Collision Courses: Part 1

One Week Ago

Crossbones has successfully deprogrammed Sinthea Schmidt, the daughter of the Red Skull.[1] Now calling herself Sin, the psychotic couple have been on a killing spree across the United States. While robbing a bank in Lawrence, Kansas, Sin recognizes a bystander that has been following them since Wichita. Realizing he’s been made, the man tries to run and gets shot in the back. Although he is killed on the spot, Sin and Crossbones search his car. They come across the trademark yellow “bee keeper” outfit worn by members of Advanced Idea Mechanics, just the thing they were out looking for.

Now

SHIELD agent Sharon Carter has called in Captain America to help them track down and capture Sin and Crossbones. As they fly to their last known location, Steve questions why he wasn’t informed Sin was back on the loose. Sharon explains that it took the spy agency time to figure out who freed her and why, but also Captain America isn’t exactly a favorite at SHIELD since Nick Fury went AWOL,[2] nor is the Director Maria Hill pleased with the New Avengers.[3] Both Steve and Sharon are fans of Director Hill either. However, Sharon was able to use the Crossbones/Sin situation to convince Hill to bring Captain America on board. However, she also has an another motive for hunting down the two villains. There was an explosion reported in the town of Pilsburg, Iowa recently and the suspect matches the description of Bucky.[4][5] Still, Sharon isn’t convinced that he hadn’t died when he destroyed the Cosmic Cube, but Steve still thinks he is out there based on eye witness reports.[6]

When they arrive at the Pilsburg Sheriff Department, local law enforcement asks a lot of questions about SHIELD business and are just barely helpful. The officer at the front desk thinks the photo Steve shows him is the same man responsible for burning down the Brinker Building, but can’t be sure. They get a list of the witnesses and their contact info and head down to the site itself. Steve and Sharon are surprised to see that the building is being rapidly reconstructed, which seems a little too quickly for such a small town. As they walk around town they also notice that there is no factories or sign of a singular economy that would be sustaining any other small American town. This is suspicious enough to convince Steve that they are on the right track. When they check into the local hotel for the night, Steve takes particular notice of a photo of the previous owner that is hanging on the wall behind the front desk. Apparently, it was taken in the 1950s.

That evening, the pair got to the local bar to get a bite to eat. When they question the bartender about the explosion get gets nervous and but repeats the same story about a guy who crashed his car and fled. As they get up to leave, the town drunk — a man by the name of Carl Jackson — approaches them and says that he knows what’s really going on. Buying him a drink and sitting down in a booth for privacy, they talk about the night in question. Jackson was wandering town trying to find his next drink when he came upon Bucky fighting a massive mechanical arachnid. Climbing onto the robot, Bucky punched his way into its head with his cybernetic arm and destroyed its onboard computers, causing it to crash into the Brinker Building and explode. Carl says he wasn’t the only eye-witness to the situation, half the town saw exactly the same thing he did. However, the locals like to keep secrets, unlike Jackson who is a drifter. Sharon believes that this is serious so she gives Carl a bunch of money and to get out of town as soon as possible, for his own safety.

When Steve and Sharon leave, they both excited to learn that Bucky is still alive. Steve is so happy he kisses Sharon on the lips. Sharon reminds Steve that a relationship hasn’t worked out between them in the past.[7] He responds by saying that he’s an optimist. Next thing they know it, both are sleeping the same bed together. That night, Steve dreams about romancing Sharon interspaced with memories from World War II. One of these memories is of a woman that Bucky had fell in love with during the war. He suddenly wakes up when he realizes that was the same woman whose picture he saw in the hotel lobby earlier that day. As he is making this revelation, he notices laser sights pointed at his chest. He is able to warn Sharon in enough time for the two to subdue the tree AIM operatives that have crashed into their room. The leader of the group insists that they hadn’t come to harm them, in fact, AIM needs Captain America’s help.

Recurring Characters

Captain America, SHIELD (Sharon Carter), Crossbones, Sin, Winter Soldier

Continuity Notes

1. Sin had been in SHIELD custody since her capture in Captain America #357. Crossbones broke her out in Captain America (vol. 5) #9. He succeeded in de-programming her last issue.

2. Prior to this story, Nick Fury was revealed to have run an unauthorized operation in Latveria and had gone to ground, as seen in Secret War #1-5. While it appeared that he went to ground to avoid criminal persecution for this action, it was really because he had just uncovered a secret invasion of Earth by the Skrulls and had gone into hiding to prevent this from happening. See Secret Invasion #1-8 and Mighty Avengers #12.

3. The New Avengers were formed in New Avengers #1-5, around the same time that Maria Hill took over as SHIELD Director, they have been at odds with one another from the start.

4. In Captain America (vol. 5) #14 it was confirmed that the assassin known as the Winter Soldier was previously Captain America’s wartime partner Bucky. Since Avengers #4 he was believed to have died in 1945. His survival and transformation was detailed in Captain America (vol. 5) #8 and 11.

5. Sharon states that it has been six months since their last encounter with Bucky. This is to imply that a lot has happened in that time. Indeed there has, per Official Index to the Marvel Universe: Captain America, Cap has appeared multiple storylines including the first fifteen issues of New Avengers, Secret War, and the House of M, as well as countless guest appearances in other books. See below for more info.

6. Here Steve states that eyewitnesses saw Bucky helping with the Philadelphian relief effort. This is in reference to the fact that, as the Winter Soldier, he set off the bomb that decimated the city. See Captain America (vol. 5) #6.

7. Steve and Sharon quickly fell in love with one another after they first met in Tales of Suspense #75. However, the two have been in an on-again-off-again relationship for years for various reasons. At the time of this story, they had been off since Captain America (vol. 3) #50.

Topical References

• Sharon states that it has been six months between their last encounter with Bucky and this story. This statement hugely glosses over how busy Captain America has been in the time in-between. Two years worth of multiple publications chronologically take place between the span of three issues. This measurement of time does not match up with the Sliding Timescale. Adjusting for it, the time compression dictates that these events would have happened over the course of 1.5 to 2 months time.

• A number of the televisions and computer monitors in this story are depicted as CRT model screens. This should be considered topical as this is now an obsolete technology.