Candor

Captain America has gone to the violent nation of Khamiskan to rescue Nick Fury, who went missing searching for David Ferrari, a rogue SHIELD agent that was long believed dead.[1] It just so happens that David is also brother to Steve’s girlfriend, Connie Ferrari. Arriving in the country, Cap was attacked and captured by the new Crimson Dynamo and a brainwashed Nick Fury.

When he wakes up, Rogers finds himself suspended over a missile silo by rope tied to the back end of tractors. Ferrari is flattered that they sent Captain America, and admits that the abandoned Soviet nuke is the reason he has come to the god forsaken place. When he admits that his plans might sound trite and embarrassing, he then details his master plan. David Ferrari wants to use the nuclear weapon to try and take over the world. Captain America cannot believe what he is hearing and asks if Ferrari is kidding.

However, David is quite serious, explaining how relations between the United States and Russia are such that he believes America doesn’t have any real opposition anymore. This is a position he wants to make for himself so he can dominate and conquer. He now intends to launch this once abandoned nuclear missile at his home land in order to decimate it. Cap tries to reason with him, saying that a nuclear strike could kill his sister as well. David doesn’t care, saying that is his old life and he has now completely embraced his new identity as the Answer.

First, however, he is going to kill Captain America. He then orders the Crimson Dynamo to crush Cap’s shield, but try as he might, the armored Russian cannot damage the weapon. David decides to just get it over with then and orders his men operating the two tractors to quarter Captain America instead. To get the most enjoyment out of this, Ferrari then injects Nick Fury with the antidote to the mind-control drugs he used to control him. This is so that Fury will feel the full emotional impact of watching his friend getting ripped apart.

Luckliy, the father of a family that Steve helped earlier had followed them to the missile silo. Seeing Captain America in danger, the man uses his bow and arrow to cut one of the ropes around Cap’s right arm. With his free hand, Steve takes off his belt and uses the buckle to cut through the rope on his other arm. Seeing this, David orders the tractor driver to step on the gas in the hopes of dragging the hero to his death. Steve has mere minutes to cut his legs loose before his chainmail armor wears away and he gets dragged to death.

Furious that Captain America is now loose, David orders the Crimson Dynamo to kill him with his armor. It takes time to charge up his weapons, but the Dynamo ends up shooting wildly when Fury grabs the other tractor and uses it to ram into the armored Russian. Fighting side-by-side Cap and Fury quip back and forth about how they saved the other’s life during World War II.[2] David then attacks Fury, believing that the enhancements he received from SHIELD will give him the edge in battle. However, Cap joins the fight after he finishes dealing with the rest of Ferrari’s troops.

With defeat imminent, David pulls out a device that will launch the nuke and threatens to push the button. However, Captain America’s reflexes are faster allowing him to knock out David with a single toss of his shield. With David in their custody, Steve tells Fury that he has to tell her sister that he is still alive. Before they leave Steve wants to thank the family that helped him out on this mission.

Eventually, David is taken to the United States where he is arranged at a police station in New York City. His sister Connie is contacted and is shocked to discover that her brother is still alive. When she arrives at the station she is unhappy to see that Captain America is involved in her brother’s arrest.[3] She cannot believe that any of the charges are true, since her brother has been persecuted since the hazing incident when he first joined the military. Cap pulls her aside and tries to explain that her brother’s “death” and the “hazing incident” were actually part of a cover story and that David is really a SHIELD secret agent who went rogue. Connie can’t trust a word he says, and that’s when Cap says that he is the one person she can trust. At first, Connie scoffs at this idea until she finally looks Captain America in the eye. Suddenly, it all becomes clear to her, Captain America is her boyfriend, Steve Rogers!

Recurring Characters

Captain America, Nick Fury, Connie Ferrari, Crimson Dynamo, Answer

Continuity Notes

1. David Ferrari is a SHIELD agent and sister to Connie Ferrari, who is dating Stever Rogers at the time of this story. In Captain America (vol. 3) #20, we learned that 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.

2. Captain America mentions the time that he saved Fury from Erwin Rommel, Germany’s Field Marshall. He was highly popular among Germans during the war and was a decorated soldier. While both Fury and Cap have been depicted clashing with Rommel. Fury three times in Sgt. Fury and his Howling Commandos #6, 43, and 118, while Cap faced him once in Invaders #23. That said, the story of how Cap saved Fury from Rommel has yet to be told, time of this writing in February, 2023.

3. Although Connie has been dating Steve for months, she doesn’t know that he is also Captain America at this point. She is angry with Cap because he brought in evidence that proved that her client — Chet Madden — was involved in criminal activity in connection with his position as the director of Advanced Idea Mechanics. See Captain America (vol. 3) #39-40.

Topical References

• When describing the state of Khamiskan, the narrative and characters all refer to it as a former part of the Soviet Union. They talk about the collapse of the USSR as happening recently as it was bout 9 years prior to when this story was published. References to the fall of the Soviet Union happening recently should be considered topical.

• David also comments that Russia is in no position to be in any opposition with America anymore after the collapse of the Soviet Union. While this was initially the case when this story was published in the early 2000s, rising oil and gas prices shortly thereafter allowed Russia to revitalize itself and restore a lot of its former glory. As such, his statements should be considered topical. Modern readers could assume that David is instead talking about improved relations between the United States and Russia (perhaps in a fictional context and not base on any real world relationship). That this peace time isn’t based on Russia’s economic position.