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Captain America and the Falcon #4: Review

Aug 2004
Christopher Priest, Bart Sears

Story Name:

Mirrors

Review & Comments

Rating:
3 stars

Captain America and the Falcon #4 Review by (February 14, 2012)
Review: Story has become clear, if told in a manner a bit too complicated, and we all know about the grotesque art. The question is: what was the point of the story? When Cap and Anti-Cap meet, what are we told is the real difference? Problem is, this is not a new idea, pitting Cap against a distorted mirror image—that was the whole point of bringing back the 1950s Cap and replacing Steve with John Walker (not to mention all sorts of minor entities such as Protocide, Americop, and Super-Patriot), to see how another man would attempt to represent the nation’s ideals in the struggle against evil. So what happens? Another mass of verbiage with no clear resolution—hey, if the experts can’t come up with a good way to balance security and freedom, what can we expect from a comic book writer? The only surprise is how little Cap has to say on the subject.

Comments: Part four of the four-part “Two Americas.”




 

Synopsis / Summary / Plot

Captain America and the Falcon #4 Synopsis by Peter Silvestro

Flashback to 1995: the scrawny young test subject is implanted with a processor which releases timed doses of Acetovaxdol (AVS) into his bloodstream—but there are no results, he remains unchanged. The supervisor of this new Super-Soldier Project, Admiral Jimmy Westbrook, fires a gun point blank into the subject’s head. As he suspected, this shock kick starts the chemical and before their eyes the boy grows into a muscular hero, equal to Captain America….

At the Miami hospital, the Anti-Cap holds an injured Falcon hostage while Cap tries to distract him with a phony sample of the coveted virus. The baddie catches on too quickly and throws Falcon at Cap and takes his leave. Cap and Ali Morales head after the villain, while Falcon contacts Robbie Robertson in New York for information on Acetovaxdol, which the DNA sample Ali obtained (issue #1) revealed was in Anti-Cap’s bloodstream. Meanwhile, Leila realizes that she was set-up: the whole mission was a trap orchestrated by ONI and SHIELD to trap the rogue super-agent and recover the missing bug—and she was just a pawn. Robbie gets back to Falcon that AVX is a super-steroid, similar to the one tested on Luke Cage, and is water-soluble, meaning a subject would have to take regular doses to maintain its effects….

Cap and Ali pursue Anti-Cap though the stormy streets and he surprises them from ambush and quickly overcomes Ali, and then he and Cap engage in a slugging match that ends with the villain defeating the hero and seizing his shield. Cap pursues him though and during the battle they have a running conversation about the meaning of patriotism. Anti-Cap has come to relish wearing the red-white-and-blue uniform for its feeling of power. And he attempts to justify his going rogue—preferring principle over his orders—because Cap himself has done it many times. He insults Cap as an old-fashioned hero designed for an old-fashioned war when goals were clear—but the War on Terror requires the will to fight above everything. "You are a product of America’s hope; I am the sum of America’s fears." Cap criticizes him as a fascist, which Anti-Cap isn’t buying. And now they have reached Ali Morales’ sub and the rogue agent plans to escape so he can unmask the traitors who made the deal with Rivas to examine the bug. Falcon arrives and tells Cap that his foe will soon sweat out his steroid—but that will take too long, so Falcon detonates charges he had implanted in Cap’s shield, knocking the Anti-Cap cold. Now the question is, what to do with him? Cap is unwilling to return him to his handlers since they would likely eliminate him….

Steve Rogers calls a meeting with Nick Fury and Jimmy Westbrook at a Texas diner. He refuses to turn to prisoner over to ONI and will not give the bug to either agency. The Admiral gives him a dark look and leaves….

Epilogue: Damocles Rivas vows revenge against those responsible for the death of his brother…in a way they will not expect. And the Scarlet Witch, disguised, recovers the virus sample ("WWIII in a petri dish") from its hiding place in the Rivas bathroom….



Bart Sears
Bart Sears
Mike Atiyeh
Bart Sears (Cover Penciler)
Rob Hunter (Cover Inker)
Mike Atiyeh (Cover Colorist)


Characters

Listed in Alphabetical Order.

Captain America
Captain America

(Steve Rogers)
Falcon
Falcon

(Sam Wilson)
Scarlet Witch
Scarlet Witch

(Wanda Maximoff)

Plus: Admiral Jimmy Westbrook, Alisande Morales, Anti-Cap, Damocles Rivas, Leila Taylor, Robbie Robertson (Joe Robertson).

> Captain America and the Falcon: Book info and issue index

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