Captain America #390
☆ Be the first to review + Add to your collection — Join freeCaptain America #390 is the pivotal chapter of Mark Gruenwald's 'Superia Stratagem' arc and delivers the first full appearance of Superia (Dr. Deidre Wentworth), one of the most ambitious villain introductions of Gruenwald's decade-long Cap tenure. The issue assembled the single largest gathering of Marvel's female super-villains in the character's publishing history to that point — over 50 named characters aboard the S.S. Superia — making it an unparalleled catalog of Bronze and early Modern Age villainess designs. Superia's scheme to sterilize the world's women and build a sovereign female society drew directly on the earlier Femizonia mythology established in Savage Tales #1 and Fantastic Four #150, threading a twenty-year continuity thread into a contemporary story. The arc's central cliffhanger — Superia ordering that Captain America and Paladin be transformed into women rather than killed — generated significant reader discussion about gender politics in superhero comics and remains one of the more debated story beats of Gruenwald's run.
In "When Women Wage War!", Captain America and Paladin find themselves trapped aboard a cruise ship, suddenly besieged by a relentless army of female supervillains. With no clear answers and danger closing in from all sides, Steve Rogers must rely on his wits and resolve as the mystery of the Femizons unfolds. Written by Mark Gruenwald and brought to life by Rik Levins’ dynamic art, with Danny Bulanadi’s inks and Christie Scheele’s colors, this 1991 issue delivers a tense, high-stakes confrontation. The cover by Ron Lim and Danny Bulanadi captures the chaos perfectly.
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We Buy Collections ▸History
The 'Superia Stratagem' was structured as one of Gruenwald's signature biweekly six-part summer events, running from Captain America #387 through #392 in the summer of 1991. Gruenwald, whose encyclopedic knowledge of Marvel continuity was well documented through his work on the Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe, deliberately populated the story with dozens of existing female villain characters, functioning as both a continuity celebration and a showcase for Rik Levins, who was the series' regular penciler at this point in the run. The issue also contains a backup story ('Sneak Attack,' penciled by Larry Alexander) advancing the concurrent Red Skull/Hauptmann Deutschland subplot, a two-track narrative structure that was standard practice for the book during this era. Editor Ralph Macchio and editor-in-chief Tom DeFalco oversaw the issue.
Trivia · 8 facts
- First full appearance of Superia (Dr. Deidre Wentworth), the arc's primary antagonist, who goes on to appear in subsequent Captain America stories, New Avengers, and Secret Avengers.
- Chapter 4 of the six-part 'The Superia Stratagem' arc (Captain America #387–392, July–September 1991), published biweekly during the summer of 1991.
- Creative team: writer Mark Gruenwald, penciler Rik Levins, inker Danny Bulanadi, cover by Ron Lim and Danny Bulanadi, editor Ralph Macchio.
- The issue features one of Marvel's largest single-issue assemblies of female super-villains, with more than 50 named villainesses depicted aboard the luxury cruise ship S.S. Superia — including Anaconda, Titania, Screaming Mimi, Diamondback, Asp, Black Mamba, Iron Maiden, Snapdragon, Gypsy Moth, Quicksand, and many others.
- Story beat: Captain America and Paladin are defeated by sheer numbers, captured by the Femizons, and brought before Superia, who orders them subjected to a 'feminization treatment' rather than executed — the issue's central cliffhanger.
- Superia's world-domination plan involves launching 'Sterility Seed' missiles into the atmosphere to render the world's women infertile, making the women on Femizonia Island — protected by a hermetically sealed dome — humanity's only reproductive resource.
- A backup story, 'Sneak Attack' (penciled by Larry Alexander), runs concurrently and depicts the German hero team including Hauptmann Deutschland and Blitzkrieg capturing the Red Skull's Skeleton Crew — a subplot that ties into the arc immediately following 'The Superia Stratagem.'
- The entire arc, including this issue, has been collected in the Captain America Epic Collection: The Superia Stratagem (Vol. 17, collecting Captain America #387–397 and Adventures of Captain America #1–4) and is also included in the Captain America by Mark Gruenwald Omnibus Vol. 3.
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Reprinted in Captain America Epic Collection #17 (2019)
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