Captain America and the Falcon #9
Brothers and Keepers, Part 2: Hunters
At the lair of the Scientist Supreme, a member of Advanced Idea Mechanics (AIM) has been chosen to become the next candidate to become a new MODOK. This is met with protests that are ignored as the Scientist Supreme assures Agent Gerlach’s transformation into Mental Organism Designed Only for Killing is the greatest honor of all. Elsewhere, MODOK appears in Baku, Azerbaijan, where he has tracked down a former operative of AIM. She pleads for her life, saying that she has a family now. However, this plea is ignored as MODOK is only designed for killing and he does this by unleashing a deadly mental blast.
Later, Damocles Rivas is awoken in his mansion in New Jersey. He goes down into a secret sub-basement where MODOK is waiting with a status report. When he asks MODOK for a status report about its last 12 hours of activities it spouts a bunch of technobabble until Damocles specifies that he wants to know if the killer cyborg has left the room. MODOK states that this question is illegical before being ordered to return to standby mode.
Meanwhile, out in the Atlantic, Captain America (Steve Rogers) has traveled to an aircraft carrier to hand over the dead body of Anti-Cap. He meets with Jimmy Westbrook of Naval Intelligence. While discussing Anti-Cap’s dependence on acetovaxidol (aka AVX) the dosages of the drug were regulated by a neural chip implanted on his back. When Cap hid his impostor from the Navy he was forced to create a AVX derivative to keep him alive. Unfortunately, this backfired as the alternative proved toxic and killed him, doing the exact thing that Steve was trying to avoid.[1] With the situation resolved one way or the other, Westbrook has agreed to give Anti-Cap a burial at sea. When Steve asks what Anti-Cap’s real name was, Westbrook admits that he never took the time to ask.[2] As is tradition, Anti-Cap is given a burial at sea.
In the waters below the USS Kirby, a team of scuba divers quickly descend upon the sinking coffin. Despite his assurance that nothing of the sort would happen, Westbrook has sent men to recover the body for examination. However, they are ambushed by the Falcon (Sam Wilson) who has been waiting for just such a move. Sam quickly incapacitates the frogmen before using a laser torch to cut Anti-Cap’s body loose from his coffin. Swimming to the surface, Wilson then uses his mechanical wings to fly him and Anti-Cap away. None the wiser to what just went down, Westbrook asks Captain America to hand over the DNA sample taken from MODOK. Steve responds by asking if he is now controlling MODOK or if it is the other way around. Not answering the question, Westbrook says that he is holding a function and invites Cap to come with a date.
A few hours later, Anti-Cap wakes up in Sam Wilson’s apartment in Harlem. He is not surprised to discover that he is still alive. He recalls that he was put into a death like state by eating a note cryptically reading “bite me” that was left in his cell by Sam. He asks the Falcon knew that this was going to work. Sam admits that he doesn’t but either Anti-Cap was going to be dead, or indentured to him. He then gives the faux Captain America a needed dose of AVX. He asks Sam what his motivations are. The Falcon is still pissed off that the mission Nick Fury sent him on ended up screwing up his life. Now he figures that Anti-Cap can help him take down Jimmy Westbrook once and for all.
At the same time, Steve meets up with Nick Fury who is out shopping for food for Agent Alisande Morales’ dog. He is happy that he is finally finished dog sitting for the recovering agent.[3] Steve wants to know about some information given to him during his meeting with Westbrook. It was regarding the death of an AIM operative named Kseniya Vladitch, the sixth such operative that has turned up dead in as many days. As the two head back to Alisande’s apartment, Fury insists that Steve goes to this party that Jimmy is throwing and bring a date. Steve assumes he means take Sharon Carter, but as Steve says the pair are deciding to just be friends. That’s when Agent Morales answers her door and asks Steve where she is taking her on a date.[4]
Later that day, as the work way is winding down, a delivery of 13 crates of bananas have been delivered to a gunshop, much to the puzzlement of the owners. The delivery man insists that this is the right address and asks them to be patient while he calls his manager. While the gun shop owners are distracted the “delivery man” — actually Anti-Cap in disguise — knocks them out. After stealing a bunch of weapons and gear, Anti-Cap makes his way to the Manhattan Yacht Club, the location of Jimmy Westbrook’s party.
