Issue(s): Captain America #402, Captain America #403, Captain America #404, Captain America #405, Captain America #406, Captain America #407, Captain America #408 (main story only)
Cover Date: Jul-Oct 92
Title: Man and Wolf: "The prowling" / "City of wolves" / "Children of the night" / "Dances with werewolves" / "Leader of the pack" / "Lord of the wolves! / "Dark dawn"
Credits:
Mark Gruenwald - Writer
Rik Levins - Penciler
Dan Bulanadi / Dan Bulanadi, Don Hudson, & Raymond Kryssing / Steve Alexandrov - Inker
Pat Garrahy / Barry Dutter - Assistant Editor
Ralph Macchio / Mike Rockwitz - Editor

Review/plot:
This entry is covering the main story from these issues only. Dan Bulanadi inks most of these stories. He gets some help on issue #404 and Steve Alexandrov inks #405.

This is one of the most reviled Captain America stories ever published, possibly rivaling the 1996 Rob Liefeld reboot (which, in retrospect, can at least be written off as an alternate reality thing). The official title of this storyline is Man and Wolf, but it's colloquially known as Capwolf (which is what Cap was called on the covers). So this is the story where Captain America turns into a werewolf and teams up with other feral characters like Wolverine, Wolfsbane, and, uh, Feral. So not only is the premise pretty silly in and of itself, but it smacks of commercial opportunism, a way to get some X-characters into a Captain America storyline. It's also worth noting that this was a summer bi-weekly event. Which for one thing made it feel like this story had waaay too many parts; if Cap had just turned into a werewolf for an issue or so probably no one would have batted an eye. It also means that we were meant to think of this story as a special event the way that The Bloodstone Hunt or Streets of Poison were. A better comparison is last year's bi-weekly event, The Superia Stratagem. At his best, Mark Gruenwald is all about finding connections between concepts and characters, but it got ridiculous with that "all women villains" story and this "all wolf characters" story is not an improvement. And of course Wolverine is not even a wolf character. Then again, Cable manages to show up, too, so i guess X-Popularity trumps lupinity.

Oh, and this story also features the newly rejuvenated Dr. Druid. A lot of people didn't like Dr. Druid to begin with (i did!) but the hip young ponytailed version was even worse. I think Dr. Druid is only included because Mark Gruenwald was using the old Cap villain Druid (aka Demon Druid, and in this story he mainly goes by his first name, Dredmund), and hey, they both have the same name!

I did gain slightly more appreciation for this story after i read the first appearance of Nightshade in Captain America #164, which is all about her turning people (including the Falcon!) into werewolves. Nightshade is working for Druid in this story, and precedents always make things better, somehow. Still, that original story managed to get it done in a single issue, so we're back to the fact that this one takes seven, and, if you were following Cap in realtime, required you to buy twice as many Captain America books during the summer.

Of course, when i say seven issues, i'm ignoring the fact that there are back-ups in all of these issues. I've been complaining about the back-ups since back when Gruenwald was writing good stories like the Bloodstone Hunt, but the cumulative effect of them has been that anything that might have been developed as a subplot is instead relegated to a back-up story, with a different artist and a different kind of pacing. So what we've been getting more and more are very un-nuanced straightforward adventures followed by even more simplistic back-ups that come in at 5 pages a pop. That's fine for the occasional big adventure, but it's been going on for years now, and when combined with the fact that Gruenwald does not seem comfortable developing supporting characters or long term plot ideas, the stories seem primitive and kiddie-oriented. Especially when the plot is about the main character turning into a benign and adorable werewolf. The good news is that after these issues, there will be no more back-ups. Beginning with issue #409, we'll be getting full 22 page stories.

We begin with Captain America and D-Man working out in the Avengers gym.

Note that Captain America is benching 1,100 lbs, and i assume he's not doing a one rep set. That indicates that Captain America really does have super-strength; he's not just "peak human". When this was published in 1992, the world record for benching was about 720 pounds, and that was with the aid of a bench shirt (maybe Cap's chainmail functions as a bench shirt), and that would be for a single rep, not an amount that someone incorporates into a workout routine. At the time of writing, the real world has caught up to Cap and the world record is about 1,100 lbs, but, again, that's one rep and with a bench shirt. Without the shirt people are still benching about 730. And, remember, these numbers are by people that are basically specializing in bench pressing; you won't see the guys benching those numbers also doing stuff like this.

