Captain America #697

HOME OF THE BRAVE pt III

Written by Mark Waid
Penciled by Chris Samnee
Cover by Chris Samnee
Published Jan 3, 2018

   Cap relaxes in a barroom while playing pool with flirty opponent, when he takes his eyes off the prize and she knocks him out. When he wakes up, he’s in Kraven’s den, surrounded by previous conquest trophies and wearing a power dampener. Kraven explains that Captain America is the ultimate challenge. He releases a wounded man into the woods below and Cap goes after him.

Cap vs Cheetah.

   Almost immediately, he saves the man from a charging jaguar, later showing him a trap that he nearly stepped in. Turns out the man’s name is David and he was backpacking across Europe and woke up in this jungle. Suddenly a shot is fired, striking the tree behind Cap. They continue on, walking near snakes in a narrowing ravine. He asks how good David is at climbing, but nearly as soon as he answers, the man brings down an avalanche of boulders. They escape, but Cap notices the hunter crouching in the distance and everything begins to kind of make sense...

David appears rather inept.

   After telling David to keep close on his tail, the man steps on a mine. Cap does the best he can to chill the guy out when he notices the smell of gun oil. David was the trap the entire time. Kraven applauds. He pulls a shotgun and fires, which Captain America is able to evade. In the disturbance, they both dangle from the cliff, but the Hunter refuses to turn off the power dampener. They both fall, and as Cap is in the swell of a wave, Rampart’s submarine surfaces. They blast him with icy water, and Captain America is later hoisted onto the ship in a massive block of ice. What will a now re-frozen Cap be like? How will he fight back? We’ll all have to wait and see as this issue is left to be continued.

"I'm beginning to think you guys know I'm vulnerable to things like this..."

   You know, I’ve often praised quick and short comics since they’re such a change of pace from what Marvel and DC are often prone to doing. I’ve followed some of the most complicated and multi-faceted stories that even I’ve completely lost focus of what’s happening. With books like this though, there’s very little question. Obviously after Cap’s Secret Empire brain scrambling, it makes sense to thaw him out a little slowly, pardon the pun. This issue keeps sight of that. I give it an 8/10.

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