Captain America (1968 series) #377

As the Red Skull calls Crossbones on the carpet for his failure to kill the Kingpin, Bullseye waits on the balcony for his opportunity to strike. When the burly henchman leaves the room, the expert assassin crashes through the window and shoots the Red Skull point blank in the face. Crossbones rushes him and exchanges fire with Bullseye who manages to escape through the window. Crossbones examines his fallen boss and discovers this Skull is a robot duplicate….

At Avengers Mansion, Dr. Kincaid is at a loss to explain Captain America’s drug addiction. And he has called for Henry Pym who has more experience with the Super-Soldier’s physiology. Outside, Black Widow takes her leave of Diamondback, assuring her that she can overcome her questionable past to become a true hero.

Kingpin learns from Bullseye that the Red Skull is dead but does not believe it. He’s right, since the real Red Skull is now arriving in New York, the attempt on his life having confirmed his suspicion that the Kingpin has a spy within his organization….

Meanwhile, Cap is drifting in and out of consciousness; he sees his creator Professor Erskine angrily telling him "without the drug, you are nothing." But Steve replies that the drug gave him strength but he contributed the character and ideals which also made up Captain America. Erskine then morphs into the Red Skull, pressing the point that Steve is only special because he took a drug; Cap fights back, verbally and physically and overcomes his enemy, insisting that it is his mission to enable others to achieve the American Dream that defines him, not the drug. Hank Pym arrives and discovers that the only way to get Ice out of Cap’s system is to give him a full blood transfusion—which will also remove the Super-Soldier Serum. "To save Steve Rogers, we may have to kill Captain America."

Late that night, as the Kingpin and the Red Skull arrive for a face-to-face meeting at the deserted Yankee Stadium, Steve gets out of bed and dresses in his Cap uniform. Peggy Carter finds him and asks what he is doing. Steve tells her that now that the Super-Soldier Serum is out of his body he must go out and prove to himself whether Captain America is the drug or the man. He then heads out into the night….

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Story #2

Going for Broke

Writer: Mark Gruenwald.
Penciler: Mark Bagley.
Inker: Dan Panosian.
Colorist: Nel Yomtov.

Synopsis

USAgent crashes into Dr. Malus’ lab and goes all-out in combat against the Power Tools, while Battlestar forces the scientist to take him to the Power Broker. The depowered BStar is seized by the overly muscled Curtiss Jackson, who plans to crush him in his claws. Realizing that Jackson operates the exo-skeleton with his tongue, Battlestar kicks the control box out of the villain’s mouth and falls to the ground and injures his shoulder. Realizing he is at the overpowered executive’s mercy, Battlestar snatches up a fire extinguisher and threatens to smash the augmentation equipment to hold him at bay. Then the victorious USAgent enters to demand that Lemar be given his strength back….