Captain America (vol. 5) #23
The Drums of War Part 2
This story happens during the events of Civil War #5. Civil War continues from Heroes for Hire (vol. 2) #2….
The Winter Soldier, aka Bucky, is on a mission for Nick Fury. He breaks into an abandoned building that is secretly a SHIELD base. Slipping past security and agents, Bucky finds a Life Model Decoy of Fury that the agency has been using since he went AWOL.[1][2] Incapacitating the LMD, Bucky activates a holographic projector so the real Fury can guide him through installing a computer virus that will allow them to spy on SHIELD through the decoy.
As the trojan horse begins doing its work, Bucky notices that it has been watching monitors of the previous day’s clash between Captain America’s anti-registration forces and those on Iron Man’s pro-registration side.[3] Fury assures Winter Soldier that once he has access to his LMD, he’ll know who gave it the orders to analyse the footage. Bucky can’t understand how it could come to this because he and Steve used to fight on behalf of the government. Fury points out that he did too until not so long ago. However, he points out that forcing people to give up their secrets too and work for the government is very un-American to him. Bucky isn’t sure he feels the same way, noting that Senators who supported the new law would regularly name-check Philadelphia.[3] He can’t help but feel that its partially his fault that this happened. Fury points out that Bucky wasn’t himself when he did that thing. If he was going to blame himself for Philadelphia, then he should also blame himself for Life Model Decoys, which only went into production after the Winter Soldier assassinated an important government operative.[5]
With his primary objective complete, Bucky uses the computers to see what Aleksander Lukin has been up to since this civil war has been going on. He’s unsurprised that Lukin has been recorded visiting the Latverian Embassy. With time running out, Fury tells Buck to let him worry about Lukin for now. With that, Winter Soldier shuts down the hologram projector and sneaks back out of the SHIELD facility.
Once outside, Winter Soldier heads to the location of his next objective. Using a hologram of Demolition Man to lure a SHIELD Cape-Killer unit, Bucky then blinds them a smoke screen. This allows him to incapacitate them all so he can steal one of their helmets. Bucky only has a few minutes before a back-up team shows up. When the Winter Soldier notes that they aren’t that far from the Latverian Embassy, but Fury tells him to forget about it.
At that moment, in Latveria, Doctor Doom is playing host to the Red Skull. With the information provided, the Red Skull has proven to Doom that at some point in the future he will go back in time and rule over the town of Eisendorf some 500 years ago.[6] Impressed by the proof, Doom agrees to give the Red Skull the device he seeks, in fact, it is already on its way to a Kronas lab to be examined. When Doom warns that the device will only work for one use, the Skull muses that’s he’ll only need to use it once.[7]
… This story continues next issue. Civil War continues in New Avengers #24.
Recurring Characters
Winter Soldier, Nick Fury, Red Skull/Aleksander Lukin, Doctor Doom, SHIELD, Iron Man, Spider-Man, Goliath, Captain America, “Yellowjacket”, Thing
Continuity Notes
Nick Fury 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 and Secret Invasion #1-8.
The introduction of the Fury LMD here is used to explain the fact that Nick Fury still appeared as SHIELD director following the events of Secret War. The issues of that series was severely delayed with the first three issues coming out 3 months apart from one another and the final two coming out 7 months apart. The Fury LMD retroactively started appearing in Marvel Team-Up (vol. 3) #13. For a full chronology look up Nick Fury, LMD IV on the Marvel Chronology Project.
The brawl between Captain America and Iron Man’s teams happened in Civil War #4 and 5.
While under the control of the Aleksander Lukin, the Winter Soldier set off a bomb in Philadelphia that decimated the city and killed countless people. See Captain America (vol. 5) #6. While this incident was a contributing factor, the primary motivation for the Super-Human Registration Act was a superhuman conflict in Stanford, Connecticut that claimed thousands of lives, including those of children, as seen in Civil War #1.
