This is a feature called "A Political World," where we spotlight 20th Century comic book stories that came out back when comic books were not political at all, unlike comic books nowadays.

The news that Disney will be doing an animated What If...? series inspired me to look at a classic issue of the original series (I am pretty sure a couple of readers have also suggested this one, as well).

In What If...? #44 (by Peter B. Gillis, Sal Buscema and Dave Simons), the "What If...?" question at hand was about what if Captain America was thawed out of suspended animation today. The "today" of that particular story was 1983, nearly twenty years later than he was revived in the original comics.

So what happened in the meantime? Well, that is actually a BIT confusing. You see, in the Marvel Universe, after Cap went into suspended animation, a few other Caps filled in for him, including a racist dude in the 1950s during Captain America's anti-Communist period. This comic is a bit unclear as to whether those stories still took place. It seems like they sort of HAD to, right? Because William Burnside, the 1950s cap, gets thawed out sometime after the start of the Marvel Age of heroes (seemingly very early in the career of the Fantastic Four). So what I don't get is in the Marvel Universe, is the 1950s when everyone thinks Captain America vanished?

In any event, Cap and Bucky's return gets everyone excited, but as they start making public appearances, it is pretty clear that they are super racists...

They soon get into politics. They do not know that they are supporting the villainous Elite, the bad guys from Jack Kirby's Captain America run who wanted to return to a monarchy in the United States.

Cap soon begins to support stuff like a national identification card...

Later, a faked assassination attempt on Captain America while visiting a predominantly African-American neighborhood leads to riots and an attack on the civil liberties of minorities throughout the country as the government declares a national emergency to give themselves more power...

Years pass, and the United States is basically like a sort of twisted version of Nazi Germany, with minorities living in walled off ghettos.

Into all of this, the real Captain America finally gets revived!

Page 2: [valnet-url-page page=2 paginated=0 text='The real Cap gets involved']

He is found by a submarine (sub duty is where they put undesirables, so when they find Cap, they all want to kill him because they think he's just like the other Cap). He proves his worth to them and they sneak him back to New York City where Cap hooks up with the underground (including Snap Wilson, Spider-Man and Nick Fury).

They make a bold attack on the evil Captain America's speech at a big event (how amazing of a job did Simons do on Buscema's pencils here?)...

The evil Cap gets beaten pretty easily by the real Cap, with a notable point being when the real Cap's shield destroys the fake Cap's shield.

Cap then gives a rousing speech....

Listen to me -- all of you out there! You were told by this man -- your hero -- that America is the greatest country in the world!

He told you that Americans were the greatest people -- that America could be refined like silver, could have the impurities hammered out of it, and shine more brightly! He went on about how precious America was -- how you needed to make sure it remained great! And he told you anything was justified to preserve that great treasure, that pearl of great price that is America!

Well, I say America is nothing!! Without its ideals -- its commitment to the freedom of all men, America is a piece of trash!

A nation is nothing! A flag is a piece of cloth! I fought Adolf Hitler not because America was great, but because it was fragile! I knew that liberty could be snuffed out here as in Nazi Germany! As a people, we were no different than them! When I returned, I saw that you nearly did turn American into nothing!

And the only reason you're not less then nothing -- -- is that it's still possible for you to bring freedom back to America!

When they turn to HIM as their new leader, he quickly tells them to look elsewhere...

Powerful stuff from a fairly unlikely source (What If...? comics weren't exactly known for their political stories).

Okay, folks, I'm sure you have suggestions for good political storylines from the "good old days when comic books weren't political," so drop me suggestions at brianc@cbr.com!