Nomad (vol. 2) #20
The Art of the Steal
Three members of the Six Pack — Domino, Kane, and Grizzly — have been hired to retrieve a new experimental weapon from the Comtech Research facility in Cape Canaveral, Florida. Given intel remotely from their teammate Hammer, the pair figure that this job will be simplicity itself. However, when they enter the facility they discover that someone else has already knocked out all the staff and guards on duty. That’s when they run into Nomad who is also trying to steal the weapon.
Jack is surprised to see the three other mercenaries. As he dives for cover Jack discovers that they are armed with energy weapons, making him realize that he might be out of his league. To create a distraction, Jack tosses one of his stun discs into the air above the Six Pack. Thinking it’s a grenade, Grizzly blasts the disc and accidentally triggers the fire sprinkler system. With Nomad gone and the alarm tripped, the Six Pack do an immediate evac. When they head outside, Nomad watches in awe as a VTOL craft comes to pick them up. Getting into his beat up pick-up, Jack leaves the scene as well wondering for the second time just what he has gotten himself into this time.
Jack then heads down a club called the Cara Santos to meet with his client, Carmella Roya, and get paid. She is grateful that he stole the device she helped make because she feared that the government might misuse the technology. Jack then warns her about his encounter with the Six Pack, cautioning her to watch her back as they might go after her next.
Meanwhile, the Six Pack are relaxing on Cocoa Beach while Hammer looks up information on the man who beat them to the weapon they were hired to collect. He learns that they are dealing with Jack Monroe, aka Nomad, and goes over Jack’s past history as the sidekick to the Captain America of the 1950s.[1] Jack also seems to have a lot of enemies and connections with their current employer. Hammer then decides that it is best to leave that alone and purges all the data on Monroe he has collected. Instead, he suggests that the Six Pack start trying to track down Nomad and the weapon he stole.
A few days later in Minneapolis, Giscard Epurer has taken Bucky away from her mother. She is furious that he would do such a thing after all the work she did getting clean and becoming an assassin for him. Giscard explains that she hasn’t paid off her debt to him because she failed to kill Jack Monroe. That said, he assures her if she carries out this next job he will make sure she gets Bucky back.[2] Giscard wants her to get a certain politician in a compromising position. He then hands her a dossier on Senator Bart Ingrid.[3]
While in Clutier, Iowa, Jill Coltrain — Nomad’s long lost sister — is visited by Bart Ingram. She has recently been visited to Giscard Epurer who came asking her about both Jack and Bart. She is afraid that their current secret will be exposed just as their parents Nazi sympathizing was exposed.[4] Ingram tells Jill not to feel any empathy for her brother, reminding him how he was responsible for destroying both of their families and deserves to be dealt with permenantly.
Meanwhile, Jack Monroe has relocated to South Carolina where he is now waiting for a bus to take him to wherever his next destination turns out to be. It’s here that the three members of the Six Pack arrive and demand that he tell them who he stole the weapon for. Jack refuses to divulge the name of his client and attacks. First he kicks Kane in the face, bloodying his nose, then tries to punch Grizzly in the stomach. However, all this does is break Jack’s hand against the mutant’s rock hard abs. He fairs worse against Domino who can easily evade his attacks. By this time, Kane has recovered from the kick to the face and decides to stop fooling around. By verbal command he turns off the synthmorg function that makes his metallic arms look organic. Jack decides that now would be a good time to high tail it out of there. However, when he gets outside his way is blocked by Hammer who is piloting the Six Pack’s VTOL.
Since fighting and escape are no longer an option, Nomad decides to try to reason with them. He tells the Six Pack that his employer wanted to make sure that the weapon didn’t fall into the wrong hands. That’s when Kane reveals that they were hired by SHIELD to do the same thing. Jack relents and explains that it was the weapon’s inventor who wanted it back. That’s when Domino points out that he has been duped.
A few days later, Nomad joins the Six Pack in blowing Carmilla’s attempt to sell her device to the Cuban government. They blow up the money and Nomad manages to nab the device a weapon that can scramble satellite communications. Jack confronts her about selling it to the Cubans so that the local drug lords can use it to scramble DEA’s communications. Carmilla points out that if the Americans get the device they will use it to cripple her homeland’s ability to communicate. That’s when Nick Fury shows up personally and explains that how the device will be used doesn’t matter since this is a matter of who ends up on top. Disgusted by the idea of people’s lives being messed with due to politics, Jack decides the best thing to do is to destroy the prototype to prevent either party from using it. Fury tells him that wasn’t smart but Jack doesn’t care.