Here, Nick Fury states that the government funded the creation of Life Model Decoys in the 1960s. While that may be true, the technology existed far earlier than that. As revealed in Secret Warriors #26, the first LMDs were created by Leonard Da Vinci in the Renaissance. Fury later co-opted this technology for SHIELD.
The possibility that Doctor Doom was the Man of Iron was first revealed in Captain America 65th Anniversary Special #1. As of this writing (March, 2023) Doom has yet to go back in time. However, it’s unclear if this will be a future version of the Doctor Doom of Earth-616 or an alternate reality counterpart. I’m leaning more toward alternate since these stories are almost 20 years old as I write this. Nobody has done it yet, it’s unlikely someone will.
This device will be turned into a weird chronal bullet which will be used to “assassinate” Captain America. In reality, it will time displace his body in a convoluted process that the Skull will attempt to use to take over his body. See Captain America (vol. 5) #25 and Captain America: Reborn #1-6.
Topical References
A number of TVs and computer monitors are depicted as CRT models. This should be considered a topical reference as this is now an obsolete technology.
Civil War Reading Order
Road to Civil War: Amazing Spider-Man #529, 530, 531, Fantastic Four #536, 537, New Avengers: Illuminati #1
Main Event: Civil War #1, She-Hulk (vol. 2) #8, Wolverine (vol. 3) #42, Amazing Spider-Man #532, Civil War: Front Line #1
Civil War #2, Thunderbolts #103, Civil War: Front Line #2, X-Factor (vol. 3) #8, New Avengers #21, Wolverine (vol. 3) #43, Amazing Spider-Man #533, Fantastic Four #538, Civil War: Front Line #3, Thunderbolts #104, Civil War: X-Men #1
Civil War #3, Cable & Deadpool #30, Civil War: Young Avengers & Runaways #1, Civil War: Front Line #4, X-Factor (vol. 3) #9, New Avengers #22, Wolverine (vol. 3) #44, Amazing Spider-Man #534, Fantastic Four #539, Civil War: Front Line #5, Ms. Marvel (vol. 2) #6, Civil War: X-Men #2, Heroes for Hire (vol. 2) #1, New Avengers #23, Wolverine (vol. 3) #45, Civil War: Young Avengers & Runaways #2, Cable & Deadpool #31, Ms. Marvel (vol. 2) #7, Civil War: X-Men #3
Civil War #4, Wolverine (vol. 3) #46, Heroes for Hire (vol. 2) #2, Civil War: Young Avengers & Runaways #3, Civil War: Front Line #6, Captain America (vol. 5) #22, Cable & Deadpool #32, Amazing Spider-Man #535, Civil War: Choosing Sides #1, Fantastic Four #540, Civil War: Front Line #7, Civil War: X-Men #4, Ms. Marvel (vol. 2) #8, Wolverine (vol. 3) #47, Heroes for Hire (vol. 2) #3, Captain America (vol. 5) #23, New Avengers #24
Civil War #5, Civil War: Young Avengers & Runaways #4, Iron Man (vol. 4) #13, New Avengers #25, Punisher: War Journal (vol. 2) #1, Civil War: Front Line #8, Amazing Spider-Man #536, Black Panther (vol. 4) #22, Captain America (vol. 5) #24, Civil War: War Crimes #1, Civil War: Front Line #9, Iron Man (vol. 4) #14, Fantastic Four #541, Black Panther (vol. 4) #23, Punisher: War Journal (vol. 2) #2
Civil War #6, Civil War: Front Line #10, Amazing Spider-Man #537, Fantastic Four #542, Civil War: The Return #1, Punisher: War Journal (vol. 2) #3, Black Panther (vol. 4) #24
Civil War #7, Amazing Spider-Man #538, Civil War: Front Line #11, Black Panther (vol. 4) #25, Civil War: The Initiative #1, Iron Man: Director of SHIELD #15, Mighty Avengers #1, Captain America (vol. 5) #25, Civil War: The Confession #1, Fallen Son: The Death of Captain America #1, 2, 3, 4, 5, Fantastic Four #543-544, Avengers: The Initiative #1
