By Rick Remender, Nic Klein, Pascal Alixe & various (Marvel/Panini UK)
ISBN: 978-1-84653-604-5
After spending twelve years in hellish Dimension Z, raising a child and saving the indigenous people from the depredations of insane Hitlerian über-geneticist Arnim Zola, Captain America finally returned to Earth with the experimenter’s turncoat daughter Jet Black to discover mere hours had passed in the “real†world.
The extra-dimensional incarceration had cost Steve Rogers too much. As well as many friends and comrades, his adopted son Ian and on-again-off-again girlfriend Sharon Carter had also perished in the rescue bid which returned him to a world he barely remembered and no longer felt a part of…
Purged of the last vestiges of Zola’s influence (Henry Pym and Bruce Banner having excised a virus which was growing a clone of the Nazi’s consciousness inside Rogers), the Sentinel of Liberty was despatched by S.H.I.E.L.D. Director Maria Hill to the eastern European state of Nrosvekistan where deranged, drug-dependent US super-soldier Frank Simpson, AKA Nuke, was very publicly slaughtering innocent men, women and children in America’s name…
The abused battle veteran was apparently part of an extended Weapon Plus military program: undergoing many top secret procedures to turn him into a Captain America for the Vietnam generation.
Sadly the result was a chemically-addled hyper-psychotic obsessed with American casualties who now wanted to win all the wars his proud nation had previously lost or walked away from… such as the recent peace-keeping mission to this Balkan backwater…
Elsewhere, former S.H.I.E.L.D. agent and latter day messianic socialist Ran Shen had aroused a sleeping dragon for power to reshape the world to his liking. Now called the Iron Nail he was determined to destroy greedy, exploitative destructive capitalism using tools and techniques taught him by Nick Fury (Senior) and Chinese iconoclast Mao Zedong…
Of course Ran Shen had already tried to oust the Chairman during his lifetime and failed, making him persona non grata just about everywhere…
Rogers won the Balkan battle of American ideological wonder warriors – at the cost of starting to doubt the point and purpose of his existence – and immediately resolved to learn what could turn a fellow patriot into such a monster.
Shen, ecstatic that his ambition to drive a spike into the heart of the West was succeeding, then detonated the captive Nuke like his namesake in the centre of The Hub, S.H.I.E.L.D.’s most secure citadel.
This was merely preamble to his true goal: activating the long-dormant, extremely classified Weapon Minus test warrior. This was an LSD-dosed, psychedelic psychological super-soldier codenamed Dr. Mindbubble, ready, able and extremely willing to share his terrifying expanded sensibilities with the wider, corrupt Establishment world…
Collecting issues #16-20 of Captain America volume 7 (March – August 2014), the ongoing saga begins with a thematic break. In ‘The Iron Nail Prologue: A Choice’ (illustrated by Pascal Alixe), as her new guardian fights for survival in Nrosvekistan, Jet takes a slow disdainful reconnaissance of her new city only to be confronted by a coterie of her father’s erstwhile allies. Sadly for them, she is immune to the vile rantings of the Red Skull and declines the overtures of his insidious S-Men…
The main event resumes in the first chapter of ‘The Iron Nail’ as deranged Dr. Mindbubble takes Nick Fury Jr. captive (long story short: he’s the African-American son of the original – see Battle Scars for further details) in the ruins of the S.H.I.E.L.D. facility.
In New York, Steve is showing Jet the sights. The super-girl bred and trained for war saved his life in Dimension Z at great personal cost and he is determined to give her a decent life in New York, but when they interrupt an assassination attempt by agents of Ran Shen, he is shamed by the intolerant behaviour of the hedge fund rat-bastard they saved…
Thankfully Director Hill calls in just then urging him to get to the Hub as soon as possible.
As they assess the carnage left by Simpson’s death and detonation, Hill informs Cap of the missing Weapon Minus even as Jet’s super senses locate one of the few survivors, Cap’s partner The Falcon…
Already disgusted with the procession of appalling creations his country has devised in the name of security, Cap’s peace of mind takes another hit when Hill reveals that Dr. Mindbubble was conceived as a potential countermeasure for rogue super soldiers – but the cure was then deemed worse than the affliction…
The so-very-mad doctor meanwhile has used his ability to seize minds through hallucination to force Fury to activate S.H.I.E.L.D.’s ultimate doomsday weapon. As Cap and Falcon reach the top-secret Sahara base, the Armageddon machine dubbed Gungnir is already active and they have no choice but to board the flying monolith as Mindbubble and Ran Shen aim it towards its destiny with mind-warped Maria Hill at the controls…
Even the full mobilised might of S.H.I.E.L.D. is unable to down the mechanized monster and Cap’s interior resistance is slowed by the horde of enslaved agents aboard. Iron Nail triumphantly shoots down all opposition and aims the colossal death machine towards Nrosvekistan.
His plan is to destroy S.H.I.E.L.D. and American influence by having the commercial and political superpower act as a murdering bully before the eyes of the world…
Determined and alone, Captain America fights his greatest battle to save the hostages and a nation he embodies but no longer trusts, but although Mindbubble is (relatively) easy meat the dragon-based mystical powers of the Nail take a horrific toll on Liberty’s Greatest Champion.
What the Falcon rescues from the rubble of his greatest victory is no longer Captain America. In truth he is ‘Super-Soldier No More’…
To Be Continued…
Written by Rick Remender and illustrated by Nic Klein and Pascal Alixe, this staggering clash of ideologies and Fights ‘n’ Tights Realpolitik is augmented by a covers-and-variants gallery from Alixe, Klein, Glenn Fabry, Lee Bermejo, Chris Eliopoulos, Frank Kozik, Rags Morales and Mike Perkins.
Frantic, fast-paced and furiously action-packed, this examination of the heart of patriotic fervour delivers a killer punch and closing twist which will challenge and delight fans of both the comicbook and cinematic Star Spangled Avenger alike.
™ & © 2014 Marvel & Subs. Licensed by Marvel Characters B.V. through Panini S.p.A. All rights reserved. A British Edition published by Panini Publishing, a division of Panini UK, Ltd.