Red Skull's Giant Laser Cannon Plot (arcade game event)

RED SKULL'S GIANT LASER CANNON PLOT

Instigator: Red Skull (Johann Shmidt)

Purpose: To conquer the world

Allies: Controller (Basil Sandhurst), Crossbones (Brock Rumlow), Grim Reaper (Eric Williams), Juggernaut (Cain Marko), Klaw (Ulysses Klaw), Living Laser (Arthur Parks), Mandarin ("Gene Khan"), Ultron, Whirlwind (David Cannon), Wizard (Bentley Wittman)

Opposition: The Avengers (Captain America/Steve Rogers, Hawkeye/Clint Barton, Iron Man/Tony Stark, Namor the Sub-Mariner/Namor McKenzie, Quicksilver/Pietro Maximoff, Vision/"Victor Shade," Wasp/Janet Van Dyne, Wonder Man/Simon Williams)

Location: Earth's moon

First Appearance: Captain America & the Avengers arcade videogame (1991)

History: (Captain America & the Avengers) - Seeking to conquer the world, the Red Skull gathered a group of super villains together using his vast wealth in conjunction with a mind control machine to force their servitude. Red Skull then sent Whirlwind, Klaw and Living Laser out into the streets to cause panic, which they did by robbing a bank. Arriving in time to see fleeing bystanders, the Avengers fought their way through swarms of the Red Skull's robotic soldiers until they made their way to the bank, where Whirlwind and his allies blew out the wall. Laughing as he carried a large bag of money, Whirlwind fled, leaving Klaw and Living Laser to handle the Avengers. After making quick work of Living Laser and Klaw, Iron Man, Captain America, Vision and Hawkeye made their way to an open park, where Whirlwind was waiting for them. Proclaiming that Whirlwind couldn't escape, the Avengers trounced the villain and learned from the defeated criminal that his attack was merely a set-up, and that other towns were being taken over. Rushing to a large, populated city to find it overran by the Red Skull's robotic soldiers, the Avengers briefly took the skies (with Wonder Man delivering Sky Cycles for the non-flying Hawkeye and Captain America) to stop a giant robot attacking the city with their teammate Wasp's aid. Upon the giant robot's destruction, the Avengers investigated the damaged town itself, finding Red Skull's brainwashed lackey Grim Reaper waiting for them. When Grim Reaper announced that the Avengers had came there only to die, a fierce battle ensued with the Avengers emerging victorious. Following his defeat, the Grim Reaper regained consciousness and recalled only orders to fight the Avengers to the finish, prompting the Avengers to question what the Red Skull planned next.

Shortly after investigating a destroyed aircraft carrier that was spilling oil into the oceans, the Avengers found it swarming with the Red Skull's robotic soldiers and fought their way to another of the Skull's mind-controlled lackeys, the Wizard. Shocked at what an evil thing the Wizard had done, the Avengers defeated the criminal genius before Namor the Sub-Mariner emerged from the water and informed the Avengers that more of Red Skull's men were in the sea. Thanking the Sub-Mariner, the Avengers dove into the water (with Cap and Hawkeye donning scuba gear) and found a giant mechanical octopus, dubbed the Mechanical Taco, operated by one of the Red Skull's henchmen. The Avengers made short work of the Mech. Taco, which exploded, creating an entrance into the brainwashed Mandarin's undersea headquarters. Destroying several walls while traversing the undersea base with the aid of their ally Quicksilver, the Avengers confronted Mandarin, who invited the Avengers to see his power. Upon Mandarin's defeat, the Red Skull appeared on a large video screen and taunted that the Avengers could not defeat him then laughed before the communication ended. Returning to their own headquarters, the Avengers soon located the Red Skull's hideout and learned of his plans to build a secret base on the moon, which the Red Skull planned to arm with a giant laser cannon.