Now, granted, D-Man is benching 8,900 lbs. That's real super-strength. But Cap as shown here is still too strong for my liking. The whole point of Cap is that he's a "normal" human that is able to compete in a super-powered world. He doesn't need to be super-strong. For what it's worth, the original and Deluxe Marvel Handbooks said that Cap could bench a maximum of 800 lbs "with supreme effort" (i.e., not a set of 10 with enough left over to go swinging on the gymnastic bars).

As Kveto notes in the comments, a response to a letter in issue #409 says Cap was "really feeling his oats that day - unless the gauge on the weights was stuck. You pick.".

Anyway, Cap is worried about D-Man, who is still not speaking, although he does listen to people and does what they say. But Cap is going to turn over D-Man to the Avengers' doctor, Keith Kincaid, and then he's going to take the Black Widow up on her suggestion for him to take a leave of absence. But it's a "working vacation"; he's going to search for Diamondback and John Jameson, both of whom have gone missing. Cap tries to go Doc Connors at Empire State University, since Connors was there when Jameson's moonstone was removed. Connors is on leave of absence himself, but Cap is met by a Dr. Mifune who tells Cap what she knows about the gem. She then tries to show Cap the dusty remains of the gem, but it turns out that they've gone missing.

Cap then goes to J. Jonah Jameson to ask if he's heard from his son. JJ wasn't even aware that John was working for the Avengers as a pilot.

I thought that was a good little scene.

Captain America has Peggy Carter try to reach Dr. Strange for help. Strange is not available for "the indefinite future", so Cap decides to go to Dr. Druid instead. Cap notes to himself that Dr. Druid did not part with the Avengers "on the best of terms". Cap doesn't seem to be aware that Dr. Druid was under the influence of a villain at that time, and he also isn't aware that Dr. Druid has been de-aged (even though Dr. Druid has spent some time with Dr. Strange and the Scarlet Witch since then). Druid agrees to accompany Cap in his search for Jameson. Cap already has a location in mind; there have been alleged werewolf killings that Cap wants to investigate.

Meanwhile, we're introduced to a guy named Moonhunter, who is in charge of keeping a bunch of captive werewolves in line.

When Cap and Dr. Druid are investigating the area with the reported werewolf attacks, they are attacked by a female werewolf...

...but the werewolf is captured by Moonhunter.

Cap tries to stop Moonhunter, but Moonhunter proves to be a good pilot, and he's able to outmaneuver Cap's sky sled.

Moonhunter is able to get away and add the newly acquired "tight-muscled she-wolf" to the collection.

Captain America makes his way back to Dr. Druid, who has been meditating since the werewolf attack injured him. Druid suggests bringing in more Avengers, but Cap rejects the idea, saying, "this is a private mission. I'm reluctant to involve any mof my teammates unless absolutely necessary". In my mind, confirming that you're dealing with werewolves and at least one other super-villain counts as "necessary", but then i can't bench 1,100 lbs.

Nightshade inspects the wolf woman that Moonhunter brought in, and tells her boss (still in shadows, but it's Dredmund) that she is Ferocia, formerly Fera, the wolf that killed Iron Fist's mom.

Wolverine is also lurking about...

...but he's detected, and Moonhunter and a pack of werewolves are sent after him.

Wolverine is captured. Then Cap and Dr. Druid are attacked by more werewolves.

The werewolves are pretty lame, both in terms of the art and in terms of how Cap describes them.

Werewolves should be terrifying. Their advantage isn't their numbers, it's that they are ferocious and literally unstoppable without silver or magic. This shouldn't even be a contest. Cap should be dead.

Dr. Druid is doing something magic, but it's a slow process while Cap fights a ton of the creatures. Dr. Druid is slowly hypnotizing them.

And then he releases them to go and make contact with the other werewolves. The result is that all of the werewolves are convinced that they aren't able to detect Cap or Dr. Druid. Meanwhile, Dr. Druid levitates Cap out of the fray.

Meanwhile, Nightshade is trying to turn Wolverine into a werewolf, but his healing factor won't allow it.

Instead, Dredmund just hypnotizes him, determining that he's "feral enough" already.

Wolverine is sent after Captain America.

Wolverine gets Cap pinned, and then Moonhunter hits Cap with a dart and takes him captive. And now what we've all been waiting for.

It's said that Cap's super-soldier serum has interacted with Nightshade's potion and given him phenomenal strength. Capwolf flees. He's pursued by the other werewolves and Wolverine.

Capwolf is just so darned cute. I want to give him a biscuit.

