Captain America: "The Chasm"

Captain America #321 (1986)

By Mark Gruenwald, Paul Neary, John Beatty

Background: Trying to save a group of hostages, Captain America has had to kill one of the Ultimatum terrorists led by the Flag-Smasher.

So, What Happens? In the middle of a blizzard, Cap and SHIELD storm the Ultimatum base in the Swiss Alps, with the Avenger especially motivated to capture the Flag-Smasher after the recent events. Seeing his enemy about to leave on board of a helicopter, Cap jumps on it, and in the ensuing fight the out-of-control chopper smashes into the Alps and explodes. Both Cap and the Flag-Smasher are saved by the soft snow and resume their fight, but eventually the terrorist falls into a deep chasm. Unable to help due to the raging snowstorm, Cap is forced to dig a burrow for himself and wait until the weather improves. He's eventually able to get out and reach the bottom of the chasm, recovering the unconscious terrorist who appears to have a broken leg. Once again, Cap digs a shelter for the both of them, struggling to stay warm and keep his foe alive during the frosty alpine night. The next morning, Cap takes the now conscious Flag-Smasher and starts the long journey towards civilization, trying to explain his point of view and philosophies. He's interrupted by a Ultimatum helicopter, but it turns out to be a blessing in disguise as the hero quickly takes the terrorists down. The Flag-Smasher takes the chance to grab a gun and reiterate that his opinion of Captain America hasn't changed any despite their conversation or the fact that the hero has saved his life. However he eventually accepts he doesn't have a chance and gives up, promising to kill Cap another day. Focused on the principle that every life is precious, Cap flies the chopper back to base and delivers the Flag-Smasher to SHIELD.

Something Silly This Way Comes: After an hour unconscious during a snow storm, the Flag-Smasher should be well buried under the snow.

Review: Concluding the short Flag-Smasher storyline, this is a character-driven issue with more emphasis on characterization than action. Cleverly, Gruenwald writes all the captions from Cap's point of view, offering a deeper window than usual into his thought processes and basically allowing the hero to narrate the story. While I would call it character exploration rather than development - as we don't really learn anything about Cap we didn't already know, nor we see him grow and change in any meaningful way - this approach for the most part works and there are a few particularly insightful moments, especially as Steve wonders if others could see his patriotic actions as fanaticism.

In order for this approach to be effective, the action needs to take a step back and half the story is effectively a survival tale, with Steve struggling to keep himself and the Flag-Smasher alive during a stormy night on the Swiss Alps. The setting is inspired, and the night, cold and elements work together to make Cap stop for a while, leaving him with only his thoughts and the ghosts of all his recently deceased enemies for company. When all the external stimuli are taken away, it becomes almost a personal moment, and possibly the best part of the issue.

Unfortunately, the latter half isn't quite as compelling. While it makes sense that Cap would try to convince the Flag-Smasher of the errors of his way, it comes across as boring since he ends up repeating what we already knew from the first few pages. A fight against a few terrorists is nothing exciting either, and the only refreshing bit are a couple of thought balloons showing the twisted mind of the Flag-Smasher and highlighting his differences with Cap by contrast.

I'm not Paul Neary's biggest fan and I think his figures tend to lack expressiveness, only showing a rather broad range of emotion, but on the plus side the snowy landscape is convincing, and the fights look smooth despite the occasional clunky panel.

Final Verdict: A survival tale suffering from a slow ending but offering an insightful look into Cap's mind. 4/5