Date: December 8, 1941. Pen × fun × Pavilion www. ｂｉｑｕｇｅ。 infoLocation: New York City.

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

Even in New York, there are large groups of laborers who have no jobs and no food to eat waiting on the streets for relief.

It was not until President Roosevelt came to power and implemented the famous [Roosevelt's New Deal] with his strong hand that the United States was lifted out of the trough step by step.

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

By investing in infrastructure development with state funds, the number of unemployed people will be reduced, and the workers working on the construction site will become consumers of their own products, thereby further expanding domestic demand.

Step by step, America is getting rich again.

But the good times were short-lived, and in 1938 World War II broke out. The world did not become any more peaceful because of the war that ended all wars.

The European battlefield was full of smoke, and the Asian battlefield was bloody.

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

With the exception of a few European immigrants who volunteered to serve in the European theater, the U.S. government has been indifferent to this war, which has affected the course of human history.

But at least the U.S. government was willing to lend money to Britain and other countries in Europe that were still resisting Germany, although the Dunkirk retreat had left everyone hopeless on the European front.

But President Roosevelt allowed Churchill's Chancellor of the Exchequer to issue public bonds in the United States to finance the war.

It's hard to say how much this will do, though, because many Americans are not optimistic about victory or defeat in Europe. There are many people who believe that the fall of Britain is only a matter of time.

With the purchase of war bonds, can Britain win, and if it can't, how will it pay back later? This makes many people hesitate, but some British immigration ceremonies are willing to contribute money to support their homeland.

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

It's like these two lads outside the GE factory.

One tall and the other skinny.

The tall, thick-eyed one is called Barne Barkis, and the skinny young man is called Steve Rogers.

Barne-Barkis got into the inner workings of General Electric (GE) because of his father's connections. Because of the outbreak of the war, many departments within General Electric were converted into military departments. Production of military products to support the European front.

Barn is an employee of one of the military divisions, specializing in the production of stabilizer wings for aircraft.

The thinner Rogers was only about 1.6 meters tall and too weak to be recruited by the factory.

But he still has his own merits. With a pair of dexterous hands, he is good at painting. Just like now, he serialized six-panel cartoons for the corners of the daily Clarion Daily.

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. Cartoons are meant to fill in the gaps when newspaper columnists fail to deliver on time, or when there is no good news.

Fill the page with a few comics.

During the lunch break, Barn habitually went to the river outside the factory to find his friend, Steve Rogers.

"Hi, Barn. Your mom asked me to bring you a lunch sandwich for lunch. Rogers raised his lunch box. In this era, everyone still brings food into the factory to eat, and canteens and take-outs are impossible, which are too expensive. Ordinary workers cannot afford it.

"Thanks, Rogers. The sturdy Barn took the lunch box from Rogers' hand. When I opened the lunch box, I saw two very large Sebang luncheon meat sandwiches inside.

"Would you like some, Rogers?" Barne pulled out a sandwich from his lunch box and handed it to Rogers.

"No, no Barn. At home I had already eaten and had a bowl of pasta. When I went to your house, your mom cut me a big piece of luncheon meat. It's like everyone in your family is afraid that I won't have enough to eat. Rogers thanked Barnes for his kindness.

"Because you're so skinny, look at your little arms and legs. In Brooklyn, you're going to be bullied by bad boys. Barn squeezed Rogers' shoulder, causing him a little pain.

"Alright, Barn. Don't bother me to draw. Rogers shook Barn's hand away.

Rogers was a contract artist for the Daily Clarion, and he handed in three sets of six-panel comic stories a week for the Daily Clarion so that he could get about $80 a month. Not as good as Barn, who works in a factory, makes $125 a month.

But eighty dollars was still enough to live, after all, he was too thin to find a job, and being a painter was already a good job.

But Steve still had a small dream, he was saving money, and if possible, he wanted to go to New York University School of Art to study and become a real painter. This is his dream since childhood, to paint all the beauty of this world with a brush.

However, this is not easy, and the universities of this era are really affordable only for the aristocracy and the upper classes. But Rogers didn't give up, and he will do his best to fight for his dream.

