These two issues of Captain America start off a four-part story detailing the Red Skull’s latest attempt to overthrow American democracy by stirring up racial hatred. We also have two issues from the second U.S.Agent miniseries, featuring some good interaction between Walker and Cap. Not bad for this blog’s 600th post!
With respect to the Cap issues, more interesting than the Red Skull plot, at least from a storytelling perspective, is the framing: each issue begins with one or more of Cap’s supporting characters preparing to attend a funeral, set against an action shot of our hero. Case in point: the opening splash page of issue #45 (which is followed by another page with Nick talking to a similarly dressed Dum Dum Dugan about a solemn occasion they both must attend).
If we skip ahead to the final page of the issue, the allusion to a funeral for a particular star-spangled hero is not subtle.
Most of these four issues are told in flashback relative to the framing sequences, such as Nick earlier paying a visit to his old friend, and getting a lesson on duty and loyalty from someone who cares about Captain America just as much.
When Nick finds him, Cap is working out his feelings on some training robots, and Nick just watches admirably…
…and reiterates that, even without the Project Rebirth treatment, Steve Rogers would have contributed to World War II in some way, because his moral character is more essential to who he is than any serum or Vita-rays.
Cap continues fighting while he chats, and Nick wastes no time identifying the elephant in the room… or, rather, the elephant who left.
Nick offers to talk about it, but his “bud” wants nothing of it.
(If I were Nick, I’d drop it.)
To make things even less comfortable, Sharon Carter shows up furious at Nick but quickly softens when she hears about Connie…
…and Cap almost has to say “drop it” again.
Happily for Cap, Nick changes to the topic to his and Sharon’s next mission: finding the helicarrier the Red Skull stole from SHIELD. For that, they visit Tony, who can’t find it anywhere, and Cap does not hide his frustration (likely accented by the pain over you-know-who).
Soon Tony does find it, submerged in the Gulf of Mexico, but before they head there they see news footage of attacks in Louisiana on visiting Mexican teachers under mysterious circumstances, leading all present to suspect machinations of the same Nazi wot stole the helicarrier.
Issue #46 opens with a similarly ominous scene as the last issue, this time featuring Sharon herself, who joins Nick and Dum Dum in discussing the impending funeral and Captain America’s wishes for a small gathering.
Again, skipping to the end of the issue, the SHIELD agents are joined by a number of Avengers, also prepared to mourn a fallen ally.
Back to the main story, we find SCUBA Cap™ (available wherever fine toys are sold) infiltrating the helicarrier with Tony in his ear…
…and confidence befitting a man on a mission to take on a giant ship full of his great foe’s henchmen.
Umm… never mind.
To counter the last man’s harpoon gun, Cap discharges his oxygen tank, but reassures the Astonished Iron Man that everything is under control.
(Nick is investigating the race riots that erupted in Louisiana, but was defeated by a mysterious confederate of the Red Skull whose identity will be revealed in the next post.)
Once inside, Cap tips his hat to Reed Richards before laying into goons, cursing them for protecting the Red Skull…
…and reminding us how important his traditional “cavalier” or “buccaneer” boots are to his look. (Even the sleeker boots modern artists sometimes give him are not enough.)
He finally comes face to face with the Red Skull, dressed in all his sci-finery…
…who, after withstanding the sick burn of “toast this,” explains to the Sentinel of Liberty his latest plan to turn America’s greatest strength against itself. (Again, Cap needs his boots back.)
Cap tells the Skull his plan won’t work, that the American people have come too far to succumb to his racist provocations, but the Skull dismisses his criticism before dropping Cap out of the helicarrier, now aloft over the ocean.
Is this what leads to the funeral we’ve seen his friends prepare for? Find out in the next post when we wrap this storyline!
Before we’re done here, though, we have a few panels from John Walker’s second U.S.Agent miniseries, this one written and drawn by Jerry Ordway (and flowing out of his recent Maximum Security event). By issue #2, Walker has fallen under mind control due to the double-dealing of the woman below, Kali Vries, an old flame of his who has infiltrated his covert ops team on behalf of a crooked U.S. senator. He has just left with a satchel full of mind control devices that Dum Dum Dugan has sent Cap to retrieve, and Walker’s more devoted colleague, Allie MacGruder, clearly knows whom she trusts more.
While Cap looks 100% the living legend of World War II, thanks to Ordway, Vries wonders how she can possibly fool him, especially seeing that Cap has already guessed part of her plan.
Issue #3 opens with Vries narrating Cap bursting in on Walker and our old friend the Power Broker, who gave Walker his enhanced abilities back in his Super-Patriot days.
Later Walker goes after the senator himself—also mind-controlled by this point—and Cap finds himself having to subdue Walker while knowing he’s not in full control of his actions.
Cap picks up on the feelings of inadequacy Walker covers up with his belligerence, which Walker all but confirms as they fight, alluding to the time when he became the new Sentinel of Liberty in Captain America #333 and then relinquished the shield in issue #350.
Walker finally convinces Cap the senator has one of the mind-control “bugs” on the neck, but Cap does not approve of Walker’s sense of humor while removing it.
Next, the two heroes are attacked by a mind-controlled mob, with Cap naturally more concerned with their well-being, which explains why he sends Walker to go after Jackson instead (despite what he may do if he finds him).
It turns out Jackson has the prime “bug” (actually an alien parasite) on his back, which Walker removes and then recommends that Cap arrest Vries.
After Walker admits he was never really under the bug’s control, he destroys the prime one to keep it out of SHIELD’s hands—and when Dugan balks, Cap defends his former rival, who has earned his respect this day.
ISSUE DETAILS
Captain America (vol. 3) #45, September 2001: Dan Jurgens (writer and pencils), Bob Layton (inks), Michael Bartolo (colors), Todd Klein (letters). (More details at Marvel Database.)
Captain America (vol. 3) #46, October 2001: Dan Jurgens (writer and pencils), Bob Layton (inks), Digital Chameleon (colors), Todd Klein (letters). (More details at Marvel Database.)
Collected in: Captain America by Dan Jurgens Omnibus.
U.S.Agent (vol. 2) #2, September 2001: Jerry Ordway (writer and pencils), Karl Kesel (inks), VLM (colors), John Workman (letters). (More details at Marvel Database.)
U.S.Agent (vol. 2) #3, October 2001: Jerry Ordway (writer and pencils), Karl Kesel (inks), VLM (colors), John Workman (letters). (More details at Marvel Database.)
Collected in: U.S.Agent: The Good Fight.
PREVIOUS ISSUE: Captain America #44 (August 2001)
ALSO THESE MONTHS: Avengers #44 (September 2001), Thunderbolts #54 (September 2001), Fantastic Four: The World’s Greatest Comics Magazine #8 (September 2001), and Avengers #45 (October 2001)
NEXT ISSUES: Captain America #47-48 (November-December 2001)
THE VIRTUES OF CAPTAIN AMERICA 
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