Captain America #237
From the Ashes…
After preventing Doctor Faustus from releasing a mind control gas on New York City, Captain America holds a press conference to explain everything that happened, particularly why he appeared to support the Faustus backed Neo-Nazi organization called the National Front.[1] Among the reporters in the crowd is photographer Peter Parker, who can’t help but notice how exhausted Cap looks. When one of the reports asks if Captain America thinks he has outlived his usefulness to society in light of the events. The Living Legend of World War II can’t provide an honest answer and ends the press conference.
As he leaves, another reporter pulls him aside and reveals that her camera crew was present during the earlier violence in Harlem and may have recorded the final fate of Sharon Carter, Captain America’s love who was also brainwashed into joining National Front. Cap agrees to go to their news van where the footage is played back for him. He is horrified to see that Sharon committed suicide through self-immolation just like the other National Front members when they are captured. Confirming it is Sharon, Steve begins to cry.[2]
A week later, the Falcon returns to New York City and decides to check in and see how Steve is doing.[3] He is shocked to discover that Steve had moved out of his apartment without a trace.[4] Next, Falcon tries Avengers Mansion to see if Earth’s Mightiest Heroes know where he has gone. Unfortunately, they don’t know where Steve has gone either. That’s when Steve himself arrives at the mansion and explains he needed some time away to mourn the loss of Sharon. He also decided to start a new chapter in his life and moved to a new apartment in Brooklyn Heights where he now works as a freelance commercial artist.
Later that evening, Steve returns to his new apartment building. On his way in he is almost knocked over by one of his neighbors a member of the Fire Department of New York.[5] In his unit, Steve begins cooking a TV dinner when he is visited by another neighbor, Joshua Cooper. Cooper is incredibly friendly and invites Steve to come downstairs for dinner with another neighbor, Anna Kapplebaum, who likes to have dinner with other tenants in the building. Since a home cooked meal is much more appealing than the goop he pulled out of the stove, Steve reluctantly agrees to join Joshua and Anna for dinner.
When Steve does meet with Anna Kapplebaum he notices that she has a serial number tattooed on her arm, revealing that she survived the Holocaust.[6] Steve deduces that she survived the concentration camp at Diebenwald. Anna is surprised by the correct guess and swears that he looks familiar to her somehow. Ignoring this, she decides to tell him her story of survival. She tells him that she and her family grew up in Germany in relative peace until the time when she was 12 years old. This was on Kristalnacht, November 9th, 1938, when the Nazis began rounding up Jews and putting them in the camps. Anna and her family were loaded onto a cattlecar and brought to Diebenwald. There Anna and her parents were brought before a Nazi doctor who said the able bodied would be put to work while those who were old and weak would be experimented upon. When her parents protested, Anna watched in horror as they were beaten to death right in front of her.
During her time living at the camp, she also saw the deaths of her brothers and sisters. At the time she thought they were the lucky ones because they were finally at peace. Anna survived in the camp for years until the spring of 1945, when news of the Allied Forces finally invaded Germany. The commanding officer at the camp did not the Allies to find evidence of the horrors carried out at the camp and ordered his men to kill the remaining Jews. Luckily, before this could happen, Captain America arrived on the scene and attacked the Nazi soldiers all by himself. Attempting to escape, the commanding officer took Anna as a hostage and tried to negotiate his release. Instead, Captain America tosses his shield, disarming the Nazis. When the American soldiers arrived to secure the camp they finally took stock of what was going on and was horrified by what the Nazis did to the prisoners there.
Concluding her story, Anna says she never saw Captain America again, but never forgot how the hero saved her life all those years ago. After dinner, Anna tells Steve to stop by again some day. Returning to his apartment, Steve reflects on Anna’s story and realizes that stopping atrocities like the Holocaust is why Captain America is still relevant. The following morning, Steve is woken up by a phone call from Nick Fury. Steve is still not happy with SHIELD after he was called a security hazard, but Nick manages to smooth things over because he has a mission that only Captain America can accomplish. Steve accepts this request, annoyed that his private life has to go on the back burner again, but vows that he will focus on his personal life once he gets back.