Traveling to the moon in one of their Quinjets, the Avengers were shot down by the Red Skull's moon base defense guns but managed to jump from the destroyed Quinjet into the moon base itself, where they battled armies of Red Skull's robot soldiers. The heroic group was soon met by the mind-controlled Juggernaut, who ordered the team to obey him or die. Following Juggernaut's defeat, the Avengers progressed further into the moon base, once more aided by their ally Quicksilver, where they met with Ultron. Demanding to know where Red Skull's giant laser cannon was located, the Avengers were told to ask the police before Ultron fiercely fought his foes under the Skull's orders. Leaving Ultron inert following his defeat, the Avengers soon learned that the Red Skull's laser cannon had been completed. Knowing that it had be destroyed before it was set to fire on Earth, the Avengers donned outer space gear and fought their way to the laser cannon with the help of Wasp. Destroying the laser cannon, the Avengers ventured further into the Skull's moon base, only to fall into a trap when the floor angled itself into a slide that deposited them in the lower depths of the base, where Crossbones greeted them and announced that they were trapped. He then set the Controller, somehow split into two beings, both called "Control," against the Avengers into a room equipped with buzzsaw running across the floor. Upon defeating the two Controller aspects, the Avengers busted their way through two walls before Crossbones confronted them once more, warning that they couldn't go through. Following a fierce battle that left Crossbones unconscious on the floor, the Avengers were met by a taunting Red Skull, who said goodbye to the heroes before disappearing from the scene. Promising that they would find the Skull regardless of where he hid, the Avengers stormed up a long staircase and soon found the "Red Skull" on top of a spaceship that he intended to escape in. Announcing that the "Red Skull" couldn't escape, the Avengers were told that it was not over yet and the "Red Skull" leapt into battle against the Avengers. Defeating the "Skull," the Avengers were shocked when the "Skull's" body began ripping apart, revealing a robot form that burst from its humanoid shell and grew to double its original height. A tube then opened up, revealing the true Red Skull, housed in a protective cylinder. Laughing, announcing the situation to be another trap and calling the Avengers "stupid men," the Red Skull unleashed the newly-dubbed Mech. Skull against the heroes. When the Avengers avoided the Mech. Skull's attacks and damaged its circuitry, the Mech. Skull stumbled and tumbled onto the protective shell housing the true Red Skull. The subsequent explosions began a chain reaction that destroyed the Red Skull's moon base. As explosions rocked the base, Wonder Man flew the Quinjet near the Avengers and yelled for them to get onboard. Boarding the Quinjet, the Avengers made their way off the moon as the Red Skull's entire moon base exploded. Returning the Earth, the Avengers knew that despite the Red Skull's defeat and the moon base's destruction, they must continue to confront evil wherever it appeared, unaware of a streak across the sky near the moon base that echoed the Red Skull's laughter. On the trip back to Earth, the Avengers donned space gear and flew around at their leisure and were welcomed upon their return to Earth.

Comments: Created by Yoshiya Nishi, Steve Miller, Etuko Kobata (translators) and Hidenobu Ito (game designer).

The events that occurred in this video game were confirmed as occurring on Earth-616 in Ultron's entry in the Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe hardcover series (2008-2010), in which it is mentioned that Ultron was briefly reprogrammed by the Red Skull to act as his agent against the Avengers in a plot involving a giant laser cannon.

One thing of note: Batroc the Leaper is featured on the arcade cabinet art but is not seen anywhere in the video game itself.

Also, Juggernaut's helmet looked strange in the arcade game, showing no signs of his human face, only a red circle where his face should be. For that matter, why were the Avengers fighting Juggernaut in this video game? I don't recall him being amongst the Avengers' most notable villains...

Speaking of villain strangeness, the Controller (Basil Sandhurst) was a boss character in the video game, although there were two of him and the game only refers to him as "Control." Since the Controller had been shown to split off into aspects of himself, perhaps the reason for there being two of him in this game is that he had been split into two forms, both calling themselves "Control."

This arcade game single-handedly sparked my interest in the Avengers and after first playing it at a local Chuck E. Cheese knock-off place called Petey Panda's (I was about 10-11 at the time and that place has since went out of business and the building bulldozed, sadly), I had my mom start buying me Avengers West Coast comics (because it had Hawkeye in it!) from our local Food Lion. When Kurt Busiek and George Perez came around in 1998, I was hooked and now I have about pretty much any Avengers comic from the 1970s-present and a few 1960s ones here and there. All thanks to this arcade game! Thanks, Data East!