He is now sitting on the riverbank by the river, using charcoal to make drafts on the drawing board and paper he carries with him. He had recently been serializing a full-length comic, and unlike the usual six comics of short stand-alone stories, Rogers conceived a long-form story that was complex for this era.

It was a test of his ability to make up stories, and he had to submit three manuscripts a week, which made him seize all the time he needed to draw and get the job done.

Barn sat next to Rogers, eating a sandwich, watching Rogers expertly type out the line drawings and begin the first storyboard. Of course, the discipline of sub-lens is not advanced enough in this era.

"Where has the story been lately?" Barn asked, munching on luncheon meat. He didn't really like the taste of luncheon meat, there was probably less than 20 percent of the meat, and the rest was soy flour and stuff, but it was cheap. If only there was corned beef, Barn thought to himself.

Rogers pulled out an original from under his sketchpad and handed it to Barnes, which was to be published this Saturday. Unlike the black and white mimeographed content of the newspaper, Rogers' original manuscript was colored.

"I love the story, Rogers. Barnes took the original comic manuscript and looked at it carefully: "The story of Mr. Stars and Stripes and his buddy Liberty Debt (a dog) slashing the Nazis together, I like it!"

"Hmm, but why was Mr. Stars and Stripes captured by two Nazis here?" Barn asked, pointing to the comic book prize.

"Oh, I forgot to add words here. Rogers immediately took the manuscript back and made revisions: "They have saltpeter on them. Mr. Star-Spangled is strong, able to fly, powerful, and shoots heat rays from his eyes, but is afraid of saltpeter. The bald Nazi named Luke Lesser had this information and took precautions against Mr. Stars and Stripes. ”

"The rest of the story is about the Liberty Bond?" said Barn with great interest, "I like the stories you make up, they are much better than the other comics." And you can draw it well. ”

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

"What?" Rogers didn't react.

"I know, I know. You want to go to NYU School of the Arts. But that's not a small amount of money. You have the talent to be a painter and it shouldn't be wasted. Barn gulped down his sandwich.

"I've been working for two years, I've saved about six hundred dollars, and if you have four hundred dollars, you can scrape together a thousand dollars, and I think the first tuition is enough, and you can apply for a scholarship when you go to college, and you can do it, Rogers. So maybe more than five hundred dollars a year is enough. ”

Barn helped Rogers do the calculations, "So you have four hundred dollars?"

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

"Don't talk nonsense, if you become a great painter in the future, you can pay me more than a thousand dollars a painting, and you will pay me back at that time. Today is the last day of the new year's application, and in a few days everyone will have Christmas. In the afternoon we went to New York University. Barn said categorically.

"But you still have to go to work in the afternoon!" Rogers could finish his sentence before he was dragged away by Barn.

"I've taken a leave of absence, Martin and I borrowed his Ford Model T, and we drove to NYU in the afternoon. As he spoke, Barnes directly sandwiched Rogers under his arm, and the strength of the strong Barn-Barkis made it impossible for Rogers 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 into the Ford Model T by Barnes and drove all the way in the direction of New York University.

The road was quite peaceful, but the further you drove into the city, more and more people gathered. Countless people were huddled together and saying something, as if something had happened.

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

"Outside, outside!" the crisp voice of the New York newsboy was so obvious at this time: "Outside, yesterday, December 7, Pearl Harbor was attacked, and the United States Navy suffered heavy losses in the undeclared war in the East!"

Rogers and Barn exchanged an incredulous look.

"Give me a newspaper, boy!" Barne pulled out a few dozen cents from his pocket and bought a Clarion Daily newspaper from the newsboy's hand.

[The East Ocean did not declare war, and the U.S. Pacific Fleet was completely lost. Eight battleships, more than a dozen cruisers were sunk. The loss of fighters was almost two hundred. The casualties of the officers and men of Pearl Harbor exceeded 3,500!]

Rogers and Barn skimmed through the special newspaper supplement at a glance, and now they knew why everyone had gathered.

Television sets were still a rarity in those days, but some shops still bought them to attract business. There was a crowd in front of a coffee shop because there was a TV set here. And the shopkeeper moved the TV to the door of the store with a serious face, adjusted the power supply and antenna, and showed it to all the onlookers.

