Grotesqueries

Sharon Carter has been on a mission to return a talking dinosaur — nicknamed Barney — back to his home in the Savage Land. After crash landing in the prehistoric wonder land, she and Barney were then captured. When she wakes up, Sharon finds herself trapped in a cage surrounded by humanoid dinosaurs and their leader, a man clad in ceremonial garb who calls himself Stox.[1]

Meanwhile, in New York, Captain America is at Avengers Mansion training room with Thor. He has the thunder god hit his shield full force with the most powerful lightning bolt he can muster. After a sustained blast, Steve is tells Thor to stop, convinced that his shield has been restored to its proper indestructability.[2] As they leave the training room together, Cap tells Thor that he admires his ability to live as both god and man. He then admits that he is mentioning this because he is having problems balancing his romantic life due to his double identity. This gives Thor a laugh, who recalls romantic problems of his own when he had to choose between Jane Foster and the lady Sif.[3]

Across town, lawyer Connie Ferrari has just finished a tense phone call with a defendant who owes her client money when Javier Ramirez — her legal assistant — tells her that she has a visitor. She is about to tell Javier to send them away Steve Rogers enters the room with a bouquet of flowers. She is unhappy with him because he keeps on breaking dates with her, but she decides to give him one last chance when he offers to take her out to Pastroni’s for Valentine’s Day. She warns him, however, that this is the last shot he has.

The conversation is interrupted when Nick Fury arrives coming to look for Steve. Fury takes a particular interest a photo of Connie’s late brother, David.[4] As Steve and Nick leave Connie’s office, Fury tells him that they got a lead on Sharon Cater’s whereabouts. Learning that Sharon’s plane crashed in Antarctica, Steve demands to know why SHIELD isn’t doing anything to rescue her. Fury says that, officially, they can’t because Sharon is a freelancer, however he is doing something by telling Steve about it. Around the corner and in an alley, Nick has parked a SHIELD one-man ship that will take Steve to Sharon’s location.

Meanwhile, in an underground facility, scientists for Advance Idea Mechanics are examining a body recovered from a top secret government facility. It was brought to them by their double agent, Clete Billiups.[5] After a number of tests they have concluded that the body is of a man who was subjected to a prototype of the Super Soldier Formula that created Captain America.[6] Although the process seemingly killed this forgotten super soldier, AIM has the technology to restore him to life and use him as their weapon.

Hours later, Captain America arrives at the site where Sharon’s plane crashed, over a frozen cliffside. As he searches the wreckage for signs that Sharon survived, the cliffside gives way sending Steve falling into the abyss. He lands hard, but alive, and quickly realizes that he is in the Savage Land and deduces that Sharon is probably here as well. That’s when he is ambushed by an army of humanoid dinosaur creatures. Outnumbered, Cap fights against impossible odds until a warrior decked out in bone armor lends him a hand. After the creatures are defeated, the warriors takes off his mask and reveals that he is the teenaged son of Ka-Zar, Matthew Plunder.[7]

Recurring Characters

Captain America, Sharon Carter, Nick Fury, Connie Ferrari, “Stox”, AIM (Clete Billups), Thor, Javier Ramirez, Protocide (unidentified), Matthew Plunder (clone)

Continuity Notes

1. Who is Stox? He’s Count Nefaria in disguise as we’ll learn next issue. He’s in the Savage Land attempting to bio-engineer ionic dinosaurs to be used as batteries to recharge his own powers, as explained in issue #30.

2. The issue with Captain America’s shield is a long and complex one. In Marvel Super-Heroes Secret Wars #11-12, it was broken by Doctor Doom who was wielding the power of the Beyonder at the time. Although Cap was able to repair the shield, a single molecule was misaligned creating a imperfection. Every time it was struck, the imperfection grew. Eventually, the shield was lost in the ocean in Captain America (vol. 3) #2. When it was recovered in issue #13 it had shattered into pieces. This caused an instability in the world’s Vibranium supply. Luckily, Cap was able to reverse this and repair his shield at the same time, see Captain America (vol. 3) #22 for the details.

3. During a period where Thor was trapped in the mortal form of Doctor Don Blake (circa Journey into Mystery #84) he met and fell in love with his nurse Jane Foster. Odin forbade their marriage until Thor convinced his father to put Jane through a trial to see if she was worthy of being a god in Thor #136. Jane failed spectacularly and was banished, Thor was then reintroduced to Sif. Over the years, Thor’s love has been divided between Sif and Jane — both women who would come and go from his life over the years.

4. As explained in Captain America (vol. 3) #20, Connie believes that her brother died after enlisting to the military and dying in a hazing ritual gone wrong. 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.

5. Clete made his discovery and blew his cover to bring what he found to AIM over the course of issues #26-27.

6. As per Captain America Comics #1, the Super-Soldier Formula was famously lost when its inventor, Abraham Erskine, was killed by a Nazi spy. Although Steve has been commonly referred to as the "only” recipient of the formula, that’s not entirely true. The man found by AIM was a soldier named Clinton McIntyre. As will be revealed in Captain America Annual 2000, he was a rejected candidate due to not meeting the psychological profile. However, one of the military brass stole a second dose of the formula and gave it to McIntyre. However, this was only one part of a three part process, and without the other three components of the formula, Clinton went on an insane rampage until his heart gave out on him. The military then quickly covered it up and lost his body in a top secret storage facility.

7. Captain America is shocked to see Matthew Plunder because he is a lot older than he should be. Born in Uncanny X-Men Annual #12, Matthew Plunder would be about 2 to 3 years old per the Sliding Timescale.

Topical References

• 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.

• When on the phone arguing with a defendant who owes her client money, she orders the man to cut a cheque for 2 million dollars. Adjusting for inflation this would be about $3.3 million in 2023 money.

• Nick Fury is depicted with a cigar in his mouth while at Connie’s law office. However, indoor smoking was banned in New York in 2003, making this a topical reference. One could argue that since the cigar isn’t lit, Fury isn’t technically smoking indoors.