Captain America (vol. 5) #7
Interlude: The Lonesome Death of Jack Monroe
“Do I know you?”, asked Jack Monroe.
“No”, replied the man who called his name as he pulled the trigger of his gun.
And just like that, Jack Monroe was dead.[1]
How did we get here? Well…
One Year Ago — New York
Jack Monroe had been having health problems so he went to go see Doctor Jane Foster at the Greendale Medical Research Clinic. After running a battery of tests she has determined that the Super Soldier Serum in his body is starting to degrade. Although she hasn’t isolated the root cause, she figures it could be any number of things give his past history.[2] Regardless, his illness is past the point of no return and any possible treatment will likely kill him faster than the illness.
While she has no other options, she suggests Jack try getting help from SHIELD or the Avengers. Monroe turns down these suggestions, telling her that he’s had his fill with SHIELD and doesn’t want to burden Captain America with his problems.[3] Instead, he asks what he can expect as his body begins to succumb to this illness. Jane, who has had some experience treating meta-humans, states that Jack will ultimately die and it won’t be a pleasant experience. She predicts that he’ll start losing his enhanced strength and agility given to him by the Super Soldier Serum. His immune system will be completely annihilated and he’ll get very sick. However, by that point, his mind will be completely gone as well. Jane says that the best thing that Jack can do is to say his final goodbyes and get his affairs in order while he still has time.
When he puts his mind to it, Jack can’t really think of anyone he has left to say goodbye to. The only other person he ever thought of as a friend was his teacher at school, the man who because the Captain America of the 1950s. Jack met him when he was at the Lee School. The man idolized the real Cap so much that he underwent surgery to look and sound like his hero and even legally changed his name to Steve Rogers. While “Steve” became the new Captain America, Jack became the new Bucky. They fought crime in the early days of the Cold War and the pair began seeing communists and traitors everywhere little knowing that their impure version of the Super Soldier Serum was driving them mad. Eventually, the government had to intervene and the pair were put into suspended animation. They were revived in the present and went after the original Captain America thinking him an impostor, and were defeated.[3]
Eventually, Jack was taken into SHIELD custody and they apparently cured him. He eventually came to Steve Rogers who agreed to take him on as his new crime fighting partner. Eventually Jack took over Steve’s discarded Nomad identity.[4] Jack finds it bitterly amusing that he never had an identity all his own. He was always worked in the shadows of others. He wonders what right he had to take on Bucky’s identity or even Nomad, roaming the countries trying to fill Captain America’s shoes.[5] He wasn’t even the original Scourge now that he thinks about it.[6] When he is just about to give up thinking about someone to say goodbye too, he remembers his Bucky.[7]
Ten Months Ago — Washington, DC
Jack decided to dedicate his remaining time tracking down Bucky to make sure she is being well taken care of. In between his search, he would change into Nomad and fight crime, but after one battle he found himself coughing up blood. He tried to convince himself it was nothing, and tried sleeping it off. He was in bed for two days and when he finally got up he threw up in the toilet before hallucinating the image of the original Bucky taunting him for trying to replace him. It was so convincing that Jack ended up punching the mirror and cutting his hand open before realizing it was all in his head.
When he calls Doctor Foster to report all this, she pleaded with him to come back for treatment as he is now a danger to himself and others. Jack walked away from the pay phone with the received off the hook. However, Jack — entering a mental fog — walks away from the call. He doesn’t remember much of what happened next, but he recalls a dream involving the Sub-Mariner and the original Human Torch, something about a contract but he doesn’t know what. When he wakes up he could see the original Bucky reflected in his bedroom windows laughing at him. Still, he managed to get ahold of Bucky’s adoption records even though he has no memory of how he pulled it off.
Nine Months Ago — Pittsburgh
From these records, Jack learns that Bucky had her name legally changed to Julia Winters. He goes to the address on the adoption papers and sees Julia playing in the yard with her adoptive mother. Seeing Jack, Julia asks her mother who the strange man watching them is. However, when the mother looks, Jack is gone as he determined that Bucky no longer remembers him and left. Monroe then went to a bar to drink his sorrows and figure out his next move.
He was about to head back to New York and enter Doctor Foster’s care when he overheard two men talking about selling something to the children at Bucky’s elementary school. To Jack, these men sound like drug dealers and fearing for Bucky, he decides to do something about it.
As Nomad, Jack begins shaking down members of organized crime to find out who is selling drugs to school kids. His attempts to find out are stymied by black outs that are starting to happen more and more frequently. He is becoming harder too now that he has totally lost his super strength and agility. Whenever he looks in the mirror the taunting eyes of the original Bucky look back at him in disgust. He thinks over and over again about all the different identities he has co-opted over the years, shedding each one like a snake does its skin. He hallucinates Bucky ripping out of his body. When he finally gets it together again, he encourages himself to hold it together for just a little longer.
Three Months Ago
With no other clues, Jack started going back to the bar but the only thing he could learn about the alleged drug dealings was that the guy talking at the bar was named Gunnar. He decided to listen in to his conversation that night to see what else he might learn, but got distracted by a news story about the Avengers disbanding.[8] Jack thinks he should contact Captain America and see how he is doing when he suffers another black out….
Last Night
When Jack finally snaps back to reality he is beating up some bikers in the hopes that they have the information he seeks. However, none of them have any clue who is selling drugs to the elementary school. With no further clues, Nomad flees the scene.
Earlier Today
Jack went back to the bar in the hopes that Gunner would show up. However, a story about Captain America gets him into an argument about working with Cap in the past. Suddenly, Jack feels disassociated from his body and watches as he gets up and leaves the bar.[8] He is opening the trunk to his car when someone calls his name from behind. When Jack turns to look and see who it is, the man appears to be the original Bucky and pointing a gun at him. Thinking this is another hallucination, Jack asks if he knows who is calling to him. The person says no and shoots him point blank in the chest, killing Jack instantly. His killer then shoves Jack into the trunk of the car and drives away.
