Captain America (vol. 4) #17
Captain America Lives Again: Part 1
Prologue[1]
Our story opens with an Excelsior Movie-News reel about the life and times of Captain America. It recounts his origins and how he was lost near the end of the war after being put in suspended animation. Found and revived decades he has fought enemies of America on his own and as a member of the mighty Avengers![2]
March, 1964
The frozen body of Steve Rogers, aka Captain America, floats to the surface of the ocean. Here it is detected by a Nazi submarine which quickly pulls ashore. Unsure of who they have, the Nazis on board are surprised to see a man wearing an American uniform, since they haven’t been seen since the Allies lost World War II. As the doctors on board examine the body they are surprised to discover that the man is still alive. More amazingly, he is actually Captain America, the hero who went missing in 1945. As Cap begins waking up he remembers how he and Bucky tried to stop a drone loaded with explosives being launched. While Steve couldn’t keep hold, Bucky tried to defuse the explosives. He failed and there was a tremendous explosion.[3] Steve suddenly wakes up screaming Bucky’s name. Looking around and seeing Nazi soldiers, Swastikas, and pictures of Hitler, Steve quickly realizes that he has been captured by the enemy. Without realizing what is really going on, Rogers fights the best he can, but one of the doctors is able to sneak up behind Cap and inject him with a sedative powerful to take the fight out of him.
Steve Rogers then has a dream about everyone relying on him to win the war. In the end, Bucky burns up in flames and Captain America falls into the ocean. He wakes up from his dream as the commander of the Nazi U-Boat splashes water in his face. He tells Captain America that a lot has changed since the war and wanted him to see New Berlin, formerly New York City. They surface just as the pass the former Liberty Island, whose world famous statue has since been replaced with one of Nazi leader Adolf Hitler. They then pull up to the city, which has been re-imagined into a metropolis inspired by Nazi architecture and technology. The entire time, Steve watches without uttering a word.
When they arrive at port, Captain America is then chained to a stake and driven through the city in the hopes that it will crush the morale of those who still resist the Nazi occupation of America. However, some people in the audience are glad to see Captain America back and encourage him to keep fighting no matter what. He is then taken to the Empire State Building, headquarters to the Reichsfueher himself, the Red Skull. The years have not been kind to the Skull as he now sports cybernetic limbs where his left arm and right leg should be. Still he is pleased that his eternal enemy has survived to see what the Nazis have done to his country. From a huge portrait window, the Red Skull points out the various buildings they have been constructed in the past twenty years including the Albert Speer Dome, the Josef Goebbels Communication Tower, the Hermann Goering International Airport, and the slave labor factories of Brooklyn. He also boasts about the technological innovations since then in atomic energy, super-sonic travel, zeppelin fleets, and monorail systems.
The Red Skull then shows Cap footage of how the Allies had lost the war. It all started shortly after Captain America’s disappearance. The Nazis suddenly started gaining ground. Breakthroughs in technology allowed the Nazis to take over England, as well as regain ground lost in North Africa, and Soviet Russia. As the fighting crossed the Atlantic to America, the Nazis launched a nuclear V3 rocket at wiped Washington, DC off the map. From there, America quickly folded and the Nazis took over. They then started herding non-Aryan races into concentration camps. They had also ruthlessly annihilated the Atlanteans once they discovered the location of their underwater kingdom.
Now the leader of the Nazis, the Red Skull calls in his female slaves to serve them food and drink. He decides to put the past behidn them and offers the great Captain America everything he could ask for: women, money, power, fame, and even offers to give Steve the entire state of California to rule as he wishes. All Steve needs to do is pledge allegiance to him. The Skull warns Cap that if he refuses, they will first stud him out to breed a new race of Aryan Super Soldiers until they are able to replicate the Super Soldier Serum on their own. Once that happens, Captain America will be brought out to the gallows in Times Square where he will be publicly executed by hanging. The Red Skull muses that after that Captain America’s legendary shield will become a coffee table in his office. The Skull points out that the choice should be pretty easy.
Finally, Captain America speaks, he says the choice isn’t that easy. He then tells the Red Skull to go to hell before socking him in the face. He then tells the Skull that he’d rather die then become his puppet and he’s not dead yet. With that, Captain America leaps out the window sending him falling down over 100 stories.
Recurring Characters
Captain America, Bucky, Red Skull
Continuity Notes
The events in this story take place in an alternate reality. Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe A-Z #4 identifies it as Reality-31117. There are some issues with the way this reality is described. See below for more details.
The film reel features panels taken from various Captain America comics of the years. These are all comic book covers unless otherwise stated. They include Captain America with the Avengers (Avengers #4), Captain America draped in the American flag (Captain America (vol. 4) #1), Cap vs Batroc the Leaper (Tales of Suspense #76), Cap vs the Super-Adaptoid (Tales of Suspense #84), Cap vs. MODOK (taken from the pages of Tales of Suspense #94), the Avengers vs the Masters of Evil (Avengers #6), Cap vs Red Skull empowered by the Cosmic Cube (Tales of Suspense #80), the Avengers vs. the Comissar (Avengers #18), Captain America grimly looking out from the American flag (Captain America (vol. 4) #15).
These events mirror those that happened on Earth-616. See Avengers #4 for the details.
Are Realities 31117 and 616 Connected?
Short answer: No. This is proof that a certain crowdsourced website is actually the worse resource to use when researching things because it is rife with errors. Case in point, It incorrectly states that the Captain America of this reality was inhabited by his Earth-616 counterpart. This is because whoever edited the information on that garbage website copied information out of the alternate reality index of Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe A-Z #4 without actually reading the comics or cross referencing with other official resources. I get that these kids do it as a hobby and don’t necessarily have access to all resources, but don’t fucking add something you copied out of a book you lazy fucks.
If the research had been done fucking properly they would have noted that there was an error in the listing for Reality-31117. Namely that the Captain America of Earth-616 was possessing the body of his counterpart in that era. You’d have noticed this if you actually bothered reading the actual fucking comics in question. Never is this mentioned anywhere in the story. Ever. Secondly, this mistake was later corrected when in Avengers, Thor, & Avengers: Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe #14, which covers the Captain Amerifca Lives Again storcy arc. There is no reference to Earth-616 Captain America in those entries whatsoever. In fact, it implicitly states so in the Notes section in the Index Entry for this very issue.
The reason why this is an alternate reality not associated with Earth-616 is because it is a timeline where the Age of Heroes (aka the Modern Age) occurs in the 1960s. The dates used in this story are factual, not topical.
