Issue(s): Captain America #438
Cover Date: Apr 95
Title: "The bombs bursting in air"
Credits:
Mark Gruenwald - Writer
Dave Hoover - Penciler
Dan Bulanadi & Scott Koblish - Inker
Matt Idelson - Assistant Editor
Ralph Macchio - Editor

Review/plot:
Digital review warning.

Welp...

The best part is that it's said that Cap's voice is amplified by a vocoder. I'd like to imagine it's set up so that Cap always sounds like he's singing along to Daft Punk's Harder Better Faster Stronger. It's too bad Jack Flag isn't around with his boombox.

This issue deals with Flag-Smasher. Flag-Smasher thanks his group ULTIMATUM for freeing him from incarceration. Which is odd, because the last time we saw him in this book, in Captain America #400, he escaped capture by USAgent, and he was seemingly still operating in Ghost Rider #50. Normally we have the problem where villains appear without any indication of how they've survived their capture/death from their last appearance; this time we have the opposite problem.

Anyway, Flag-Smasher has kidnapped Gavin, one of the hackers in Cap's computer network. And Gavin is right, Flag-Smasher does look like Space Ghost.

This is a very patriotic kid (which i guess makes sense; you don't wind up in Cap's computer network for the LOLs).

Flag-Smasher makes Gavin send out an alert to lure in Cap. But it's first picked up by Moonhunter, Free Spirit, and Jack Flag. So they are the lucky ones who get to fight the badass ULTIMATUM Ski Troopers (so badass they are using skis in Washington DC!).

Having to fight these bozos pisses off Flag-Smasher, but he gets his wish when the real Cap arrives (albeit in the vocoder suit).

Flag-Smasher was such an interesting character when he was first introduced, but he's effectively just a generic terrorist at this point. Not even a terrorist; i guess he's like a parody of an anarchist who just attacks stuff for no reason. Cap defeats him with little drama and then gathers a number of his friends to tell them that he's dying. One of the friends is Arnie Roth, who tells him that he is also dying, of bone cancer. One friend who isn't there is Bernie Rosenthal, because she's investigating a mysterious house where "he" may be living. (And if you're looking at the Characters List, the reason Mike Farrel is listed isn't because he's one of the friends that Cap gathered, so that tells you who "he" is.)

Quality Rating: D

Historical Significance Rating: 1

Chronological Placement Considerations: In Avengers #385 Captain America and Henry Pym's location is said to be unknown because of this issue (i guess they're still operating out of Stark Enterprises). So these issues take place around the same time.

References: N/A

Crossover: N/A

Continuity Insert? N

My Reprint: N/A