Appearing in "The American Dreamers!"
Featured Characters:
- ⏴ Captain America ⏵
- Captain America (Worked for Kennedy)
- Captain America (Sam was a Shoe Shiner)
- Captain America (Child)
- Captain America (as a member of the Underground fighting the Nazi rulers of America)
- Samuel Wilson
- Samuel Wilson (as a Congressman)
- Samuel Wilson (as a shoe shiner)
- Samuel Wilson (as a happy child at a carnival)
- Samuel Wilson (as the Falcon, a member of the Underground fighting the Nazi rulers of America) (Death)
Supporting Characters:
- Ursula Richards ⏵ (Unnamed) (First appearance) (Main story and flashback)
Antagonists:
- ⏴ Morgan MacNeil Hardy ⏵ (Main story and flashback) (Death)
Other Characters:
- Harold Becker (Unnamed) (First appearance) (Main story and flashback) (Death)
- Phillip le Guin ⏵ (Unnamed) (First appearance) (Main story and flashback)
- Eva Krauss (Unnamed) (First appearance) (Main story and flashback) (Death)
- Spider-Woman (Only in flashback)
- Turner D. Century (Only in flashback)
- Edward Ferbel (Nomad) (Only in flashback)
- Leonard Spellman (Only in flashback)
- Jason Staid (Only in flashback)
- Wally Lombergo (Only in flashback)
- Red Skull (Mentioned)
- A certain group that shared Hardy's views (Referenced)
Altered-Reality versions of:
- Tomlinson
- President John F. "Jack" Kennedy (Photo)
- S.H.I.E.L.D. (Mentioned)
- Bucky
- Avengers
- Giant-Man (Henry Pym)
- Iron Man
- Peggy Carter (Mentioned) (Death)
- Ultron (Statue)
- Vision (Statue)
- Steve's Son (Mentioned) (Death)
- Nazis
- X-Men
- Beast (Hank McCoy)
- Angel (Warren Worthington III)
- Cyclops (Scott Summers)
- Marvel Girl (Jean Grey)
- Ku Klux Klan
Locations:
- Prime Marvel Universe
- United States of America
- Marin County (Only in flashback), California (Only in flashback)
- Hardy State (Only in flashback)
- New York State
- Catskill Mountains
- Waldheim Hotel (First appearance)
- Catskill Mountains
- Marin County (Only in flashback), California (Only in flashback)
- United States of America
- Earth-TRN1054 (Cap was not Frozen, Nucky Led the Avengers, Sam was a Congressman)
- Earth-TRN1055 (Sam was a Shoe Shiner)
- Earth-TRN1056 (No Adults)
- Earth-TRN1057 (Nazi's conquered America)
Items:
- Captain America's Shield
- Captain America's Uniform
- Telepathy Augmentor (Destruction)
Vehicles:
- Nazi mini-jet
Synopsis for "The American Dreamers!"
In a remote hotel, four people are hooked into strange machinery. Meanwhile, after returning to New York City, Captain America finds himself in various confusing scenarios, including working for President John F Kennedy while Bucky leads the Avengers, Sam Wilson as a shoe-shiner, and he and Sam as children at a carnival. In each scenario, Steve sees and/or hears a message from an African-American woman telling him that the world is not the way it should be and that he has to do something about it. The final scenario features Nazis marching down Fifth Avenue in celebration of the anniversary of the day they conquered America, with captive blacks, Jews, and mutants on display as part of the parade. Cap and Falcon attack the Nazis and free the mutants but Falcon is shot dead. When the bullets fired at him form a message asking him to come to the Waldheim Hotel, Cap finally retains his memory of it and steals a mini-jet to take him to the hotel. Meanwhile, Morgan MacNeil Hardy adjusts his machine, a Telepathy Augmenter, not understanding why the four people hooked into it keep changing reality from what he wants. Cap arrives at the hotel and battles through Klu Klux Klan members who become Nazi soldiers before finding Hardy who has hooked himself into the machine to stabilize reality. Cap challenges Hardy, asking whose morals are correct: the racist, the Nazi supporter or the child who wants to play? In response, Hardy tries to erase Cap from reality but the black woman's belief that Captain America totally symbolized America to her interacted with Hardy's command and began to phase out the entire country. Not understanding what was happening but desperate to save the America he loved, Hardy drew the psi-energy back and channelled it into the Augmentor, destroying it and himself with it. The minds of two of the subjects, the racist and the Nazi supporter, were so full of uncontrolled hatred that they couldn't bear the feedback and they shorted out like the Augmentor did from the power overload. The boy and the black woman survived, possibly because of his innocence and her faith in Captain America.
Notes
- The Falcon is listed as a co-star on the cover for this issue only. However, he only appears in four restructured realities and thus shouldn't remember anything he experienced during that time, including his death.
- Inkers for this issue are credited as "Quickdraw Studios". Other inkers other than Frank McLaughlin worked on this issue.
- Captain America appears next in Captain America Annual #5.
- No letters page is published this issue.
- Phillip Le Guin and Ursula Richards are only identified as, respectively, "Subject B" and "Subject D" in this issue. Their real names won't be revealed until their next appearance in Captain America #268. Similarly, Harold Becker and Eva Krauss are only identified as, respectively, "Subject A" and "Subject C" in this issue but their real names won't be revealed until the profile on Chorus that was published in Defenders: Strange Heroes #1.
- With the excaption of Cap's travels, only the first and last page of this story take places in the unaltered Earth-616. Everything in the pages in between take place in a restructured reality. Once the Augmentor was destroyed, the world resumed its normal course and nobody but Cap, Ursula, Phillip and Hardy remembered anything that happened in the altered reality.
Trivia
- The plot of this story is loosely inspired by The Lathe of Heaven by Ursula K. Le Guin, in which a man alters reality every time he dreams. Fittingly, two of the dreamers in this issue are later revealed to be named "Ursula" and "Le Guin".
See Also
Links and References
- The Grand Comics Database: Captain America Vol 1 264 [1]