I realized, at the end of this issue, that I never really clicked with this series, when it became the Kashmir Vennema show, because it never felt like a Marvel story. Maybe if Valiant or someone had produced this series, I would've thoroughly enjoyed the tale of a multidimensional arms-dealing corporation staffed entirely by multidimensional counterparts of the same woman that used multidimensional counterparts of our heroes to protect it. But, as a Marvel story and particularly a Captain America story, it just never really rung true.
Despite that, Bunn and Francavilla do their best here to give the concept some oomph. The result is a trippy ride through an unfamiliar territory. Bunn makes it clear that Cap is clearly outside his element here. His insistence that the rebellious Kashmir Vennema and the sinister Black Widow not kill the inner circle of Vennema Multidimensional seemed ridiculously quaint and, as he himself notes, he was pretty clearly played by the rebellious Kashmir, who in the end, simply wanted to set up her own shop.
By the end of the issue, I have to say that I had a vague headache and didn't really care all that much. The Vennema story has consumed this series and it's a shame that an editor never managed to alter its direction when it became clear that it was a trope forced onto the series for lack of any better ideas. Moreover, after all the ink spilled on this saga, it is likely to be self-contained, never to be mentioned again elsewhere in the Marvel Universe. The fact that this title ends while Cap is stuck in yet another dimension in his main title just seems to be a weird coincidence that makes my head hurt all the more.
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