I have to remind you that this is not a What If. Not an imaginary story. This is actually happening.

Cap manages to evade the people pursuing him, but he heads back to Nightshade.

Meanwhile, Dr. Druid confronts the Druid.

Druid's powers are augmented by the missing moonstone. Dredmund overpowers Dr. Druid. The good news is that Dr. Druid's ponytail is cut off.

Cap is put in a pit with the other werewolves and he meets Man-Wolf (aka John Jameson), although Cap doesn't figure out that it's him.

Man-Wolf attacks Capwolf, and Capwolf wins the fight and becomes the leader of the pack. Then Wolfsbane teaches him how to talk with a wolf throat.

God almighty.

Wolfsbane says that she felt compelled to come to the area thanks to a "call of the wild". And that has affected Feral as well. She's gone missing, and Cable goes out to look for her.

Sometimes i think the only thing worse than Cable drawn by Rob Liefeld is Cable not drawn by Rob Liefeld.

Meanwhile, Cap expounds to the werewolves on the injustice of unlawful imprisonment.

And then he organizes an escape by having everyone form a human, er, lupine pyramid.

I take everything back. This is the greatest Captain America story ever.

We start to get an indication that both Moonhunter and Nightshade are working for Dredmund under duress.

But before Nightshade can act, she and Moonhunter are overcome by Capwolf's Werewolf Rebellion.

It's not really fair. Who could bring themselves to hurt this adorable pup?

Cap tries to make Nightshade transform him back into a human, but Nightshade knows that Cap won't hurt her so she refuses. Cap has his wolf army tie her up. She tells him that Dr. Druid is in trouble, so he leaves by himself to stop Dredmund. Who, by the way, has more werewolves still loyal to him. But his plans are much bigger than amassing an army of werewolves. He's aspiring to godhood, using the moonstone.

And i mean, who wouldn't want to become Starwolf? Or at least form a prog rock band and put this guy on your album cover?

Feral, it turns out, is a real latecomer to the party. I mean, it's pretty much all over at this point. But this does get Cable here in time for the final fight.

I'd half-expect Cable to just turn around at this point. I mean, i know i would have.

But Cable does get caught up in the action.

The answer to Cable's question is "Gypsy Moth", but that's not important right now.

Meanwhile, the adorable Man-Wolf injects Nightshade with the werewolf serum and writes her an adorable note telling her that she had better create an antidote already.

I feel like one of those Rs should be backwards, just for extra adorableness.

Moonhunter manages to slip away and free Wolverine from his cage, with the intention of going to help Dredmund Starwolf. But they wind up getting freed from their mind control by Dr. Druid. So they instead join the fight against Starwolf.

Capwolf manages to tear the moonstone off of Starwolf's neck, causing him to revert to his human form. But Cap is still a werewolf. And Wolverine thinks he should keep it that way.

Cable has already disappeared and Wolverine is gone by the time of issue #408, which has the epilogue to this story. The epilogue is only ten pages long, because this issue also has a continuation of the Diamondback/Red Skull back-ups and the separate Falcon back-up.

Nightshade has already cured herself, and she is forced to restore Man-Wolf to human form.

But before she can cure Cap, he's attacked by his Infinity War doppelganger.

In one of the more awkward sequences i've seen in a comic, Nightshade accidentally injects the cure into Capwolf while he's fighting the doppelganger.

So he turns human and loses his (extra-)super-strenght during the fight. But he hears from Dr. Druid that the doppelganger isn't really alive, so he's ok about using lethal force against it.

But he's still not proud of what he did, and he rejects a compliment from Moonhunter, saying that he was "tired... sloppy... and uncharacteristically brutal".

When it's over, Nightshade is arrested and taken to the Vault, even though she says she was mind-controlled.

Some of the other werewolves say their goodbyes, like Wolfsbane and Werewolf By Night.

The MCP say that is Wolf from Team America giving Jack Russell a ride. I don't know when they met, but i like the idea of Jack being driven away by a strange burly man.

John Jameson tells Cap that he's resigning as the Avengers' pilot. He talks about how astronauts used to be the real heroes until superheroes came along, and he signed up as the Avengers' pilot to sort of recapture his sense of heroism, but he's been upset since Cap sidelined him when he was mind-controlled by MODAM during The Superia Strategem. He doesn't mention hitting on Diamondback in Captain America #396. John is barely out of sight when Cap turns around and offers Moonhunter his job.

