The Daughter of Time

Even after all this time, Sharon Carter is haunted by the fact that she was the one who killed Captain America.[1] She has a nightmare about it every night where she relives the moment. The dream ends the same way every night. In it, Steve begs to know why she killed him when suddenly, his face turns into that of the Red Skull and bites her hand.

Sharon wakes up from the dream and finds that she has is still back at her old family home, and that Steve’s death was many months earlier. A lot has changed in all that time. SHIELD is no more after Tony Stark was humiliated during the Skrull invasion of Earth.[2] Bucky Barnes, is now also the new Captain America, as per Steve’s final request.[3] Sharon has been living at her mostly deserted family estate in Virginia since she was rescued by the Red Skull.[4] Her only companion being Sam Wilson, aka the Falcon, who has been looking after her as a friend. This is because Sharon is still coping with the fact that her memories have been tampered with and there are pieces missing.

She figures her relative, Peggy Carter, would understand as she once had a romance with Captain America back when she was part of the French resistance of World War II.[5] Sharon remembers how Peggy would tell her old stories from the war. These days, Peggy lives in a retirement home and is suffering from dementia. Still, Sharon goes out to visit her as Peg is her only surviving family member. This is because Sharon’s own parents died during a time when she was believed to have been killed in action.[6] During her last visit, Peggy told Sharon that Captain America will be coming to visit her soon — if only President Roosevelt will let him have some time off. Sharon plays along, assuming that this is just a product of Peggy’s dementia.

After her latest visit, the Falcon calls in to tell her that he is still on the trail of the Captain America from the 1950s.[7] His latest tip lead him on a wild goose chase that almost brought him up to Canada, but it finally hit a dead end. He’s headed on his way back and will see her tomorrow.

Exhausted, but not wanting to sleep due to her night terrors, Sharon decides to go for a walk instead. Sharon ends up running into her family neighbor and old friend, Dave Cox. She is delighted to see him as it has been many years.[8] He is happy to see her too and invites Sharon back over to his place for dinner. The two catch up on lost time, and Dave tells her about how he and his wife Julie have separated and that has full custody of their son, Cody, who he gets to see most weekends. The two discovered that there was a divide between Dave’s hurt and their love when he nearly died recently.[9] Dave went right back into his anti-war activism which drove a further wedge into their failing marriage.

Dave then admits that he has been anticipating running into her on one of his daily walks. Sharon finds that silly since he could have just gone up and run her doorbell. He admits he could, but says that she’s Sharon Carter, and is a big deal. The two then kiss, but they stop themselves there. Sharon is flattered that Dave still has feelings for her but their brief relationship was many years ago and only a few months long. She just wants to be friends since she doesn’t have too many of those. Dave is willing to be just that and the two agree to blame the unsolicited kiss was a product of the wine they were drinking and nothing more. Since it’s getting late and Sharon has had a bit to drink, Dave insists that she stay the night, saying she can sleep on the couch.

The following morning, Sharon is a rude awakening when David’s son Cody gets home and wants to know who the strange woman is sleeping on their couch. After Dave explains who Sharon is, she volunteers to make them all breakfast. However, she doesn’t get very far as seeing cody suddenly wakes up a dim memory in her mind. Rushing to the bathroom she checks her belly and sees a scar that she has been there for a while, but she hasn’t noticed until just now.

When Falcon returns to the Carter estate later that day, he finds Sharon crying in the her bedroom. When he asks her what’s wrong she asks him if she was pregnant. Sam sits down next to her and tries to gently remind her of the truth: She was pregnant with Steve Rogers’ child and that when she was a prisoner of the Red Skull she was stabled in the belly by Sin, the Skull’s daughter. Although she survived, the baby did not. Apparently taking pity on her, Doctor Faustus made her forget about the child shortly thereafter.[10] Recovering these lost memories makes her relate once more to Peggy, who is lost in her memories in her own way.

Little does Sharon realize that Peggy wasn’t lying about Captain America coming to visit her today. However, the man she believes is Steve Rogers isn’t the man she knew from the war, but his impostor from the 1950s. He is very curious to hear all about the real Steve Rogers’ exploits from the war, and encourages Peggy to tell each and every one.

That night as she sleeps, Sharon has another nightmare. However, this one is different. She is back in the Red Skull’s hideout and she is strapped to a machine created by Arnim Zola.[11] The Skull tells Zola to hurry as the Carter woman eventually ruins everything. When the machine is activated, a platform in front of her begins to glow so bright it is hard to see. Someone begins to emerge from the platform but Sharon can’t get a good look of who it might be. That’s when she wakes up and is convinced that she might have seen Steve Rogers.

