Chapter 563 Looking Back, Not Forgetting the Original Intention (Two More, 9,700 Words!)

When: December 8, 1941. Location: New York City.

The bitter cold wind blew over people's cheeks, making the severe winter day even more difficult. The Great Depression of the 1930s plunged the United States into an unprecedented trough.

Even in New York, a large group of laborers without jobs and food are waiting for relief on the streets.

It wasn't until President Roosevelt came to power and implemented the famous [Roosevelt New Deal] with his powerful means that the United States was gradually lifted out of the slump.

The world-famous building, the Empire State Building was also built against this historical background.

The state invests funds to develop infrastructure, thereby reducing the number of unemployed, and allowing workers working on the construction site to become consumers of their own products, thereby further expanding domestic demand.

Step by step, America is getting rich again.

But the good times didn't last long, and the Second World War broke out in 1938. The world has not become more peaceful because of the [War to End All Wars] (World War I).

The European battlefield is full of wars, and the Asian battlefield is bloody.

Isolationism is rampant in the United States, and even President Roosevelt has difficulties in implementing the [Arms Lend-Lease Act].

Except for a few European immigrants who participated in the European battlefield as volunteers, the U.S. government has been standing idly by on this war that affects the course of human history.

But at least the U.S. government is still willing to lend money to countries such as the United Kingdom that are still resisting Germany on the European battlefield, although the Dunkirk retreat made everyone lose hope on the European front.

But President Roosevelt still allowed Churchill's Chancellor of the Exchequer to issue public debt in the United States to raise war funds.

But it's hard to say how much effect this has, because many Americans are not optimistic about the outcome of the European battlefield. There are many people who think that the fall of Britain is only a matter of time.

Buying war bonds, can Britain win? How can I pay back the money if I can't win? This makes many people hesitate, but some British immigration ceremonies are willing to pay to support the motherland.

Of course, there are also some Americans who are willing to donate to this resistance war, or use other methods to help these countries that are going through war.

Like these two guys outside the General Electric factory.

One tall and strong, one thin.

The tall, thick-browed one was called Barn Barkis, and the skinny young man was called Steve Rogers.

Barn-Bakiss got a job at General Electric (GE) through his father's connection. Because of the outbreak of the war, many departments within General Electric have been converted into military industry departments. Production of military products to support the European front.

Bahn is one of the employees of the military department, which is responsible for the production of the stabilizer wings on the aircraft.

The relatively thin Rogers was only about 1.6 meters tall and too weak, so the factory did not recruit him to work.

But he still has his own advantages. He uses a pair of dexterous hands and is good at painting. As now, he ran a six-panel comic strip for the Daily Bugle.

In this era, manga and animation are not on the stage, and animation is generally used as a warm-up before the opening of the movie. Comics are to make up for sometimes when newspaper columnists fail to deliver their manuscripts on time, or when there is no good news, they open skylights to make up for it.

Use a few comics to fill the space.

During the lunch break at noon, Bahn habitually went to the river outside the factory to find his good friend, Steve Rogers.

"Hi, Barn. Your mother asked me to bring you lunch sandwiches at noon." Rogers raised the lunch box in his hand. In this day and age, everyone still brings food into the factory to eat. Canteens and takeaways are impossible, which is too expensive. Ordinary workers can't afford it.

"Thank you, Rogers." The strong Bahn took the lunch box from Rogers. When I opened the lunch box, I saw two very large Shibang luncheon meat sandwiches inside.

"Would you like some, Rogers?" Barn took out a sandwich from the lunch box and handed it to Rogers.

"No, no bahn. I already ate it at home, had a bowl of pasta. When I went to your house, your mother cut me a big piece of luncheon meat. It seems that everyone in your family is afraid of me It’s like not being full.” Rogers thanked Bahn for his kindness.

"Because you are too thin, look at your little arms and legs. In Brooklyn, you will be bullied by bad boys like this." Bahn squeezed Rogers' shoulder, which made him a little hurt.

"Okay, Barn. Don't disturb my drawing." Rogers shook off Barn's hand.

Rogers was a contract artist for the Daily Bugle, and he turned in three sets of six-panel comic stories for the Daily Bugle every week, which paid him about eighty dollars a month. Not as good as Bahn, who worked in a factory, making $125 a month.

But eighty dollars is still enough to live on. After all, his body is too thin to find a job. Being a painter is already a very good job.

But Steve still has a small dream. He is saving money. If possible, he wants to enter the New York University School of Art and become a real painter. This is his childhood dream, to paint all the beauty of this world with a brush.

But it's not easy. Universities in this era are really only affordable for the nobility and the upper class. But Rogers did not give up, he will try his best to fight for his dream.

