Captain America #2: Review

One year has passed since Captain America, trapped in Dimension Z, crashed in the wilderness with the baby he rescued from Arnim Zola’s lab. A weary Cap has been struggling to survive while protecting the boy, whom he has named Ian, from the horrors that inhabit this wilderness. Ordinary physics do not work here, so Cap has no idea where Zola’s base is or how much time has passed or anything except that the boy depends on him. He briefly raises the option of suicide but refuses to consider it. His mind goes back to his youth as a paperboy on the streets of the Lower East Side in 1926: after his father died a drunk, he became a victim of local bullies who beat and robbed him while insulting his parents. He dragged himself home where his grandfather told him his father was a good man who lost hope and that "A man who loses that…he loses everything." Drawing on that inspiration Cap and Ian set out for the mountains but a sandstorm diminishes visibility. They must carefully tread their way through a grassy field which is the hunting land of an underground predator. Suddenly a pair of monsters on flying sleds zoom overhead, their sport lying in preying on the weak. Cap wrecks the sled of one of the mutates and kills the other but the survivor pursues them with murder on its mind. The hero lures it onto the grassy patch where it is eaten by the monstrous underground beast, which then pursues Cap. The hero scoops up the mutate’s fallen force weapon and shoots the monster point-blank in the face. As he rests, he and Ian are captured by bulky armored warriors and locked in a dungeon with one of Zola’s creatures. They are escorted by guards to a large throne room where the ruler of this race sits in state, Cap’s shield on his arm. Glowing crystals used to light the room are sapping Cap’s strength and he hopes to use Hank Pym’s Universal Language Adaptor (built into his arm plates) to attempt to negotiate with the king. Instead the prisoners are placed with their heads on chopping blocks and the ruler steps forward and uses the stolen shield to decapitate Zola’s minion with a grisly "Shunkk." Cap tries to fight but he is held immobile by the guards. As he tries to tell them he is also Zola’s enemy, Ian’s neck is put on the block and the king raises Cap’s shield….

"Shunkkk."