Melting Fire with Ice

Jack Monroe, aka Nomad, has been trying to determine the connection between the Miami drug operation and Cyberoptics, an electronics company developing a new weapon for the US government. The clues have led him to the town of Juneau, Alaska where a trade is underway for the weapon which is called the Systems In-Close Cybernetic Autonomous Electric Gun, or SICCAEL for short. Accompanying him on the trip up north is a baby girl that Jack rescued from her mother, a drug addicted prostitute. Giving the little girl a domino mask, Nomad has come to start calling her Bucky after his former alter-ego.[1]

The weapon is being kept aboard a Russian vessel where its owners are waiting for important software to make it work. Taking out a guard, Nomad sneaks into the lower decks of the ship and finds where they are keeping the SICCAEL. That’s when Bucky begins to cry, threatening to blow his cover. Luckily, she quiets up once he gives her a pacifier. He then boots up the computer hooked up to the weapon and begins loading software given to him by its designer.

That’s when Jack is caught by the Russian guards, led by Major-General Sokolowski, who informs the intruder that he is trespassing on a Russian vessel and he is being put under arrest. Jack distracts them long enough for the program to run its course. He then tosses his stun discs at the guards and makes his escape from the ship.

Back on the pier, he ends up running into Captain America who has been sent after him by the Committee on Superhuman Affairs. Cap explains that he has come to bring him in for interfering with government business and that if he doesn’t surrender the Committee might send someone else to kill him. Jack cannot believe this and refuses to surrender without a fight. After putting Bucky safely out of harms way so he and Cap can fight it out. As the two brawl with one another, the authorities — as well as Val Cooper and Henry Gyrich of the Committee — arrive on the scene. With them is Andra Sterman, the psychologist they hired to do a profile up on Jack. Unable to defeat Captain America in a one-on-one battle, Jack gets desperate and threatens to shoot Bucky if they don’t let him go. Cap calls his bluff and Jack, feeling disgusted with himself, tosses the gun down and surrenders.

Jack is arrested and taken to a nearby warehouse for questioning. When he refuses to talk to Gyrich and Cooper, they leave Monroe with Major-General Sokolowski and General Lewis Hayworth since he can resort to torture to extract information from their prisoner. Not liking where any of this is going, Sterman tells her bosses that she forgot something inside the warehouse and will catch up with them back at their hotel.

Back inside, Jack demands answers to the various parts of this conspiracy that still haven’t added up. He learns that Elia Arriquez — whose shooting got Jack involved in the first place — was killed due to the fact that she had become a security risk due to her involvement with a drug addicted designer and her uncle Umberto Safilios, a Miami drug dealer. The US government needed the hardware from the Russians to build the SICCAEL with Cyberoptics programing the code needed to make it work. In order to fund all of this, they got involved in the drug trade as it allowed them to generate the capital needed to make the necessary back room deals to secure the hardware. The military has no issue with flooding poor neighborhoods with drugs since it will keep the masses pliable.

Jack doesn’t understand what the point of all of this is so someone who has been listening from the shadows steps out and explains what’s going on. It turns out to be none other than Umberto Safilios himself, who managed to survive their last encounter.[2] He explains that SICCAEL is to be given to some of Umberto’s friends down in Panama who will use the weapon to assassinate the leader of Carribean nation that has been a thorn in the side of the United States for years.

This is all overheard by Andrea Sterman who realizes that Nomad is not the criminal the Commission has made him out to be. She runs back to the hotel and pays a visit to Captain America and explains everything she just heard. He agrees to accompany her back to the warehouse and free Jack from captivity. Captain America sneaks into the facility and frees Monroe from his cell. However, before they confront the conspirators Jack wants to find Bucky. They quickly find the girl and hand her off to Andrea who is waiting for them outside. They then go back inside and ambushed Stafilios and his allies. Major-General Sokolowski fires up the SICCAEL weapon and attempts to use it to kill Nomad but the weapon won’t respond to his mental commands.

Yanking the experimental weapon from the Russian operative, Jack explains that he was able to install software that made SICCAEL unresponsive to anyone but himself. He then uses it to mow everyone down. The sensation of being interfaced with the gun is a sickening experience for Nomad as he is no longer able to make a distinction between himself and the gun. After all his enemies have been gunned down, Jack reasserts control and decides that this is not the way going forward and smashes the gun to bits. Dying, Umberto Stafilios’ final words are to mock Jack as he knew that the vigilante couldn’t live with himself after using the powerful weapon.

Seeing what Jack went through to get to this point, Capitan America tries to console him. However, there is a lot for Jack Monroe to contemplate after uncovering this conspiracy. Captain America agrees to let Jack go, saying he will give a full explanation to the Commission. When Andrea suggests they put Bucky in a foster home, Jack refuses and takes the girl back, saying that she deserves a chance as much as he does. With that, Nomad walks away with a new purpose in life. From now on he is going to find the things that are wrong with America and fix them.

… This story continues in Captain America Annual #10.

Recurring Characters

Nomad, Bucky, Captain America, Andrea Sterman, Umberto Stafilios, Val Cooper, Henry Gyrich, Lewis Hayworth

Continuity Notes

1. Jack got his super-heroing career started in the 1950s playing the role of Bucky for that era’s Captain America. For the TL;DR version around all that see Captain America #155.

2. Umberto Safilios seemingly perished when he drove a truck off a cliff back in Nomad #1. Guess he jumped out at the last minute?

Topical References

• The computer set up for SICCAEL is depicted as a computer with a monochrome CRT monitor that can load data through a 3.5” floppy disc drive. This should be considered topical as these are all obsolete technologies.

• The computer is also depicted as running on an old MS-DOS operating system analogous with the year this comic was published. This should also be considered a topical reference as DOS still exists but is primarily a background operating system. Its depiction here should be considered topical as well.

• Russia is referred to as the Union of Soviet Soviet Republics, or the USSR. This should be considered a topical reference as the USSR collapsed about a year after this comic was published.

• When the Russians ask who Jack is, he sarcastically tells them that he is Elvis Presley and begins singing a line from the song Blue Suede Shoes, a ditty that Elvis covered in 1956. Something like this could be considered a topical reference coming out of the mout of anyone else. However, since Jack was born and raised in the 1950s before being put in cryogenic suspension for decades, his referencing Elvis would not be considered topical in this instance.

• Nomad’s baby carrier has a picture of Mickey Mouse on it. Something like that would be considered topical except for that Disney now owns Marvel Comics. References to Disney would not be considered topical due to brand synergy.

• Safilios states that the SICCAEL is going to be given to Panamanian guerillas so they can eliminate Castro. He is talking about Fidel Castro, who was the communist leader of Cuba until his death in 2016. At the this story was written Cuba had been a constant thorn in US global policy due to their involvement with Russia during the Cold War as well as being a hotspot for drug trafficking in the 80s and 90s. All of these references are topical since they are now all incredibly dated.