Meanwhile, i guess we do sort of have a subplot, because we check in with D-Man. Dr. Kincaid tells Jarvis that he's suffering from oxygen deprivation that has caused selective amnesia. It's too soon to say if he'll recover. Love this line from Jarvis.

"Poor fellow", or poor you, Jarvis? You know you're the one that's going to get stuck taking care of him.

Jarvis is supposed to take D-Man for a walk. Bernie Rosenthal shows up at Avengers mansion looking for Cap. She sees that a new secretary has replaced Diamondback. The woman will turn out to be Donna Marie Puentes, a character that previously appeared as one of the prisoners of the Swine in Captain America #206-212.

When Bernie hears that he's not around, she decides to accompany Jarvis and D-Man instead. But Jarvis has to head back to supervise the weekly pantry stocking, and Bernie offers to continue the walk with just her and D-Man. But then Bernie's purse is snatched. She chases after the purse snatcher, leaving the near-catatonic D-Man behind. When she returns, he's gone. Thanks, Bernie.

Well, i'm taking her word for it that she's Bernie. She sure doesn't look like the Bernie Rosenthal that i know.

This all happens over a couple of issues, ending in #406, and then we don't see D-Man until the end of the main story in #408, when he is attacked by a doppelganger of his own.

Well, that's Capwolf. You have to love that it's not just about werewolves... it's not just about Captain America turning into a werewolf... it's not just about Captain America turning into a werewolf and teaming-up with every vaguely wolf-related character ever... he also has to fight an obscure villain that turns into a cosmic werewolf. That's so bad it's awesome. Unfortunately, Mark Gruenwald and Rik Levins play it all so straight, with lifeless personality-free guest stars and a by-the-numbers plot, that it somehow manages to be boring. So it's the "so bad", not the "awesome", that wins out.

Quality Rating: D

Historical Significance Rating: 2 - Capwolf!

Chronological Placement Considerations: Captain America tells the Black Widow that he's going to take the advice that she gave him "the other day" (which was in Captain America #401) that he should take a leave of absence. I'm interpreting "the other day" liberally, and i've allowed other Cap appearances with the Avengers between the last arc and this one. I did note that in Avengers #348 some of the Avengers thought that Cap was already on LOA, but since the footnote pointed to issue #401, i'm assuming people were jumping to conclusions and Cap hadn't officially decided to take a leave yet. This does mean that a while passes before Cap asks that Dr. Kincaid give D-Man "a complete physical check-up", but i'm guessing that's after a while of Cap hoping that D-Man will snap out of his semi-catatonia on his own (maybe with Kincaid already having given D-Man a preliminary check-up). The Man and Wolf storyline officially ends with issue #407, but the story continues more or less directly with issue #408, with Captain America still a werewolf and everyone still at the Dredmund's place in Starkesboro. Issue #408 is also an Infinity War tie-in, but the tie-in involves Cap being attacked by a doppelganger, which happens to several heroes during Infinity War #1. After Cap is restored to human form, he must return to Avengers mansion in time for the video invite from the Mr. Fantastic doppelganger that occurs in Infinity War #1. So i'm placing this before Infinity War #1; the scenes with the Cap and D-Man doppelgangers might take place before that issue entirely, or at least before Cap's appearance in that issue. Cable appears here before his face is damaged in X-Force #6-10, and that of course affects placement for Feral as well. The fact that this story bumps into Infinity War affects placement for the other characters appearing as well, like Wolverine and Wolfsbane.

The back-up stories will be covered in a separate entry, but i'll mention a complication regarding them here: In the main story in issue #408, D-Man is also attacked by a doppelganger. The final story in issue #408 is said to take place at least "a week" after the main story in that issue (during which time Moonhunter has been vetted as the new Avengers pilot), explicitly after Infinity War and Citizen Kang. Issue #409 seems to continue directly from that back-up in #408, and begins to address the storyline that has been developing in the other back-ups from these issues (featuring Diamondback and the Red Skull's minions). The problem is that in issue #409, D-Man's fight with the doppelganger is said to have happened "six hours" ago. Obviously, issue #409 can't take place both "a week" and "six hours" after issue #408, and "six hours" isn't enough time for both Infinity War and Citizen Kang to occur, so i'll be treating the "six hours" line as something that comes from D-Man's confused perspective (in other words, i'll be ignoring it).

References:

• John Jameson first became a werewolf thanks to a gem that he brought back from the moon in Amazing Spider-Man #124. The footnote also points us to Creatures on the Loose #30 through Creatures on the Loose #37.
  
