American Dreamers Part 4: Sometimes I Cry

Now

Nomad stands out front of the Capitol Building in Washington, DC. In his hands is the latest model of the SICCAEL gun, a cybernetic fire arm that fires wherever the operator thinks. He has come to put an end to decades of misery. Before he goes in, his mind drifts back to how he came to this moment….

Earlier

Jack Monroe was convinced by Giscard Epurer to shut down a Neo-Nazi camp set up in his former home town of Clutier, Iowa. Its foundation stemmed from that of Jack’s parents and other post-war Clutier residents who were outed as Nazi sympathizers in 1948. Something that happened because 8-year-old Jack Monroe was a little too open about the family hobby.[1]

Jack was sent off to a foster home where he went down the path to become the sidekick to the 1950s Captain America, get placed in suspended animation, get woken up in the present day and eventually becoming the vigilante known as Nomad.[2] The other kids from those days went through a very different life. Particularly that of Bart Ingrid, a kid that Jack used to bully, who has since grown up to be a Untied States Senator while also funding this Neo-Nazi organization. While he has been climbing the seats of power with presidential aspirations, Bart had been secretly funding this group to of accelerationist to trigger a race war.[3]

Now he finds himself in the middle of a gun fight with the group’s genetically engineered warrior 88, who is armed with the SICCAEL gun and a horde of racist thugs.[4] Luckily, Jack was able to install an override program into the SICCAEL, allowing him to seize control of the weapon and force it to slaughter all the Neo-Nazis before they even know what’s happening. 88 is absolutely shocked that he was used as the trigger to kill all the men that he has grown to consider his family. While the bigoted piece of shit is sputtering in disbelief, Jack pulls a pistol out of his jacket and shoots 88 dead. As Jack leaves the burning camp he finds an American flag laying on the ground. Draping it on himself, Jack thinks America is a “love it or leave it” kind of place. After what he is going to do next he figures he’ll have to leave America. However, before he does so he’s going to be taking a very bad part of it with him by taking out Bart Ingram himself.

In Washington, DC, the Capitol Building is being watched by Giscard Epurer from his apartment window. Events that he has set in motion are now coming into place and soon the final moment will be at hand. That’s when Bucky — who has been in his care for a while now — begins to cry.[5] Giscard comforts the little girl telling her not to worry because everything will turn out all right.

While elsewhere in the city, Jack Norris agent of SHIELD, and FBI agent Vernon Hatchway have another secret meeting. The kill order on Jack Monroe has been activated and since Vernon is the one to carry it out, Jack has come to ask him not to do it. Hatchway assures him that he intends to fake Jack’s death instead of actually killing him, much to Norris’ relief. The SHIELD agent then offers to help make certain files disappear in order to sell this deception.[6]

Later that evening, Jack Monroe returns to Giscard Epurer’s apartment where he is reunited with Bucky. The girl is happy to see him and he tries to explain how he wasn’t able to save her mother and sheds tears for Bucky’s loss. Epurer soon joins them and says that Jack is still at risk by those in the government that are trying to destroy Ingrid’s plans and cover up the whole sordid affair by also eliminating Jack as well. Monroe questions why he has to put on to expose all of this. Giscard explains that he once had the opportunity to a political dilemma that he was confronted with in the past and it cost him the lives of his two daughters and his wife. He explains that he needs to fill that void in his life with his own brand of justice over the years but he now finds that this won’t fill the void anymore, nor does he know what he’ll do when he finally feels empty.

Tim Passes

Soon the link between Senator Bart Ingrid and the Neo-Nazi camp in Iowa is leaked to the media. His ties to a white supremacist group makes the front page of the Daily Bugle. Since Ingrid was considered a running mate to the leader of a third party an upcoming election, that candidate is forced to distance himself from Ingrid when he is interviewed on television. As pressure mounts, Bart Ingrid is called upon by his congressional colleagues to answer these very serious allegations.

