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Captain America: Dead Men Running #2: Review

Apr 2002
Darko Macan, Danijel Zezelj

Story Name:

Dead Men Running Part Two

Review & Comments

Rating:
3 stars

Captain America: Dead Men Running #2 Review by (May 16, 2011)
Review: Full review at issue #1.

Comments: Published in the three-month gap between CAPTAIN AMERICA Vols. 3 and 4. The only thing that prevents this from being the ugliest cover on a Captain America comic: issue #3.




 

Synopsis / Summary / Plot

Captain America: Dead Men Running #2 Synopsis by Peter Silvestro

"We are dead." Captain America has been drugged and taken prisoner by a squad of American soldiers in the South American jungle to keep the hero from interfering in their scheme to steal a drug baron’s stash of cocaine by ransoming his children. Pvt. Nystrom approaches a convent holding Cap’s shield which draws the Mother Superior out of the sanctuary. She permits the wounded hero and the children inside the refuge but insists the soldiers stay outside. Lieutenant David and Pvt. Sore gun down the nun’s guards and take her hostage, demanding entrance. The other nuns quickly open the gates to admit the Americans. The young and naïve Nystrom is appalled that David would kill Captain America and stands up to his commander; David responds by ordering Nystrom to prove his loyalty by executing the Mother Superior. When the young soldier balks, David kills her himself. Another nun on her knees offers herself to David as a martyr as well, shocking the callous GI. Sgt. Solo all the while has been reflecting on the wicked things he has done in his life and how he has estranged himself from God, but he goes on living, because that’s what the dead do. When Private Hulk discovers the nuns have a radio, David orders Cap, Nystrom, and the children locked up and goes to send a message.

In the room with the unconscious Captain America, Pvt. Sore releases his pent-up anger at the hero: his great-grandfather met Cap during the War and pressured his son into volunteering in Vietnam, where he was killed. His son, Sore’s father, ran away from home to escape the pressure of living up to an impossible ideal. Great-granddad sore to make a super-soldier out of Sore and beat him every day he failed to live up to Cap’s example, and now the frustrated GI beats Cap savagely while Solo looks on, perplexed at why people do what they do.

Lieutenant David radios his commander Major Buxley and tells him that the mission was a failure. Buxley promises to come for them; David goes out to the highest point of the building, holding Cap’s shield to signal the coming copter.

Sore rips off Cap’s mask and mocks him as a pretty boy who is probably rich, and demands to know what chance a guy like him has against the pretty boy. Cap replies that it isn’t a question of chance but of choice. Sore sneers that you can’t wake up one day and decide ot be a hero. Cap responds that he can wake up and decide not to be scum. An enraged Sore takes a swing at Cap—who catches his fist and knocks him out with a single blow. Solo is certain they are all dead.

Outside David sees the aircraft coming but they are not copters: they are fighter planes. As the terrible realization hits him, the jets fire their missiles to eliminate all witnesses….



Danijel Zezelj
Danijel Zezelj
Matt Madden
Derek Hess (Cover Penciler)
Derek Hess (Cover Inker)


Characters

Listed in Alphabetical Order.

Captain America
Captain America

(Steve Rogers)



> Captain America: Dead Men Running: Book info and issue index

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