• Cap wonders if Jameson's moonstone is related to Moonstone's moonstone, or the Bloodstone from the Bloodstone Hunt which began in Captain America #357.
  
• The moonstone was removed from Jameson in Peter Parker, the Spectacular Spider-Man annual #3.
  
• See Avengers #295-297 for why Captain America says that Dr. Druid didn't part from the Avengers on the best of terms.
  
• Dr. Druid freed himself of "Nebula's" influence and was de-aged in Avengers Spotlight #37.
  
• D-Man was frozen in ice in Captain America #349. He was recovered in Captain America #400.
  
• As Tony notes in the comments, the town of Starkesboro, where Dredmund is operating in this story, was first seen in Marvel Premiere #4-5.
  
• Nightshade knows Ferocia because they were both on Superia's ship in Captain America #387-392. Nightshade tried to inject mutagens in Captain America during that story, but he resisted it.
  
• Nightshade turned the Falcon into a werewolf in Captain America #164.
  
• The Druid last appeared in Captain America #256.

Crossover: Infinity War

Continuity Insert? N

My Reprint: N/A

Poor Feral; being a "cat creature", she really ended up not joining into the fun. Heh, maybe she and Tigra can get a saucer of milk and talk out what they missed out on.

Capwolf is too adorable to be frightening, and its just so ridiculous that you just got to go along with it. Though...young Dr. Druid still sucks.

No bump in the HSR for being the greatest comic book storyline ever??

Been waiting for this one. It's complete crap but at least you can laugh about it and it isn't boring or forgettable. I think this was the last time I read a Gruenwald Cap comic until the last issue before Waid took over (when he has the Cap armor). Whatever faults Gru had, he was much better than this at one time. Sad to see the deterioration in his work by this point.

Oh boy Capwolf! I've heard about this and it's gonna be good!

I like that scene with JJ at the start. It's funny seeing Cap exiting through the window and my brain already snaps back to Spider-Man and wondering why JJ is nice. I loved it when Jonah stopped being a cardboard cut out character and started showing better points such as wanting heroes to have someone to answer to or human rights.

Even more bizarre than Mark Gruenwald doing an all-wolf-characters story?

Jeff Loeb thinking it's such a great idea that it should be done a second time.

On the subject of back-ups, I like them as it feels like I'm getting more for my money in the form of two stories instead of just one. Between this and "Tales Of Asgard" in Thor, I was ok with this format.

In a mainstream, mass-market comicbook, Captain America gets to climb on the naked butts of werewolves. Remember that if you ever feel like giving 'furries' a hard time...

Hated this story when it came out. Not because Cap became a werewolf. I was a regular Cap reader at the time and was thinking the end result of this story would be Cap and John Jameson repairing the rift in their friendship.

Instead John quits and I remember thinking; "John's quitting?! Now?! What the **** did we just spend the last 7 issues on this for??!! Couldn't he have just quit in #402 and we could have skipped all this??!!"

Lovin' Gru, baby
Is just like posting on a blog
But if you can't make Cap a woman
You sure shouldn't make him be a dog

I like how you consulted the Handbook regarding Cap's strength level. I did the same when reading in real time. Although I was aware that Gruenwald had stated that the info found within the Handbooks were subject to change, 1100 pounds seemed like an awful big jump in Cap's strength level.

I always assumed the Super-Soldier formula was constantly increasing his strength over time, without his knowledge.

What I really hate about this is the disconnect with the end of #401. How's Cap gonna get by? With a little help from his friends. So what does he do when setting out to look for John? Take a leave of absence from the Avengers to do it by himself. Duh.

Gruenwald's good stuff ended about a year and a half before this arc. Now it's just the sad slide of Cap into 90's nonsense.

With all due respect to Rik Levins, his style did Mark Gruenwald's wordy and somewhat stilted scripting no favors, as it just made it seem comically even more stilted. A crisper artist like Dwyer or Lim worked well with Gruenwald because Cap's verbosity and thoughts seemed in contrast to the action. Levins' art always seems to have people doing outrageously goofy poses TALKING a lot.

I thought we had established that his strength was somewhat augmented back in 1987?

http://www.supermegamonkey.net/chronocomic/entries/captain_america_328-331.shtml

Come to think of it, this should have been mentioned when he went without the serum for a little while more recently.

D man looks like devil man from the eponymous devil man anime from the 60s in the last panel.

I'm in a prog rock band and I'm definitely gonna put Starwolf into an album cover the first chance I get.

