"The End" Week: Marvel Adventures #18!

"If Cap can't disarm this missile," proclaims the cover, "--a nation is doomed!" Since this is the last issue, could be! From 1998, Marvel Adventures #18, "Heart of the Hero" Written by Ralph Macchio, pencils by Andy Kuhn, inks by Harry Candelario.

Captain America stars this issue, opening with some intensive (and immersive) training with S.H.I.E.L.D. and a bit of hero-worship of Cap, before Nick Fury gives him a mission: rescue captured agent George Tarleton from the clutches of Advanced Idea Mechanics, A.I.M.! Not a handsome guy...still, he looks familiar.

I didn't like the art as much this issue, but I spent most of my time trying to recall if this was a straight retelling of Tales of Suspense #93, the first appearance of M.O.D.O.K.! Cap's jet-sub infiltration of A.I.M.'s base rings a bell, but the original story had Sharon Carter. Moreover, Cap fails to rescue Tarleton, as he has already been transformed into M.O.D.O.K.! After a missile is launched at China, Cap knocks M.O.D.O.K. out of his "rocket-chair" (which I thought he was more attached to) and takes off after it, and manages to disable it while thinking of poor lost Bucky the whole time.

Cap worries that M.O.D.O.K. is still out there, but the rank-and-file A.I.M. scientists rise against their momentarily-helpless leader, but may merely give him enough what-for to try and teach him his place. Good luck with that.