Captain America #388
☆ Be the first to review + Add to your collection — Join freeCaptain America #388 serves as the entry point for two new characters — Impala, the Zambian javelin-wielding mercenary who would go on to join BAD Girls, Inc., and Heather O'Gara's costumed identity as Blackbird — while also delivering the first on-panel assembly of Superia's Femizons, one of the largest single gatherings of female villains in Marvel's Copper Age. The issue is the narrative engine of 'The Superia Stratagem,' a six-part biweekly arc that pushed Diamondback's character arc toward a near-death turning point and tested Gruenwald's long-running thesis that supporting villains could carry sustained dramatic weight across years of continuity. Its dense roster of established female antagonists — Anaconda, Moonstone, Quicksand, Black Mamba, Asp, M.O.D.A.M., and Snapdragon — reflects Gruenwald's career-long commitment to building a Captain America-specific rogues' gallery rather than recycling generic Marvel threats.
In "Deep Sixed," Captain America faces a chilling twist when five men in his iconic costume are sent to confront the Red Skull—only one of them is truly who he appears to be. Written by Mark Gruenwald and illustrated by Larry Alexander, with inks by Dan Panosian and colors by Nelson Yomtov, this 1991 issue delivers a tense, identity-driven mystery. The cover by Ron Lim and Danny Bulanadi captures the high-stakes tension of a hero’s image turned against him.
In "Slaughterhouse," five men in Captain America uniforms face off against the Red Skull in a brutal test of strength and deception. One among them is playing a dangerous game, hiding a secret that could change everything.
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We Buy Collections ▸History
Mark Gruenwald, who had been writing Captain America without interruption since issue #307 (1985), structured 'The Superia Stratagem' as the summer 1991 biweekly event, a format he had used successfully the previous summer with 'Streets of Poison.' Issue #388 marks the transition from Ron Lim — who had penciled the book since January 1990 — to Rik Levins, whose arrival coincided with the start of the arc; the cover, however, was still rendered by Lim with Danny Bulanadi on inks. The issue carried a dual-story format standard for the era, pairing the Superia main plot with a Red Skull backup scripted by Gruenwald and drawn by Larry Alexander, all under editor Ralph Macchio with Tom DeFalco as editor-in-chief.
Trivia · 8 facts
- Part 2 of the six-part 'Superia Stratagem' arc (Captain America #387–392), published biweekly in the summer of 1991; the issue's main-story title is 'Deep Sixed.'
- First appearance of Impala — a Zambian javelin-throwing mercenary from Zambia — who later became a member of BAD Girls, Inc. alongside Asp and Black Mamba.
- First appearance of Heather O'Gara in her Blackbird identity; O'Gara had previously appeared in Incredible Hulk #274 (1982) under the alias 'Jackdaw.'
- First on-panel appearance of the Femizons as a group — Superia's assembled army of female super-villains convening aboard the luxury cruise liner S.S. Superia.
- Main story credits: Mark Gruenwald (writer), Rik Levins (pencils), Danny Bulanadi (inks), Christie Scheele (colors), Joe Rosen (letters); backup credits: Gruenwald (writer), Larry Alexander (pencils), Dan Panosian (inks); cover by Ron Lim and Danny Bulanadi.
- The backup story features five Taskmaster-trained Captain America decoys sent as a 'training session' against the Red Skull, seeding the Hauptmann Deutschland subplot that runs through the arc.
- Diamondback (Rachel Leighton) is attacked and thrown overboard by her old nemesis Snapdragon (Sheoke Sanada) in this issue, a confrontation that drives her character arc across several subsequent years of the title.
- The full arc (#387–397) has been collected in the Marvel Epic Collection: The Superia Stratagem (also collecting Adventures of Captain America #1–4).
Cast · 18 characters
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Reprints
Reprinted in Captain America Epic Collection #17 (2019)
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