Collision Courses: Part 2

With Crossbones and Sin on a murder spree across America, Captain America and Sharon Carter have used the opportunity to also search for Bucky, who has been gone for months after their last encounter.[1] While investigating a sighting in smalltown Iowa, they are confronted in their hotel room by three operatives from Advanced Idea Mechanics who have come looking for Captain America’s help. This is because Crossbones and Sin have just so happened to take over the lab they have hidden in town. Seeing that the AIM operatives are serious, Steve goes to the closet for his Captain America costume.

As they head to the lab, Cap and Sharon are informed that AIM has set up in Platsburg by offering to fund the town if they look the other way and allow them to conduct their experiments. While AIM does their research, the town prospers. Things were going smoothly until Bucky attacked their facility and destroyed a number of their prototypes. AIM at a whole however, has been having trouble as branches have been breaking off and going solo from before the Red Skull was killed.[2] When Crossbones and Sin showed up they slaughtered many of the scientists in the facility and forced the others to open up the weapons vault. Seeing how the pair — particularly Sin — were delighted by a cache of that many weapons bothered him. That’s when a team decided to sneak out and find help. When they get to the entrance to the secret hideout, Sharon then signals a SHIELD tactical unit that has been waiting overhead this entire time.

As they enter the building, they are unaware that Crossbones and Sin are watching from the security monitors. As it turns out, they were waiting for SHIELD and Captain America to show up and have set up an ambush. While SHIELD and Captain America are busy exchanging fire, Crossbones sends Sin on a task to keep the heroes distracted while they make their escape. Sin takes one of the AIM scientists to the room where the MODOC Squad is kept. When he can’t activate them fast enough, Sin shoots him in the head. This action causes the MODOCs to start up and react to her as a hostile. She runs back to Crossbones for help, leading the MODOC Squad to the battle. Even though she screwed up, the plan works and the MODOC Squad keeps SHIELD busy while Crossbones and Sin escape. Eventually, the AIM troops and MODOC Squad are all taken down. When Sharon checks the casualty list she learns that one SHIELD operative — Agent Morgan — went MIA. Although none of this is adding up, Captain America has figured out why Bucky came here.

A few hours later, they show up at the home owned by Betty Tonlin, the daughter of the people who used to own the town inn. She confirms that she is related to Gretchen Zeller, a woman who immigrated to America after World War II. Betty and her parents are related to the woman, and she can confirm that Bucky was there to see her. She said the man was nice but seemed out of his tree. When she asks what this is all about, Steve opens up his shirt to reveal that he’s Captain America. Betty says that Gretchen never spoke much about the war with the family, only that she lost a lot of loved ones during it. Steve reveals that the Bucky knew Gretchen and was in love with her. When they ask if Bucky said where he was going next, she tells Steve and Sharon that she gave him directions to Gretchen’s grave so he could pay his respects before it was too late.

As Steve and Sharon leave in a SHIELD flying car, they try to make sense of what went on. The fact that the descendants of Gretchen Zeller lived in a town that was secretly run by AIM seems a little too coincidental. Steve figures that there was only one person who could have pointed Bucky here and that person is Nick Fury. Steve theorizes that Fury might have been testing Bucky to determine his effectiveness as a field operative by sending him here with knowledge about the Zeller family in the hopes he’d pick up on the fact that the town wasn’t what it seemed. Sharon wonders what Bucky meant about visiting Gretchen’s grave before it was too late. Steve figures that Bucky might go after Aleksander Lukin to get revenge for what he had done, and doesn’t expect to survive the experience.

Meanwhile, at an undisclosed location, Crossbones and Sin are interrogating Agent Morgan, whom they captured during the battle. They want to know who was the person who ordered the Red Skull dead. When Morgan reveals that it was Aleksander Lukin, Crossbones snaps his neck, killing him instantly. The couple then decide to pay this Lukin guy a visit and kill him.

Recurring Characters

Captain America, SHIELD (Sharon Carter), AIM (MODOC Squad), Crossbones, Sin

Continuity Notes

1. This dual manhunt began last issue. Bucky/Winter Soldier has been on the run since Captain America (vol. 5) #14.

2. The Red Skull was seemingly killed by Winter Soldier back in Captain America (vol. 5) #1. In reality, he used the Cosmic Cube to jump ship and now lives in the mind of Aleksander Lukin as we saw in issue #14 as well. These AIM splinter groups are Advanced Ideas in Destruction (or AID) which was first seen in issue #1, the other is Radically Advanced Ideas in Destruction who we’ll see in Captain America (vol. 5) #19.

Topical References

• Betty Tonlin is identified as the granddaughter of Gretchen Zeller. This should be considered a topical reference. Gretchen is a character tied to the 20th Century and as a normal person with an ordinary life span, it will become increasingly impossible for Betty to be her granddaughter. This is because the Sliding Timescale constantly bumps the Modern Age forward in time, making the gulf of time between World War II and the present longer. As such, Betty should be considered a direct descendant of Gretchen Zeller, as opposed to some kind of specific relation.