Hello and welcome to another edition of Ye Olde School Café! This week, we’ll continue our look at the great Captain America story – The Blood Stone Hunt! Back in 1989, Cap had already been through wars, Avengers Mansion being destroyed, and people close to him dying. This particular story showed his old nemesis, Baron Zemo, and a group of cutthroats assembled to hunt down the Blood Stones. The stones are fragments of an asteroid that landed on Earth thousands of years ago, and one piece specifically was embedded in the chest of a man named Ulysses Bloodstone, the famous monster hunter. After his death, the stones went missing, but Zemo has found out the location of the stones, and will use any means necessary to obtain them….
Cap and Diamondback wake up to find themselves strapped down to a giant wheel, alongside Zemo and his cronies. Cap, being the ultra-human that he is, uses his physical strength and some smarts to get out of his restraints. He immediately begins to fight off the army of natives, and they soon realize that he’s more than he appears. The natives begin to scramble around, but Cap remains focused on the task at hand. Once he sees that they’re on the run, he returns to free Diamondback from the wheel. He then carries her back to the jet, and plans their next move.
On Zemo’s plane, the occupants argue over nonsense, and then Zemo silences everyone. At this point, Zemo already has two of the stones, and he declares that the next time they run into Captain America, that he’ll kill him. Minutes later, Cap and Diamondback see a few boats below, and decide that Zemo must be down there, because he didn’t have enough time to get any farther away. They jump out of the plane and into the waters below. Just seconds later, and they are face to face with Zemo’s henchmen!
Cap nearly gets harpooned in the face, but his reflexes allow him to get out of the way just in time. Batroc is reveling in his handiwork, but then realizes that he’s face to face with a Great White Shark. He quickly gets his trusty harpoon gun out and shoots the beast, killing it. Sounds like a great job by Batroc, but he forgets that sharks are attracted to blood. He glances over his shoulder, and observes a half a dozen sharks getting ready to put the bite on him!
As Cap and Zaran are struggling with each other, Batroc is screaming for them to watch out for the gang of sharks getting ready to rip them apart. Zaran and Machete manage to escape the sharks, and they head straight for a wrecked airplane at the bottom of the ocean. Cap uses his fantastic reflexes to avoid them, and heads for the plane, as well. On the surface, Diamondback has set foot on another boat close by, and decides to take on Zemo by herself. She does land safely on the vessel, but just as she’s about to get the upper hand on someone, disaster strikes. Zemo’s clairvoyant team member must pick up a gun and fight for his life, as well, because Diamondback has Zemo in a choke hold!
Back in the water, Cap isn’t getting a moment’s rest, as the sharks are now swarming. Diamondback then throws one of her diamond tipped throwing stars at the clairvoyant, dropping him. She then grabs Zemo, and threatens the other members of his entourage as they climb aboard. Batroc tosses the stone to her, but that gives Zemo the time he needs to punch Diamondback and knock her off of the boat. Cap sees this as he’s come up to the surface, and rescues her again from peril. Zemo takes off, and Cap is left to get Diamondback aboard and figure out his next move. Diamondback then shows Cap that it wasn’t a total waste, when she pulls out a Blood Stone she stole from Zemo! In the distance, a man watches all this transpire…the man’s name is Crossbones!
Well, that’s it for now, but be back next week for action in Egypt, as Cap and Diamondback get trapped in a tomb with deadly serpents, Crossbones enters the mix, and Zemo reaches his ultimate goal! See you next week!
Billy Dunleavy
billy@comicattack.net