Captain America (vol. 4) #20
Captain America Lives Again: Part 4
New Berlin, 1963[1]
Captain America has been freed from suspended animation to discover that the Nazis won World War II and now rule over America. Joining up with the Resistance — led by James Barnes, his former partner Bucky — Cap learned that the Red Skull and his scientists have completed a working time machine. Captured, Captain America was freed by Tony Stark, brilliant inventor and mole for the Resistance, as the battle over the time machine is waged at Stark Industries.
With the rebels pinned down by enemy fire, Captain America ambushes the Nazi machine gunners. He then lets out a rallying cry and leads the charge toward the building. As they press forward, Cap finds James and asks here Hank Pym is, as Stark handed him a device that only Pym would know how to use. That’s when the Nazi’s Iron Men arrive on the scene and begin attacking from the air.[2] As the Resistance is pinned down by the aerial attack, Cap gets the device to Hank Pym. Pym instantly knows what to do with it and switches the device to the right frequency to interfere with the Iron Men’s internal workings. With their suits disabled, the flying soldiers then begin falling out of the sky.
News of the attack on Stark Industries begins to spread and it inspires uprisings all over the United States. Pretty soon Nazi occupiers are overthrown in Los Angeles, New Orleans, Cleveland, and Austin.
Following the coverage, the Red Skull is furious and blames Captain America for inspiring the American people to finally stand up against his rule. He orders his team of scientists to push ahead with Project: Overlord, so he can send a team back in time and prevent this from happening. Lead scientist Victor Von Doom explains that they need to program the proper space/time coordinates into the Time Platform and that is ironically going to take time to complete. That’s when one of the guards reports that Captain America and the Resistance have managed to breach the main building. However, Von Doom reminds the Skull of the force field barrier that prevents anyone but high ranking officials from entering the main lab, confident that it will keep the heroes out.
However, Victor doesn’t account for how thirsty the guards manning the force field are. They are easily fooled into dropping the shield when Sue Storm pretends to be an escapee from the Nazi breeding pens. When the horny soldiers lower the field to let her through, she grabs one of their guns and mows them all down. Now the only thing between them and stopping the Red Skull is an easily cracked vault door. They get into the lab just as Doom is powering up the Time Platform. As the Resistance scientists race to the controls to try and shut it down, Hank Pym is shot in the back. He tries to guide Reed Richards and Bruce Banner in how to shut the device down, but it is slow going. Eventually, Banner’s anger gets the better of him and he begins smashing the controls with the butt of his rifle. When Victor Von Doom tries to stop him, he is struck by a power surge that horribly scars his face.[3]
Pretty soon, the Nazis are defeated and while everyone is pre-occupied tending to the wounded, the Red Skull — who had ducked out of sight during the battle — grabs James Barnes and uses him as a hostage to keep the other Resistance members away. The Red Skull then uses Barnes as a shield as he inches toward the Time-Platform. However, James is a trained soldier, not the easily captured youth from the war and he quickly breaks free from the Skull’s grasp. With the portal now overloading, Captain America tackles the Red Skull sending the two old enemies onto the platform. They both begin sinking into the device. The Red Skull is pleased as he looks forward to fighting Captain America across all eternity. However, once he sinks in over his head, the Skull begins to scream in agony. James rushes to the edge of the platform and tells Cap to reach out for his hands. Unfortunately, it is too late and Captain America is also sucked into the Time-Platform.
Suddenly, there is a bright flash of light and…..
March, 1963[4]
Captain America’s frozen body is floating in the Atlantic Ocean. where it is discovered by a passing sub-marine crewed by the Avengers, Earth’s Mightiest Heroes. As they pull the body on board they discover that they have just recovered the body of Captain America. As Steve Rogers opens his eyes, history begins its proper course.
Recurring Characters
(Earth-31117) Captain America, Nick Fury, Dum Dum Dugan, Bucky, Reed Richards, Sue Storm, Luke Cage, Bruce Banner, Henry Pym, Janet Van Dyne, Don Blake, Red Skull, Victor Von Doom (Unspecified Reality) Captain America, Avengers (Thor, Iron Man, Giant-Man, Wasp),
Continuity Notes
This story takes place in another reality where the Nazis won World War II and the Modern Age of Heroes (had it happened) would have began in the 1960s. Per Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe #4 it exists in Reality-31117. Despite what the handbook says, this reality’s Captain America is not possessed by his Earth-616 counterpart. This was an error and has since been corrected in Avengers, Thor, & Captain America: Official Index to the Marvel Universe #14.
The Iron Men depicted here have ID number stamped on their backs. The visible ones are abbreviations of the title and issue numbers of important Marvel Comics. Two can be read: TOS39 = Tales of Suspense #39 the first appearance of Iron Man, and AF15 = Amazing Fantasy #15, the first appearance of Spider-Man.
Victor Von Doom’s face getting scarred is a callback to his Earth-616 counterpart, whose face was scarred in an a college experiment gone wrong, as originally told in Fantastic Four #5.
This scene of course retells the “proper” discovery of Captain America by the Avengers, which was originally told in Avengers #4. As of this writing (February, 2023) there are still some unresolved specifics of what’s going on here:
Is this supposed to be Earth-616 or another reality. If it is the latter, then a corresponding Reality Number has yet to be assigned. I’m inclined to believe that it is an alternate reality. Since the Nazis-Rule-America story took place in the 1960s in a timeline where the Modern Age took place in the 1960s, then it stands to reason that this would be the same as the reality the takes its place.
Perhaps the reality that took its place is one that presently exists. There are a few realities where the Marvel Universe progressed in “real time”, such as Reality-98 featured in Fantastic Four Annual 1998. “Reality-19529” seen in Spider-Man: Life Story and whatever reality Fantastic Four: Life Story is given (time of this writing, there has yet to be one given officially or unofficially).
It is also not explained how Cap and Red Skull being sent back in time through the Time Platform undoes the Nazi victory during World War II. Whatever happened caused one reality to either be erased or overlayed with the other much like what happened in Legion Quest (Earth-616 getting briefly overwritten by Earth-295, aka the Age of Apocalypse) or the House of M, (which saw Earth-616 get briefly replaced by Earth-58163).
