Out of Time: Part 5

SHIELD Headquarters, Now

After the murder of the Red Skull, Captain America was attacked by his former right-hand-man, Crossbones. The fight abruptly ended when Crossbones realized that this was set up by someone he referred to as the “Russian". Taking this information back to SHIELD, Fury figures he might know who Crossbones is referring to. His teams had a chance to identify one of the dead bodies found in an abandoned London Tunnel.[1] It’s note one of the Skull’s lackies, but a Russian soldier who apparently went AWOL after the collapse of the Soviet Union. Prior to that, he was under the command of one General Aleksander Lukin.

Captain America is unfamiliar with the man, so Fury fills him in. After the Cold War, Lukin went rogue and went off the grid until three years prior when he became the CEO of the Kronas Corporation. Unfortunately, the file on Lukin is thin, the only other thing that Fury can tell Steve is that he was mentored by a Russian operative named Vasily Karpov. That name is very familiar to Cap as he remembers it from World War II. Suddenly, he knows where he heard the the name Kronas before. It was the name of a Russian village outside of Stalingrad that was wiped out. It was also the last place he saw Vasily Karpov.

The Russian Front — Early November, 1942

Captain America and the Invaders were assisting the Russians in repelling the Nazi advance into their territory. It was an uneasy union as when they took down a tank battalion, one of the Russians shot a Nazi soldier in the head after they had all surrendered. This horrified Bucky and Cap demanded answers. The Russian soldier explained that the man he shot was a Russian who joined up to the Nazis and that is how they deal with traitors. Putting the issue aside, Steve ordered them to get the rest of the prisoners back to camp.

Captain America had begun to realize that the Russian Front was going to be much uglier than previous battles. They returned to camp — just outside Kalach — on the days before Stalin’s forces initiated Operation Uranus, a plan that would have seen the Nazis surrounded by the enemy and cut off from supplies during Russia’s hash winters. The reason why the Invaders were there was because intel about a Nazi superweapon were leaked to the Allies. In order to get the information they needed, Russian Colonel Vasily Karpov resorted to torture to get the information out of one of the prisoners. Cap didn’t approve of this method, but when conferring with the Human Torch and Sub-Mariner, he couldn’t deny that it was getting them the results they needed. They had just learned that there were rumors that the weapon was being stored in a small Russian village nearby called Kronas.

After making sure the other Invaders were ready for the operation in the morning, Cap met with Colonel Karpov. The Russian can tell that Steve didn’t like his methods, but defended them, explaining that the Americans would likely resort to the same tactics if it was Washington, DC that was under siege by Nazis. Captain America points out that the Russians only had themselves to blame when they turned a blind eye to the Nazi invasion of Poland. Karpov is silent for a moment and then asks if the Invaders will be ready in the morning. Captain America assures him they will, but warns him that while Karpov might be in charge of this operation if he wants to live through this operation Karpov will follow Cap’s orders in the morning.

In the early hours of the morning, the Invaders joined a team of Karpov’s handpicked NKVD soldiers headed to Kronas. There, Bucky was sent to scout ahead and take out the sentries. When the coast was clear, the soldiers advanced on the town. However, when a lone Nazi was spotted in the town square a trigger happy Russian opened fire without orders. This tipped off the Nazis who just so happened to have Master Man — their own Super Soldier — attacked. While the Human Torch, Toro, and Sub-Mariner were busy with him, the Red Skull unleashed the power of their secret weapon — some kind of death ray cannon.

But the Red Skull saw that there were too many soldiers to deal with and that this was a losing battle. Using his weapon to set the entire town ablaze, the notorious Nazi war criminal was wise enough to have Master Man pull out of the battle and fly them both to safety. With the Nazi soldiers either dead or captured, Colonel Karpov ordered his men to secure the death ray. Unfortunately for him, the Red Skull boobytrapped the weapon and it soon exploded, taking some of Karpov’s men with him. With all the lives lost and the total destruction of the town, Captain America chastised Karpov for only being interested in the weapon. Vasily told Captain America that was fine enough to say when both the United States and Germany have their own super soldiers, while the only thing protecting Russia is the winter snow.

Within an hour, Captain America and the rest of the Invaders were aboard Namor’s air-ship and they were heading back to Europe. This was the last he saw of Vasil Karpov. What Steve Rogers couldn’t know was that Karpov remained to do a tour of the village. In doing so he came upon a young boy crying over his mother, who was killed in the firefight with the Nazis. Vasily told the boy that while his mother is gone, it is not too late for Mother Russia. The boy, as it turned out, was Aleksander Lukin. Karpov then took the boy under his wing, promising to take him back to Stalingrad and teach him what it truly means to be Russian.

