Captain America (vol. 4) #26
Homeland: Part 4
Captain America has been asked to be part of a jury in the treason trial of Fernand Hedayat, an Iranian born American. The trial was supposed to take place at an off-short military prison that is the subject to much controversy. However, shortly after his arrival, a number of prisoners escaped — taking Hedayat with them — and fled to nearby Cuba where a stash of biological weapons are waiting to be used. Now Captain America and SHIELD are working together with the Cuban government to track down and stop the terrorists before they can unleash the weapon on Cuban soil.
While the Cuban President is being cooperative, the fact that revolutionaries are making attempts on his life — even aboard the SHIELD sky-destroyer — does not instill Cap or Nick Fury with much confidence in his abilities. Regardless, the President is assigning his two best soldiers, Arturo Gutierrez and Luisa Prohias, to help Captain America on his mission. While Cap has his objections about this, Fury thanks the President for his assistance in order to maintain good relations during their time in Cuba. When speaking in private, Fury is impressed with how sly the President was, figuring he wants his own troops involved in the hopes of seizing control of the bio-weapons for his country.
Nick then takes Cap to meet with Uwe Kael, the SHIELD agent who is in charge of tracking the terrorists since they escape captivity. As it turns out, the GPS tracking devices that were implanted on the prisoners were also uniquely radioactive so prisoners could still be tracked if they managed to remove them. This bothers Captain America as this was done without official authorization. However, Fury assures Cap that Fernand Hedayat was not chipped like the other prisoners, giving the hero a bit of relief. They have figure out the terrorists path and the planning to drop Captain America and his Cuban allies near Havana to intercept them. Fury then gives Cap a signal beacon. If things go sideways, Steve need only push the button on the device which will trigger the sky-destroyer to fire microwaves in the immediate area of the bio-weapons that will render them useless. He warns Cap that unless he wants to be cooked from the inside out he’ll want to avoid being in the blast radius.
Later, Cap joins his Cuban allies in the mess hall for a meal. They argue over the historic animosity between the United States and Cuba. When Luisa points out that he couldn’t know what he people had gone through because he slept through it,[1] he counters by saying he grew up during the Great Depression. He knows from experience that any revolution is doomed to failure if it can’t get everybody fed. Arturo doesn’t follow along very well and he has to be told that Steve spent decades in suspended animation. This interested Arturo who is convinced he has prophetic dreams that alluded to this.
Soon, the trio are on the road in Havana en route to their ambush point. Along the way, Luisa starts to grate on Cap’s patience by asking him of all the historical figures he had met during World War II who would have supported Cuban communism.[2] That’s when Nick Fury calls in to tell Steve that the terrorists were tracked to Habana Vieja and that their exact location will be given when they arrive. As he relays this to Maria he also adjusts the rear view mirror in their jeep. Knowing why he is doing that, Prohias assures him that nobody is following them.
When they arrive on location, Captain America suggests a stealth approach. Luisa and their troops however rush in with guns blazing. With lives on the line, Cap leaps into the building and quickly reaches the location where the bio-weapon is being stored. He plows his way through the terrorists and reaches gets close enough to Khalid El-Gamal to knock him out with his shield and stop him from activating the bio-weapon. While Cap’s shield would have made it, Luisa guns down El-Gamal, wounding Fernand Hedayat as well. With the terrorists neutralized, Luisa tells Steve that he can take Hedayat and go and leave the bio-weapon with them. Not wanting the weapon to fall into Cuban hands, Steve refuses. When Luisa threatens to shoot him, Steve pulls out the signal beacon and turns it on. He then crushes the device and tells that they all have 8 minutes to live.
Recurring Characters
Captain America, SHIELD (Nick Fury), Khalid El-Gamal, Arturo Gutierrez, Luisa Prohias, Fernand Hedayat
Continuity Notes
This is a reference to the fact that Captain America had spent decades in suspended animation from 1945 until the early days of the Modern Age. See Avengers #4.
