Captain America (vol. 3) #25
Twisted Tomorrows: Part 1
In the wilds of Idaho, Nick Fury is fleeing from a team of Neo-Nazis. He fakes them out by ducking into a river when they open fire. After they leave, Fury surfaces from the water and races to a tree stump where he left a signal beacon that will alert SHIELD to his location. Unfortunately, the Neo-Nazi’s leader — a skin head named Branson — found it first and laid a trap for him. Fury tries to fight back but he is quickly subdued. Branson orders his men to report back to their leader that the man who infiltrated their group is none other than Nick Fury as well as assurances that Fury will be dead and will not interfere with their “Armageddon Maneuver.”
Meanwhile, in New York City, the police have surrounded Chez Louise where a hostage situation has broken out. With interrogations going nowhere the officer in charge gets his wish when Captain America races onto his scene on his motorcycle. Leaping over the police cordon, Cap crashes through the front door of the eatery, taking out one of the hostage takers with his bike. Blocking oncoming bullets with his shield, Cap then tosses his trademark weapon and leaps across the room with acrobatic skill. He quickly takes down the rest of the crooks except for their leader, who is struck in the back of the head by the ricocheting shield. Luckily, none of the hostages were hurt and Cap is thanked by those he saved. The hero stops to chat with an elderly couple who heard stories about him from the war.[1] Hearing how a family member died, Captain America sadly remembers how long ago that was.
Outside, Captain America is also thanked by the police detective who was in charge. Seeing how his motorcycle was banged up, he even offers to have the NYPD garage fix it up for free. Cap thanks him for the offer and then takes to the rooftops, preferring to head home on foot. Talk of the war has reminded him of his former partner, Bucky, who he believes is dead.[2] As he leaps from rooftop to rooftop, Cap becomes aware of the fact that he is being followed and confronts his pursuers. They turn out to be rookie SHIELD agents who panic when he catches them. When Captain America demands to know why they are following him, Dum Dum Dugan radios in and tells Steve that he sent them out to get him for an important mission.
Captain America heads to the barbershop that operates as a front for SHIELD’s New York headquarters. There he finds that the Falcon has also been called in for this mission. Dugan then tells them that recently, General McAllister Groves — a decorated African-American soldier — has gone missing recently while on a fishing trip in Idaho. Dugan suspects that a hate group operating in the area is responsible. He believes that they are preparing for some kind of terrorist attack. This is because a few days after Groves’ disappearance a former Soviet facility was raided and enough anthrax to wipe out Earth’s population three times over. The group responsible then left Groves’ military identification card at the scene, an obvious frame job.
Dugan says they send an agent to investigate but he has gone missing. That agent turns out to be none other than Nick Fury. Cap and the Falcon are both delighted to hear that Fury is still alive and agree to find both men before it is too late.[3] Before leaving, Cap asks Dugan if he has heard from Sharon Carter recently.[4] Unfortunately, Dum Dum has not, reminding Steve that she is a freelance operative now and hasn’t come to SHIELD for any jobs recently.
In Turkey, Sharon Carter has taken on a bizarre mission to return a talking dinosaur to the Savage Land. Nicknaming the Ankylosaurus “Barney”, she takes it to a nearby airport where she intends to steal a plane. Waiting for the right moment to take out the guards, Sharon cannot believe that she has fallen so far as to take a mission like this. Taking out the guards and stealing a plane, she assures Barney that no matter how ridiculous she finds this, she will complete her mission and bring him home.[5]
Meanwhile, the SHIELD agents that flubbed their mission to get Captain America are shipped out to Virginia. There, as punishment, they have been ordered to go through a top secret government warehouse and catalogue everything on site as the original records have been lost.[6]
Later, Captain America and the Falcon arrive in Idaho and disguise themselves as fishermen and head out to the remote region where McAllister Groves went missing. As they canoe up river, Sam tries to get Steve to talk about his romance life. Things are confusing for him right now as he still has feelings for Sharon but is also interested in a lawyer named Connie Ferrari.[7] Not wanting to get into it, Steve puts on headphones to listen to his favorite Glenn Miller album, leading to more teasing from Sam, who thinks that Steve’s taste in music needs to get with the times. As Steve zones out, his mind drifts back and he thinks about the government program that turned him into Captain America. He recalls how the scientist who administered the Super Soldier Serum to him was killed by a Nazi spy shortly thereafter, making him the only recipient of the formula.[8]
Suddenly, their canoe is capsized by scuba divers with stun guns, but both Steve and Sam were ready for such an attack. Quickly changing into Captain America and the Falcon, they notices that these men are wearing Swastikas, angering Steve who has grown tired of constantly fighting people who wear the Nazi symbol. After dealing with the divers, the pair are ambushed by a pair of attack helicopters. Luckily, Cap gets his shield up in time to deflect the bullets and the two coordinate to take down one chopper each. While they manage to crash one, the other fires a missile that is full of knock out gas. As Cap and Falcon succumb to its effect, the Neo-Nazis come out of the bush with their leader, the Hate-Monger. While Branson wants to execute them right then and there, the Hate-Monger has other plans for the two heroes.
