Marvel Adventures Super Heroes #12: Review

Jun 2009

Scott Gray, Matteo Lolli

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Story Name:

Web of Deceit

Review & Comments

Rating:

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Synopsis / Summary / Plot

Marvel Adventures Super Heroes #12 Synopsis by Peter Silvestro

The news that World War 2 hero Captain America has returned is met with a mix of elation and skepticism across the country and in the media. Rick Jones introduces Steve Rogers to the wonders of the Internet. Steve suggests searching for info on Hydra. What comes up is a cute and friendly website for the terrorist organization, hosted by the cartoon character Hydra Boy. Steve and Rick are disgusted by the open appeal to racism and fascism masquerading as patriotism. The website had an ulterior purpose though: via spycam, the software recognizes Steve and Rick and a beam converts them into pixels and deposits them on the Hydra site’s homepage. The two interlopers are mobbed by smiley-faced suburbanites egged on by Hydra Boy. In hiding, Steve dons his Captain America outfit; he is then lassoed by Hydra Boy in cowboy garb and flipped into the sea where he narrowly manages to escape his bonds and surface…on the set of a game show called Hail Hydra! Host Hydra Boy asks the questions but Cap refuses to play along (the answers are all "Hydra" anyway) and ends up fighting smiley stagehands until he falls through a trapdoor. Meanwhile back on the home page, Rick has ducked into a diner and asked to see the menu…. Cap has dropped into a boxing ring where his opponent is the tiny but quick Hydra Boy. Cap knocks him out of the ring…. Rick finds himself on a desolate wasteland inhabited by trolls: the Hydra message board, of course. He locates the mailbox and sends a message with his SHIELD internet phone…. Cap is ensnared in the web of a monster spider (with the mocking face of Hydra Boy) which explains its plans to control the internet and quash all dissent. As Cap defies him, Rick drives a locomotive (a search engine, get it?) through the web and carries him off. As they approach a literal firewall, hundreds of tiny axes appear, hacking away courtesy of Rick’s pals in the Online Brigade. They crash through to safety. At Hydra HQ, the masked leader of the group (hint: it’s probably the Red Skull) learns they have obtained the data they wanted and declares the mission a success. Cap and Rick are extracted from the net by SHIELD scientists and Cap vows to continue the fight against his enemy.

Story #2

If this be P.R.O.D.O.K.!

Writer: Roger Langridge. Penciler: Craig Rousseau. Inker: Craig Rousseau. Colorist: Chris Sotomayor.

Synopsis / Summary / Plot

By Peter Silvestro

1942, Steve Rogers and Bucky Barnes along with other guys from Camp Lehigh are leaving a movie theater after a showing of CASABLANCA. Suddenly laser beams strike the ground near where they are standing. They look up to see a massive floating head (similar to future Cap baddie M.O.D.O.K.) wreaking havoc. The monster, spouting German and calling itself P.R.O.D.O.K. seems to be targeting journalist Roz Hepburn who is there with her photographer Chalky. Steve and Bucky switch to their Captain America and, er, Bucky costumes and leap onto the airborne menace, sending it crashing to the ground while the other GIs hustle the crowd to safety. Cap learns that Roz’s father is noted weapons manufacturer Mycroft Hepburn. He also discovers that P.R.O.D.O.K. was manufactured in the United States, its full designation being Partially Robotic Organism Designed Only for Killing. Cap asks Roz to hush up the story because to could affect morale. She refuses and rushes off the phone the story in, delighted that Cap finally called her "Roz."

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