Dec 1981
The American Dreamers!
by J. M. DeMatteis, Mike Zeck
I had never read this issue before now. My subscription to Captain America started with 263 but for some reason I never received this one. The next issue I received was 265. I got Captain America Annual 6, which also came out around this time. For years I thought that it came as a replacement for this missing issue but I’m not as certain about that today. It has been about 35 years since the day that my subscription to Captain America began.
The story opens with Captain America arriving home from Argentina. He was there on a good will tour. He says something about the Argentine people loving democracy. I knew something was off at this point because (a) Captain America was returning from a trip to California, not Argentina and (b) Argentina was ruled by a military dictatorship at this time. Next it is revealed that John F. Kennedy is still President of the United States and in his 6th term in office. Bucky is still alive and leader of the Avengers. The Vision was never a member of the team, just a pawn of Ultron.
Reality continues to get warped as the story progresses. Behind it all is Morgan MacNeil Hardy, a man who wants America to return to the way it was, to what he perceives as a better time. He has brought together 4 people with mental superpowers who are only identified as Subjects A, B, C, and D . They are all very different. Subject D reaches out to Captain America, telepathically, trying to get him to the Waldheim Hotel where they are being held.
Cap runs into people he knows like Sam Wilson, who changes as reality continues to warp. One moment he is Congressman Sam Wilson and the next he is a shoeshine man and talks very differently. In one of the realities Cap fights the KKK, in another he (and the Falcon) fight Nazis who have taken over the United States. In yet another he is just a boy who plays at a fair with his friend Sam Wilson. It is a weird and wild ride.
Captain America, with some help from Subject D, fights the reality warping effects. He fights to keep a grip on what he recalls as being the reality he knows.
The cover is a bit misleading. Cap fights Nazis and the X-Men show up in this part of the story but only briefly.
I was surprised by some of the language used in this story. In particular, I am referring to a word that was used by white folk in place of the N-word but that sounds very much like the N-word. It is only used a few times but I was a bit shocked to see it in a mainstream comic book.
This is a good read. I enjoyed the uncertain way that the story evolved. It felt a bit run of the mill for this era. The villain turned out to be someone who basically came from nowhere. Cap does a little preaching as he frequently did back then about America, what makes it great, and how the villain’s twisted view of the country is what led him down the wrong path even if his intentions might have been good.
Hardy is also known by the name Forever Man. This is his second appearance. His first appearance was in Spider-Woman 33 (Aug 1981), which was also written by J.M. DeMatteis. I do not have this issue and it is not available on Marvel Unlimited or Comixology. He appeared subsequently in Captain America 268 and Avengers 218. I have read both those issues but it has probably been over 3 decades since I last read them.
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