Captain America #9 (September 1998)

With this issue we begin a new storyline, this one dealing with a madness that seems to afflict a very particular group of people… but you wouldn’t know this from the cover, which highlights Captain America’s glowy new best friend.

The story starts out with Sharon Carter talking to a police detective about a superstar baseball player who suddenly lashed out at fans, after which she reads the newspaper headline below, reporting events from the last issue not covered here—while an old friend reads the same headline and asks himself how it could be true, given his fine impression of the general (who eulogized Cap in issue #445).

This leads him to think about Carol Danvers’ recent Avengers court-martial (in Avengers #7), reiterating the team’s intent to help her at the same time they need to protect themselves and innocent civilians from her erratic behavior.

In an encouraging sign that he is trying to be Steve Rogers, Cap reminds himself it’s supposed to be his day off before he runs into an old neighbor bemoaning the changing look of the neighborhood. After Cap—sorry, I meant “Stevie”—embraces moderate change, he accepts a dinner invitation before suggesting that Brooklyn is near the Lower East Side of Manhattan (only if you ignore the huge bridge between them).

As he prepares to enter his apartment (which he probably hasn’t seen since issue #443, the final issue of Mark Gruenwald’s run), the World’s Less-Than-Greatest Detective deduces from the broken lock and noises inside that someone might be inside, and he suspects the worst.

Despite the frightening (or frightened) scream that greets him, Steve finds a family of five…

…the patriarch of whom explains their tragic but not unusual circumstances and everything they tried before taking refuge in the apparently deserted building.

Mr. Ramirez is to be commended for acknowledging the illegal nature of what they did, but his explanation may in fact count as an excuse, specifically one of the most commonsense ones in the book: necessity.

While Steve mulls over what to do, Sharon comes looking for him, torn over having to reach out, not having seen Cap since their dramatic parting in issue #454, well before the Onslaught Saga. She reflects on what a dreadful bore he was when they were together, but when she sees him playing and laughing with the Ramirez kids…

…she is, to put it mildly, surprised. (She might even suspect it’s another Skrull!)

When she bursts in with a sly quip, the family is frightened once again…

…but Steve assures them that if anybody should be scared, it’s him. When Mrs. Ramirez assumes Steve and Sharon are together, the two start a fight that certainly doesn’t lay that assumption to rest.

Hmm… Steve may have told her he didn’t want a family, but we know from years of stories that he wants more than anything to enjoy that part of the American dream he protects for everyone else. (Sharon’s more practical point is still valid, of course—unless Squirrel Girl is available.)

Steve reports the results of an early web search before Sharon pokes him about his new mission to solve the nation’s problems, of which the Ramirez family’s situation is one example.

Sharon checks out America’s Ass™ while bemoaning the state of his shield and offering an upgrade (based on the one she gave him in issue #451).

Sharon presumably enjoys comparing the new shield to John Walker’s before explaining its similarities to Cap’s original shield based on its “vibranium matrix” (uh-huh) and revealing the true purpose of her generosity (and her suspicions about the Ramirezes, which Cap does no share).

Sharon explains her theory about “American heroes” flipping out while they take a quick jog across the Brooklyn Bridge to a construction site in Manhattan. There, Cap proposes to the foreman a new jobs program with important ramifications for wages, employment, and union rules (none of which he seems to fully appreciate).

The foreman’s on board with it, but the man in charge is decidedly less accommodating—and Sharon suspects she knows why, based on his eyes.

Ranier continues, “but I won’t let them have it!”, and points to his new hire, the Rhino, who starts to bring down the building under construction. This sets up the provocative image of Captain America firing a “gun”…

…even though it is only a rivet gun and has no chance of hurting the Rhino.

The Rhino does, however, provide Cap a chance to see how repellent his new shield is.

(I wouldn’t have thought a “photon accelerator” or “force-field synth” would make a SPANG-ANG-ANG sound, though.)

Stunned but not stopped, the Rhino uses a crane to bring the rest of the building down, putting Cap and Sharon back into grumpy couple mode…

…before Cap checks to make sure everybody’s out of the site and realizes there’s one worker still hanging on.

She should really know better by now than to doubt Captain America.

Of course, the building comes down (to an appropriate FWOOM sound), and we’ll see in the next issue how many make it out alive.

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ISSUE DETAILS

Captain America (vol. 3) #9, September 1998: Mark Waid (writer), Andy Kubert (pencils), Jesse Delperdang (inks), Chris Sotomayer (colors), Todd Klein (letters). (More details at Marvel Database.)

Collected in: Captain America: Heroes Return–The Complete Collection Vol. 1.

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PREVIOUS ISSUE: Captain America #8 (August 1998)

ALSO THIS MONTH: Captain America: Sentinel of Liberty #1 and Avengers #8 (September 1998)

NEXT ISSUE: Captain America #10 (October 1998)