As he leaves, Nomad tells Carmella if she wants to do right by her homeland and the country she currently lives the best thing to do is ignore the politics of both.
Recurring Characters
Nomad, Six Pack (Domino, Kane, Grizzly, Hammer), Giscard Epurer, Bucky’s mother, Jill Coltrain, Bart Ingrid, SHIELD (Nick Fury)
Continuity Notes
William Burnside and Jack Monroe became the Captain America and Bucky of the 1950s when Burnside rediscovered the Super Soldier Formula. The process was flawed and as a result the pair became increasingly paranoid and violent. They were soon put in cryogenic suspension by the government until they were revived in the present day. See Captain America #153-156, particularly issue #155 for the dope on that. Jack would later take on the mantle of Nomad in Captain America #282.
Nomad had taken Bucky away from her mother way back in Nomad #3 because, at the time, she was a drug addicted prostitute. Jack cared for Bucky for a time until Giscard Epurer recruited Bucky’s mom to kill Jack in Nomad (vol. 2) #9. She finally went after Nomad in issue #17 and took Bucky back. Seeing how she had cleaned up her life, Jack offered no protest. This woman is never identified by name and as of this writing (October, 2022) she has yet to be identified.
Giscard Epurer has been investigating Senator Bart Ingrid since Nomad (vol. 2) #15 and 18. He believes that his connection to Nomad might lead to a catastrophic political event.
As was revealed in Nomad (vol. 2) #18-19, Jack and Jill’s parents were Nazi sympathizers during the war. Jack inadvertedly exposed his parents leading to their arrests. It’s also revealed in issues #23-24 that Ingrid’s parents were also sympathizers. The secret they wish to keep the public from finding out is that Bart has been secretly funding the National Front, a Neo-Nazi organization for quite some time. How Jill and Bart can continue to be alive in the present day will become increasingly impossible without some means of slowing, stopping, or expanding their aging process due to the Sliding Timescale. As of this writing (October, 2022) Marvel has yet to provide an official explanation. I pose a possible theory in my summary of issue #15.
Topical References
Hammer refers to the Six Pack’s VTOL craft as “Chitty Chitty Bang Bang”, which was the incredibly stupid name of a magical car in a 1968 film of that same name. The titular car was able to fly among other things. The film is considered to be a classic so it’s reference here is not necessarily topical.
Jack mentions that the Cara Santos is designed to be ritzy like the clubs in Cuba before Castro. He is referring to Fidel Castro, who staged a coup in 1952 and installed himself as leader of the country which he turned into a communist nation based on Marxist-Leninist ideals. The suggestion here is that Cuba was a capitalist society, but this isn’t entirely accurate. This speaks more of American perceptions about Cuba during a time which the United States had massive trade embargos with the island nation. Prior to Castro taking over, Cuba was a constitutional government until Fulgencio Batista staged a coup d’etat and make himself a dictator for life. I’m just Googling this stuff, but it seems like the only time that Cuba was a prosperous capitalist society was before the Great Depression. Anyway, Jack’s assessment seems less a topical reference and more based on American ignorance toward Cuban history.
Grizzly complains about eating six Big Macs. This is the signature burger at McDonalds a fast food chain. This reference should be considered topical as this is a real world product.
When Jack is traveling out of state, he states that he is riding a Greyhound bus. This should be considered a topical reference as Greyhound is a real world business.
When Carmella Roya tries to sell the device to the Cubans she tells them that it is “pleasure doing business with Fidel”, she is referring to Fidel Castro who the leader of Cuba from 1953 until shortly before his death in 2016. This should be considered a topical reference since Castro is not longer the leader of Cuba, what with being dead and all.
Translations
There are some portions of dialogue in this story that are in Spanish that have not been translated in this story. Here are the translations:
Page 20 Panel 3
“Tienes la cartera, Carmella?” = “Do you have the briefcase, Carmella?”
“Aqui, René” = “Here, René.”
Panel 4
“Esta completo, no?” - “It’s complete, isn’t it?”
Panel 5
“Es claro” = “Obviously.”
“Tu Plata” = “Your money.”
Panel 6
“Es un placer hacer comercio con Fidel” = “It’s a pleasure doing business with Fidel.”