
