Captain America (2025 series) #3

Flashback to Iraq: the new Captain America (David Coulter) works with the occupying American army. He sees a local boy in a soccer jersey who runs away. Then a car bomb comes zooming towards them and detonates….

Captain America (Steve Rogers) receives a warm welcome from Doctor Doom who admires him as a miracle of science and hero of World War 2. Cap asks Doom why he is different from Hitler. Doom responds that Hitler was elected where he (Doom) took power because he was needed. He notes there is little difference between himself and resistance leader Marius Wolf. Cap orders Doom to release the American hostages; Doom acquiesces and gives the order to prepare them for release….

Meanwhile at the embassy, New Cap leads the Howling Commandos in an assault on the building where Cap briefly hallucinates the boy in the soccer jersey from Iraq. They burst into the main room where they discover Doom’s men killing the hostages and placing them in body bags. Then Cap notices there are two hostages missing….

Flashback to Iraq: New Cap searches the disaster site to aid his comrades. One of the soldiers takes aim and kills the boy in the jersey as he runs away, assuming he was complicit in the bombing. New Cap cradles the boy in his arms….

Doom takes Cap and Wolf for a walk around the city. A shopkeeper expresses gratitude that crime is down and the streets are safer since Doom took power. Wolf denounces Doom as a despot no better than the king he overthrew. Cap notes that the freedom for prosperity sentiment asks a price too high. Doom points out that Latveria fought on the side of the Allies in both World Wars and claims similarity to Cap in that they have risen to combat evil and it is now America who is the world’s enemy. Cap, overwhelmed with the changes in the world he knew, nevertheless recognizes that Doom is a bad guy. Cap then receives a message from New Cap that the hostages are dead except for the Ambassador’s spouse and child and they are heading for a rescue. Cap assaults Doom who reveals he has known all along what the plot was, since the “hacked” Doombot was under his control the entire time. Doom drags Wolf away, leaving the Doombot to guard Cap but not to kill him. It blows up Cap who manages to stab it in the neck with a knife then knock its head off with a shield. And while Cap is pondering his next move, the robot self-destructs. The wounded Cap thinks about how the world has changed into a much darker place…and he must be the light….