Moments later, Gunner pulls up at the bar in his ice cream truck. When he meets with his pal Joey, he brags about how much of a killing he made down by the elementary school that day selling ice cream.
Recurring Characters
Nomad, Winter Soldier, Jane Foster, Julia Winters
Continuity Notes
This is recapping the end of Captain America (vol. 5) #3.
Jane Foster gives a number of possibilities as to why Jack’s body is starting to fail him. Let’s list off all the reasons given here and one that isn’t:
The Super-Soldier Formula: Has been identified as being defective as explained in Captain America #155. It breaking down on its own isn’t that outlandish a claim given Steve Rogers experienced this very similar scenario between Captain America #425 through 445. It took a full blood transfusion and bone marrow transplant from the Red Skull to cure him.
She suggests that SHIELD’s treatment for his mental health problems could also be another cause. Again, as stated in Captain America #155, the Super Soldier Serum Jack used was impure and drive him crazy over time. When he resurfaced again in Captain America #281 he had undergone treatment under SHIELD to cure himself. According to Nomad #1, this included a battery of drugs being used. Although this seems unlikely.
Nanites: As explained in Thunderbolts #49, when Jack was transformed into the new Scourge of the Underworld, his brain was flooded with nanites in order to ensure he would follow orders and carry out objectives. These were presumably purged when he was freed in Thunderbolts #50.
An auto-immune system: In Nomad (vol. 2) #15, Jack gets the results of an HIV/AIDS test. The story ends with Jack throwing the results out the window but the reader never learns what the results were. For more on this, see below.
Some items about the Captain America and Bucky that were glossed over or unknown at the time of this story:
At the time of this story, nobody knew the birth name of the 1950s Captain America. However, per Captain America #602, his original name was William Burnside.
While the adventures of the 50s Cap and Bucky were chronicled in Young Men #24-27, Men’s Adventures #27-28, and Captain America Comics #76-78, the fact that they injected themselves with an impure version of the Super-Soldier Serum and that they went made and were put in suspension didn’t get revealed until Captain America #155.
As far as they knew, the original Captain America died when he went MIA in 1945. However, as we know, he ended up in suspended animation and was revived in the present day, as seen in Avengers #4. When Burnside and Monroe were revived they thought Cap was an impostor. They fought him in Captain America #153-156.
Jack underwent SHIELD treatment to cure him of his madness between Captain America #236 and 281. In the latter issue he became partners with Captain America, adopting the Nomad identity in Captain America #282. Steve briefly used the Nomad identity between Captain America #180 to 183 during a point in his life when he was disillusioned and gave up being Captain America.
Jack travelled the dusty highways between Nomad #1-4 and (vol. 2) #1-25.
Jack was forced into becoming the next Scourge of the Underworld from Thunderbolts #34 through 50.
Jack’s Bucky was an infant child whom he took from her biological mother in Nomad #3, at the time she was an drug addicted prostitute. After her mother cleaned up her act, Jack gave Bucky back in Nomad (vol. 2) #17. The mother later died in issue #24 and Jack’s death was faked and he was put in cryogenic suspension in the following issue.
Jack mentions Doctor Faustus when feeling trapped inside his head. Jack’s mind had been tampered with by the villainous psychologist, as seen in Captain America #236 and later in Nomad (vol. 2) #18-19/Captain America #421.
Topical References
Prior to his appearance in Captain America (vol. 5) #3 (published in 2005), Jack Monroe was last seen in Thunderbolts #50 (published in 2001). The narrative states that Jack’s story between those appearances happened about a year prior. Measuring this against the Sliding Timescale shows that this is an accurate measurement of time.
When reflecting on his life, Jack can’t believe its been 8 years since he was revived in the present day. Monroe first resurfaced in Captain America #153 (published in 1972) while this story was published in 2005. Based on the Sliding Timescale, this is an accurate assessment of time.
Nomad states that he spent the last part of the 20th century riding across America. This should be considered a topical reference as the Modern Age has been pushed forward in time to a point where it doesn’t begin until after the start of the 21st century.
The TV in the bar where Jack drinks is depicted as a CRT model. This should be considered a topical reference as this is an obsolete technology.
What Was Killing Jack Monroe?
Before he took a bullet to the chest, Jack’s body was failing him. As I stated above, there is one reason that isn’t mentioned that sounds like the most likely culprit. Over a decade earlier, writer Fabian Nicieza was writing the Nomad series and did a story where Nomad becomes concerned he might have been infected with AIDS and has a blood test done. In the end, we never learn what the results of that test was. According to Nicieza, his intention was for Nomad to have contracted the illness. However, this was vetoed by Marvel editorial and is why the story ends ambiguously. Nicieza’s run on Nomad was very topical, hitting on real world issues of the time. The AIDS storyline was written during the height of the AIDS epidemic of the 1990s when educating people and finding a treatment was low on the totem pole because Ronald Reagan thought gay people dying of a preventable illness was funny.
Anyway, based on the text in Captain America (vol. 3) #7, it sure sounds like Jack is in the late stages of an untreated AIDS infection. Maybe I’m reading into it too much, but it sounds like that was what Bruebaker wanted to do, but Marvel editorial got in the way again. Being vague about the cause of his illness and giving multiple potential other reasons was the compromise? It sounds like something editorial would do back in those days.
Either that, that he contracted AIDS would be considered a topical reference these days because the illness is treatable and not the death sentence it would have been. One could assume that he is dying of an unspecified auto-immune illness.