It should be noted that the Captain America & the Avengers arcade game was ported to home video game consoles such as the Sega Genesis, the Super Nintendo, the Sega Game Gear and the Nintendo Game Boy, all with slightly different graphics and sometimes, dialogue. One can only assume that, where the dialogue or story is slightly different, the home ports of the video game were alternate reality versions of the Earth-616 arcade game story events. There was also a Nintendo Entertainment System video game called Captain America & the Avengers, though it featured a completely different storyline involving Captain America and Hawkeye attempting to rescue a captured Iron Man and Vision.

It should be noted that this game is nearly famous for its bad Japanese-to-English translations. One example is that the giant robot octopus boss is called "Mech. Taco." Another example:
The Avengers: "You can't escape!!"
Whirlwind: "You will be the one escaping!!"
--Wow...that's sure nice of Whirlwind to let the Avengers escape! What a great guy!

Or perhaps this nugget:
The Avengers: "Where's the laser?!"
Ultron: "Ask. The. Police."
--Well, heck! Why didn't the Avengers think to do that before they flew a freaking Quinjet to the moon! Who cares about the Red Skull? We could've just asked the freaking police! How stupid of us!

And one more!
Klaw and Living Laser: "Don't disturb us."
The Avengers: "Why should it goes well?"
--I can't begin to fathom this one. For starters, the Avengers have terrible grammar and secondly, who said it was going to go well?

Based on the game's end credits, it was difficult to determine who exactly wrote the game's story. The closest I could get were the game translators, who I can only guess came up with basic story by adapting the comic book. I listed the translators and the game designer as the creators in this profile. The full credits are as follows:
K. Jimbo (executive producer)
Horitan (project leader)
Makoto Nagao, Hitoshi Kitazume (marketing)
Mad Scientist Dr. Yaj Mahal (hardware designer)
Toshio Kawamoto (hardware assistant)
Tom Sato, Mr. K (sound)
Masanori Tokoro (graphic master)
Sonomi Kiyota, Oguri, Atsushi Takahashi, Hiroshi Koga, Touma Arakawa (graphic co-operators)
H. Fukuda, Deco All Planners, Kappa-Kun, T. Adachi, Yoshiyuki Ishibiki, Shinichi Sato, Kenichi Fujimoto, Yuichi Shiono, Eiichi Nishiyama (special thanks)
Yoshiya Nishi, Steve Miller, Etuko Kobata (translators)
Jeff Brown, Naomi Susa (back-up)
Tomoji Kodama (graphic producer)
Yaeko Kodama (graphic a.p.)
Takashi Sokabe (key animator)
Akihiko Mamashita (in between)
Fumie Nuibe (background)
Noriyuki Yoshino (color director)
Hanaita, Ayumi Hanimaru, Yasuyuki Sato, Surupi (graphic designers)
Hidenobu Ito (game designer)
Tac H, Hiroshi Ohnuki, Tesa Amusement Service MI, K.M. (software designers)

Profile by Proto-Man.

CLARIFICATIONS:
Red Skull's Giant Laser Cannon Plot has no known connections to

any other Red Skull plots or schemes

Giant Robot

Red Skull sent the Giant Robot to take over a large city. After the city was overrun with the Red Skull's robot soldiers, the Avengers took to the skies alongside their teammate Wasp to defeat the Giant Robot. The successful destruction of the Giant Robot damaged the town below and the Robot's takeover served as a distraction for the Grim Reaper to enter the scene.

The Giant Robot resembled a mutant-hunting Sentinel and had similar abilities such as superhuman strength (sufficient to hold the superhumanly strong Iron Man and Vision) and durability (sufficient to withstand Captain America's shield, Hawkeye's trick arrows, Iron Man's repulsor beams and Vision's solar gem blasts for a time), the ability to fire off its hands to grasp opponents and the ability to fire tri-directional laser beams.