As he addresses the House of Congress and the media, Bart Ingram begins giving a bullshit speech about how he has always tried to achieve the goals of the Founding Fathers set forth in the Constitution. The whole time he is blathering on he is waiting for the right moment to set off a bomb that he has hidden in the briefcase he has behind the podium. That’s when Nomad comes charging into the room wielding the SICCAEL gun. When Secret Service agents try to subdue them Jack knocks them out with his stun discs.

He then tells the audience that Ingram is a liar and nobody should believe a word that he has said. He then tells Ingram that he is here to be judge, jury, and executioner for his crimes against America. Bart is shocked to hear that Nomad single handedly wipe out his entire camp, including his enhanced soldier, 88. That’s when Jack notices that Vernon Hatchway is in the crowd and knows what to do next. When Ingrid reveals that he is holding a detonator that will go off the moment Jack shoots him, Monroe tells everyone to evacuate. Once the building is mostly clear, the two old enemies find themselves in a stand-off. Jack thinks about all he has done over the last number of months, how many lives he has changed for the better and all the good things he has done. But it also gets him thinking about everything that was wrong in the world that he saw the other way. He wonders if there would have ever been a Nomad if people took better care of their lives.[8] He concludes that maybe the world would be a better place if people stopped expecting less from those around them and started expecting more of themselves. He hopes that everything he has done inspires the world so there won’t have to be another Jack Monroe to stop the next Bart Ingram. With that, he whisper’s a goodbye to Bucky and pulls the trigger.

The bullets hit Bart Ingram in the head and as he threatened, his finger releases the trigger on the explosives. As the bomb goes off, Giscard Epurer says goodbye and comforts a crying Bucky.[9] Jill Coltrain, Jack’s sister, listens to the reports from her mother’s bed side. As the radio announces that Jack was among those killed the blast, his mother suddenly dies moments later.

The following day, Andrea Sherman quits her job as a psychologist for the government. Inspired by Jack Monroe’s sacrifice she sits down to write a book about his life. It takes her nineteen weeks to pound out the first draft of her manuscript. Jack Norris, who worked with Andrea, ended up getting fired from SHIELD. He has now found a new job as an intelligence correspondent for the media. He is able to see that the best and the worst of his new situation thanks to what he learned from Jack Monroe.

It takes a year before Vernon Hatchway can return to abandoned facility where Jack Monroe was once kept in suspended animation for decades. It took a long time for the news cycle to press on from the incident, particularly thanks to Sterman’s book renewing interest for months on end. Now that things have finally quieted down, Vernon is back to check on his old pal. Jack Monroe is back on ice. This is where he will stay until the time that the world needs Nomad once again. He hopes that next time around, the people will be smart enough to let him.[10]

Recurring Characters

Nomad, 88, Bucky, Giscard Epurer, Jack Norris, Vernon Hatchway, Jill Coltrain, Andrea Sterman, Bart Ingrid

Continuity Notes

1. The whole story on Clutier, Iowa’s Nazi sympathizing residents was detailed in Nomad (vol. 2) #18-19 and 22-23.

2. As a teen, Monroe befriended William Burnside a man who rediscovered the Super Soldier Formula and aspired to become the Captain America of the 1950s. Injecting themselves with the formula, both William and Jack (as Cap and Bucky respectively) fought crime for a while. However, the formula was imperfect and it caused them to become paranoids and increasingly violent to the point where the government put them suspended animation until they were thawed out in the present day as seen in Captain America #155. He later took on the mantle of Nomad in Captain America #281

3. What’s unexplained in this story is how Jill Coltrain, Mary Ellen Monroe, and Bart Ingrid — who grew up with Jack in the 1940s — could only appear to be middle aged in this story. This is due to the Sliding Timescale that widens the gulf of time between the 1940s and the Modern Age of the Marvel Universe. As time progresses it becomes increasingly impossible to explain their longevity without some kind means of extending their natural life span. As of this writing (in October, 2022) Marvel has yet to provide an explanation. I posit a theory on how this might be possible in my summary for Nomad (vol. 2) #15.