Recurring Characters

Sharon Carter, Peggy Carter, Falcon, Dave Cox, Cody Cox, Captain America (Burnside), (flashback) Red Skull, Arnim Zola

Continuity Notes

1. Brainwashed by Doctor Faustus in Captain America (vol. 5) #22, Sharon was forced to fatally shoot him in issue #25, or so it seemed. In reality, the bullets she used were chronal in nature and unmoored Steve Rogers from time and space. He will remain in this state until he is rescued in Captain America: Reborn #1-5.

2. Tony Stark became the Director of SHIELD following the events of Civil War #7. Unaware of planned invasion of Earth by the Skrulls, Tony was made to look bad when the invaders were able to disabled all Starktech, rendering SHIELD useless. In the end, Norman Osborn made he winning shot when he killed the queen of the Skrull invasion. Osborn used his popularity to gain control of SHIELD, which he quickly renamed HAMMER. See Secret Invasion #1-8 and Dark Avengers #1.

3. Per Steve Rogers’ final wishes, James Barnes became the new Captain America in Captain America (vol. 5) #33-34.

4. Sharon was a prisoner of the Red Skull from Captain America (vol. 5) #32-42.

5. Peggy Carter’s past with Captain America have previously been detailed in Tales of Suspense #77. Here, she is referred to as Sharon’s aunt, however their familial relationship should be considered topical. How, Peggy has survived in to the Modern Age will become increasingly impossible to explain due to the Sliding Timecale. However, an explanation has yet to be made. I posit a theory here.

6. Sharon faked her death in Captain America #237 in order to go on a deep cover mission for SHIELD. It was during this time that SHIELD assumed she was killed in action and cut her loose. Sharon spent years trying to survive as a mercenary for hire. She eventually resurfaced in Captain America #445. Per the Sliding Timescale she was assumed to have been dead for about five years time.

7. The Captain America of the 1950s was a man obsessed with Steve Rogers who took over the identity briefly in the 50s after discovering a copy of the Super Soldier Serum. TL;DR, he went crazy, was put in suspended animation, freed in the present and pops up every now and again to be a pain in the ass. Most recently he was used to boost the popularity of Senator Gordon Wright, a politician running for President who the Red Skull had in his back pocket. See Captain America #153-156, 231-236, and (vol. 5) #37-42. Here, Sam complains about how cumbersome it is referring to him as “The Captain America from the 1950s”. This is because the dude legally changed his name to Steve Rogers back in the day and at this point in time, nobody knew his original name. It’s revealed to be William Burnside in Captain America #605.

8. We first met Dave Cox back in Captain America #163. Sharon last saw him in issue #186 of that series.

9. Dave is being really vague here, but we first learned about Dave’s marriage to Julie and their son Cody in Captain America #293. Dave was later captured by the Red Skull and brainwashed into becoming the Slayer and he fought Captain America. The experience almost killed him. See Captain America #293-295 and 299-300.

10. Marvel Comics loves themselves a miscarriage storyline. After a night of romance with Steve Rogers in Captain America (vol. 5) #16, Sharon discovered that she was pregnant with Steve’s child in issue #30. When she was a prisoner of the Red Skull, that pregnancy came to a tragic end when Sin stabbed the business end of a combat knife into Sharon’s guts in Captain America (vol. 5) #40. Faustus used hypnosis to make her forget in the following issue.

11. This dream is inspired by events that took place in Captain America (vol. 5) #42.

Topical References

• In this story, Sharon states that it has been about nine months since the “death” of Steve Rogers. However, this is not entirely accurate when measured up to the Sliding Timescale. Captain America (vol. 5) #25 was published in April, 2007, while this story was published June, 2009. A total of 26 months between the two publications. As the Sliding Timescale compresses time on a 4:1 ratio, the actual passage of time would be closer to 6.5/7 months.

• Sharon says she hasn’t seen Dave Cox in 10 years. She last saw him in Captain America #186, which was published in June, 1975. This story was published in June, 2009. Per the Sliding Timescale, the time in-between two stories is closer to 9 years. One could assume that Sharon is being imprecise because, you know, people aren’t living calendars that remember exact dates. Seriously, think of a friend you haven’t seen in over 5 years, chances are you can’t remember the exact date of when you last saw them.