Captain America/Iron Man Annual (1998)Kurt Busiek/
Roger Stern/
Mark Waid/
Patrick Zircher/
Randy EmberlinMarvel
lost and trampled in the current
Civil War hoopla is the friendship between longtime friends
Captain America (
Steve Rogers) and
Iron Man (
Tony Stark). Steve, being a living symbol of the American ideals, is a staunch defender of individual freedom, while Tony, coming more from a wealthy background but with a can-do spirit borne by his scientific genius, is pragmatic and practical when it comes to problems. with the two leading opposite sides in the war, , it drove me to recall this little gem written back in the last millennium.
we are thrown immediately in the middle of a fight, as Steve and Tony invade an island seemingly full of
A.I.M. (
Advanced Idea Mechanics) flunkies, Marvel's own techno-terrorists and top of the list of cannon fodder for Marvel superheroes. bored? want to blow off some steam? call
1-800-AIM-HERE.
uhhh ... Saddam? Ahmadinejad? ahh, i know ... Putin!!!
while they're both kicking A.I.M. ass, we are treated to a girly argument between the two. i mean, really!
but you know what ... i found it fascinating.
yeah. i mean, since when was the last time we had this two arguing like this?
Operation: Galactic Storm?
so why are they chicken-fighting? the story flashback has it that Cap was on the trail of
Mentallo, a B-list baddie with
mental powers who rapidly made the A-list thanks to A.I.M. technology. ramping up his brain power, he literally stands toe to toe with
Prof. Charles Xavier (who should have shut him down the moment he did! darn mutant.)
Al Gore can shove his invention - this is teh real internets!among the 6 billion brains Mentallo entered, one of them was Tony Stark's. yes, i mean at this point, Mentallo would have known every superhero's secret identity (presumably except Prof. Xavier, who was probably getting a mental blowjob from a certain
Sh'iar empress). and Mentallo does nothing! just goes to show, brains isn't everything? right, Tony?
uhh ... Tony?
oh, crap. now
he got an idea.
taking advantage of what he discovers, Tony then uses Mentallo's abilities to wipe out memories of certain people who know his secret identity (hard to keep a secret from hookers, ya know). with the purpose of telling what he just to did his closest friends thereafter (again), and reveal his identity to them (again).
which of course, pisses off Mr. High and Mighty Mr. America ... I mean Captain America.
so with their investigations coinciding, information follows that Mentallo was using "human batteries", whose DNA work seemed familiar to Tony. rapidly deducing that this was the work of an ex-employee named
Mark Cushing, Tony and Steve make tracks to the island where we got in.
back to the island: Tony and Steve discover that the island is a refuge for Cushing's community, Zenith City, composed of former paraplegics and the infirm, whose disabilities have been erased by breakthroughs in Cushing's work (that Tony rejected). it involves getting everyone's minds in a hive mentality - a groupmind, if you will - and willing it beyond the pain and limitations of an individual. the price to be paid: no more independent thought (which of course, Cap abhors).
oh, did i mention that Cushing's VC was ... none other than A.I.M.? to his credit, he killed himself before revealing too much. and as it is, A.I.M. used whatever little they knew to keep the denizens in line, and use them as weapons (exhibit A: Mentallo).
aware of the intrusion of the two heroes, A.I.M.'s CEO/CTO/COO, the little man with the big head,
M.O.D.O.K. himself, throws a fit like a petulant child and sics everything at the island.
Mobile Organism Designed Only for Kvetchingwill Cap and Iron Man stop arguing long enough to defeat the hordes of geeks in yellow suits, led by a Humpty Dumpty reject with a temper?
just a little more and Cap's gonna throw his shield like a plateof course, they do! but they have to snip at each other as well.
"uh ... Cap ... that's four words."in the end, Tony forces Steve to make a choice: destroy the hive-mind control (and restore the Zenith people to their paraplegic states) or let them be used or killed by those ... those ... evil ... evil bastards.
oooohhh ... that must have stung!what do you expect Cap to do? of course he destroys the hive-mind.
Kurt Busiek has always been one of my favorite writers, and here he demonstrates his skill in leaving no loose ends. until somebody retroactively says that Tony really could have rewritten the code and leave the Denizen people intact, and he just wanted to make a point. and one of the writers of
Civil War would use this, and point out that Cap could also trample on civil liberties if need be.
of course, we are left with the aw-shucks ending like so:
and no one foresaw would lead to something like this years later:
"you took my Bratz doll! i hate you!"