SHIELD Helicarrier, Now

Reflecting back on this and wondering how it all ties in with the death of the Red Skull and the attacks on himself, Steve wonders if Vasily Karpov is the one behind it all. Fury says that’s impossible because Karpov reportedly died 20 years ago while Steve was still in suspended animation.[2] This reminds Steve of how he has been his mind has been unearthing new memories from the day that he was frozen in ice and Bucky died. This was actually the reason why Steve contacted Fury in the first place, so he could borrow a transport to investigate them further.[3] When Nick asks Steve where he is going, Rogers tells him that he’d rather not say.[4]

Fury then returns to his office where his assistant, Teresa Lockett, informs him that there is still no word on Sharon Carter in Pittsburgh.[5] When Teresa lingers for a moment, Fury asks her if there is anything else. She then asks Nick if he showed Captain America the file she brought him. The file, still on Nick’s desk, is about something called the Winter Soldier. Fury tells her that he hasn’t and won’t until he is 100% certain of the facts before he destroys Steve’s entire world.[6]

Recurring Characters

Captain America, SHIELD (Nick Fury, Teresa Lockett), (flashback) Aleksander Lukin, Invaders (Captain America, Bucky, Sub-Mariner, Human Torch, Toro), Vasily Karpov, Nazis (Red Skull, Master Man)

Continuity Notes

1. The Red Skull was plotting to power a Cosmic Cube by setting off bombs in New York, Paris, and London. He was murdered before his attack could come to fruition and his London team was wiped out by unidentified mercenaries. This led to Crossbones attacking Captain America directly. This happened over the last four issues, where were you? BTW, the Red Skull isn’t really dead, having used the Cosmic Cube to transfer his mind into the body of Aleksander Lukin, as we’ll learn in Captain America (vol. 5) #14.

2. Don’t tell me you don’t remember the obligatory reference to Captain America being frozen in ice for decades? Go back and read Avengers #4 then, loser.

3. It’s later explained in Captain America (vol. 5) #6 that the Cosmic Cube is straightening out Cap’s confused memories about what happened on the day that Bucky allegedly died. The original version of events were told in Avengers #4. The flashback here is a new memory that joins the countless other stories that expand on these events. See also Avengers #56, What If? #4, Captain America #215, 220, (vol. 5) #4, 6, 8, 11, 25, Captain America: Sentinel of Liberty #12, Captain America: Reborn #1, Captain America: Man Out of Time #1, not to mention the false accounts told in Captain America (vol. 4) #10 and 12.

4. Steve is going to the location where he and Bucky fought Baron Zemo in 1945, circa Avengers #4. As we’ll see next issue.

5. Sharon Carter was sent to Pittsburgh last issue to investigate Jack Monroe’s possible connection to the Red Skull murder. She was knocked out by the Winter Soldier, who is the real killer.

6. This file contains proof that the Winter Soldier is Captain America’s wartime partner Bucky, as revealed in Captain America (vol. 5) #11. At the time of this story, everyone believed Bucky died in 1945, per Avengers #4 (again).

Topical References

• This story states that Lukin was a small child during World War II and that his current soldiers were all a part of his military unit before the fall of the Soviet Union in the early 1990s. Facts like these would be considered topical references unless these characters had a means of slowing or stopping the aging process. Which is entirely possible. See below.

• Nick Fury states that Vasily Karpov died 20 years prior to this story. This could be considered factual for the same reason why Aleksander Lukin could still appear to be in his middle ages in the Modern age (see below, again).

How Could Aleksander Lukin Still be Alive During the Modern Age?

If you’ve read my index enough, you’ll know that it is becoming increasingly impossible for people who were alive in World War II to still be alive in the Modern Age of the Marvel Universe. This is because the Sliding Timescale keeps on pushing the Modern Age forward in time. As I write this (Feb. 2023), people were children or born around World War II would no be in their late 70s or early 80s. Meanwhile, Aleksander Lukin appears to be a man who appears to be — at most — on the tail end of middle age.

This would have been possible when this comic was published in 2005, but now — almost 20 years later, time of this writing — its going start becoming impossible without some means of intervention. As I write this, Marvel as yet to provide an official explanation.

However, given that Lukin inherited Vasily Karpov’s supply of exotic weaponry and has familiar knowledge of both the Red Guardian and Black Widow programs — programs that use age suppression techniques — it’s not outlandish to think that Lukin also had access to this kind of technology either during his time in the Soviet military, or after the collapse of the Soviet Union. Which would explain why he looks old, but not that old.

That said, when it comes to his soldiers, they will eventually suffer from the same issue that Lukin’s existence does now. In that, the Soviet Union fell over 30 years ago, the idea that someone is still a peak performing mercenary in their 60s is kind of hard to swallow.

The idea that these are people that Lukin trusted the most, the idea that he would share his life extending technology would make sense in that he would never have to recruit anyone new and hope they are just as loyal to him.