4. Jack encountered the original version of the SICCAEL gun in Nomad #1-4. This is where he got the program to shut the thing down.

5. Giscard recruited Bucky’s mother into his scheme in Nomad (vol. 2) #20. She succeeded in infiltrating Ingrid’s organization in issue #22. She was murdered by 88 last issue. This woman is never identified by name and as of this writing (October, 2022) she has yet to be identified.

6. Norris and Hatchway previously met together to discuss Nomad in issue #22. Vernon then discovered that he was the one to assassinate Jack when the order came through in the following issue.

7. Vernon Hatchway learned to respect Nomad after their two past encounters in Nomad (vol. 2) #7 and 10. He discovered that he is the triggerman tapped to kill Jack last issue.

8. Jack’s trip down memory lane recounts various events that have happened during the 2nd volume of Nomad. These include: His fight with US Agent from issue #3, his encounter with the Punisher during Dead Mans’ Hand (Daredevil #307-309, Punisher War Journal #45-47, and Nomad (vol. 2) #4-6), saving people from a riot in LA from issue #8, his clash with Red Wolf in issue #10, his investigating in to the Flatsies murders in issue #11, learning that Horserose was the Needle in issue #13, and his recent team-up with Captain America from issues #18-19 and Captain America #420-421.

9. This is the last we see of Giscard Epurer. Bucky gets adopted by a new family who names her Julia Winters. She grows up with no memory of her time with Nomad, as we’ll learn in Captain America (vol. 5) #7. It’s clarified in the Nomad profile in Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe A-Z #8 that Giscard cared for her for a time before putting her up for adoption.

10. Jack will remain on ice until the forced into government service as the new Scourge. This was all part of a plot of Henry Gyrich to destroy the Thunderbolts. Monroe would break free from his government puppet masters and help the Thunderbolts defeat their detractors. This happens over the course of Thunderbolts #34 through 50.

Topical References

• Jack states that it has been two years since the “Alaska incident” in Nomad #1-4. This is probably a mistake on the writers part as the issue previously it stated (correctly) that it was about a year prior, per the Sliding Timescale. I think we can cut them some slack since the series was cancelled and this final issue looks like it was really rushed out the door.

• When the media finds out about Ingrid’s Neo-Nazi camp we see a bunch of real life TV networks whose appearance here should be considered topical: CNN and CBS.

• We also see an interview by Larry King with Ross Perot. Their appearances here should be considered topical because…:

  • Ross Perot is depicted here as a 3rd party candidate who appears here in the context that he is running for the 1996 presidential election. Which he was at the time this comic was published. This should be considered topical since this was an election he lost a long time ago. More over, Perot has been dead since 2019.

  • Larry King was a popular interviewer who had his own show in CNN from 1985 to 2010. King would died in 2021.

• When Ingram talks about his “confused family”, Jack mockingly refers to them as the Brady Bunch. The Brady’s were the titular family comprised of two widows with three children from another marriage who tie the not. Hilarity ensued. The original series ran from 1969 to 1974. It’s spawned various spin-offs and made-for-tv-movies. The Brady’s became synonymous with an unconventional family but also one that was wholesome. Despite this, it should be considered a topical reference, since there are better more contemporary examples that have taken its place.

• The TV’s and computer monitors in this story are depicted as CRT model screens. This should be considered topical as these are obsolete technologies.

• Jack Norris specifically states that he has gone to work for A Current Affair. This was a television newsmagazine program that ran from 1986 to 1996 and experience a brief revival in 2005. This should be considered topical as the show has long since been cancelled.

• This story states that it takes Andrea nineteen weeks to write her manuscript for her book and it is about a year before Vernon Hatchway goes to visit Jack in the deep freeze. Since we don’t see any of these characters again (and even if we did) we can assume that these flash forwards here are factual as opposed to topical. Jack’s return in Thunderbolts #34 was published in the year 2000, which puts it over a year in the future from this story per the Sliding Timescale. Even if these characters pop up again (doubtful) accepting these time measurements wouldn’t affect continuity in any way.