Captain America (vol. 4) #3
Enemy, Part 3: Soft Targets
8:00 AM
The terrorist known as Faysal Al-Tariq has taken an entire church in the town of Centerville, California hostage after decimating the small town with landmines. He keeps the churchgoers in their pews by rolling our more explosives along the floor.
Faysal knows that they are all wondering why he has chosen their sleepy little town for their attack. The answer is simple, the biggest employer to this small American town is a bomb manufacturing facility. As such, Al-Tariq has decided to give them a first hand education on the meaning of the phrase “To sow the wind and reap the whirlwind.”
Now
Captain America has been deployed to answer Faysal Al-Tariq’s challenged. Fighting his way through town to the church, the only obstacles in his way are trio of Arab children. Each one has a radio so that Faysal can taunt the Captain while they try to attack him, knowing the American hero will not want to harm children. As he evades the swings of their ceremonial axes, Cap is told to pay close attention to the arms and legs of his attackers. He notices that the children have cybernetic limbs, victims of American made bombs. It’s not a hard thing for Captain America to accept, knowing that unexploded landmines and cluster bombs often outlive the conflicts they were part of, only to go off years later and harm innocent people. He tries to tell the children to stop attacking, that he doesn’t want to hurt him, but they won’t listen. Instead, they swarm him all at once. That’s when one of them opens up is robe revealing he has a suicide bomber rig all set up. He pulls the pins to the grenades strapped to his chest all at one. All Captain America can do is get hid shield up in time to deflect the worst of the blast.
Only Cap and one of the boys survive the blast. Seeing Captain America spattered with the gore of his brothers takes all the fight out of the remaining survivor. He wonders if Al-Taraq was wrong about the masked man being his enemy. Steve tells the boy he is not and neither are the people trapped inside the church. That’s when Steve notices that the two dead boys were wearing the same kind of CAT tags that Nick Fury tried to make him wear earlier.[1] Before Cap can go after them, the boy warns that if he does, the people inside will die.
With ten minutes on the clock before all of the explosives in town go off, Captain America needs to stop things right away. As he runs toward the church he happens to spot a hand sticking out of the rubble. He remembers the hand he saw at the disaster site back in New York and how he was too late to save that life.[2] Considering that even more lives could be lost if he doesn’t stop the bombs, Steve leaves the body where it is as he has no time to choose.
By this time, Faysal Al-Tariq has decided to address the live viewing audience himself. He tells them that he is not a terrorist, that he is a messenger come to bring the American people the truth about war, that AMERICANS are the real terrorists.[3] He speaks about how America made weapons have killed many of his people and they are written off a collateral damage and that he has come to demand justice for those who have died.
The whole time he is ranting and raving, Captain America is plowing through the last of Faysal’s minions. He then lunges at the terrorist lead and struggles over the control that can either set off the bombs or shut them down. As they struggle, Cap manages to deactivate the device, rendering the bombs harmless. That’s when he and reporter Jessica Seldon and her cameraman notice the light on the CAT tag around Al-Tariq’s neck go from green to red. Realizing he killed a man, Captain America addresses the viewing public.
He tells him that what they have witnessed here was not war, but hate. Blind hatred is what claimed countless lives in Centerville this morning. Blind enough to hold an entire nation of people accountable for the actions of a man. Realizing he has given in to that hate, Captain America realizes that he can’t be a part of it after seeing what he has seen today. Looking right into the camera he tells the viewing audience that America didn’t kill Faysal Al-Tariq.[4] He then takes off his mask and tells people that he did.
Recurring Characters
Captain America, Faysal Al-Tariq, Jessica Seldon
Continuity Notes
CAT tag is short from Casualty Awareness Tracking tag. Fury tried to give Steve on in Captain America (vol. 4) #1. Cap will discover how Al-Tariq got his hands on some in issue #6.
Captain America is recalling the person he was too late to save back in issue #1.
Al-Tariq’s belief that Americans are no better than terrorists is because his home village was wiped out by American made weapons, as will be explained in issue #6 (again).
It’s later revealed (in issue #6, again) that the CAT tags actually transmit the souls of the dead into a central storage unit that is worn by the real Faysal Al-Tariq. Or something. This is not very clearly explained. See below.
Topical References
References or allusions to the terrorist attacks that happened on September 11, 2001, that suggest that they happened recently should be considered topical.
This story states that Al-Tariq’s attack is happening on Easter Sunday. This should be considered a topical reference because Easter is a holiday that happens on the first full moon on or before March 21, as such its dates shift from year-to-year. More over, Easter is not integral to the story that is being told her as this could happen on any Sunday morning and not change the story. More over, due to events of Captain America (vol. 4) #4-6, the reference to it being Easter would be impossible as well, so it should be ignored.
