Captain America #409
Blood and Diamonds
In order to find his missing girlfriend, Diamondback, Captain America has enlisted the help of Doctor Druid. The mystic burns an article of Rachel’s clothing on a frying pain, revealing that she is being held captive somewhere in the Rocky Mountains.[1] Unfortunately, that’s the best Druid can do to pinpoint her location, giving Cap and Falcon a lot of ground to cover. Soon they leave New York aboard Cap’s ship, the Freedom’s Light, piloted by Zach Moonhunter.
At the Red Skull’s hideout, Diamondback screams for help as she has been left alone in her cell for hours. She wonders what happened to her brother Danny, aka Cutthroat, who promised to free her after killing Crossbones.[2]
Little does she know that Cutthroat’s attempt to eliminate Crossbones went south and instead of killing his rival, seemingly got himself killed instead.[3] The commotion had drawn the members of the Skeleton Crew — Mother Night, Jack O’Lantern, and Blackwing — as well as the Red Skull, who demands answers. Cross explains that Cutthroat attacked him in his sleep and acted in self defense by making his attacker’s name literal. When nobody can corroborate what really went down, the Red Skull calls an immediate meeting in the briefing room.
An hour later, Captain America and Falcon’s plane arrives over the Rocky Mountains. With no idea where Diamondback might be, Cap decides to call the FAA and the National Park Service to see if they have any records of unidentified aircraft operating in the area. It’s a slim chance, but it is the only one they got.
While at the Red Skull’s hideout, Diamondback — whose hands have been handcuffed behind her back this entire time — manages to slip her feet between the cuffs to get her hands in front of her. Even though she is still shackled, she can at least prepare a surprise for whoever comes to check on her next.
Back in New York, Dennis Dunphy — aka Demolition Man — has been attacked by one of the Magus’ doppelgangers in Central Park.[4] The inhuman creature pushes him into a nearby lake where he tries to drown Dunphy. When it appears he has succeeded, the evil double takes off. However, Dennis survives and is pulled buy an underwater current into an underground cavern.
Meanwhile, Mother Night pays a visit to the Machinesmith in his underground robotics lab. She needs someone to confide in and tells him how she got into a relationship with Cutthroat after being snubbed by the Red Skull,[5] despite this she warned Crossbones that he was going to make an attempt on his life and feels guilty for causing his death. She also knows that Diamondback is Cutthroat’s sister and wants advice on what to do about this knowledge. The Machinesmith warns her against freeing the prisoner as it would seal her own fate as well. Their conversation is cut short as they need to appear at the Red Skull’s meeting to discuss matters. After confirming that Cutthroat’s body has been disposed of, the Red Skull tells the Skeleton Crew what he wants done with Diamondback.
A few minutes later, Mother Night convinces Crossbones to let her go and fetch Rachel on her own. Once entering the cell she finds no trace of Diamondback, who has wedged herself in the corner of the room above the door. She leaps down and knocks Mother Night out and, after picking the locks on her handscuffs, steals her captor’s costume so she can sneak out of the Red Skull’s hideout undetected. When Crossbones and the others begin to grow impatient, Blackwing is sent to go and fetch Mother Night and their prisoner. He runs into Diamondback who quickly incapacitates him and tries to flee the scene on his flying platform. Seeing “Mother Night” fly past them, Crossbones deduces that it is really Diamondback in disguise and orders Jack O’Lantern to get after her while he follows from behind in a helicopter. With her enemies gaining on her, Rachel looks through her pockets for something that might help her escape and finds a communications card similar to those used by the Avengers and uses it to send out a distress signal.
Miraculously, the distress call is picked up by Captain America and his allies who speed to her location. However, Crossbones catches up to her first and convinces her to surrender. Rachel only does so thinking that her brother is still alive. The moment she boards the helicopter, Crossbones stabs her in the back with a concealed knife. They then take her down a medical facility near the Red Skull’s hideout. There, one of the Skull’s doctors is instructed to give Rachel a blood transfusion with one of the packs of Captain America’s blood they stole from Avengers Headquarters.[6]
With the process requiring time to see if it will work or not, Crossbones and Jack O’Lantern decide to wire the place up to explode as a rude surprise when Captain America arrives. However, as they walk outside Cap and Falcon are airdropping into the area.
