Captain America (vol. 3) #29
The Savage Man
Learning that Sharon Carter has gone missing in the Savage Land, Captain America has ventured to the pre-historic region of Antarctica to find her.[1] Upon her arrival, he was attacked by an army of humanoid dinosaurs. Luckily, he was aided by a warrior who turns out to be a teenaged Matthew Plunder. This comes as a surprise to Cap because as far as he knows, Matthew wasn’t born that long ago.[2]
However, the battle is far from over as another horde of dino-warriors charge at them. The work together to fight off their attackers, but the enemy is slowly overtaking them. That’s when Zabu — Ka-Zar’s trusty sabretooth tiger — leaps in to help. With the battle turning against them, Matthew summons some trained pterodactyls to pull them away from the scene. As they fly back to Matthew’s village, Cap asks what’s going on and learns that there is a war raging in the Savage Land.[3]
When they arrive at the last remaining stronghold of the Fall People. Matthew then takes Cap into a hut to meet with his parents, Ka-Zar and Shanna the She-Devil. Steve is shocked to see that the two jungle adventurers are now impossibly old.[4] Ka-Zar explains that his people were attacked by a man known only as Stox. Capturing many of his people, they were subjected to horrific genetic experiments. Many were transforming into the humanoid dinosaurs that Cap and Matthew fought earlier. In the case of Ka-Zar and his family, they were subjected to a process that rapidly aged them. Ka-Zar concludes his tale by explaining how he and his family managed to escape from Stox. The madman had recently kidnapped a woman from the outside world and a talking dinosaur. While their captor was preoccupied with the new comers. With that, the elderly Ka-Zar begins experiencing cardiac arrest. Steve tries his best to revive the old man using CPR, but it’s too little too late, moments later Ka-Zar is dead. Matthew insists on accompanying Captain America on his attack on Stox’s stronghold. However, the young man wants a moment to griev the loss of his father, then he vows to kill Stox for what he has done.
Meanwhile, at Stox’s stronghold, the madman decides to take Sharon Carter out of her cage so she can watch them experiment on Barney. However, Sharon has grown to like the verbose ankylosaur and tries to free him. However, before she can, Stox fires beams of energy from his eyes that knock her out.
Outside, Captain America, Matthew, and Zabu arrives on the scene. After taking out the sentries they burst into Stox’s stronghold. When Stox tries to blast them with his eye beams once more, Captain America recognizes his foe’s voice and ionic beams and correctly deduces that they are facing Count Nefaria. Seeing that there is no longer a need for disguises, Nefaria rips off the primitive garb he has been wearing to conceal his true identity.
Back in America, Advance Idea Mechanics have recovered the body of a soldier who received the Super Soldier Serum before Captain America himself.[5] Although the man is believed to be dead, AIM has the technology to bring him back to life. After bombarding the man’s body with energy it springs to life for the first time in decades.[6] As the man rises from the operating table and picks up his shield, the leader of AIM christens him Protocide.
Recurring Characters
Captain America, Sharon Carter, Count Nefaria, AIM (Clete Bellups), Zabu, Protocide
Continuity Notes
Sharon has been on a mission to repatriate a talking dinosaur since Captain America (vol. 3) #20.
Captain America is shocked to see Matthew Plunder because he is a lot older than he should be. Plunder was born in Uncanny X-Men Annual #12. Here, Steve says Matthew was born “a few months” ago, but that’s not quite correct. Per the Sliding Timescale, Matt was born almost 3 years prior to this story. Given everything that goes on in Captain America’s life and his minimal interactions with Ka-Zar, I think we can forgive him for being incorrect here. At any rate, this isn’t the real Matthew Plunder, but a clone of him that had been rapidly aged to adolescence. See Captain America (vol. 3) #31 for the details.
Cap says that the Savage Land seems to have changed by decades since his last visit. That’s the understatement of the century. When Cap was last in the Savage Land in Avengers #256-257, it’s ecosystem was destroyed by Jarro, a Deviant posing as Terminus. This turned the Savage Land into a frozen wasteland until the region was restored to its former splendor by the High Evolutionary in Uncanny X-Men Annual #12.
These aren’t the real Ka-Zar and Shanna either. More clones. See issue #31 (again).
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. His body was recovered by AIM in issues #26-27.
Mention is made of how Captain America managed to live on after being being frozen in suspended animation for decades. This is a reference to Avengers #4.
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.