Captain America (vol. 5) #21
Twenty-First Century Blitz: Conclusion
The Red Skull and Aleksander Lukin have plotted an attack on London, during the grand opening of a brand new Kronas Corporation building.[1] Lukin’s plot to crash a blimp into British Parliament was foiled by Captain America (Steve Rogers), Union Jack (Joe Chapman), and Spitfire (Jaqueline Falsworth). As a result, the Red Skull has activated his back up plan, the activation of an old Nazi Sleeper robot that has been hidden beneath London for decades.[2]
As the robot begins laying siege to London, Captain America tries to jump on top of it in an effort to shut it down. It quickly bats him aside, knocking him into a nearby office building. He radios to Sharon Carter and tells her to get her SHIELD issue flying car out of the air as it is an easy target for the Sleeper’s disintegration rays. Also on the scene is Bucky, Captain America’s old wartime partner. He has given up a chance to eliminate Aleksander Lukin to join the fight.[3]
Sharon then spots Master Man — the Red Skull’s agent — in the air and rams into him with her car. This sends her crashing into another building herself. Relatively unharmed, she pulls herself from the wreck and is assuring Captain America is safe when she runs into Crossbones and Sin. The pair had come to London to avenge the Red Skull by murdering Aleksander Lukin — unaware the two men share the same body — and are more than happy to add a SHIELD agent to their list of kills this evening.
Up on the rooftops, Captain America is trying to coordinate Union Jack and Spitfire when he sees Bucky leap onto the Sleeper’s head. As the robot’s eyes begin to charge up, Cap takes a running leap and pushes his old friend out of harm’s way. He then gets Bucky to safety, telling him that this Sleeper robot is far more advanced than the one they fought in Eisendorf during World War II. As they flee its death ray eyes, Cap gets a report from Union Jack and Spitfire. They have found an are currently engaging Master Man, but his near invulnerability is making him a tough opponent. Steve tells him that he has a plan brewing and that all they need to do is to get Master Man as angry as possible.
Back inside one of the buildings, Sharon Carter tries to fight back against Crossbones and Sin. While she manages to break Sin’s nose, she is knocked out by Crossbones. However, before he can shoot her in the head, someone orders them to stand down as they have important plans for Sharon Carter.[4] When Sin looks at the speaker, she is delighted to see who it is.
Meanwhile, Union Jack and Spitfire have Master Man good and worked up by mocking his ancestor — the original Master Man — to the point where he blindly charges at Spitfire.[5] She moves out of the way at super speed causing him to fly his invulnerable body through the dense armor of the Sleeper’s head. Cap then tosses Bucky some explosive charges and tells him to put them in the Sleeper’s head. Bucky clearly wants to talk to Steve about what’s going on, but Cap tells him to focus on the crisis at hand, as they can talk all they want later. Cap then provides a distraction that keeps the Sleeper focused on him. This allows Bucky to plant the charges, causing the Sleeper to explode and topple into the Thames River. However, in doing so, Bucky’s cybernetic arm gets caught in the Sleeper’s eyebeams, melting it to slag.
In the aftermath of the attack, the Red Skull issues a video statement to the media claiming ownership and revealing to the world that he was still alive. While Master Man is taken into custody, the media is unable to get get comments from Captain America, Union Jack, or Spitfire. Sharon was saved from the collapse of the Kronas building by Spitfire. Aleksander Lukin takes the opportunity to spin the incident in his favor however. Calling the attack a feud between masked superhumans. The media is already speculating that this is add further support to the United States government’s plans to force superhumans to register in that country.[6]
Watching this all on the news the following morning leaves Steve feeling sick that the Red Skull got away and Lukin walked away from this smelling like roses. However, this is a problem for another day as Steve and Sharon are heading back to the United States. As they leave, Joe and Jaqueline wonder what they will do next. When Joe figures they’ll catch hell from Phil Gavin — their handler at MI5 — over the mess they made in the Thames, Spitfire muses that perhaps she should take Steve’s offer and join the New Avengers.[7]
On the ride back to the airport, Sharon asks Steve what it was like fighting alongside Bucky again after all these years. He says it felt good and natural, as though no time had passed between them, that the old Bucky was still in there somewhere. Sharon assures him that James will come back when he’s ready.