Meanwhile, Steve and Alisande are getting dressed up for the party when they are visited by the Falcon. When Steve confronts him, he admits to Sam that his hallucinations weren’t the work of MODOK but the Scarlet Witch. None of them realized how unwell she was until she went crazy and dismantled the Avengers. When Sam asks Steve if he thinks that his current attitude might be because of Wanda’s tampering as well, Rogers admits that he doesn’t know what to think right now.[5][6]
That evening, Steve Rogers and Agent Morales arrive at the SS Saisha for the party. Westbrook greets them even though he knows that Morales is a spy. They also meet Damocles Rivas aka “The Saint”, the head of the Rivas Cartel. Damocles denies any involvement, saying drug dealing was his brother’s game. Now that his brother is dead that only leaves “unpaid debts” that need to be paid. This leads to a tense moment where Rivas and Rogers stare each other down. That’s when the Falcon flies in and attacks Damocles, telling the Saint to back off because he didn’t kill his partner. He knocks Rivas to the ground and then flies away with Steve following after him. However, this is all an act to get them out of the party. They then connect with Fury via a protected comm channel and catch up with Alisande, who slipped away to bring around a mini-submarine. Falcon takes off to do recon for them.
Running on limited time, they race to the Rivas compound in New Jersey. This is because they were able to track MODOK’s movements back to this mansion. Entering through a submersible dock on the rear of the property, Steve heads inside the mansion and what he finds something shocking inside.
Recurring Characters
Captain America, Falcon, Anti-Cap, AIM, MODOK/Damocles Rivas, Jimmy Westbrook, SHIELD (Nick Fury, Alisandre Morales)
Continuity Notes
Anti-Cap was created by the Navy as a modern day Captain America to fight terrorism overseas. This Anti-Cap later went rogue when he discovered the Navy was working with the Rivas drug cartel to obtain a DNA sample of MODOK. This led to Anti-Cap being left in the care of Captain America in order to keep him safe. This happened over the last 8 issues until the apparent death of Anti-Cap last issue.
As of this writing (March, 2024), Anti-Cap’s real name has not been reviewed.
The Falcon was sent to Cuba to rescue his ex-girlfriend Leila Taylor who was there investigating the connection between the Navy and the Rivas and got tossed into Gitmo. Agent Morales was there investigating for SHIELD as well. See Captain America and the Falcon #1-4.
Sharon Carter is a SHIELD operative that Steve has had an on and off relationship with since they first met in Tales of Suspense #75.
Falcon has been slowly reverting back to his “Snap” Wilson persona. This is a very complex situation so allow me to explain:
When Captain America first met Sam back in Captain America #117, he seemed like the model crime fighting partner.
Later, in Captain America #186, the Red Skull revealed that he used the Cosmic Cube to alter Wilson’s mind. Prior to this he was a street hustler nicknamed “Snap” Wilson. He did so to have the perfect sleeper agent to use against his foe.
However, years after that story and this one, it will be revealed that “Snap” Wilson was all a fabrication created by the Red Skull as part of some racist gaslighting. See All-New Captain America #3.
The suggestion that Sam is suffering by some kind of personality changed created by the Scarlet Witch has yet to be confirmed, although this suggestion is also repeated in the Falcon profile in Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe A-Z #4.
This story takes place following the events of the Avengers Disassembled storyline. In that event, the Scarlet Witch went crazy and decimated the Avengers, as primarily seen in Avengers #500-503. The hallucinations that Steve had experienced happened in Captain America and the Falcon #5-7.
Topical References
Anti-Cap disguises himself as a FedEx delivery person. This should be considered topical as this is a real world company.
Translations
A number of dialogue in this story is presented in other languages and not translated. These lines are:
German: “Nein!! Nein!! Bitte—! Gnade—!! Machen sie nicht—!” =
"No!! No!! Please—! Mercy—!! Don't do it—!"German: “Bitte verletzen sie mich nicht! Es gibt andere!” = "Please don't hurt me! There are others!"
Spanish: “Yo soy ciertamente, Seniora Morales — Saludos, mi estimado. yo soy Damocles —” = "I am certainly, Mrs. Morales — Greetings, my esteemed one. I am Damocles —"