Recurring Characters
Captain America, Falcon, SHIELD (Nick Fury, Dum Dum Dugan, Sharon Carter), Hate-Monger, Clete Billups, Barney
Continuity Notes
The story mentioned here is about how Captain America fought in the Battle of the Bulge, this story will be told in Captain America (vol. 3) #41. Stanley Klein states that he fought in that battle, which causes an issue with the Sliding Timescale, see below for more on that.
Everyone believes that Bucky died in 1945 in the same explosion that put Captain America into suspended animation for decades, as per Avengers #4. However, it will be revealed that Bucky actually survived and was transformed into the Russian assassin known as the Winter Soldier. See Captain America (vol. 5) #14 for the details.
At the time of this story, it was generally believed that Nick Fury was killed by the Punisher in Double Edge: Omega #1. In reality, Fury was on a secret mission and the Punisher only killed a Life Model Decoy. Fury was found and recently recovered in Fury/Agent 13 #1-2.
Sharon took off on Steve after he admitted he still loved her in Captain America (vol. 3) #19. She has been on a bizarre mission in Turkey since then.
As we’ll learn in Captain America (vol. 3) #30, Barney was one of many dinosaurs biologically engineered by Count Nefaria to serve as ionic batteries that he could draw energy from. Yeah, that doesn’t make a lick of sense, but I’m serious, go check it out.
Why are we seeing this? It’s because one of the SHIELD rookies — Clete Billups — is a spy for Advanced Idea Mechanics and he’ll find and steal the body of Protocide, a recipient of a prototype of the Super Soldier Serum that created Captain America. AIM will revive Protocide in Captain America (vol. 3) #30.
Steve first met Connie in Captain America (vol. 3) #15. Although they have been on a few dates he has been reluctant about telling her about his double identity because her brother was seemingly killed in a military hazing ritual and he doesn’t know how she’d feel about dating Captain America given his military background.
This, of course, is recounting Captain America’s origins as originally told in Captain America Comics #1, and puts readers in the know for the upcoming Protocide story arc. Although Captain America is generally viewed as the "only” recipient of the Super Soldier formula, that’s not true as the formula had been reproduced or had derivatives created during the war. If you want a comprehensive list see my index entry for Captain America Comics #1.
Topical References
After saving the hostages, Captain America talks to an old man who states that he fought alongside Cap during the Battle of the Bulge (December 16, 1944-January 28, 1945). When this comic was published in 2000, it was possible for someone who fought in that conflict to be still alive. However, due to the Sliding Timescale this becomes an impossibility without some method of extending or stopping the aging process. It seems unlikely that someone like Stanley Klein to have access to such means given that he was merely a private during the war. Marvel has yet to provide an explanation for this meeting, and it seems unlikely they ever will for such a minor character. Modern readers could assume that rather than speaking to the Stanley Klein, but someone directly related to him by however many generations needed to have this scene make sense. Rather than remembering meeting this old man, Cap remembers meeting their family member.
Captain America recounts that McAlliser Groves fought in both the Korean War, the Vietnam War, and Desert Storm. As Groves is depicted as a middle aged man these references should be considered topical. Per History of the Marvel Universe #2, one could assumes that Groves fought in the Sin-Cong Conflict and perhaps other fictional conflicts instead.
Sharon starts calling the Ankylosaurus “Barney” here. This is in reference to Barney the Dinosaur, the titular character of the children’s show Barney and Friends. It ran from 1992 to 2010. The series was at the height of its popularity, or infamy depending on how you looked at it. The series spawned a lot of Anti-Barney humor at the time that was so notable they made a documentary about it called I Love You, You Hate Me in 2022. At any rate, the connection between this Barney and the one that was part of the culture at the time should be considered topical.
Steve’s Glenn Miller album is depicted as being recorded on a CD which he plays on a portable CD player with wired headphones. This should be considered a topical reference due to the fact that, while CD’s and CD players are still available, they have fallen out of popular use thanks to digital and streaming audio formats and devices and are on their way into obsolescence. The reference to Glenn Miller would not be considered topical as Steve Rogers grew up in the 1940s before being put in suspended animation for decades, making his taste in music rooted in that era.
The Hate-Monger’s men are depicted flying Apache helicopters, likely model AH-64D, which was the newest model around the time this comic was published. This should be considered a topical reference as the Apache has undergone many upgrades from this model since then, and could ultimately be phased out once better hardware has been created.