Appearing in "No Longer Alone!"
Featured Characters:
Supporting Characters:
- Hulk
- Rick Jones (First appearance as Bucky IV)
Antagonists:
- HYDRA
- Madame Hydra (First appearance)
Other Characters:
- United States Army
- S.H.I.E.L.D. (Mentioned)
- Bucky Barnes (Mentioned)
Locations:
Items:
- Captain America's Shield
- Captain America's Uniform
- Ionic Energy Cannon
- Hydra "Power Vest"
- Flame Bazookas
Synopsis for "No Longer Alone!"
Cap takes his one-time sidekick back to Avengers Mansion to recover, and as Rick sleeps Cap once more broods about how easily people in his life can be injured. His thoughts are distracted by footsteps behind him and he turns to find that Rick is up and about and wearing Bucky's uniform. Rick asks to be Cap's sidekick once more and to be the new Bucky. Cap at first cannot stand to have someone else wear the uniform much less the risk of losing their lives as his sidekick. Rick feels rejected which causes Captain America to change his mind and when the alarm in Avengers Mansion goes off, he takes him out on their first patrol together as the new Captain America and Bucky team.
Descending into the sewers under Avengers Mansion they find that the Hydra army is down there with their new leader, Madame Hydra. As the battle rages, Captain America continues to fear for Rick's safety, at one point pulling some fast moves to prevent him from coming to harm. Deciding that this battle is too much for the novice Rick, Captain America orders him to retreat. Cap is then attacked by a Hydra soldier wearing a power vest and seemingly defeated. Unknown to Madame Hydra and the others, Captain America defeated the soldier in the power vest and put on his uniform in order to infiltrate Hydra and gain access to Madame Hydra.
Seeing what appears to be Cap's demise, Rick runs back into the fray, spoiling Cap's plan when the hero has to blow his cover in order to save Rick. Madame Hydra manages to capture Rick and pushes him over a ledge, forcing Cap to go to his rescue while she escapes. In the aftermath of the battle, Captain America tells Bucky that in the future he will have to learn to follow his orders without question, but tells him that he fought like a man in battle. Rick thinks to himself that while he may not currently be as good as the original Bucky, he won't stop trying to eventually measure up.Appearing in "Tomorrow You Live, Tonight I Die!"
Featured Characters:
Supporting Characters:
- Rick Jones (As Bucky IV)
Antagonists:
- Hydra
- Madame Hydra
- Mankiller (First appearance)
- Unnamed HYDRA agents
- Number 7 (dies)
Other Characters:
- Nick Fury (Mentioned)
- NYPD
- Bucky Barnes (Photo)
Locations:
- New York City
- Manhattan
- Amusement park arcade area
- Avengers Mansion
- East River
- Manhattan
Items:
- Captain America's Shield
- Captain America's Uniform
- Spectro-Ray
Synopsis for "Tomorrow You Live, Tonight I Die!"
While at Hydra headquarters, the leader of the attack on Captain America is brought before Madam Hydra who kills him for his failure, by exposing him to a hallucinogenic drug. Meanwhile, at Avengers Mansion, Cap and Rick go through a training session. While Rick does well, Captain America goes through a routine to show him how to maximize his effectiveness in acrobatic fighting. While this was meant to be instructional, Rick takes it as a failure and once more gets down on himself for not being as good as the original Bucky. Later, Rick goes to the door when the doorbell is rang and find an envelop addressed to Captain America marked urgent. With Cap currently out of the mansion, Rick decides to open it to see what the message is about. This turns out to be a Hydra trap and Rick inhales a dose of hallucinogenics. Rick has a hallucination where he is being judged by Bucky himself, however Rick tries to show that he's worthy of the title and that Bucky is dead. When the Hydra agents burst inside the mansion they find Rick instead of Cap knocked out. They decide to take the boy hostage so that Madam Hydra doesn't punish them by at least brining her a hostage that will draw Captain America to her instead.
As they are leaving, Captain America returns to the mansion and spotting the envelope he detects traces of the narcotic used in it. Rushing outside he attacks the Hydra agents just as they are about to load Rick into their getaway car. However, the Hydra agents manage to get away, and when Cap grabs one of them for questioning he's shocked when the agents of Hydra kill one of their own men. With Rick their hostage, Cap laments that none of this would have happened if people didn't know his true identity.
