Operation: Rebirth Chapter Two: The Devil You Know

Cured of his illness, Captain America finds himself on forced into a mission with his ex-girlfriend Sharon Carter and the Red Skull to stop some mysterious threat that threatens to plunge the world into another World War.[1] Cap realizes that this is a serious situation when a terrorist hideout suddenly transforms into a massive high-tech fortress. The Red Skull explains that the ones responsible are trying to alter reality using a Cosmic Cube, not unlike Cap’s recent clash with Advance Idea Mechanics.[2]

Sneaking inside the facility, Cap and his allies see a group of men in Nazi uniforms standing before a massive portrait of Adolf Hitler himself. They are all around a Cosmic Cube and pledging to free the Fuhrer and reshape the world in his image. The Red Skull explains that this is a group of Hitler worshipers who call themselves Kubekult. As it turns out, the Red Skull once conspired with the Hate-Monger — Adolf Hitler himself, who survived World War II by transferring his mind into a cloned body — to recreate the Cosmic Cube.[3] However, the Skull betrayed Hitler and trapped his mind in an imperfect version of the device, seemingly trapping him forever. However, once the Kubekult learned of its existence, they stole the device from the Red Skull’s possessions and stole it. They have since begun trying to use technology to jump start the imperfect Cube so Hitler can reshape all reality to suit his vision. The Skull reminds his enemy how dangerous the Cosmic Cube can be and that it must be destroyed.[4]

Captain America soon charges into battle to try and get the Cosmic Cube from the members of Kubekult. However, when Cap is busy fighting off enemy soldiers, the Red Skull tries to grab it. Steve refuses to let the device end up in the hands of his greatest enemy and knocks it out of the Skull’s hand by tossing his shield. Sharon then grabs it, but she is knocked out and the Cube is taken back by the cultists who then make a prompt retreat. Once she has recovered, Sharon uses torture tactics to make one of the a cult member that was left behind talk. She learns that the Kubekult will be taking the Cosmic Cube to an energy research facility run by the United States government.

Stealing a ship to intercept their enemies, Cap takes the downtime to ask what happened to Sharon after her “death” and what has made her such a hard woman. Carter explains that she faked her death on the National Front mission in order to go on a deep cover operation for SHIELD. This was to ensure that her boyfriend Captain America wouldn’t interfere with the mission going out to look for her. However, something went wrong and SHIELD cut her loose, leaving Sharon to do whatever it took to survive. She went freelance and operated around the world as a soldier of fortune, a spy, an assassin, or whatever else was needed to get the job done. It made her a harder woman as a result as she often had to do violent and degrading things. It was during this time that she learned about the Kubekult and infiltrated the organization to find out what they were after. Learning of their end goal, Sharon had no choice but to work with the Red Skull in order to stop them.

After hearing all of this, Steve tells Sharon that after they are done this mission he will help her get her old life back together. Carter shoots down this idea, telling Steve that she doesn’t want to go back to the way things were as her experiences have left her jaded to the world.

They soon arrive at the research facility and Captain America suggests they go in alone as the Red Skull’s involvement would make people think this is some kind of trick. The facility is in lock down because Kubekult has already managed to get inside. When Captain America approaches the guards and tries to convince him to pass, they immediately assume he is an impostor because he is with the Red Skull. With no other choice, Cap has to fight through American soldiers in order to get in an save the world. Getting the the entrance of the facility, Steve is stopped by General Ulysses Chapman. Chapman refuses to let Captain America pass because he is under orders from the President himself to bar anyone from entering without authorization. Faced with treason charges, Cap decides that there is too much at stake to follow orders and decks Chapman and forces his way inside.

Unfortunately, they do not arrive in time to stop the cult from plugging the Cosmic Cube into a device that makes it fully functional. They then use it to alter reality all around them, transforming reality all around them. While Cap and the Red Skull are busy fighting the cultists, Sharon steals the Cosmic Cub and vanishes. When Cap and the Skull try to go after her their path is blocked by the American soldiers guarding the base as they have been transformed into loyal Neo-Nazi foot soldiers.

Recurring Characters

Captain America, Red Skull, Sharon Cater, Kubekult

Continuity Notes

1. There is a lot going on off the top, so let’s break it down:

   • Captain America’s Super-Soldier Serum was breaking down in Captain America #425. It brought him near death until his was cured last issue.

   • This was done thanks to a full blood transfusion and bone marrow transplant from the Red Skull. At the time of this story, the Skull’s body was cloned from Steve Rogers’ DNA after the Skull’s original body died of old age. See Captain America #300 and 350.

   • Up until last issue, Steve believed that Sharon Carter had died after being brainwashed by the Neo-Nazi group National Front in Captain America #237. We’ll learn later this issue that she faked her death to go on deep cover only to be cut loose by SHIELD for some unknown reason. Fury/Agent 13 #2 reveals that Sharon was abandoned because Fury believed she was killed on her mission as it only had a 17% survival rate.

2. The Skull is referring to the Taking AIM story arc where Captain America and the Avengers stopped AIM from re-creating the Cosmic Cube in Avengers #386-388 and Captain America #440-441. The original, created in Tales of Suspense #79 eventually became a sentient being named Kubik who left Earth to unravel the secrets of the universe in Captain America Annual #7.

3. In the Marvel Universe, Adolf Hitler was immolated by the Human Torch, as seen in Young Men #24. However, Hitler cheated death thanks to Arnim Zola a geneticist who devised a means of downloading Hitler’s mind into a cloned body upon his death, as explained in Super-Villain Team-Up #17. Hitler would pop-up in the present day as the Hate-Monger for the first time in Fantastic Four #21. The Skull later trapped thew Hate-Monger’s mind in an impure Cosmic Cube in Super-Villain Team-Up #17. The Cube was last seen in his possession in Captain America #370.

4. Cap and Red Skull known from the Cosmic Cube because the Skull has used it on two occasions to try and take over the world. The first was in Tales of Suspense #79-81 and the next from Captain America #115-119.

Topical References

• Here it is stated that World War II ended over 50 years prior to this story. This assessment of time should be considered topical. The Modern Age of the Marvel Universe operates on a Sliding Timescale, which bumps the “present day” forward in time. As such the gulf of time between the end of World War II and the start of the Modern Age grows larger with the passage of time. Click here for the math on that.