The final issue of Captain America by the now-classic team of Mark Waid, Chris Samnee, Matthew Wilson, and Joe Caramagna was, appropriately enough, the bonus-sized issue #700, and true to its anniversary status, it serves as a reaffirmation of who Steve Rogers is. In wrapping up their near-future storyline, the team puts Cap in an impossible situation, forces him to make a tough decision, and gives us one of the best Cap scenes in recent memory, all before setting him up for his next round of adventures from Waid and an all-star roster of artists (before a new #1 this summer from Ta-Nehisi Coates and Leinil Yu).
SPOILERS BELOW!!!
Earlier in our story (beginning at the end of issue #697), Captain America was once again frozen, only to wake in the America of 2025 in which the group Rampart and their tyrannical leader Lord Babbington has managed to seize control of the country by detonating a nuclear missile. Cap soon meets a woman named Liang who connects him with a loosely knit band of rebels whom he begins leading in their ongoing battle against Rampart.
One of those rebels, Bruce Banner—yes, that Bruce Banner, still occasionally green with rage—comes up with a solution (with the help of another survivor, the ever-lovin' Thing), both for the Rampart situation and for Cap's personal time displacement.
It is not Cap's refusal to take this chance to return to 2018 (as wonderful as it is) so much as his reasoning that I find fascinating.
Here, we see Cap thinking like a utilitarian but in the best way, considering all the possible outcomes, not only for this timeline but for others. He considers that (a) Banner's plan may not work, in which case he can't help anyone, (b) the physics of time in the Marvel Universe, in which time travel just creates additional timelines, so it wouldn't help the one he's in, and (c) the possibility that Cap himself may fail to prevent the nuclear explosion, in which case he doesn't help anyone.
Frustrated by all the unknowns, which he finds impossible to weigh against the reality of 2025 he's in, Cap decides that his responsibility lies in the here and now. In general, since his utilitarian reasoning couldn't give a clear better option, he fell back on his nonconsequentialist intuition, based on either deontology or virtue ethics, and resolved to fulfill his duties to the people of his timeline whom he promised to help.
But then things continue to get worse...
...and Cap finds it harder to manage the multiple demands 0f the here and now (especially if he tries equally hard to solve each and every problem, as Liang tells him). This is the impossible situation he has dedicated himself to solving, but it may have surpassed even his capacities to manage and lead—as we see very well in the next panels, before his face goes blank.
What Cap sees is the total destruction of New York City in a mushroom cloud, which leads him to consider that things may have gotten bad enough in 2025 that the accepting Banner's plan, with all its uncertainties, seems the better option. (The next four groups of panels come from a magnificent two-page spread which was a shame to "chop up," but I hope you'll read the issue for yourself if you haven't already!)
Here, Cap admits that his legendary perseverance can backfire—his impulse to forge ahead, never give up, and just keep fighting, does not always lead to the best solution, especially when others are paying the price. (We saw the same realization of the end of the Civil War, when he famously said that he and his forces were just fighting, and possibly winning the fight, but not the argument, particularly when the people of New York were suffering the damage.)
So he decides to let Banner send him back in time, but not before he sounds a depressingly pragmatic note, which Banner—always in need of a little optimism—calls him on.
Cap's final words above are key: he has not given up, but has simply switched strategies after the destruction of New York City raised the stakes and made extreme risks seem more acceptable.
After the time machine returns Cap to 2018—just before the missile is set to launch—we see Rampage salvaging the frozen Cap of that time, and welcoming an unexpected (and confusing guest).
Cap easily fights his way through the Rampage goons and makes his way to Babbington, but fails to prevent him from initiating the missile launch. So Cap does the only thing Cap can do: he jumps onto the missile and tries to disable it before it launching, while the heat from its rockets are seering him alive.
What a wonderful statement about hope to offset a dramatic and harrowing scene, expertly rendered by artist Chris Samnee and colorist extraordinaire Matthew Wilson.
Finally, Cap manages to destroy the missile's guiding system and it explodes inside Rampage's submarine, giving us one of Captain America's best death scenes ever (and there have been a few). But remember, this was Cap from the future, and we still have the Cap of the present day, who was fortunate enough to be encased in a block of ice when the missile went off, and escapes just in time to see the wreckage, unaware of what happened (or didn't) in 2025 and even who saved him.
In this issue, Waid and Samnee pulled off an amazing demonstration of ultimate sacrifice... without actually killing off anybody! Of course, there are time paradoxes galore, but we won't let that spoil a magnificent portrayal of Captain America's heroism and virtue.
I can't end my celebration of this issue without mentioning two more things:
1) This is Chris Samnee's last work for Marvel Comics for the time being, after giving us groundbreaking work (in conjunction with Waid, Wilson, and Caramagna) on titles such as Daredevil and Black Widow, as well as the brilliant Thor: The Mighty Avenger with Wilson and writer Roger Langridge. See here for a full-length appreciation of Samnee's tenure at Marvel; suffice it to say he will be missed by this fan and many, many more.
2) Also in this comic was a very clever short story written by Waid and adapted from Jack Kirby's masterful work on Cap's early 1960s stories in Tales of Suspense (recolored by Wilson); read more about how he did it here.
Captain America #700 was a very satisfying anniversary issue for all these reasons, but most of all because it used a fantastical time travel story to remind us who Captain America is, how he uses judgment to make decisions under impossible conditions, and the sacrifices he is willing to make to save others. What more could you ask for?
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