Barn relied on his strong body to squeeze Rogers to the front row, just as the TV was just starting.

It was a national live broadcast (the first live television broadcast in history took place in 1936), and US President Franklin D. Roosevelt walked up to the podium with a serious face: "All the American people, the war has begun, and no one can stay away. Thousands of kilometers away, thousands of our compatriots have died. It's time to fight back, for the sake of the innocent people all over the world who have died in this war! It's time to put an end to this!"

Rogers looked at the not very clear picture on the TV and secretly clenched his fists, and the charcoal that had been holding in his hand was clenched into several pieces by him.

The war changed a lot of things, and since then there has been one less person on the earth who could have been a great painter.

…………………………

Time: Now. Location: Sotheby's New York.

The collection was put up for auction by an anonymous seller and is the original three comic strips drawn by Captain America in 1941 under the pseudonym: The American Dream. Although the captain's painting was still very jerky at the time, it was a very historically valuable collection, with a starting price of $100,000. The auctioneer introduced the collection.

Each time the price was increased by $10,000, and in the end, the original three comics were sold for a whopping half a million dollars.

………………………………

The Illuminati, the base of Venus.

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 artists." The masters of the Renaissance can be bought as long as they are not their masterpieces. ”

Li Jie didn't care too much about Tony's picking, he just handed the 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 there's a lot going on. ”

"Maybe you can come to my company as a painter and draw your own story, what do you think?" Li Jie proposed.

"Oh, forget it. It's all in the past. Captain Rogers said, glancing at the crowd.

"Yes, some things should be eliminated, you can't keep the old things for year after year. Tony clutched.

Thor and the professor and Dr. Hank looked at each other without speaking.

Li Jie glanced at Tony: "Just like your obsolete steel armor?"

"Yes, I'll destroy them all, or will it be a waste of space?" said Tony, of course.

Li Jie didn't argue with him, but just handed the original manuscript of the comic to Captain Rogers: "Keep it, look back on the way you came, and don't forget your original intention." ”

……………………

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

Underneath this huge villa is a huge smart 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 only turned on some of them, which left the house in a half-light and half-dark state.

Another special ornament on his workbench, the first ark reactor he made, was made in a cave in Afghanistan. Originally, he told Pepper to throw it away, but she wrapped it up as a gift for Tony, and it is still on his workbench and has not been thrown away.

Standing in front of the crafting table, Tony raised the entire underground factory by unlocking the gnaku. All of his steel armor was raised one by one.

Including the old models of warframes that he had just said had been "dealt with". He looked at the armor with his hands on his chest, but finally smiled on his forehead.

…………………………

Long Island, Rogers rented an apartment.

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

The dreams of the youngest, and those days and nights of struggle for their dreams. Rogers opened his now calloused hands, which had once been carbon color that could not be washed.

Finally, he pasted the manuscripts to his bedside.

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

"Why don't you buy a pen tablet?" Rogers thought.

…………………………

Manhattan, Southern Cross Welfare Home.

Penny is healed and ready to be discharged from the hospital, and Thor carries little Penny with a small fish bowl in his hand. It contained the peach blossom jellyfish that Li Jie had prepared for Penny.

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

When Nurse pushed open the blue door, he was greeted for the first time by an ice bucket that fell from the sky, and now it was a heaven-shattering cheer and cheer.

Thor had a faint smile on his face.

……………………

Li Jie wears a pair of special gloves with ten magic rings in them. With a solemn look on his face, he went to Kamataki to meet the Ancient One.

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

Ancient One: "That's right, but you didn't quite agree with me at the time. Now you've figured it out?"

Li Jie: "Yes, I've been through a lot of things during this time. I know more responsibility, I know more responsibility. I expect calm, but it doesn't fall from the sky. My parents, my family, my friends. There are a number of things that I don't expect them to get into. ”

Ancient One: "So you're willing to take it on now?"

Li Jie: "It's not all, but I want to do something. ”

Ancient One: "What's the matter?"

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

ps: Asking for votes, the two watches are 9,700 words.