At Hydra headquarters, Rick is brought before Madam Hydra, who believes that Captain America will go back to the carnival where they attacked him earlier to search for clues. She then orders Rick be locked up, but he manages to escape and flee to the carnival to try and warn Captain America. Cap meanwhile is already there searching for clues when he is attacked by Hydra's Mankiller robot. During the fight, the robot tries to blow up Cap with missiles that are loaded in it's chest. Cap lunges at the robot and blocks it's launches with his shield causing a backfire that destroys the machine.
As a Hydra ambush starts setting up to shoot Cap, Rick arrives and warns Captain America of the danger. Suddenly, Cap makes a jump for the water as the Hydra agents open fire on him. To all witnessing it, it appears that all the bullets strike Captain America as he lands in the water. Hydra retreats as the police arrive on the scene, and when they go searching the water for a body, all the find are Captain America's bullet riddled uniform and a lifelike mask with the likeness of Steve Rogers. With this discovery, the police conclude that Captain America was never really Steve Rogers at all.
This story is continued next issue...Appearing in "The Strange Death of Captain America"
Featured Characters:
Supporting Characters:
- Rick Jones (As Bucky IV)
Antagonists:
- HYDRA
- Madame Hydra (Apparent death)
- Space Phantom (Behind the scenes)
- Immortus (Behind the scenes)
Other Characters:
- Avengers
- S.H.I.E.L.D.
- NYPD
- Unnamed police commissioner
- A field team of unnamed CBS reporters
Locations:
- New York City
- Manhattan
- Drearcliff Cemetery (First appearance)
Items:
Synopsis for "The Strange Death of Captain America"
Watching a special on Captain America's death on television, Madame Hydra and her minions celebrate their victory by burning the file they have on Captain America. The fire brings back memories in the mind of Madame Hydra, how in her war-torn European country her family was killed and half her face horribly scared by fire. Driven by a struggle to survive, the young girl would work her way up to becoming Madame Hydra, the highest ranking Hydra official in the Manhattan area. However, despite her climb to power, she still cannot bring herself to look at the side of her face that was burned all those years ago, and smashes a mirror when she attempts to do so.
At Avengers Mansion, Rick tries to come to terms with the death of Cap, as he pours over newspaper headlines about the tragedy. With the Avengers waiting for him, he leaves the papers to tell them exactly what happened on the night Captain America died.[1] After he is finished explaining, the Avengers prepare to leave to participate at Captain America's funeral. Rick, however, cannot bring himself to go and stays behind at the mansion. At the church, the Avengers and agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. are on hand while Nick Fury delivers a eulogy for the Star-Spangled Avenger. As the service goes on, Rick decides that he has to go to the church and pay his respects and say goodbye no matter how much it may hurt. As the service ends, only Nick Fury and the Avengers remain behind, getting ready to move the coffin to the cemetery. Before they can, it suddenly springs open and sprays them with knockout gas. Agents of Hydra then come out of hiding and places all of the Avengers and Nick Fury into coffins and bring them out to the cemetery in order to bury them alive.
This is witnessed by Rick who tails them to the cemetery where, much to his surprise, Captain America -- alive and well -- rides in on his motorcycle and attacks the Hydra agents. Rick joins the battle, and Madame Hydra appears, ordering her minions to kill both men. However, they are no match for Cap's fighting spirit and so Madame Hydra arms some hunter missiles and fires it at them. Cap and Rick dive into an open grave and dodge the oncoming missiles. As Madame Hydra flees toward a mausoleum, the missiles turn back and strike it, seemingly killing her in the explosion.
With the battle over, Rick is overjoyed by Cap's resurrection. Captain America explains that he had tricked Hydra into thinking that they had killed him with an inflatable dummy, and that he had planted the fake Steve Rogers mask to make everyone think that Captain America was someone else in order for him to keep his identity secret. Cap then unmasks, puts on a hat and trench coat and walks away, telling Rick that his true identity must remain secret.