Of the people that Captain America had met over the years. They are:
Franklin Roosevelt: Was President of the United States during most of World War II. Captain America’s first meeting with him was chronicled in Captain America #255.
Winston Churchill: Was Prime Minister of Britain during the war. Cap met him for the first time in Giant-Size Invaders #1.
Ernest Hemmingway: American novelist and journalist. He was a correspondent reporting on the war in Europe. As of this writing (February, 2023) Captain America’s meeting with Hemmingway has yet to be depicted.
Ronald Reagan: American actor and later President of the Untied States between 1981-1989. He was in the Army Reserves and was enlisted to fight in the war in 1942. Cap was depicted fighting President Reagan in Captain America #344, but this was a topical reference. See below for more.
Humphry Bogart: American actor who was at the height of his fame during World War II. He tried to enlist but was rejected due to his age as he was in his 40s by that point. Cap doesn’t confirm if he met Bogart or not, if he has then that meeting has not been depicted as of this writing.
Topical References
This story is stated as taking place in December of 2003. This date should be considered topical as it is relative to the date of publication.
The main plot point to this story is that the prisoners loose in Cuba had escaped from Guantanamo Bay military prison off the coast of Cuba. At the time this story was published in 2004 if had just recently opened to house those captured and charged with terrorism in the fallout of the 9/11 terrorist attacks. It had already gained infamy for reports of torture and prisoner abuse and the fact the prisoners were often held without trial for years on end. At it’s height, it was home to over 700 prisoners. Time of this writing (February, 2023) there are less than 40. With talks of shutting the prison down becoming more common in recent times the place will probably be closed sooner or later and as such its reference here should be considered a topical reference. Modern readers should interpret this location as an unidentified off-short prison that is unique to the fiction as opposed to a real life location.
Another plot point involves the escaped terrorists attempting to access chemical weapons hidden in Cuba. This story states that they had come from Iraq. Following 9/11, President George W. Bush justified an invasion of Iraq in 2003 under the pretense that its leader, Saddam Hussein, was creating WMDs that were then given to terrorists. The fear was that groups like al-Queda (responsible for 9/11) would get ahold of chemical or nuclear grade weapons. I’m not about to get into the intricate details, but while Iraq had a history of developing chemical weapons that were then used against their enemies, any notion that Hussein was creating WMDs for the reasons that justified such an invasion proved to be wrong. This didn’t stop the US from invading and later executing Hussein that same year. At any rate, since Hussein is now dead, the invasion is 20 years over, and the fact that no WMDs were found, this should be considered a topical reference as it was never factually accurate to begin with. Modern readers should interpret this instead as WMDs created in some unspecified region of the Middle East by an unspecified dictator. Likely in an instance unique to the fiction since the assertions were fiction themselves IRL.
The President of Cuba is depicted as Fidel Castro. This should be considered a topical reference as Castro stepped down due to health reasons in 2008 and later died in 2016.
Luisa mentions two things that Cuba accomplished that bettered the world. They are:
When she states that Cuba liberated the people of Africa, she is referring to Cuban intervention in a conflict between South Africa and Angola. This also led to South West Africa (later Nambia) gain its independence from South Africa. This wouldn’t be a topical reference since Luisa is referencing a historical event.
She also mentions how Cuba fought against Osama Bin Laden first. This story was written in when the American war with Afghanistan was still relatively new and Osama Bin Laden was still on the run following the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. The Cubans were involved in the earlier Soviet led war in Afghanistan that took place between 1979 and 1989. The context of this comment and the fact that Luisa’s parents fought in the Soviet-Afghan War should be considered topical.
When Luisa mentions Captain America meeting Ronald Reagan, it’s unclear if she is referring to meeting him during the war or if he had met him after the fact. If it is after the fact, then this would be considered a topical reference. This is because the Sliding Timescale has pushed the Modern Age forward in time enough that the events of Avengers #4 don't happen until after Reagan’s death in 2004. As of this writing the Modern Age doesn’t start until the year 2007 (and this will continue to change).
