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Preview art by
Mitch Breitweiser |
By Marc Strom
Get ready for a blast from Captain America's past.
The Star-Spangled Avenger's wartime history receives the spotlight in CAPTAIN AMERICA THEATER OF WAR: OPERATION ZERO-POINT #1, the first in a series of one-shots beginning on October 29.
Father and son writing team Daniel and Charles Knauf team up with artist Mitch Breitweiser to bring readers back to 1944, and Marvel.com spoke with the duo about everything they have in store for World War II's greatest hero!
"The Nazis have developed antigravity tech that threatens to turn the tide of WWII, and Cap is sent in on a one-man mission to sabotage the program and help its chief scientist defect to America," explains Daniel.
"It's old school Cap," Charles elaborates. "Guns, explosions, dames, flying saucers and one big cyborg Nazi. What more could you ask for?"
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Preview art by
Mitch Breitweiser |
The writers say that the question of whether or not to write a Cap story set during the war proved a no-brainer.
"You're just messing with us, right," Charles jokes. "I mean, Cap? WWII? Who wouldn't be eager to play in that sandbox?"
"Charlie's right," Daniel agrees. "This is 100% Cap at his finest. Plus, it's always fun to do a great WWII period piece. We're both huge fans of the golden age books."
"Hard to find anything cooler than a picture of Cap popping off rounds with a tommy gun!" exudes Charles.
However, fans shouldn't expect our hero's teen sidekick—and modern-day Captain America—
Bucky to show up in this particular story.
"With all the wall-to-wall action and two-fisted adventure in one issue we had no real opportunity to work Bucky into the narrative," Charlie reports.
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Preview art by
Mitch Breitweiser |
The writers also agree that
Steve Rogers in the war years stands out as a very different character from the man who the
Avengers found encased in ice.
"Cap wasn't a fish out of water [in WWII]," Daniel notes. "He was completely comfortable—a man who sees the world in black-and-white living in a black-and-white world. The bad guys were actually wearing hats emblazoned with skulls-and-crossbones! I mean, if we did that in a comic book today, people would say, 'C'mon! Get real!'"
Charles sees Captain America's situation in WWII in similar terms: "Steve was young, ready to kick some tail and had a clear enemy in front of him. It's as simple as that."
Finally, if the opportunity to write more of the Sentinel of Liberty's adventures presented itself, Daniel says he'd be on it "in a heartbeat."
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Cover art by
Mitch Breitweiser |
Charles echoes his father's sentiment, pointing out that stories from this particular time period particularly interest him:
"Frankly, I've always wanted to do more stories like this one. I love pulp and golden age books and I think that there's a well of cool stories yet to be told about Cap's adventures in WWII."
CAPTAIN AMERICA THEATER OF WAR: OPERATION ZERO-POINT #1 ships on October 29, but you can read Cap's Golden Age exploits right now at Marvel Digital Comics Unlimited!
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