Re:cap - Captain America #4; The first battle has started between Captain America and The Emissary possessed by the demonic Asmoday! In 1939, Cap’s greatest villains, Baron Zemo and Baron Strucker have set a bomb at the American Bund rally at Madison Square Garden. Steve Rogers has seen the bomb and later passes out from working. He wakes up at his apartment and checked up on by Emily Kostner who will help him with his many medical conditions! Misty Knight has discovered the victim of The Emissary was attending a peace conference. The past and future is coming together for Steve!
He makes a call to ask for a favor to the doll which we see is Doctor Strange! The Captain America #5 cover by Taurin Clarke has Cap reaching out and in the past, Steve Rogers at a phone booth facing several bullets! “Sigils, Moxie and Chopped Demon Liver” is by J. Michael Straczynski and Lan Medina. An intro has Cap thinking of his rogue’s gallery, but he is still stunned by Doctor Strange’s doll. The shading of Cap’s mask has some of Steve Epting’s Cap in Medina’s artwork. Misty is impatient at her office with Sharon Carter by Cap’s side. Captain America wonders about the demon that had attacked the Master of Mystic Arts. Dr. Strange starts forming sigils that may identify Asmoday. They run past Cap’s eyes and he starts to feel pain. It is Sigil 953 and Dr. Strange knows that it is Asmoday, Demon of Wrath.
Doctor Strange says that Asmoday has been around since the start of humans and can’t be defeated. He is however busy in another dimension fighting off hordes of demons with Clea. Dr. Strange says he will think of way to stop Asmoday, but needs a way to contact Captain America. He suggests Cap use his doll and for him to snap off the head to put in his pouch. Funny moment where Strange discovers that Cap has in his pouch a granola bar! Misty mentions that she is going to meet with the peace conference organizers and hopes to convince them to postpone it with the danger. 1939, Steve Rogers is walking in an alley and finds that Mr. Mueller is injured. He takes Mr. Mueller back to the apartment. Mr. Muelle attended a formal party thrown by the Nazis to investigate.
He spied Stucker and Zemo discussing their plans. Mueller tries to take a a photo, but is discovered by a guard and beaten in an alley. He kicks the guard into the street and he is hit by a car. Mueller tells Steve to go to the rally even though he spoke out against them. Steve says he promised Meyer Lansky, the gangster, that he would report to him first. The face of Steve looks very much like skinny Steve from Captain America: The First Avenger. At the current peace conference, Misty tries to urge the leader of the conference to postpone, but she does not give into the hate. Unnoticed, a technician has set up a device, his eyes glow as well as the sigils on his palm, The Emissary! There are scenes of the Nazi rally protests in 1939, fighting, and closeups of Steve’s eyes.
At a park, Captain America tries to tell Sharon when the doll is heard telling him to ask for her help. The doll dialogue is funny every time. He says he needs her help to evacuate the people at the peace convention. They get close for a kiss. Character moments and humor is the best parts of a comic book more than any action scene or super powers. We shift back to Zemo and Strucker going over the plan to seal doors so there will be no escape from th bomb. This will turn sympathy to the Nazis. Zemo says the loss of thousands of supporters at the rally will be replaced like the mythical hydra. Strucker likes the idea which we know will turn into Hydra!
Steve is found by Fritz Kuhn who was one of his bullies and a member of the American Bund. He tells Steve he can warn people. A part of the speech will be a signal to activate the bomb in five minutes! Fritz mentions the trigger man who will set off the bomb, but then is shot! Steve is shocked and then sees Baron Strucker with his Luger pistol. He starts to run with bullets hitting around him! Strucker tells one of his men to continue with the plan. Steve runs through a crowd. Strucker, his eyepiece revealed in the darkness, shoots a police officer trying to hit Steve. He runs as bullets ping against a wall and car headlight!
Steve runs to a phone booth, but has no coin to make call. He asks for a nickel, Steve is lost in a crowd as we see Baron Strucker, but a man gives him a nickel. I sense he is the same person who told him about the ham sandwich at the first rally. A figure that is working at edges to help guide the change agents like Steve Rogers. I suspect he might be The Adversary called the Great Trickster mentioned in the first issue. He may be pushing things to counter Asmoday for his own reasons. Then, we get the scene hinted at with the cover, and Steve senses Baron Strucker! Bullets shatter the glass of the phone booth, but Strucker finds that it is empty. Steve crawls into a sewer and finally reaches Meyer Lansky! Still, they have to find a way to stop the bomb with the past and present colliding! Captain America #5 ramps up the tension of the two time periods, the character moments and the artwork are great!, and we get peeks into Cap and Hydra!
Five Shields out of Five!
#CaptainAmerica, #SigilsMoxieAndChoppedDemonLiver, #JMichaelStraczynski, #LanMedina, #TaurinClarke, #MistyKnight, #SharonCarter, #DoctorStrange, #Clea, #MeyerLansky, #MrMueller, #Asmoday
Comments
Post a Comment