Changing of the Guard

The Committee on Superhuman Activities is holding a press conference to announce that John Walker will be stepping down as Captain America and Steve Roger will be resuming the role.[1] Everything seems pretty straight forward, but after John hands over Captain America’s shield he is shot five times in the chest by someone in the crowd. This appears to be one of the Watchdogs, and Steve Rogers gives chase. However, just as he catches the Watchdog, the terrorist is shot in the head and killed by the Scourge of the Underworld who gets away.[2][3]

That evening, Captain America is interviewed on the evening news to comment on the murder of John Walker. Cap explains that it was a targeted assassination but has no comment on what Walker was planning to do after stepping down as Captain America, nor does he know what his former partner, Battlestar, plans on doing next. After the interview, Steve reflects on how many people close to him have died in the past and how he wished no harm upon John Walker, even though they were enemies.[4]

Deciding to check his hotline for any new emergencies, Steve is surprised to find a government bulletin calling for the arrest of SHIELD director Nick Fury and wonders what is going on.[5] Deciding to look more into this, Steve puts in a call to his old friend Peggy Carter and asks to meet up for coffee.[6] Peggy isn’t clear on what went down with SHIELD and why it was shut down, but knows it had to do with a conflict with the Board of Directors aboard the spy agencies space station and that a third of its fighting force was killed in the process.[7] That’s when they spot Nick Fury’s custom sports car driving by and decide to follow it. The vehicle leads them to SHIELDS New York headquarters where they find Nick Fury, Dum Dum Dugan, and Gabe Jones.

Fury is happy to see Captain America and Peggy Carter and there is a brief and happy reunion with old friends. Fury then gets down to business and explains to Steve that SHIELD had been compromised and decimated by corruption and needed to be shut down. Since then, Fury and his allies have been tying up loose ends by shutting down all of SHIELDS bases all over the world. He asks Cap to stick around and help them wipe out the computer database and brick all the equipment so it doesn’t fall into enemy hands. While Dum Dum and Gabe work at installing a computer virus to wipe out the computers, Nick and Cap go to the armory to disable the weapons cache. Along the way the power briefly flickers but Fury doesn’t think much of it. Little do they know that, back in the master computer room, Dum Dum and the others have been knocked out.

In the armory, Captain America and Fury use some cargo-lifting Mandroid suits to carry all the weapons to an atomic furnace which will incinerate everything into slag to be recycled. As they start working, the doors to the furnace suddenly shut, trapping Fury inside. As Cap tries to smash through the doors in his Mandroid suit, he is attacked by one of the autonomous Mandroid prototypes. It delays him long enough for the atomic furnace to power up and incinerate inside. When the door finally opens, Nick Fury is nowhere to be seen and Cap assumes his old friend has been killed. Suddenly, all the other robots in the room come to life and begin attacking him all at once. Luckily, Nick Fury survived by escaping out an exhaust vent and uses one of the last SHIELD weapons to destroy all the robots attacking Captain America.

They then race to the control room and destroy the computer, shutting everything down for good. Unsure of who was responsible for this attack, Cap and Fury revive the others and they make a quick escape.[8] Since Peggy needs medical attention they take her to a hospital where Steve offers her a position working for the Avengers, which she accepts. When he extends the same offer to Nick Fury, he declines.

Meanwhile, at a different hospital, Battlestar and Val Cooper have come to claim the body of John Walker. However, when they are brought down to the morgue they discover that somebody has taken his body.

Recurring Characters

Captain America, Nick Fury, Scourge of the Underworld, John Walker, Battlestar, SHIELD (Peggy Carter, Dum Dum Dugan, Gabriel Jones), Valerie Cooper, Raymond Sikorski, Watchdog

Continuity Notes

1. The Committee forced Steve to give up being Captain America, giving the role to Walker in Captain America #332-333. This was all part of a master scheme by the Red Skull to ruin Captain America’s legacy. This plot failed in issue #350.

2. This is later revealed to be a staged assassination to make it look like John Walker died so the government can reinvent him as their new operative, the US Agent. See Captain America #354.

3. Here, Captain America recounts how this must be the replacement of the original Scourge who was shot dead when Steve caught him in Captain America #320. What nobody knows yet is that there is an entire network of Scourges. The organization was formed by the golden age hero known as the Angel. See US Agent #1-4.

4. Captain America lists off a number of his past allies who are believed to be dead at the time of this story. They are:

   • His parents, who are absolutely dead. His father died of influenza in the 1920s and his mother followed shortly after from pneumonia, as detailed in Captain America #255.

   • Bucky, Cap’s wartime partner is believed to have died in 1945, per Avengers #4. In reality, James survived and was transformed by the Russians into an assassin called the Winter Soldier. Steve won’t learn the truth until Captain America (vol. 5) #14.

   • Sharon Carter: Captain America’s first present day love interested appeared to immolate herself in Captain America #237 after being brainwashed into serving the National Front. In reality, she faked her death so she could go on a deep-cover mission for SHIELD. She will turn up alive again in Captain America #444.

   • D-Man: Dennis Dunphy appeared to die when the Quinjey he was piloting exploded and crashed in the Arctic ocean in Captain America #349. In reality, just like his mentor, Dennis found himself frozen in ice as we’ll see in Captain America #381. He will not get free until issue #400.

5. This story follows the events of Nick Fury vs. SHIELD #1-6, which saw SHIELD taken over by rogue Life Model Decoys called Deltites. Fury became a fugitive of the law until he exposed this conspiracy and shut it all down.

6. Here, Peggy Carter refers to Sharon as her sister. This has since changed due to the Sliding Timescale. Click here for more on how the Carter family tree has changed with the times.

7. Much of SHIELD’s staff were replaced with Deltites and everyone was led to believe that everyone who was replaced were killed in the process. However, Nick Fury will later discover that the supposedly dead SHIELD agents were actually kept in suspended animation. They will be freed in Nick Fury, Agent of SHIELD (vol. 3) #44.

8. This attack was caused by the Machinesmith, as we’ll learn in Captain America #354.

Topical References

• The news of John Walker’s “murder” is depicted as being reported on the show Nightline with host Ted Koppel. This should be considered topical because Nightline is a real world news program. Ted Koppel later retired in 2005.