Obsessively putting our comics in chronological order since 1985.
| 1994-03-01 00:05:10 |
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Captain America #426
Issue(s): Captain America #426
Cover Date: Mar 94
Title: Fighting Chance: "Graven images"
Credits:
Mark Gruenwald - Writer
Dave Hoover - Penciler
Dan Bulanadi - Inker
Joe Andreani - Assistant Editor
Mike Rockwitz - Editor
Review/plot:
The new Super-Patriot and the power-mimicking villain Dead Ringer dig up Death Adder's grave so that Dead Ringer can duplicate his powers. Then they go to rob an armored car, with Dead Ringer duplicating the powers of Night Flyer and Super-Patriot again dressed as Captain America. But they're randomly spotted by the Resistants (on their way to attack the MLF), who assume that Super-Patriot is the real Cap.
They nearly get killed, but the tables turn when Dead Ringer transforms into Death Adder. It's too bad; it would have been pretty funny if this whole plotline were cut short because the bad guys randomly got killed by other bad guys.
Code Blue show up in the aftermath, and "Cap" tells them that he was forced by the Resistants to break into the armored truck or else they would kill his "friend" Dead Ringer (who has now transformed back into a regular human).
The real Captain America was telling the Falcon about the imposter situation. They hear about this event but arrive too late.
I definitely feel like i'm watching re-runs. The majority of the story is a fake Captain America fighting the Resistants, just like in Captain America #343. And Cap showing up after it's all over reminds me of Captain America #339. It's not exactly like those past issues, but it feels like echos.
Quality Rating: C-
Historical Significance Rating: 1
Chronological Placement Considerations: Last issue was "a few days back".
References:
- Death Adder died in Captain America #318. Night Flyer died in Captain America #213-214 (he was subsequently resurrected but apparently that doesn't stop Dead Ringer from mimicking him; we sort-of saw that already last issue with Purple Man but that's a weirder situation).
- Cap apologizes to Falcon for the strained conversation they had the last time they met in Captain America #418. Diamondback seemingly killed Snapdragon in that same arc and she's still waiting for SHIELD to confirm that death.
- Cap and Fabian are moving into the building where Cap's hotline - established in Captain America #312 - was set up.
- Bernie Rosenthal met Diamondback in Captain America #394. In this issue, Diamondback asks Bernie if they can meet sometime to discuss legal matters (Diamondback is thinking of the death of Snapdragon).
Crossover: N/A
Continuity Insert? N
My Reprint: N/A
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Comments
Gruenwald said in an interview around this time that Dead Ringer can only mimic people who are dead, not people who used to be dead like Thanos. I have to wonder if the idea is that Night Flyer died AGAIN when the Hulk smashed his glider in Hulk 264. Especially since he has no further appearances after this but we do see robot Night Flyers in Heroes For Hire, which might be duplicates built because the real Night Flyer is dead.
Dead Ringer says of the Night Flyer, "He apparently fought the real Captain America once and got himself croaked the first time out. I happened upon his cremains at a flea market.". And there's footnote only to the Cap issues. Which isn't to say that Night Flyer couldn't have died again in between the first death and his remains winding up in a flea market, but it seems like neither the Ringer, Gruenwald, or the editors knew about it.
My fan fix for Dead Ringer, whose ability to duplicate technological as well as biological powers by handling corpses stretches even comic-book credulity, is that he’s really some kind of Adaptoid. The Cosmic Cube’s involvement in creating the original (Super-)Adaptoid could account for the seemingly magical way Dead Ringer’s powers work.
I like Walter Lawson's fan fix.
The idea of the Resistants attacking the MLF is a nice nod tot he way real tarrorist groups tend to engage in infighting with other groups that have similar, but not entirely identical stated goals. It would've been more interesting -- and probably more saleable -- than the plotline with Super-Patrot and Dead Ringer.
I thought, in the day, that the Resistants were a clever repackaging of a lame not-Brotherhood. Great look, actual motivation set besides just being badguys. Too bad nothing I'm aware of was ever much done with them.
That's true about terrorists, of course - but my impression of the MLF is they were wall-to-wall jerks, so a conflict with them could really be about anything...
