Captain America #18: Review

Mar 2014

Rick Remender, Nic Klein

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Story Name:

The Iron Nail: Part 2

Review & Comments

Rating:

Captain America #18 Review by Peter Silvestro (March 8, 2014)

Review: Very entertaining issue: either Rick Remender is finally getting the hang of writing a great comic book or my medication is finally kicking in (or both) but I found this a great throwback to the comics of my youth which joined a maximum of excitement with cool villains and intriguing plot twists. Dr Mindbubble qualifies on all counts. The only problem is the usual decompressing habit of stretching an issue’s worth of plot to cover four to six comics. Thus this issue is little more than an extended chase scene. The upside of decompressed comics is that they are a showcase for more elaborate art and such is the case here, with Nic Klein’s well-laid-out drawings being much easier to take than JRJR’s rough style. All is groovy here.

Comments: Gungnir is the name of Odin’s magic spear in Norse mythology; Thor should be happy.

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Synopsis / Summary / Plot

Captain America #18 Synopsis by Peter Silvestro

SHIELD agents led by Maria Hill descend upon the secret base in the Sahara Desert where the new Helicarrier Gungnir is docked. Entering, they are met by the mad Dr. Mindbubble who has brainwashed Nick Fury Jr into aiding him. Captain America and Falcon, watching the facility from a nearby dune, pick up Hill’s distress call on the radio and race to the rescue. On the way they are set upon by cycle-mounted SHIELD agents who have been manipulated by the villain into imagining the two heroes are Hydra agents. Inside, as the good guys are being taken over one by one by Mindbubble, Maria Hill dodges mad agents and overpowers Fury (who thinks she is Baron Von Strucker). Making it to the control room, she tries to program Gungnir to self-destruct but she is knocked out by the Iron Nail before she can manage. Outside, Cap on a captured motorcycle and Falcon in the air are racing across the desert. Cap is given the low-down on Dr Mindbubble from Jet Black via radio: he was the head of the Weapon Minus project to create a countermeasure to the super-soldiers. He merged super-soldier serum with LSD and tested it upon himself. The result was that he went mad and killed everyone on the project. He gained the power to emit bubbles of mental power that envelop victims in a fantasy world based on their deepest desires. The only escape is for the victim to kill himself before the fantasy does. Cap finally reaches the top of Gungnir, a Helicarrier the size of a city. He looks up and sees…a fleet of SHIELD aircraft coming to destroy the weapon to keep it out of enemy hands….

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