Captain America: Sentinel of Liberty #3
Descent into Madness Chapter Two: Sins of the Mother
1942
The kingdom of Atlantis has allied with the Nazis due to an attack on the kingdom by the Human Torch. Captain America and the Sub-Mariner had come to investigate why only to be captured. Although he has been a prisoner for days, every time he is brought food, Captain America boldly asks his prison guards if they surrender yet.
When the guards leave again, Cap goes back to work using his shield to cut through through his shackles. Finally cutting himself loose, Captain America attacks the Nazi guards patrolling the area. He then leads them down into a trench where they are swarmed by a horde of lampreys. This allows Cap to slip past them and see what the Germans are doing in the bunker the built here.
Entering the water tight facility, Steve is surprised to see that the Nazis have set up a lab and are working on some kind of experiment. He figures this is probably where the Human Torch’s powers were ramped up and he was brainwashed into attacking Atlantis. After ambushing the two scientists, Cap then opens a chamber he thinks contains the Torch. Instead, he finds a number of badly starved and tortured Americans. They are all Naval officers who were captured in various sea battles with the Axis and have been subject to horrifying experiments. Captain America promises he’ll get the sailors free, even though he’s not entirely sure how he’s going to pull it off just yet.
Elsewhere, Princess Fen has called an audience with her son, Namor the Sub-Mariner. Namor cannot believe that his mother would ally their kingdom with the Nazis. She tries to get her to understand how things are on the surface, but she reminds him that she knows all about the surface world. She recounts how a trip to the surface led to the romance between her and Leonard McKenzie, a union that led to her pregnancy and the birth of Namor.[1] She knew from the day he was born with Caucasian skin that her son would be different. She keeps on referring to his differences from the other Atlanteans to be a handicap. Namor doesn’t understand the tone his mother is taking with him. That’s when Steve Rogers makes his presence known. Although he doesn’t understand the Atlantean tongue, Rogers can tell that Namor’s mother is ashamed of him.
Switching to English, Fen admits that she feels pity for her son, saying that by defying orders to not interact with the surface world, Fen had condemned her only child with being born aberrant. When she says that nothing good can come from the surface world, the words sting to Namor since he is of the surface world.Cap tells Namor that what his mother is really feeling is guilt for disobeying the rules and through that she has unfounded hatred toward the surface world. That’s when Cap reveals to Namor that the Nazis have created a death camp in Atlantis and about the experiments being conducted on prisoners of war. That’s when an army of Atlantean and Nazi warriors arrive to attack the pair.
Meanwhile, on the surface, General Chester Phillips has grown concerned that Captain America hasn’t reported back to him in over 3 days. He has commandeered a naval destroyer to pilot out to the location of Atlantis. The commander of the ship, Admiral Tyler thinks Atlantis is nothing more than a fairy tale. Phillips then shows Tyler the log book kept by Leonard McKenzie, the man who first encountered the people of Atlantis in order to prove that the stories are true. When Tyler asks what to expect when they arrive, the General tells him to be ready for war.
By this time, the Nazis have reactivated the Human Torch and set him against Captain America and the Sub-Mariner. However, seeing the Torch attacking the two heroes makes Princess Fen realize that the Nazis were lying to her this entire time and are really the ones controlling the Human Torch. Trying to get through to the Torch, Captain America leads his friend into the bunker where the prisoners of war are being kept. Seeing the horrifying conditions is enough to shock the Torch out of his Nazi conditioning. The android then explains that after he was captured, the Nazis experimented upon him by boosting his flame powers to work underwater.[2] While this will eventually burn him out, the Torch says that the Nazi scientists also examined how he worked. That’s when one of the uncaptured scientists opens another chamber, unleashing the Firebrand Squadron, an army of Human Torch duplicates!
Recurring Characters
Invaders (Captain America, Sub-Mariner, Human Torch), Fen, Nazis, Firebrand Squadron, Chester Phillips
Continuity Notes
Princess Fen and Leonard McKenzie’s brief romance and the birth of Namor has been covered in many stories over the years. See Marvel Comics #1, Sub-Mariner Comics #32, and Saga of the Sub-Mariner #1.
The Human Torch was captured by the Nazis last issue.