Recurring Characters
Captain America, Falcon, Moonhunter, Diamondback, Demolition Man, Doctor Druid, Red Skull, Skeleton Crew (Crossbones, Jack O’Lantern, Blackwing, Mother Night, Machinesmith, Fourth Sleeper), Donna Maria Puentes, Edwin Jarvis
Continuity Notes
Diamondback was kidnapped by Crossbones back in Captain America #396. She has been a prisoner of the Red Skull since issue #407.
The whole situation between Diamondback, Cutthroat, and Crossbones is a very complex one. The details:
Back when he was a teenager, Danny Leighton and his brother Ricky were members of Brock Rumlow’s gang, the Savage Crims. When Rachel petitioned to join the gang herself, Brock raped and beat her. Ricky and older brother Willy went to avenge her, resulting in Willy getting killed and Brock running from the law. Ashamed over his inaction, Danny ran away from home. See Captain America #400.
Last issue, it was revealed that Danny ran all the way to Europe where he reinvented himself as a mercenary for hire named Cutthroat.
Issue #403 reveals that both Rachel and Brock went through Taskmaster’s school using the skills there to become Diamondback and Crossbones respectively.
More recently, Crossbones was fired from the Red Skull’s employ for speaking out of turn in Captain America #394. Cutthroat was hired to take his place in issue #396.
When Crossbones turned Diamondback over to the Red Skull in order to win back his boss’ favor last issue, Cutthroat revealed his true identity to Rachel and promised to kill Crossbones. It didn’t turn out so well as Brock cut Danny’s throat.
Despite the fact that he is reportedly dead here, Cutthroat somehow survived getting his own throat slit. He’ll turn up alive again in New Avengers #3, however as of this writing (July, 2022) there is no explanation how he cheated death.
These doppelgangers were created by the Magus in Infinity War #1. What happens to the D-Man duplicate is never revealed as of this writing because who cares. The real D-Man has been left in a selective amnesia state after surviving an explosion and an extended period of time in the Arctic ocean from Captain America #349 to 400.
The Red Skull has been snubbing Mother Night since breaking the Viper out of prison in Captain America #395.
After getting caught in a meth lab explosion, Captain America needed a full blood transfusion to get the tainted blood out of his system. The drug laced blood was then filtered so the Super Soldier Serum could be returned to his body. However, Cap opted not to undergo another transfusion as he wanted to prove that it was the man, not the serum that made him Captain America, as seen in Captain America #372-378. This proved to be a moot point as it was later revealed that trace amounts of the serum still remained in his system and was replenishing itself, as revealed in issue #384. Diamondback stole the blood from Avengers Headquarters in issue #405.
Topical References
The original twin towers of the World Trade Center are depicted as being part of the New York City skyline in this story. This should be considered a topical reference as these buildings were destroyed in a terrorist attack on September 11, 2001 and subsequently replaced with the Freedom Tower.
Theory: How Cutthroat Could Have Survived
As stated above, Cutthroat will later turn up alive in New Avengers #3 with no explanation how he survived. When you take a look at the fiction overall, it is full of instances where a character suffered seemingly life threatening injuries only to turn up alive again.
It should be noted nobody really examines Cutthroat’s body, which is depicted as being wrapped up in a bedsheet in this story. Apparently, nobody bothers to check. The Red Skull instead sends Jack O’Lantern and Blackwing were sent to bury him. The Red Skull only accepts their word that Cutthroat’s body was buried somewhere it wouldn’t be found.
Having your throat slit is a serious and often fatal injury unless treated right away. This NSFW/TW article providing a forensic analysis on a throat cut victim concludes that the survival rate would be incredibly rare as the victim would had bled out in within a few minutes.
My theory is that Crossbones either didn’t cut deep enough or the flow of blood was staunched in such a way that prevented Cutthroat wouldn’t bleed out. The guy was wrapped up in a blanket by the time the Red Skull showed up to find out what was going on. It’s entirely possible that Crossbones and the Skeleton Crew (who arrived before the Skull did) could have performed some kind of life saving surgery as nobody really wanted to see him dead. However, they all knew that if Red Skull knew he survived, he probably would have killed him for pulling a stunt like this.
It could be that Cutthroat was playing possum until Jack O’Lantern and Blackwing could get him outside and away from the Red Skull’s hideout. The two were loyal to Cutthroat up to that point, there is no reason why they couldn’t feel sorry for him and help him fake his death so he could escape the Red Skull’s hideout.
