Aftermath

This story continues from Incredible Hulk #232…

After taking down the Corporation, the Falcon thanks Captain America for saving his life, but he has now decided that he was going to go solo for the next while. After Falcon leaves with his nephew, Jim Wilson, Cap stops a SHIELD agent from roughing up Vamp, a Corporation spy whose mind was shattered during the recent battle. After setting the SHIELD agents straight, he leads the Vamp to the nearby SHIELD VTOL jet and leaves Alcatraz. On the flight back to the East Coast, Captain America thinks about how he uncovered Corporation spies within SHIELD’s failed Super-Agents team.[1]

When they arrive at the new SHIELD headquarters, Cap is accosted by a Lieutenant Stafford, who accuses the hero of being a security risk. Sick of being under constant scrutiny of the spy agency, particularly after all the times he has bailed SHIELD out, Captain America tells Stafford to shove it and walks out. As he returns to his apartment, Steve Rogers is unaware that someone is observing him and reporting back to a group called the Brotherhood.[2] When Cap enters his apartment he remembers that it is still a mess after a botched Corporation assassination attempt and spend the next few hours cleaning up.[3] Going to bed, Steve realizes that he can’t sleep and so he goes on patrol as Captain America while he figures out what to do with himself next. It’s at dawn that he thinks to go to Sam Wilson’s office to check on the place while the Falcon is away. Seeing a stack of newspapers, he realizes he has to cancel Sam’s subscription. A headline about a recent rally turning into a riot catches his attention until he notices that someone is inside the office.

It turns out to be Peggy Carter who is happy to see Captain America because she has been looking for him. She is concerned about the group that was the cause of the riot, an organization calling themselves the National Front. They are a Neo-Nazi group that has been holding rallies in the city to promote their racist ideologies. Getting SHIELD’s attention, Sharon Carter and another agent were sent to Central Park to observe the rally that went there. The National Front’s leader, a masked man calling himself the Grand Director made a bigoted speech that angered those who came to protest the rally. As police tried to contain the violence, the Grand Director then set a cross on fire.[4] Suddenly, all the other white people in the crowd — Sharon included — suddenly became consumed with hate and began fighting the protestors.

As Captain America walks Peggy down to her car, he promises her that he will look into this as the atrocities in Auschwitz and Treblinka are still fresh in his mind. As Peggy gets into her car, two members of the National Front come out from an ally and blast the vehicle, causing it to explode.[5]

Recurring Characters

Captain America, National Force (Grand Director), Sharon Carter, Peggy Carter, SHIELD (Karl Janacek, Dwight Stanford, Marvel Man), Jim Wilson, Vamp/Animus

Continuity Notes

1. Captain America details his battle with Constrictor in Captain America #228, how he exposed Blue Streak as a spy in issue #229, and the final battle against the Corporation from last issue and Incredible Hulk #232.

2. The identity of this stalker and who the Brotherhood is are, unfortunately, never revealed as this plotline was dropped following the stalker’s last appearance in Captain America #237.

3. Animus tried to kill Captain America by driving a car into his apartment in issue #222.

4. I shouldn’t have to tell you that Peggy survives, as we’ll see next issue.

5. The identity of the Grand Director is not revealed here. He is identified as William Burnside, the 1950s Captain America in issue #233, how he became the Grand Director is explained in issue #236

Topical References

• Here Captain America states that the car that crashed into his apartment was a Volkswagen. This should be considered a topical reference as this is a real-world car company.