In a time that brought us Civil War, The Initiative, a Skrull Invasion, House of M, and other major events, this is the one that people remember best because, frankly, it WAS the best. It also proved that an event doesn’t have to be line-wide to have an impact.
Picking up with Cap’s surrender at the end of the Civil War, he is shot by Crossbones (who is working for Red Skull).
Falcon and Winter Soldier chase down and capture the assassin.
Cap—who is not dead yet—is rushed to the hospital by Sharon Carter. While there, Sin (disguised as a nurse) speaks a code word to her and she remembers what actually happened…
She was brainwashed into taking the killshot! Cap then dies on the operating table.
Later in the story, there is a great sequence where Sharon remembers Steve’s last words to her, “You take my breath away,” and realizes that he was telling her that he knew she killed him.
After Crossbones is taken into custody, Charles Xavier is asked to scan his mind, but it’s been wiped—there is no evidence that Red Skull is his employer.
There are lots of good scenes showing the effects of Cap’s death, not the least of which is the “wake” held by his underground band of heroes.
Falcon has to leave the wake to track Bucky.
Bucky blames Tony Stark for all of it and decides to kill him, but first he wants to make sure Cap’s shield doesn’t fall into Stark’s hands.
And fights Natasha for it. This is the fight scene that is the blueprint for scenes in the Winter Soldier film.
While all this is going on, Red Skull continues his actions to undermine the United States by using Aleksander Lukin’s Kronas Corporation (Skull’s consciousness is hiding within Lukin’s body) to prop up a third-party candidate named Gregory Wright.
He also forms a new Serpent Squad, with his daughter as the leader, that undermines financial systems through violence.
The other members are Eel, a new Viper, and the nephew of Cobra (who goes by King Cobra).
They also rescue Crossbones from SHIELD custody, abetted by sleeper agents. This alerts Stark that he’s got moles within his organization.
While this is going on, Nick Fury and Falcon are trying to find Bucky before he kills Stark and makes everything worse, and are also trying to track down Red Skull because they know he’s the one who is ultimately responsible for all of this. Winter Soldier is also trying to track down and kill Red Skull, and actually finds him at one point but doesn’t know it’s him—because Skull’s mind is possessing the body of Aleksander Lukin.
But Crossbones tips him off.
After a great fight, Red Skull/Lukin simply states a code-word and Winter Soldier immediately falls unconscious. Faustus is then able to re-program Bucky to work for Red Skull.
Tony Stark figures out that Sharon is a double agent but is unable to alert Widow and Falcon in time…
Sharon also realizes that she is pregnant with Steve’s child, and we see that Tony has an “in the event of my death” letter from Steve asking him to protect Bucky and make sure that there is a new Captain America.
Guess who it’s gonna be?
Ed Brubaker’s run on Captain America continues to reinvent superhero books and holds a top slot in the best runs of all time. The story just keeps on going, but this is the formal breaking point for the first big story arc, so we’ll stop here.
English (US) · 