He is now sitting on the embankment by the river, making drafts with charcoal on the drawing board and drawing paper he carries with him. He is currently serializing a long comic. Unlike the six comics of the general short independent story, Rogers conceived a long story that is complex for this era.

This is a test of his ability to make up stories, and he has to pay three manuscripts every week, which makes him seize all the time to paint and finish the work.

Bahn sat beside Rogers, eating a sandwich, watching Rogers skillfully type out the line draft, and began the most preliminary storyboarding. Of course, the subject of sub-camera is not advanced enough in this era.

"Where's the latest story?" Bane asked, chewing on his luncheon meat. He doesn't like the taste of luncheon meat very much. There is probably less than 20% meat in it, and the rest are things like bean flour, but this stuff is cheap. If only there was corned beef, Barn thought alternately.

Rogers pulled a manuscript from under his sketchpad and handed it to Bahn, which was to be published this Saturday. Unlike the black-and-white mimeograph content in newspapers, Rogers' original manuscripts were colored.

"I like this story, Rogers." Bahn took the comic manuscript and looked at it carefully: "Mr. Starstripe and his partner Liberty Bond (a dog) beat up the **** together, I like it!"

"Huh? But why is Mr. Starstripe caught by two prostitutes here?" Barn asked, pointing to the content of the comic award.

"Oh, I forgot to add the text here." Rogers immediately took the manuscript back to make revisions: "They have saltpeter on them. Mr. Starstripe is very strong, can fly, has great strength, and can shoot heat rays from his eyes , but was afraid of being contacted by saltpeter. This bald man named Luke Lesser grasped this information, and then took precautions against Mr. Stars and Stripes."

"I want to read Liberty Bonds for the rest of the story?" Barn said with great interest: "I like the story you made up, it is much better than other comics. And you draw it well."

"How much money have you saved now?" Bain asked suddenly.

"What?" Rogers didn't respond.

"I know, I know. You want to study at New York University's School of Art. But this is not a small amount of money. You have the talent to be a painter, and it shouldn't be wasted." Bane ate the sandwich in his hand.

"I have been working for two years, and I have saved about six hundred dollars. If you have four hundred dollars, you can make up one thousand dollars. I think the first tuition fee is enough. You can apply for scholarships when you enter college. You must All right, Rogers. That'll give you maybe five hundred or more dollars a year."

Bahn helped Rogers calculate the accounts carefully: "So do you have four hundred dollars?"

"Yes, but I can't use your money." Rogers quickly refused.

"Don't talk nonsense, you will become a great painter in the future and you can earn more than a thousand dollars for a painting. At that time, give it back to me. Today is the last day to apply for admission in the new year. In a few days, everyone will celebrate Christmas. Yes. We will go to New York University in the afternoon." Bahn said firmly.

"But you still have to go to work in the afternoon!" Rogers was dragged away by Bahn before he finished speaking.

"I've already asked for leave. Martin and I borrowed his Model T Ford, and we drove to New York University in the afternoon." As he spoke, Barnes directly clamped Rogers under his arms. The strong Barn-Bakis The power made Rogers unable to break free at all.

"Put me down." Rogers struggled as hard as he could, but to no avail.

So Rogers could only be forcibly taken by Bahn into the Ford Model T, driving all the way in the direction of New York University.

The road was originally quite peaceful, but as we drove into the urban area, more and more people gathered together. Countless people swarmed together and said something, as if something happened.

This aroused the curiosity of Rogers and Barn, who had no idea what these people were doing together. Because people are crowded together, the car goes very slowly.

"Extra, extra!" The crisp voice of the New York newsboy was so obvious at this time: "Extra, yesterday, December 7, Pearl Harbor was attacked, and the U.S. Navy suffered heavy losses in an undeclared war in the East!"

Rodgers and Bane exchanged a look of disbelief.

"Give me a newspaper, boy!" Bain took out a few tens of cents from his pocket and bought a daily bugle from the newsboy.

[The undeclared war in the East, the loss of the US Pacific Fleet. Eight battleships and more than a dozen cruisers were sunk. Nearly two hundred fighter planes were lost. The casualties of Pearl Harbor officers and soldiers exceeded 3,500! 】

Rodgers and Barn quickly scanned the pages of this particular newspaper supplement, and now they knew why they were all gathered together.

In this era, TV sets are still a rarity, but some shops still buy TV sets to attract business. Crowds gather in front of a coffee shop because there is a TV. And the owner of the shop moved the TV set to the door of the shop with a serious face, adjusted the power supply and antenna, and showed it to all the passers-by.

Bahn relied on his strong body to squeeze Rogers to the front row, and the TV had just started broadcasting at this time.

This is a live broadcast across the United States (the first live TV broadcast in history took place in 1936). President Roosevelt stepped onto the podium with a serious face: "All Americans, the war has begun, and no one can stay out of it. Thousands of kilometers away, thousands of our compatriots have died. It's time to fight back, for the innocent people who died in this war all over the world! It's time to end this!"

