Captains Courageous

[colonel_green]

Four scans from Steve Rogers: Super-Soldier #3, and four from Captain America: Patriot #1.


In the penultimate issue of Steve Rogers: Super-Soldier, wherein Ed Brubaker takes the newly-returned Steve out for a spin all by his lonesome.  Last issue saw Steve get his powers neutralized by Machinesmith, who is figuring out how to reproduce the serum so that he can mass-market it (I've never bought the idea that the serum was some kind of Holy Grail, but whatever).  Scrawny Steve is a bit in trouble.  Eventually, Machinesmith decides he doesn't need Steve anymore and orders him killed.





The flashbacks are a followup to the start of the issue, where we saw l'il Steve constantly being beat up by poor douchebags in his neighbourhood.



Meanwhile, Marvel throws some work Karl Kessel's way with Captain America; Patriot, a four-issue miniseries about the original Patriot (Jeff Mace), who became the third Captain America.  The first issue is basically the origin story of the Patriot, as we see him put on the costume after seeing one of Steve's exploits as a reporter.  At the end of the issue, we find Jeff being interrogated in 1946 by people wondering what he was doing in Boston at that point in time.  He says he got a tip that something bad was going down there.




But since that isn't an option, instead he puts on the costume and completes the mission as Captain America, saving the local politician running for Congress.  One of his two interrogators thinks it's suspicious that he was the only person around when Cap II was killed.



 

Comments

[shadowpsykie]

Holy shit! he brained him!

skinny steve scares me... and its because he seems no different from super-steve....

[akodo_rokku]

He's more ruthless, because he no longer has the super-soldier edge.

[big_daddy_d]

Seeing scrawny Steve kick some ass..all I can think to say is...Hell. Yes.

[glprime]

"No... I can't be Captain America. No one can be Captain America but Captain America. But I'll be Captain America for Captain America."

And then the two agents shoot each other a look.

I also like how that buckshot Steve fires at the guy's legs appears to only effect inert, unliving material.

[shadowpsykie]

I also like how that buckshot Steve fires at the guy's legs appears to only effect inert, unliving material.

heh, well he is still unable to move and you can see the "bloody" trail he leaves behind as he crawls.... but i get you :)

[lonewolf23k]

"Non-Lethal" doesn't necessarily mean harmless. It's amazing what you can live through.

[cainofdreaming]

Those are some fugly leg muscles too. Anabolic steroids aren't your friends when used in excess, kids.

[colonel_green]

These guys have all taken experimental versions of the serum that Machinesmith has replicated; it's a prototype, and is somewhat defective (one of the guards in an earlier issue outright died of an embolism in the middle of a fight).

[darkknightjrk]

Yeah, I read Patriot's last line there and thought, "...Whatever lets you sleep at night, pal."

[cainofdreaming]

(I've never bought the idea that the serum was some kind of Holy Grail, but whatever).

Given that the generic Power Broker power package gives you pretty much everything that the SS does, plus a ten ton strenght level, yeah I kinda see it the same way. It's Steve that makes it special, not the other way around.

[darkknightjrk]

I'm thinking, with the whole fight sequence we saw with Steve, that is exactly the point that they're making. Dollars to doughnuts that someone's going to get Steve's SS serum and it doesn't do jack for him.

[okkult3000]

The Power Broker's process might also kill you or leave you deformed.

[jlbarnett]

doesn't it only work for certain body types though? The Grapplers(the female wrestling group Screaming Mimi/Songbird ran with) all had the process done on them I thought. Except her because she was to small.

[freezer]

This would be so much cooler if they hadn't done the "Steve's no longer a super soldier" thing before.

Then again, that led directly to the Iron Cap era (and "That Panel"), so not sucking would be a 100% improvement here.

[freezer]

Wait, got that backwards: Iron Cap and "That Panel" preceeded Cap losing the SSS.

Back to the "Serum as Holy Grail" thing, I've never been able to figure that one out. Yeah, no one's been able to duplicte it, but since the stuff seems to come with Steve's DNA (seriously: All of the Red Skull's Steve clone bodies had the stuff), all you'd need is some of Steve's blood and you could farm as much of the stuff as you needed.

[colonel_green]

I can see it as having been really significant in World War II; there was some tech that was more impressive (the Human Torch), but that wasn't mass-produced. These days, though, everybody from the government to some kid working with spare parts and scrap iron can make something more powerful than the serum makes Steve.

[psychopathicus_rex]

One reason that people are so obsessed with it may simply be that Captain America is a pretty damn big deal in the MU, and the thought of a serum that can get you up to his level is pretty exciting to most people. It's all marketing - I mean, if you look at it objectively, the Super-Soldier Serum is just a REALLY good steroid that has permanent results. Big deal; there are probably fifty mad scientists in the MU that could whip up something like that. Add the little detail that the SSS is what made Cap the way he is, though, and it instantly seems a LOT more attractive, because the thought of having a personal army of Cap-level asskickers makes your average supervillain feel all warm and fuzzy inside.

[bradhanon]

This is at least the third time I can recall Steve being stripped of the serum. First time was in the "Ice" storyline Gruenwald did in the 80s. That time, Steve kept his muscles and everything, losing only a very slight edge. Second time was in "Operation Rebirth" that Waid wrote in the late 90s; that time Steve still had the body, but his strength and fighting abilities were in no way comparable to his normal levels. This time, he appears to have straight-up reverted to pre-serum body, but retains his fighting skills. Anyone want to go for a No-Prize and explain why every time this happens, it works differently?

Oh, and there was also the time Sersi transformed him into his pre-serum teenage self in the early 90s, but that was stupid.

[proteus_lives]

Go Skinny-Steve Go!

[blake_reitz]

Yeah, I dig this too. Sure, those guys are like fifty times stronger than 98-lbs. weakling Steve, but super-serum Steve goes up against guys hundreds of thousands of times stronger than him. It's a nice bit.

[psychopathicus_rex]

Is Steve fighting two or three people there? I ask because at first he seems to be fighting one white guy and one black guy, but then by the third page, both the people he's fighting are white. Is this just a coloring mistake, or did the black guy get taken out off-panel?

[blackruzsa]

I will not be Captain America but I'll wear the suit anyway and be sort of like Cap for Cap and--

What the shit.

Otherwise, this is all very very much awesome.