Issue(s): Captain America #423
Cover Date: Jan 94
Title: "War zones"
Credits:
Roy Thomas - Writer
M.C. Wyman - Penciler
Charles Barnett III - Inker
Joe Andreani - Assistant Editor
Mike Rockwitz - Editor

Review/plot:
This was the only fill-in during Mark Gruenwald's Captain America run. Roy Thomas gives us a pre-Invaders story featuring Cap, Bucky, and the Sub-Mariner (with a cameo by the Human Torch).

Captain America and Bucky stop some Nazi saboteurs from dynamiting a train. Meanwhile, the Human Torch and the Sub-Mariner are fighting in New York.

Namor does some damage and then flees. Then he decides to kidnap President Roosevelt. By the time he gets to the White House, Cap and Bucky are there for a medal ceremony. So Cap and Namor have their first meeting (retroactively speaking).

Namor gets away with FDR.

FDR explains to Namor that the US was never intentionally attacking Atlantis.

Namor doesn't buy it, and he broadcasts an announcement demanding that all ships leave the Antarctic Circle or else he'll execute FDR. The Germans hear the announcement and trace it, with a mind to capture the US president. Meanwhile, Cap also tracks down Namor and they fight again. Nazis grab FDR while the two are fighting. So they team up against the Nazis.

FDR gets in on the action too.

When the Nazis are defeated, Namor decides that he doesn't want to try to recapture FDR again, saying that there must be some other way that he can protect Atlantis. Then he leaves.

The plot feels really padded, and the script is full of the usual Roy Thomas nonsensical asides.

And the bland art feels really out of place for a story set in the Golden Age.

I thought this story might try to be a "fix" for something missing from the Golden Age comics, like an explanation for how Namor became a good guy or something like that. But it just feels inconsequential. Sure it can be seen as a (retroactive) minor step in his character development, but it's mostly inconsequential fluff. A momentous first meeting between Captain America and the Sub-Mariner this is not. And i think continuity inserts should have more of a purpose to them than that. The last thing the Golden Age needed was to be cluttered up with 1990s filler.

Quality Rating: D

Historical Significance Rating: 1

Chronological Placement Considerations: This takes place in "early 1941". America is still officially neutral and Cap and Bucky are operating in the US. It's "nearly a year" before the formation of the Invaders. The MCP have this very early in Cap's chronology, during Captain America Comics #1, between the first and second stories. I'm placing it after the stories from Tales of Suspense #63-68 which retell and expand on the stories from CAC #1. I don't think that the fight between the Human Torch and Namor is meant to be a specific one.

References:

• A footnote points to the Saga of the Sub-Mariner regarding the fact that Atlantis is located in the Antarctic at this time.

Crossover: N/A

Continuity Insert? Y

My Reprint: N/A