Elsewhere, Bucky is at a train station preparing to leave the country. After this incident, he calls the person who put him on Lukin’s trail — Nick Fury.[8] He agrees that they should work together from now on and asks to be extracted from the field. He also tells Fury that he’s going to need a new cybernetic arm.
Meanwhile, Aleksander Lukin and the Red Skull are going over the aftermath of their little plan. While they didn’t succeed in destabilizing London, they were able to spin the situation. By having the Red Skull claim responsibility they have made Lukin appear beyond reproach, allowing them to move ahead with their plans with very little resistance. As they enter the next room, the Red Skull says that they will scheme later, first he wants to introduce him to his daughter Sin, and his top man, Crossbones who Aleksander will be seeing a lot of in the coming days ahead.
Recurring Characters
Captain America, SHIELD (Sharon Carter, Union Jack, Spitfire), Winter Soldier, Sleeper, Red Skull/Aleksander Lukin, Master Man, Crossbones, Sin
Continuity Notes
Lukin and the Red Skull are sharing the same body. This happened after an assassination attempt on the Red Skull in Captain America (vol. 5) #1. The Skull cheated death by using the Cosmic Cube to escape his body and now has taken up residence in Lukin’s mind, as we learned in issue #14. They will remain like this until Captain America (vol. 5) #42.
This Sleeper is one of many robots constructed by the Nazis during World War II to use as a contingency plan should Germany lose the war. An early prototype was used during the war, as seen in Captain America 65th Anniversary Special #1. The first three were activated in Tales of Suspense #72-74. A fourth Sleeper was activated in Captain America #101 and was last seen in issue #410 of that series. Others (time of this writing) include the so-called “Final” Sleeper in Black Widow and the Marvel Girls #3, and another which was hidden in Egypt until it is later found by the Kingpin in Amazing Spider-Man: Family Business #1.
For years, everyone though that Bucky had died in 1945 as per Avengers #4. In reality, he was recovered by the Russians. Vasily Karpov had him transformed into an assassin called the Winter Soldier. When Karpov died, the Winter Soldier ended up in the possession of Aleksander Lukin who used him to commit various acts of murder and destruction. See Captain America (vol. 5) #1-9 and 11-14 for the gory details.
The Red Skull’s plan is a convoluted one that involves pregnancy, time displacement, and stealing Captain America’s body. It’s pretty wild. See Captain America (vol. 5) #25 and Captain America: Reborn #1-6.
The original Master Man was Wilhelm Lohmer, who was active mostly during World War II. He got his powers in Giant-Size Invaders #1. Surviving into the Modern Age, he died in Cable #51. His descendant, Max, was picked by the Red Skull to become the new Master Man in Captain America (vol. 5) #18.
The possibility of American superheroes having to register with the government is currently being explored in the pages of Amazing Spider-Man #529-531. This will come to a head in Civil War #1-7 and nearly every other Marvel book in publication at the time, including the next three issues of this series.
Steve offered Spitfire a spot on the New Avengers last issue. To date (March, 2023), she has yet to take him up on the offer.
The reason why Nick Fury isn’t seen in this story is because he went into hiding following the events of Secret War #1-5. To everyone it is believed that Fury has gone into hiding to avoid the legal repercussions of an unsanctioned invasion of Latveria. In reality, he has uncovered a plot by the Skrulls to invade Earth. See Mighty Avengers #12 as well as Secret Invasion #1-8.
Topical References
It is stated that the Red Skull had seemingly died a year prior to this story. The Skull’s physical body was killed in Captain America (vol. 5) #1, published in January, 2005. This story was published in July of 2006. This is a rough measurement of time based on publication dates. Per the Sliding Timescale no more than four months could have passed between these two stories.
