REVIEW: Captain America #387

Story: Mark Gruenwald Pencils: Rik Levins Inks: Danny Bulanadi Letters: Joe Rosen Colors: Christie Scheele Review: Will Dubbeld

The Superia Stratagem, pt. 1 O Captain, my captain... Back once more in the halcyon days, days when The Star-Spangled Avenger was a character to be admired and not a vehicle for a hack writer/failed politico's ham-fisted commentary. Because what better way to celebrate Jack Kirby's centenary than turning Captain America into a Nazi? But let's disembark from that hate-train for a bit and get on with the task at hand... The year was 1991, the month: July. The first of a six-part story that fell somewhere in the CapWolf and Streets of Poison era of Mark Gruenwald's epic 10-year run behind the shield. The Lee/Claremont X-Men was nigh and the West Coast Avengers were tussling with the Overlords of the Pacific Rim. These were great days. Marvel was still riding that 1980s wave before grim and gritty took over; before the Image exodus and before chains were every goddamn where. One of the last shining points in comic history of the Big Two. Cap #387 is mostly setup for the Superia Stratagem, a bit thin on story but thick on mystery. Diamondback, Cap's sorta-kinda-sometimes girlfriend is missing and her apartment destroyed. The meat of the issue is divided between Captain America's search for Diamondback and scenes showing the reader what is actually transpiring. It's by no means a new storytelling mechanism, but it is one of which I'm quite fond. The long and short of it involves M.O.D.A.M. (who is a lady M.O.D.O.K....) abducting super-women, in this case Diamondback, Black Mamba, Asp, and Anaconda. Point of interest #1: I love the Serpent Society Point of interest #2: the aforementioned ladies (minus Anaconda) formed a mercenary team called the B.A.D. Girls. See, the initials stand for Black Mamba, Asp, and Diamondback, and they're bad girls. GET IT?!!! Actually, it's amazingly meta considering the '90s 'bad girl' craze. Also, a character named Impala later joined the B.A.D. Girls and completely fouled up the acronym. Way to go, Impala... As M.O.D.A.M. zooms around in her flying saucer kidnapping super-villainesses-cum-morally ambiguous supporting characters, Cap and Paladin (more on that in a bit) follow the clues to the second part of this six-issue arc. Bar none, the best bits of this issue involve showcasing Captain America's best superpower: he's Captain America. His Unearthly Popularity pretty much lets him get away with anything in this issue. It's almost flabbergasting and I don't think I've ever seen this particular nuance employed so much in 1 issue. Examples: Pg. 2: NYPD allows Cap to examine the wreckage of Diamondbacks' apartment before the police AND take a mysterious device for analysis. Pg. 3: Steve calls Wasp to get her ex-boyfriend Paladin's phone number. Granted, Cap and Janet have a friendship as old as the 616 but it's still an odd request and one quickly acquiesced. Pg. 3: Paladin, international money-grubbing mercenary, delays a job in Geneva to meet with Cap. Why? Because he didn't want to miss a chance to hang out with Captain America. I love Paladin; he's such a knob. Pg. 4: Paramedics are loading a couple Serpent Society morts into an ambulance and Cap says, "hold up! I wanna ask these guys some questions!" The response? You bet, that's Captain America! Screw this villains' medical well-being! Pg. 4-5: Cap asks Rock Python what happened. Rock Python tells him to go screw then relents, because Captain America. Pg. 13: Our heroes fly to the (allegedly) now-legit A.I.M. headquarters and Cap straight announces his presence and requests permission to land. A.I.M.: "You betcha, Cap!" No backstabbing or nothin'. I'm astounded. Our boy Steve doesn't throw the first punch in this issue. He just pimps his way through the pages. As a standalone issue this really doesn't have much to offer the casual reader, but the casual reader isn't going to be chasing back-issues from 1991. I bought all six issues of the Superia Stratagem and, although I'm aware of most of the goings-on within, I look forward reading the events firsthand. Modern-day Captain America may have been poorly written into some Nazi stooge, but these back issues will forever stand testament to his character in the hands of a competent writer. "No, YOU move."