Captain America (1968 series) #139

Captain America is in the office of the mysterious figure that whisked him away at the end of the last issue. This person is revealed to be the Police Commissioner who explains to Cap about the baffling disappearances of seven patrolmen plus a dozen other city officials, all of whom have vanished without a trace. The Commissioner is asking Cap to go undercover as a rookie cop, serving as bait for the killer. Cap agrees, hoping this will allow him the opportunity to establish a normal life as Steve Rogers….

The next morning, Sam Wilson receives a visit from Leila, an attractive radical, who mocks Sam’s commitment to peaceful change though social work rather than fighting the power. Later when Sam goes out as the Falcon to test his new grapple the Hawk-Hook, he is snatched by a force beam and pulled into a hovering ship. He puts up a fight until he learns that he’s aboard SHIELD’s heli-cruiser and Nick Fury wants to know what happened to Captain America. Falcon doesn’t know and resents Fury’s method of asking. Sam does reassure the moping Sharon Carter that Cap always thinks about her. Fury sends Falcon back where they found him and he determines to find out where Cap is….

Steve, meanwhile, is starting out as a rookie police officer under the tough Sergeant Muldoon, who reminds him of his WW2 Army Sergeant Duffy. On patrol, Steve puts on his Cap outfit under his uniform and searches for the villain. He is attacked by a gang of punks and holds them off until they are chased away by Reverend Garcia, the local clergyman. Moments later, after they have parted, Steve hears an odd noise from the direction Garcia went and discovers the clergyman has vanished too. Changing to Captain America, he takes to the rooftops and comes to a stonecutter’s storage yard. Looking around he realizes the “statues” are the missing policemen and among them is Reverend Garcia also turned to stone. He realizes who the villain is and looks up to see…the Grey Gargoyle….