Recurring Characters
Captain America, Falcon, Joshua Cooper, Anna Kapplebaum, Nick Fury, Avengers (Wasp, Vision, Beast, Ms. Marvel), Peter Parker, Sharon Carter, Mike Farrel (unidentified), Nazis (flashback)
Continuity Notes
Steve recounts the events of Captain America #231-236. Particularly the events of #234, which saw him promoting the National Front while under the influence of the mind control gas.
Steve didn’t know if Sharon was alive or dead following the events of Captain America #233. While this story seems to confirm that she in fact perished, this is all a deception. As Captain America #446 reveals, Sharon faked her death so she could participate in a deep-cover mission for SHIELD.
Falcon has been going it alone since Captain America #231. Although you wouldn’t know it since nobody had done anything with Falcon since his absence from this title.
When Falcon asks Steve’s neighbors about where he has gone, he talks to a man who has been stalking Steve since issue #231 for an organization called the Brotherhood. This is the last time we see or hear from him or his organization again. Why they were spying on Captain America remains a mystery.
This neighbor is identified as Mike Farrel in Captain America #241.
Anna having lived through the Holocaust and still being alive in the Modern Age of the Marvel Universe will become increasingly impossible. See “The Kapplebaum Conundrum” below.
The Kapplebaum Conundrum
The possibility that Anna Kapplebaum is still alive in the Modern Age after surviving the Holocaust are becoming increasingly impossible thanks to the Sliding Timescale. This is due to the fact that the Timescale increases the gulf of time between World War II and the start of the Modern Age with each passing year.
For example, at the time of this writing (July 2021), World War II ended about 76 years ago. The Modern Age of the Marvel Universe will enter its 16th year in November of 2021. This story takes place in the 1979 publication year putting it in “Year Five” of the Modern Age, or 11 years prior to stories being published in November 2021. By this measurement World War II had been over for 71 years prior to this story. If Anna was 12 in 1938, she would have been about 19 when she was rescued in 1945.
When this story was published in 1979, that would have made Anna 53 years old, a plausible age for someone at the time. However, due to the nature of the Sliding Timescale, she would be 84 years old in this story. It gets worse. When the Modern Age enters its “seventeenth" year in November 2025, she’ll be 87 during this first meeting. It will get to the point where it will be impossible for her to still be alive.
At the time of this writing, Marvel has not provided an explanation for Anna Kapplebaum because there isn’t a need for it just yet, but it will become an eventuality. Since I’m a forward thinking guy, I’d like to posit a few possible solutions when this does become a problem.
Anna’s story is deeply rooted in World War II history and the whole point of her character is that she is a Holocaust survivor and her past is connected to Captain America’s wartime activities. You cannot do the usual Sliding Timescale/Topical Reference soft-retcons with out adversely changing the character and doing so is a great disservice to the story that Chris Claremont was trying to tell. I don’t think this is a simple fix as saying she is the relative of a Holocaust survivor, or that her World War II history should be considered topical and made more general.
So how do you fix a problem like Anna? Well I think this story provides the grounds for a plausible explanation. When Anna and her family first arrived at Diebenwald, they are taken to a doctor who say those who are too weak to work will be experimented upon. While Anna may once had been a healthy little girl, that couldn’t have lasted long if she lived in the camp from 1938 until 1945. I think it’s plausible that Anna was experimented on by Nazi scientists and one of these experiments was to slow the aging process. This is not impossible when you consider all the Nazis that survived the ravages of time in one way or the others (the Red Skull, Arnim Zola, Baron Zemo, Baron Strucker and on and on and on)
I think this is a reasonable in-universe explanation to answer something that will become a stick question given enough time.
