Issue(s): Nomad #19
Cover Date: Nov 93
Title: "Buried treasures"
Credits:
Fabian Nicieza - Writer
Bill Wylie - Penciler
Greg Adams & Scott Koblish - Inker
Glenn Herdling - Editor

Review/plot:
I noted in last issue's entry that Rick Mays wasn't a good fit for this Faustus Affair story. Fans of Nomad's eclectic series might have been ok with it, but i imagine people picking these issues up for the Captain America crossover were probably turned off. This issue has art by Bill Wylie, and it's more super-hero friendly (it's not very good, though).

As a side note, there's also a cover by Michael Golden. According to a note in the back, Wylie did the original cover (which is included on the same back page), but Michael Golden supposedly heard about the Cap/Nomad crossover and wanted to do a cover. Unfortunately he wasn't fully up on Nomad's status quo, so Nomad has long hair and still has Bucky (who is not in this issue).

Last issue Captain America figured that Nomad was going to go after Dr. Faustus to extract vengeance for brainwashing him. That does seem to be the case, although it's unclear where we are at the start of this issue. Nomad's narration says, "Somewhere between me trying to find Faustus and Cap trying to find me, the Wanderers found us!". And they are all in a big building with broken windows. Nomad shoots off one of the Wanderers' feet, causing Cap to admonish him, and Nomad says that Cap is right and suggests that Cap deal with the remaining Wanderers while he continues to go after Faustus. So that might suggest that they've all just wound up in some random house, but Nomad also says, "You keep them from assassinating the Slug", which makes it sound like the group has never left the Slug's mansion. Which differs from how Captain America #421 ended, with Nomad already gone, and doesn't quite match up with the opening narration about the Wanderers finding them. And if we're still at the Slug's mansion, it's also not clear what happened to the Slug's goons.

Anyway, while Cap deals with the Wanderers...

...Nomad finds Faustus. Faustus offers to help Nomad, saying that he can unlock the rest of Nomad's suppressed memories about his parents, or help him forget them completely. Nomad seems to choose the latter, but Faustus says that in order to wipe them out, they first have to be brought to the surface. We learn that FBI agents contacted Jack as a young boy and made him confess about the Nazi paraphernalia in his father's basement. Jack's parents were arrested as Nazi sympathizers who were part of the Bund organization, which was still fighting "for years after the war". Getting the memories back causes Nomad to freak out.

Nomad decides that he wants to keep the memories but kill Dr. Faustus.

Captain America shows up and seemingly convinces Nomad to not kill him. But "five weeks later" Nomad stops by the minimum security prison where Faustus is being held, and seemingly kills him after all.

Dr. Faustus will appear again but not for a great long while (2006, during Ed Brubaker's run).

In a continuing subplot, Nomad's sister and Senator Bart Ingrid, who apparently know each other, get together.

This was not a great crossover. I think it's because it's trying to find a middle ground between a true super-hero story and the kind of stuff normally in the Nomad book and therefore failing to do well in either category. Nomad killing Faustus for what seem like very confused reasons make him seem like a real psychopath, even more than the Punisher who at least has a consistent ethos (so to speak). The revelation about Nomad's parents doesn't seem particularly damaging for a guy that already spent half his life brainwashed; you'd think he'd basically be over all of that by now regardless of what new details emerge. I haven't read further into the Nomad series yet so maybe the idea is very much to have Nomad basically go crazy (there isn't much to the series left, just another six issues). If so, that's a little better but i have to ask why Captain America can't see that his friend is extremely unstable at this point. Cap has literally nothing going on in his own book at this time; he could have spent some time trying to help Nomad or at least keeping tabs on him.

Quality Rating: C-

Historical Significance Rating: 1

Chronological Placement Considerations: This is the third and final part of The Faustus Affair.

References:

• Approaching the mental asylum that Dr. Faustus is operating out of, Cap thinks of his own crazy life, including how he was turned into a werewolf. No footnote, but that happened in Captain America #402-408.
  
• When Cap tells Nomad that he can't just kill in cold blood, Nomad asks Cap "What about Alaska", a reference to Nomad #4. Cap says that was different because they were being fired on.

Crossover: The Faustus Affair

Continuity Insert? N

My Reprint: N/A