Captain America #226
Am I Still Captain America?
While probing his mind to learn the secrets of his past, the Super-Soldier Serum in his body was deactivated, reverting Captain America back to scrawny old Steve Rogers.[1] Unwilling to accept the fact that he is done as Captain America, Steve Rogers locks himself in a SHIELD training room to fight one of their Impactor robots. When Nick Fury hears about this, he contacts Steve through the communicator and tells him to stop this suicidal training session. When Steve refuses, Fury tries to shut down the training session from outside.
However, he is stopped when a SHIELD agent reports some strange interference coming from outside the helicarrier. Suddenly, the agent’s face transforms into a replica of the Red Skull’s mask. Attacking Fury, this Red Skull controlled SHIELD agent manages to blast the control panel to the training room, preventing them from shutting the training session down. Knocking out the possessed SHIELD agent, Fury leads a team down to the training room to try and breakdown the door and save Cap before he gets himself killed. Inside the training room, the destruction of the control panel causes the Impactor robot to malfunction and start attacking Captain America with lethal force. Even though he’s not as a strong or as fast as he used to be, Steve is still agile enough to evade its attacks for the time being.
Meanwhile, a skull shape sattelite appears outside the SHIELD helicarrier and begins bombarding it with energy.[2] This causes all of the SHIELD agents on board the craft to transform into more Red Skulls. Outnumbered, Nick Fury races to the records room to get help from Dum Dum Dugan. Unfortunately, he is too late as Dugan has been transformed as well and takes out Fury with a blast from a stun-gun.[3]
Back in the training room, Captain America finally gets tagged by the Impactor robot, seriously injuring him. This allows the robot to finally grab hold of him. As it begins to squeeze the life out of him, Steve struggles to get free and refuses to give up. This force of will apparently reactivates the Super-Soldier Serum in his body restoring Captain America to his proper glory. Breaking free from the robot’s grasp he quickly destroys it. That’s when the Red Skull enslaved SHIELD agents enter the room, their leader holding Nick Fury hostage. He tells Captain America to surrender or else Fury will die.
Recurring Characters
Captain America, Red Skull, SHIELD (Nick Fury, Dum Dum Dugan)
Continuity Notes
In Captain America #215, Steve Rogers discovered that he no longer remembered much of his past prior to becoming Captain America. Last issue, he seemingly learned the secrets of his past but the mental probe somehow deactivated the Super-Soldier Serum in his blood. Which is kind of a kick in the ass when Captain America #247 reveals that he only revealed false memory implants that were put in his head in the event he was captured by Nazis during the war.
Super-Villain Team-Up #16 reveals that this satellite was created by the Hate-Monger. It’s identified as the Death’s Head next issue.
Later revelations make the transformation of Dum Dum Dugan somewhat surprising. Per Original Sins #5 and New Avengers (vol. 4) #17 reveals that Dugan’s body was in suspended animation and his intelligence was remotely piloting a Life Model Decoy. This has some implications next issue and I will address them there.