Oh yeah D-man does look like Devilman, 70s actually. Great comic btw if you're okay with being terrified and depressed.

I really want to find a way to say "I have become like unto a force of nature" in real life. Often.

@Luis, are you referring to when Dr. Malus partially augmented Cap? He also says that in order for the effect to be permanent, Malus would have to complete the treatment, which Cap declines. So i assume he went back to "normal" strength soon after that.

I've no problem with this story until about Part 5 or 6 when it's Capwolf in a cage with a bunch of other wolves trying to rally them up against their oppressors. As fnord notes, there is precedence for Cap and werewolves with regards to Nightshade and at this point in comics his current friend and pilot WAS once probably Marvel's second biggest werewolf (well, in terms that he did used to headline books somehow). So in theory the story makes absolute sense.

I feel like there's two separate stories here that on their own would work (Cap investigates werewolves in a great big continuity porn story and then Cap becomes a werewolf). But yeah, this just comes off the rails spectacularly. And I agree with Rick about the story's ending with John Jameson quitting making the whole thing even more frustrating.

But, hey, at least it's still better than what that moron Nick Spencer is doing with Falcon as a werewolf now.

Another Wizard magazine Famous Worst.

Starkesboro is the town where Doctor Strange fought Sligguth and Ebora in Marvel Premiere #4-5, so it is indeed "a hotbed of arcane activity."

Nothing to be said about this that hasnt been said already.

A later letter column says that the readout on cap's weights was malfunctioning to cover their flub.

Capwolf!!! I've been anticipating fnord's overview of this, um, memorable storyline. Although I will be the first to admit that "Man and Wolf" is not by any means a great story, I have a certain fondness for this story.

Truthfully, I would much rather read "Man and Wolf" any day of the week than nearly any of the Captain America issues published under the Marvel Knights banner a decade later. "Man and Wolf" is a silly, fun story, and Gruenwald doesn't try to make it seem to be anything more than that. Those MK issues, on the other hand, try so hard to be topical and sophisticated and controversial, but they end up really falling flat on their face. Especially the ones written by Chuck Austen :P

It's been suggested that "Man and Wolf" might have been a somewhat better story if it had been drawn by a horror-oriented artist. I do like Rik Levins better than most, and he improved during his time on this series. But he was definitely a penciler who specialized in mainstream superheroes. It could have been interesting to see how "Man and Wolf" might have looked if drawn by someone like Mike Mignola or Kelley Jones or Bernie Wrightson or Frank Brunner.

I do think it's hysterical that Captain America and Cable's first-ever meeting is when the former has been transformed into a werewolf, Cable's gun gets eaten, and then the two of them get wrapped up in a giant carpet. "Whose mutant power is it to control carpets?" What a ridiculously great line!

I used to own the original artwork for the page fnord has scanned below his description "Cap tries to stop Moonhunter..." but I eventually sold it because, well, I'd rather have had a page that actually featured Capwolf. Never did get one, but I did obtain a pretty good page from #419. So once I had a Levins page I liked better, I parted company with the other one.

I will definitely agree with fnord that the back-up stories really threw the pacing off on this book. The letters pages had quite a few missives requesting that they be eliminated. As fnord says, some of these back-ups would have worked better as subplots integrated into the main stories. After this set of issues the back-ups were finally discontinued.

By the way, Benway is right on the money. If I could find a really cool way to utilize the expression "I have become like unto a force of nature" in real life, I'd be dropping it in conversation left & right :)

"This is one of the most reviled Captain America stories ever published, possibly rivaling the 1996 Rob Liefeld reboot (which, in retrospect, can at least be written off as an alternate reality thing)."

Which is why Marvel reused the damn premise AGAIN about 15 years later, because when you are so bereft of fresh material, the rotting waste in tne garbage starts to look rathet inviting.

Just preparing people forvwhen tbey inevitably reboot SuperPro vs. Avengers

@Tony, thanks for pointing that out. I suspected the town was significant in some way, since characters tended to pause near the signpost, but i didn't recognize the name. I've added a Reference for that.

Regarding "Whose mutant power is it to control carpets?", there was similar line in a 'New Teen Titans' comic from the 80s -- when magnetic force makes a lamppost encircle Dr. Light, his response is something like, "Which superhero has control over municipal facilities?!"

Re: why Gruenwald included Druid- it's been suggested that Gruenwald felt guilty about how Avengers 291-297 damaged Druid's character and was trying to rehabilitate him.