In perhaps one of the strangest Captain America stories to date, Steve Rogers is powered by a Satanic formula and wields a shield with a pentagram and mysterious symbols in lieu of the stars and stripes of the United States - and that's the most normal element of the plot. All jobs have their share of inside jokes and idiosyncrasies that are only known to employees, and Marvel Comics is no different. 2010's Captain America: Who Won't Wield The Shield? is almost entirely an in-joke book - but it still contains the only example of a Satanic Captain America in modern comics.
Captain America was memorably assassinated in 2007's The Death of Captain America, in the immediate aftermath of Marvel's Civil War event. In Steve Rogers' absence, Bucky Barnes became the newest character to attain the Captain America title - but Rogers would eventually make a full recovery from death (as is the case with countless other comic heroes). When Marvel revealed that Rogers healed, who'd take the field and wield the shield? The question is most assuredly not answered in Captain America: Who Won't Wield The Shield?; instead, the company presents multiple narratives using the framing device of a mysterious figure with a bucket over his head pointing a gun at multiple Marvel writers in a comic book store.
Kidnapped by the government (here the "Undergovernment"), Stephen Rogers smoked the "Super Satan Serum" and became Doctor America, the Occult Operative of Liberty. Clad in a rather disturbing Captain America outfit with devil horns on Rogers' cowl and a flaming upside-down "A", Doctor America holds a Satanic shield with a pentagram at the center; the outer rings are dotted with pseudo-Egyptian hieroglyphics, crosses, and other symbols. "Now I dream in Ditko arabesques and Kirby-Krafted circuit boards like wallpaper," Rogers muses. "It's for America, I guess..."
The entire story is one massive reference to the myth that the Doctor Strange franchise was created thanks to drugs (it wasn't, but one can't necessarily disprove that Jack Kirby's psychedelic art is owed to LSD). Doctor America has an Iron Man-esque superior, a goat sidekick wearing the uniform of Bucky Barnes, and fights odd aliens at a rock concert while his foes repeatedly quote Richard Nixon. The Bucky-goat dies (while Doctor America tells readers calling one of two phone numbers will either save or doom his sidekick), and Rogers rides a nuclear missile, Dr. Strangelove-style, directly into the La Brea Tar Pits. Thankfully, he's resurrected by the Avengers with the Satanic chant of "Ditkerbanko!"
The many callbacks to Batman, Stan Lee, Jack Kirby and Steve Ditko perhaps make the story a delight for readers in the know - but for casual fans of the medium, this story leaves one hopelessly lost. The narrative uses humorous references at the expense of any real punchlines, and Captain America: Who Won't Wield The Shield? is a rather baffling read to anyone who isn't innately familiar with the comics industry. While some of Captain America's many variants are well-known and loved by the fans, Doctor America is not one of them.
