WHATEVER HAPPENED TO "SINGLE-ACTION" JACKSON?
by Carycomic
Disclaimer: (re: characters and concepts): if you recognize them, I don't own or profit from them. Crossover including DC Comics, Marvel Comics and Flash Gordon… so far!
Synopsis: A rookie SHIELD agent tries to solve an old family mystery. . .with a little help from his super friends.
Chapter 1.
JLA SATELLITE HEADQUARTERS,
22,300 MILES ABOVE EARTH-74425
Jericho Jackson IV ("J.J." to his friends) came from a family with a long and colorful history of public service.
For example: his paternal grandfather had served in World War II as a spy/commando for the OSS (Office of Strategic Services). And, in later years, whenever the former had to babysit his namesake grandson, he would tell him bedtime stories that were just thinly disguised recitations of some of his less-classified wartime exploits. With J.J.'s personal favorite being the time "Grandpa teamed up with Tarzan of the Apes, himself, in smashing a Nazi-backed cult of cannibalistic leopard men in Liberia!"
J.J.'s mother, of course, objected to these stories. Partially, because she came from a pacifistic religious background in general. And, partially, because she was dead set against the Vietnam War (then at its height) in particular. Yet, her son's love for his grandfather overpowered her objections. That is; till the day she got the tragic news about her husband.
Jericho Jackson III had been killed in action while serving with the U.S. Navy SEALS.
The latter's widow finally had all the emotional leverage she needed to make their only son promise that he would never, ever join any of the regular U.S. Armed Forces. Unfortunately, for her, the U.S. Coast Guard is technically a branch of the Treasury Department during peace time! So, she was grudgingly forced to compromise when J.J. told her, following his twenty-first birthday, that he had secretly enlisted in the Coast Guard. And that he would be spending the first half of his eight-year stint serving with the International Ice Patrol.
In all fairness to him, the first three years of that tour of duty were quite uneventful for J.J. (much to his mother's relief). Yet, all that changed when a certain rogue comet entered Earth's solar system. The NASA radio telescope in Puerto Rico began picking up strange emanations coming from this comet. Emanations that wound up amplifying the electromagnetism of Earth's Aurora Borealis when the comet eventually passed over the Geographic North Pole! As a result?
An interdimensional portal opened up between there... and a parallel world called Skartaris.
A huge and carnivorous dinosaur- -subsequently identified as a Remcosaurus- -came through that portal. Followed in close pursuit by an armored warrior on horseback calling himself "The Warlord", but who was soon after identified as being long-lost USAF Colonel Travis Morgan! He, in turn, was aided in forcing the Remcosaurus back through that portal by two members of the Justice League of America: Aquaman and Captain Marvel. And, once this primary task had been successfully completed, the two superheroes bade Morgan a reluctant farewell before permanently re-closing the portal.
While all that was going on, however, J.J. was helping to evacuate a nearby Inuit village. In this, he was aided not only by his shipmates, but, also, by a detachment of agents from the international intelligence service called SHIELD... as well as the Amazing Spider-man.
The latter was, of course, secretly New York Daily Bugle photojournalist Peter Parker, who was supposed to be taking exclusive pictures of the battle with the Remcosaurus. Yet, what he and J.J. ultimately discovered in the midst of all this frantic activity would prove even more newsworthy. A block of ice containing the body of that long-lost super-soldier of World War II: Captain America.
Needless to say, it became headline news around the world when it was revealed that, upon being removed from that block of ice, the good captain (nee Steven Rogers) turned out to be still alive!
This led to a series of meetings, between the Justice League and SHIELD, in which it was ultimately agreed that the former should be the ones to help Captain America acclimate to the modern world. It was further agreed that his immediate custodians, in that regard, should be the same ones who helped rediscover him. And that was how Spider-man wound up being inducted as a JLA Reservist. While J.J. wound up spending the second half of his eight-year stint...
...as a SHIELD agent trainee.
