So far, Captain America has been close to useless in this book. He’s been kidnapped and stranded (unable to keep up with his flying teammates), and hasn’t added any value whatsoever. So let’s parade Red Skull through the pages and see how that goes.
Well, for one thing, it’s an excuse to bring back a bunch of people nobody missed and give Bucky his own team—The Liberty Legion—in a crossover with Marvel Premiere and a cover that’s unmistakably supposed to make us think of Jack Kirby. They get a lot of “look at us” panels where they shout their name.
In the story, Captain America shows why he’s the leader of the team by crushing the Red Skull and—No. Wait. In the story, Captain America and his entire team of Invaders are captured by Red Skull, so Bucky goes and finds a bunch of solo Golden Age heroes like Whizzer, Miss America and Patriot and they rescue him. Seriously?
At one point during this story, a baseball team’s batboy dresses up and fights as Bucky. Barnes is replaced by a batboy. Named Fred Davis.
And yet, he still gets petulant and self-righteous toward the President…
Kids. What can you do?
Apparently, the Captain America in these stories is from the Golden Age and is Jeff Mace, not Steve Rogers. I’m not sure how I’m supposed to know that–I figured it out while researching/reading the 1982 Cap Annual.