Ice: Part 2

Captain America has just been delivered documents and film footage that apparently revealed that what he knows about his time in suspended animation was all a lie. That rather than being caught in a drone plane explosion he was instead frozen by his own government who then dumped his body in the Arctic where it remained for decades.[1] This has devastated Steve Rogers.

When Hana — his new Atlantean ally — comes to visit him, she breaks in when he doesn’t answer the door. She finds him in the back room crying over an American flag. Pulling him close to comfort Steve, she encourages him to talk to her about what happened. He explains to her how he received government documents that prove that his own government put him on ice near the end of World War II because he was defective. This was due to his protests against the proposed use of atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

Hana thinks that these are all fakes and suggests that Steve get out and see the light of the day. However, the documentation has him convinced. He tells her how the government intentionally left him for the Avengers to find, but has no idea why. He now wonders if any of his future teammates knew the truth that day or not.

Hanna points out that it could have just been easier to kill him and be done with it. But Steve wonders if they tried and it didn’t work. Their conversation is soon interrupted when women in red masks come crashing in through the window and start attacking them. Cap and Hana work together knock out their attackers. Getting a good look at the masks that they are wearing, Hana recognizes them as Lemurian in origin. Mostly ceremonial nowadays, they were primarily worn by the Lemurian Assassins Guild when they went on missions to kidnap, assault, or kill. More surprisingly, these assassins all look identical to Hana for some reason. She concludes that for whatever reasons, the Lemurians wanted him and she suddenly realizes why.

Recurring Characters

Captain America, Hana, (flashback) Avengers (Thor, Iron Man, Giant-Man, Wasp)

Continuity Notes

1. This revelation contradicts the long standing explanation from Avengers #4. In Captain America (vol. 4) #16 it is revealed that the proof sent to Steve here is phony evidence created by the Red Skull.

Errors

• Captain America states that the nuclear bomb drop on Hiroshima happened on June 11, 1945 and the bomb drop on Nagasaki happened two days later. This is not correct, the bombs were dropped on August 6th and 9th respectively. The Official Index takes this mistake literally and says that it should have been a hint to Cap that the story he was being fed was false. But come on, let’s call it what it really is: The writer fucked up and got the dates wrong and the editor failed to catch the mistake. We already know these issues were rushed out the door after heavy re-writes, care for finer details were the least of their concerns.