To describe the young man as being initially dubious, about being able to handle such an immense responsibility, would be an understatement. Yet, a series of heart-to-heart talks with Captain America (in between martial arts sparring matches), gradually helped J.J. increase his confidence. So much so, in fact, that he graduated from the SHIELD training academy at the top of his class! He then spent a year in the field under the supervision of veteran SHIELD Agent Anthony "Flash" Gordon.
Only son of Gotham City Police Commissioner James Gordon.
It was this similarity in familial status that led the two men to go from simply being mentor-and-apprentice to outright friends. That friendship, however, was tragically terminated during a top-secret mission alongside the World's Finest Trio (Superman, Batman, and Robin). The latter having been requested to aid in the recovery of a stolen tactical nuclear weapon from the subversive organization called Hydra!
Hydra did its utmost to repel their attackers. But, naturally, they failed! Unfortunately, a stray bullet hit the experimental teleportation device that had been used to steal the nuke in the first place. Whereupon the teleporter experienced a power surge which led to it exploding which, in turn, led to the disintegration of not only Agent Gordon. But, also, the two prisoners he had helped to free after unexpectedly coming across them in a Hydra detention cell: Investigative reporter Dale Arden and nuclear physicist Hans Zarkov.
All these thoughts raced through J.J.'s mind as he sat in wistful meditative silence amidst what should have been a joyous occasion. His first anniversary as full-time JLA/SHIELD liaison officer!
"A drachma for your thoughts," said a female voice to his left.
J.J. looked up at Wonder Woman and smiled.
"Sorry. Just being nostalgic. Wishing my dad had lived to see this."
"Mind if we join you?" asked Spidey who had just arrived with two cups of non-alcoholic punch.
J.J. smiled again and gestured at the two empty chairs in front of him.
"Is that him in the framed picture you got from your mother?" Wonder Woman now asked.
"Close. My great-grandfather; the original Jericho Jackson. A.k.a 'Single-Action' Jackson of the Lafayette Escadrille."
"Single-Action?!" echoed Spidey.
J.J. grinned and turned the picture around.
"See that gun belt he's wearing? The revolver in the holster is the Colt Peacemaker he inherited from his own father. A mixed-blood Seminole Indian named Tiger Jack, who lived and worked in the Old West as a cavalry scout, gunslinger, and bounty hunter."
"Ah!" exclaimed the Amazing Amazon in sudden realization: "Tiger Jack's son."
"Exactly! And in one of his letters to Grandpa Jackson, he wrote how he always wore it on every mission he flew. As a good luck charm! Unfortunately, the good luck appears to have run out just before the Armistice was signed."
"Was he shot down in a dogfight?" the web-slinger softly inquired.
"Presumably. The letter his widow received from the State Department didn't know for sure, as his body was never recovered. That's the secondary reason Grandpa Jackson joined the OSS during World War II. So he could find out for sure! But, even that didn't help much. All he could dig up, in between his own missions, was that Great-Granddad and three of his squadron mates had disappeared while on some special assignment during the summer of 1918."
"Operation: Seven Stars," a fourth voice suddenly interjected.
The other three all looked up in, perfect unison, to behold Captain America standing behind J.J. The Star-Spangled Avenger apologized for his unintended eavesdropping. But, in coming over to congratulate J.J. once more, the younger man's discussion about his family had led Cap to start reminiscing about what he, himself, had missed during his icy incarceration.
It was only the mention of the summer of 1918 that had snapped him out of his reverie.
"In December of 1942, I was sent to the island of Madripoor to intercept a shipment of Zemo death-ray rifles being smuggled to the Japanese. The middleman handling that transfer? A Mongolian mercenary named Shiwan Khan. The person who helped me thwart him? His arch-enemy. A man who told me, in passing, how he had helped some of the Russian royal family escape from the city of Yekaterinburg almost twenty-five years earlier. That man's name? Lamont Cranston!"
tbc