Avengers Tower is besieged by the media, demanding to know whether it is true that Captain America was once the Soviet assassin Winter Soldier. Under the constant badgering, Hawkeye lashes out, calling the press a pack of vultures, to Mockingbird’s dismay. The heroic couple meets with Steve Rogers, Tony Stark, and Black Widow Natasha Romanoff to discover whether these reports are indeed true. Steve admits that it is true, but Bucky was brainwashed. Tony chose Bucky to replace Cap when Steve was thought dead, and didn’t see the need to reveal his secrets. