Out of Time: Part 2

Deep below Manhattan, members of Advanced Ideas in Destruction have planted a bomb that was supposed to go off at midnight that evening. They have been waiting for the Red Skull to call in and give them the signal. It’s now 1 am in the morning and they are starting to panic. Crossbones — the Skull’s right hand man — tells them to keep it together, the boss will call when the boss is good and ready. Little do they know that the Red Skull has been shot in the back and is dead.[1]

Meanwhile, Steve Rogers is dreaming about the war again. As Captain America, he is leading American troops and the Invaders in taking back France from the Nazis. However, in the middle of the battle, Bucky calls out to him. Steve sees that his young sidekick was been fatally shot and he soon dies in Cap’s arms.

Steve wakes up from this dream screaming and reminds himself that that is not how Bucky actually died during the war.[2] That’s when his SHIELD communicator goes off. It’s Sharon Carter, his former girlfriend and current SHIELD liaison, she says that she’ll be on the roof of his building in five minutes and to be ready to move by then. Captain America is then rushed up to the SHIELD helicarrier where he is advised that the Skull was seemingly shot and killed. However, they won’t know for sure until the forensic team runs a DNA test first. The reason why they called Steve up to the helicarrier is because the Skull had been existing in a body cloned from genetic material stolen from Steve during an earlier encounter.[3] Steve isn’t ready to believe that this is really the Skull, but lets them do a mouth swab to run their tests. He then demands the details of how SHIELD discovered the Skull’s allegedy body and asks to look at the crime scene.

Nick Fury takes Steve down to the apartment the Red Skull rented under an assumed name. There, Steve can clearly see that a sniper took a shot at the Red Skull while he was standing in the middle of the room. That’s when Cap finds a life-like mask on a nearby table and recognizes it as a man he has seen passing by in the streets. He wonders how long the Red Skull had been stalking him before this happened. It’s only upon this discover that Steve starts believe that the dead man might actually be the real Red Skull. Looking at the bloodstained chalk outline on the ground makes Steve think about the first time he heard of the Red Skull. It was shortly after he was transformed into Captain America. General Chester Phillips had showed him footage of the notorious Nazi operative that were smuggled out of Germany, and how part of Cap’s mission would be putting a stop to the Skull.[4] He tells Sharon that he was created in a way because of the Red Skull.

That’s when a SHIELD technician speaks up about a strange display case they found. According to their examination it is a receiver ready to receive some kind of energy. He notes that the feed leads to a location right there in the middle of Manhattan.

Moments later, Captain America and Agent Sharon Carter are down in the sewers heading to the location of the signal. Cap insisted that they go in alone as a SHIELD tactical team would not be as stealthy and he wants to know exactly what the Skull was up to. Even then, Steve is unhappy that Sharon is coming either, and suspects that Fury might have an ulterior motive for her presence. With some pressure, Sharon admits that Fury wants her to tag along with him to find out if Steve was the one who killed the Red Skull. Steve is shocked that Fury would think he’d do such a thing and while Sharon agrees, she has to follow orders. Steve is certain that this isn’t the real Red Skull, and that their checking the sewers is only a precaution.

Soon, they run into one of the AID terrorists who have set up the bomb down there. He confirms that they were working for the Skull. That’s when the rest of his team catch Cap interrogating him and begin opening fire. The sound of gunfire is heard by Crossbones who rushes to the scene to see what’s going on. However, when he sees Captain America’s shield whiz past his field of view, the mercenary decides to hang back and listen instead. Cap and Sharon defeat the AID soldiers and disarm the bomb. While they know what the Red Skull was planning they have no idea why he wanted to set off a bomb in the middle of Manhattan. That’s when Fury calls in and tells them that the Red Skull’s display case was channeling power into a Cosmic Cube. This means that whoever killed the Skull has the powerful device in their possession.

This is all overheard by Crossbones who sneaks out of the sewers and gets to the nearest payphone. He calls the other team in London and tells them to contact Paris and move ahead with setting off their explosives. If the Red Skull is dead, they’re going to go through with his final plan as Crossbones wants the world to burn in the Skull’s memory.

Recurring Characters

Captain America, SHIELD (Nick Fury, Sharon Carter), AID, Crossbones, Red Skull, (flashback) Chester Phillips

Continuity Notes

1. The Red Skull was fatally shot in the back last issue. However, he managed to cheat death by transferring his mind into the Cosmic Cube, which he will use to jump ship into the mind of Aleksander Lukin, as we’ll learn in Captain America (vol. 5) #14.

2. At this point, Steve is convinced that Bucky died in 1945 as per Avengers #4. However, Bucky is still alive and is operating as the Winter Soldier as we saw last issue. Steve won’t have the truth confirmed until issue #14, however.

3. The Red Skull managed to survive into the modern age when he was put in suspended animation for decades, as seen in Tales of Suspense #79. However, this process eventually wore off and the Skull began to rapidly age. During his “final battle” with Captain America circa Captain America #293-300. During that fight Steve was captured and a DNA sample taken when he was unconscious. When the Skull died, his mind was transferred into a new body cloned from Cap’s DNA created by Arnim Zola, as explained in Captain America #350.

4. This moment happened behind the scenes during the events of Captain America Comics #1. The moment Steve learned of the Red Skull’s existence was also depicted in Captain America #255 and Marvels Project #5. Per those appearances, these events took place in March of 1941.