Captain America #384 (April 1991) 

Writer – Mark Gruenwald 

Artist – Ron Lim 

“Lair of the Ice-Worm” 

Can you ever go wrong with Captain America? This was my morning read for Thursday, February 15^th before I started work. I had my Dunkin coffee and Eggo Waffle Pop Tarts to go along with it. 

Effective immediately, all Avengers must get a battery of tests to see if they are field worthy. Cap volunteers to go through these rigorous trials first. After he is shown a tabloid paper featuring Eskimos worshipping a man frozen in a block of ice, he heads to the Arctic to see if this mystery man is the missing hero D-Man. When he tries to free his friend from the ice, Steve unwittingly unleashes a monstrosity called the Ice Worm. Things take a dire turn when the creature swallows Cap whole. The guest star of the comic may be able to save Cap before it’s too late. 

The cover asks the reader to guess the co-star of this issue and if you guessed Iceman like I did, Congratulations, you are wrong! 

This was a nice done in one issue that features the fallout to the “Streets of Poison” crossover that saw Cap losing the Super Soldier Serum. I have the Epic Collection that contains these issues so it will be nice to read and figure out what happened with Cap and the serum. Cap is astonished that he still has his Olympic – level strength and speed like he previously did. The Avengers’ physician tries to explain how this is still possible but we don’t get a clear-cut reason yet. 

I really enjoyed Mr. Lim’s art and the battle between Cap and the Ice Worm. If I’m not mistaken, this might be the first comic I ever read that features D-Man in the story. I once dedicated an Open Thread to Dennis Dunphy here at the site. His first appearance is in Captain America #328 and that is another story I must read in the near future. I would like to see how Cap and D-Man end up becoming friends in the first place. 

The most surprising thing to me in this issue was the letters page. I noticed the name Dan Slott: Assistant Editor on the very final page of the comic and I am astounded that he has been with Marvel for so long. To see where he started and how far he’s come is an accomplishment to the man and his longevity in the business. 

Pre-Onslaught 90s era Captain America is a total blind spot for me and one I’d like to fix in the near future. If you have any storylines or runs you can recommend during this time frame, feel free to post them in the comments section. 

This issue gets 3 Shields out of 5. The whole Cap/Super Soldier Serum mystery is a plot point I’d like to follow up on. Cap fighting a creature outside his weight class is a sight to behold until you realize the sacrifice needed to be made to stop the rampage. D-Man gets a solid point all his own. The power of three! There you have it folks!

Next Issue – It’s been a long time coming-Captain America wages war on the Watchdogs!