Rogers looked at the not very clear picture on TV and secretly clenched his fists. The charcoal pencil that he had been holding was squeezed into several sections by him.

The war changed a lot of things. Since then, the earth has lost one person who could have been an outstanding painter.

………………………

Time: now. Venue: Sotheby's New York.

"This collection was put up for auction by an anonymous seller. It was Captain America in 1941 under the pseudonym: Three comic manuscripts drawn during the American Dream. Although the captain's painter was still very jerky at that time, it is very historical. A valuable collection, the starting price is 100,000 US dollars." The auctioneer introduced the collection.

Each time the price was increased by 10,000 US dollars, the last three comic manuscripts were auctioned for a high price of 500,000 US dollars.

……………………………

Illuminati, Venus base.

Tony Stark said with some disgust: "Jason, this is what you bought for half a million dollars? You know that this price can already buy the works of many famous painters. Masters of the Renaissance, as long as they are not Representative works can also be bought."

Li Jie didn't pay too much attention to Tony's criticism, he just handed these paintings to Captain Rogers: "I really didn't know you had a talent for painting. It's a pity it didn't last. What made you put down your paintbrush?"

Captain Rogers shook his head: "Because a lot of things happened."

"Maybe you can come to my company as an artist and just draw your own story, what do you think?" Li Jie suggested.

"Oh, forget it. This is all in the past tense." Captain Rogers glanced at everyone in the Illuminati and said.

"Yeah, if there are things that should be eliminated, just eliminate them. You can't just keep the old things and use them year after year." Tony spoke up.

Thor, the professor and Dr. Hank looked aside and didn't speak.

Li Jie glanced at Tony: "Like your eliminated steel armor?"

"Yes, I will destroy and eliminate all of them, or will there be a waste of space?" Tony said as a matter of course.

Li Jie didn't argue with him, but just handed the original manuscript of the cartoon to Captain Rogers: "Keep it, look back and remember the original intention."

……………………

Location, West Coast Los Angeles. Tony Stark's house.

Under this huge villa is a huge intelligent processing factory, where most of Tony's steel armor is produced.

He didn't ask Jarvis to turn on all the lights in the room, but turned on some of the lights, which made the room into a semi-dark state.

Another special piece on his workbench is the first Ark reactor he built, made in a cave in Afghanistan. Originally, he asked Pepper Pepper to throw it away, but she wrapped it up and gave it to Tony as a gift, and it is still on his workbench until now, and she has not been thrown away.

Standing in front of the workbench, Tony raised the garage of the entire underground factory by unlocking it. All his steel armors were raised one by one.

Including those old models of armor that he just said "has been dealt with". He looked at these battle armors with his arms folded, and finally smiled with his hands on his forehead.

………………………

Rogers' apartment on Long Island.

Sitting in front of the window, Rogers looked at the three manga manuscripts that Li Jie gave him today, which brought back a lot of memories, good or bad.

The dream of the youngest, and those days and nights of fighting for the dream. Rogers opened his now callused hands, which had once been stained with dirty charcoal.

In the end he posted these manuscripts on his bedside.

"I remember there are pencils and drawing paper here." Captain Rogers was looking for something in front of his desk.

"Why don't you buy a digital board?" Rogers thought about it.

………………………

Manhattan, Southern Cross Orphanage.

Penny has recovered and can be discharged from the hospital. Thor is carrying little Penny and holding a small fish tank in his hand. Inside is the peach blossom jellyfish prepared by Li Jie for Penny.

"Penny, Penny is back!" Seeing Thor carrying Penny back, a child in Area 2A on the tenth floor ran back excitedly.

When Thor pushed open the blue door, what greeted him for the first time was a bucket of ice falling from the sky, but now it is cheers and applause.

Thor had a faint smile on his face.

……………………

Li Jie was wearing a pair of special gloves with ten magic rings inside. With a serious expression on his face, he went to Kamateki to meet Gu Yi.

Li Jie: "Master, you once said that the world needs warriors, and I am one of them?"

Gu Yi: "That's right, but you didn't really agree with me at the time. Have you figured it out now?"

Li Jie: "Yes, I have experienced many things during this time. I understand more responsibilities and more burdens. I hope for peace, but peace will not fall from the sky. My parents, my family , my friend. There are many things I do not expect them to have a hand in."

Gu Yi: "So you are willing to take on the responsibility now?"

Li Jie: "Not all of them, but I want to do some things."

Gu Yi: "What is it?"

Li Jie: "Although I am a bit arrogant, I hope that one day the name of Nightcrawler will resound throughout the universe, which will be awe-inspiring!"

ps: Ask for tickets, both updates are 9,700 words long.