The Death of Captain America Act 3 - The Man Who Bought America: Part Six

Captain America (James Barnes) has learned that the Red Skull was planning an assassination of a Presidential candidate during debates in order to gain support for his third party candidate.[1] He arrives just in time to prevent Sin, the Red Skull’s daughter, from shooting Senator Gordon Wright in defiance of her father. With her bodyguards keeping Captain America busy, Sin flees to the roof. She is afraid that her father will kill her for failing again. Looking down at the police arriving on the scene, she decides to come up with a contingency plan, just like she was taught.

Meanwhile, SHIELD is raiding the Red Skull’s hideout in Albany. While agents are dealing with Advanced Idea Mechanics, the Falcon and Black Widow go looking for Sharon Carter. They have to hurry because the self-destruct sequence has been activated an this hideout isn’t going to be standing for much longer.

Sharon has been taken to Arnim Zola’s private lab where he and the Red Skull hook her up to a device that is attached to the Time Platform that they got from Doctor Doom. The Skull explains that Sharon is a key component that will free him from being trapped inside the body of Aleksander Lukin.[2] They then inject Sharon with needles before turning on the machine, blinding Sharon with light.

As the hideout is falling apart, the Captain America of the 1950’s has been locked up in Doctor Faustus’ abandoned immersion room. He struggles to get free, yelling out for someone to hear him. He says they can’t treat him like this because he’s Captain America.[3] Moments later, “Steve Rogers” is caught in an explosion as the entire room blows up.

As Sin puts together a rocket launcher to shoot at the unsuspecting cops, Sharon Carter looks into the lights from Red Skull’s Time Platform. What she sees within them causes her to cry out. She manages to break free from her restraints, wrecking the device as she does. Arnim Zola says that he doesn’t have the time to repair the machine now and suggests that they flee. The Red Skull is furious because he needs to get out of Aleksander Lukin’s body or else he’ll go mad. However, Zola tells the Skull that he has a back-up just in case they ran out of time. With that, the Red Skull leaves Sharon so the two Nazi war criminals can run like the cowards they are.

As they flee, Aleksander Lukin’s mind reasserts control and strips off the Red Skull mask he is forced to wear when the Skull is in control. He begins raving like a madman about how Arnim Zola is a genius. Zola tries to get Lukin to keep it together, but they are found by Sharon Carter who fatally shoots Lukin.[4] Zola is about to explain how utterly futile her efforts to kill the Red Skull where, when the 50’s Captain America appears and impales a piece of metal through his body. Knowing this isn’t the real Steve Rogers, she asks “Cap” if he’s one of the good guys now.

Back at the debate, Sin fires a rocket at the crowd below, but Captain America leaps in the way and blocks the explosion with his shield. The force of the blast is close enough to knock Sin for a loop as well. It also sends him crashing into the roof of a car. Soon, Secret Service agents have him surrounded. When they confirm that the shooter is down, they help Captain America to his feet. As it turns out, they aren’t going to arrest him but commend him for a job well done. Soon, James is surrounded by members of the press who bombard him with questions.

Meanwhile, the Falcon and Black Widow find Sharon Carter passed out next to the bodies of Arnim Zola and Aleksander Lukin. When Sam wakes her up, she tells him that she was the one who fatally shot Steve Rogers. Sam tells her that they know already, and that they also know she was under the control of Doctor Faustus and it wasn’t her fault.

A few days later, Sharon is back aboard the SHIELD helicarrier and has undergone a full physical examination. The doctor reports back to Tony Stark. He confirms that Sharon suffered a miscarriage. However, she has no memory of ever being pregnant.[6] Tony Stark decides that after everything she has been thought, he’ll hold off on telling her about this tragedy as well.

Meanwhile, the Black Widow mees with Senator Gordon Wright. She tells him how SHIELD has all the dirt on him and his connections to the Kronas Corporation. If he doesn’t want the truth to get out and to be tried on terrorism charges, Wright will step down from politics entirely. Natasha and James watch the Senator’s resignation on TV that evening. James is incredibly frustrated over how close the Red Skull got his own President. Steve Rogers made it look so easy. Natasha agrees, but tells James that in time, so will he.

In Times Square, the other “Steve Rogers” takes in the world of today, one much different than the one he lived in. He sees a world that is lost to decadence. This isn’t his America, but he’ll make it his own soon enough.

Meanwhile, the Red Skull wakes up in a new body. He is greeted by a recording from Arnim Zola. He apologizes for the crudity of the back-up plan but it was the only thing he could do given the circumstances. Zola promises that this is only a temporary situation and that soon they will give the Red Skull a brand new body. When the Red Skull looks at his hands he realizes, to his horror, that his mind has been transferred into one of Arnim Zola’s spare mechanical bodies.

Recurring Characters

Captain America (Barnes), Sharon Carter, Falcon, Black Widow, Iron Man, Red Skull/Aleksander Lukin, Sin, Arnim Zola, Captain America (Burnside), Gordon Wright, SHIELD

Continuity Notes

1. The Red Skull was manipulating events to make Senator Gordon Wright popular enough to win the election since Captain America (vol. 5) #35.

2. What is going on here is quite complicated: The Red Skull previously cheated death by using the Cosmic Cube to transfer his mind into the body of Aleksander Lukin. This have left the two men at the risk of going mad unless they can be separated. To this end, they brainwashed Sharon Carter to seemingly fatally shoot Steve Rogers. Rather than dying, Steve has been displaced in time. Here they are trying to use Sharon as an anchor to bring Steve Rogers back in a process that will allow the Red Skull to take full control of his mind. See Captain America (vol. 5) #1, 14, 22, 25, and Captain America: Reborn #1-5.

3. This is actually William Burnside, the Captain America of the 1950s. For more on him, see Captain America #155. Since Captain America (vol. 5) #38, Doctor Faustus has brainwashed him into thinking he was the only Captain America so that the Red Skull could use him as a prop to boost Gordon Wright’s popularity.

4. As we’ll see later this issue, the Red Skull’s mind is transferred into one of Arnim Zola’s spare bodies. Aleksander Lukin will be resurrected by the Power Elite in Captain America (vol. 9) #5.

5. Sharon got pregnant after a night with Steve Rogers in Captain America (vol. 5) #16. She discovered she was pregnant in issue #30. She lost the baby when she was stabbed in the stomach by Sin in Captain America (vol. 5) #40. Last issue, Doctor Faustus used his hypnosis to make her forget she was ever pregnant. This won’t last as she’ll remember again in issue #49.

Topical References

• This story is framed as taking place during the 2008 Presidential Election. This should be considered topical as it is relative to the date of publication.

• The news story about Senator Wrights resignation is depicted as being seen on CNN. This should be considered a topical reference as this is a real world TV network.