Captain America #443

[iamrman]

With 24 hours left to live, Cap spends it hanging out with Batroc.

Think I have finished with all my Captain America posts? Ohoho! Next time we travel further back for the comimg of the man named Nomad!

Comments

[scorntx]

Ten years.
Ten years uninterrupted, even.
Okay, Claremont's run on X-Men and PAD's Hulk, but ten years isn't shabby either.
Even if sometimes the stories were not always great, or overwrought, or just plain silly (and not 'fun' silly like Capwolf).
Ten. Years.
In modern comic parlance, that'd be at least four relaunches!

The bit with Batroc and Cap just sitting and talking is very sweet.
(Though it does bring up the slight elephant of Zeitgeist's murderous rampage through South America.
How did all those countries deal with their superheroes getting murdered? Was Argentina overrun by supervillains, only for them to be consumed by awkwardness and hand it back?
Or should we just assume that like their northern counterparts they either got better or were replaced by younger, hipper, more marketable versions?)

Meanwhile, for the rest of his days, Quicksilver would be convinced Cap had actually turned into a bird, and no-one was ever able to change his mind.

... and, yet again, Gruenwald Steve really should see a damn psychiatrist about his depression.
It's a severe downer to a run with a character thinking they're about to die and yet they are still somehow kicking themselves even against a long list of accomplishments.
Where's Hawkeye when he's really needed?

[blues32]

Steve thinking he hadn't done enough is pretty par for him. Same for Peter. And Matt.

[scorntx]

They need shrinks too.
(And in Peter's case, a girlfriend.)

[cainofdreaming]

*wife

[beyondthefringe]

I always liked this part of the story, and Cap’s rapport with Batroc… Gruen had a nice way of depicting them as adversaries who grudgingly respected one another.
I mean, Batroc is too much of a rogue to go straight, but I could see him fitting into a group of antiheroes like some of the Thunderbolts iterations.

[bewareofgeek]

I mean, Batroc is too much of a rogue to go straight, but I could see him fitting into a group of antiheroes like some of the Thunderbolts iterations.

https://groups.google.com/g/rec.arts.comics.marvel.universe/c/aKgmmGRAOZc/m/k1Q6RsgJVx4J

It almost happened...

[beyondthefringe]

If anyone could have done that justice, it would have been Busiek.

I just always liked Batroc being this flamboyant, kind of goofy yet effective mercenary who genuinely respected "Mon Capitan" and it's a shame no one's ever done a whole lot with him.
(I bet Gail Simone would be awesome at writing him.)

[iamrman]

I like to think Batroc plays up being a funny foreigner to lull people in to a false sense of security.

[agharta75]

Hasn't he admitted that?

[bewareofgeek]

More or less, in that one shot with BuckyCap back in 2011 (probably my favorite Batroc story).

[agharta75]

Batroc would be trying to convince Cap not to be so stiff, and go full-out for a life of money! women! adventure!!!

[bradygirl_12]

I like it when frenemies get together. ☺️

[remial]

is the next issue the one where Steve gets better because he gets Red Skull's super soldier serum?

[iamrman]

The next issue is the Avengers dealing with a terrorist threat when they demand Cap's presence. What you're referring to occurs in the issue after that.

[obsidianwolf]

And then in Avengers IIRC Gruenwald through in a reason why the Skull's blood worked. Superia of all people developed a cure for the degrading super soldier serum as part of her Deal with Diamondback only for the skull to kill her and use it to cure himself and then Steve through the blood transfusions.

Then her "death" was used for the plot of the Captain America corps mini.

[cainofdreaming]

I always get a kick out of a good Batroc appearance.