Captain America Corps is a five-issue Crisis Crossover miniseries (August-December, 2011) starring — who else? — but Captain America.
More specifically, it stars Bucky Barnes, alongside four other Captains America from the past and future— Steve Rogers, the original Cap, just before he made his debut; John Walker, the substitute Captain America who took up the name U.S.Agent after trading costumes with Steve; Shannon Carter, niece of Peggy and Sharon Carter and next generation's American Dream; and Kiyoshi Morales, Commander A of the 25th Century's United Americas.
Someone is going back through time and various dimensions and removing Steve Rogers' frozen body before he can be revived in the modern day. Tath Ki, an associate of Uatu the Watcher, has been watching it happen and finally intervenes by plucking the Caps from their various points in time and showing them what will happen without Steve to guide the Avengers. Instead, his place is taken by a pair of superheroes called Broad Stripe and Bright Star, two young women who eventually succeed in disbanding the Avengers and subsuming their role with the AmeriCommand, ruling America as a police state where unauthorized mask-wearing will get you chased through the streets for your trouble.
Seeing as how this is the Captain America Corps, the Captains rally the usual crowd of Marvel of heroes to systematically defeat the AmeriCommand and return the frozen Steves to their proper place in space-time.
This series provides examples of:
- Amazon Brigade: Broad Stripe (actually Superia) and Bright Star talk about it. Superia is the leader of the Femizons and they offer membership to Dream.
- Brain in a Jar: Tony Stark's ultimate fate.
- The Captain: In a book starring five of them, Bucky ends up playing this role, with the others all deferring to his leadership (although Walker is reluctant).
- Captain Obvious: When Walker says that he does not like to be tortured, Tath replies that no one does.
- Distaff Counterpart: American Dream.
- Driven to Suicide: Tony Stark's disembodied brain begs Hank Pym to kill him once Broad Stripe is defeated.
- Fantastic Racism: In the absence of Captain America, the AmeriCommandos swiftly set up a program where mutants and 'illegal' superhumans such as Spider-Man and Luke Cage can be indefinitely contained just for what they are.
- For Want Of A Nail: Steve's absence is the first problem. The second is who fills it.
- From Nobody to Nightmare: In the original timeline, Ursula Armstrong is just a journalist with a negative view of Captain America, but in the new timeline created by Rogers' absence she becomes the 'heroine' Bright-Star eagerly participating in America being converted into a fascist state.
- Good Ol' Boy: U.S. Agent. He gets off on the wrong foot with Dream and Commander A, disparaging them for being, respectively, a girl and half-Hispanic, half-Japanese. Kiyoshi corrects him— he is, actually, one-fourth Hispanic, one-fourth Asian, one-fourth African-American, and one-fourth Nez Perce, while Dream throws his compliments back in his face.U.S. Agent: Nice work!
American Dream: For a girl, right?
U.S. Agent: I didn't say that!
American Dream: You were thinking it. - Hand Wave: The Watcher dismisses the disappearances of Captain America from various timelines, as the dynamic timeline just makes another universe where that didn't happen. Unfortunately the process Superia used involving a cosmic cube somehow interfered with this process and threatened to unravel the multiverse.
- Hot-Blooded: Agent. Bucky spends much of his time trying to hold him back.
- It's a Wonderful Plot: To a degree. The effect isn't quite the same, because Steve is way, way back at the very beginning of his existence, before he even met Bucky, and has no context to know who any of these people are, but everyone's life is significantly different without him.
- Just Between You and Me: Broad Stripe keeps Tony Stark's brain hooked up just to gloat.
- Laser-Guided Amnesia: Steve and Walker, being from the past, have their memories of the mission entirely wiped. Kiyoshi and Shannon, in the future, don't, and neither does Bucky in the present. When Bucky meets up with the present Steve, he speculates, based on the look of slow recognition on his face, that Steve's memories of the mission were restored once he reached the same present moment.
- Legacy Character: The book is built more or less on Steve's legacy and its impact, with the added bonus of showing it off to him before he's even really gotten started.
- Manipulative Bitch: Broad Stripe and Bright-Star inserted themselves into the Avengers and slowly took control, since they had foreknowledge of certain events and were able to stop certain people like Hawkeye from joining the team while getting rid of preexisting members like Thor and Iron Man.
- Mr. Exposition: Commander A fills this role after the team is initially captured and then escapes, his advanced systems hacking the contemporary computer networks to gain more data on this new timeline and how it compares to canon.
- O.O.C. Is Serious Business: Tath Ki usually speaks in a more Shakespearean Metaphorically True manner, so the fact he is blunt and straightforward with Kiyoshi and Bucky tells them that some serious shit is about to hit the proverbial fan.
- Peggy Sue: Superia sends her consciousness back in time, so that her younger self can get the time travel going.
- Pragmatic Villainy: Broad Stripe doesn't want the original Steve dead, since she knows if he dies at this point in his timeline it'll completely ruin existence.
- Ret-Gone: What Superia wants to do to Steve. It's easier than usual because most people already believe he's dead when she steals his body.
- Ripple-Effect-Proof Memory: Granted to Kiyoshi and Shannon via time and dimensional shenanigans.
- The Starscream: Bright-Star tries to pull this on Superia the moment she gets her hands on the Cosmic Cube, stating she was biding her time until she could make a move. Fortunately, the Cube's too powerful for her to control.
- Throwing Your Shield Always Works: "Shield slinging" is a skill everyone on this team admires.
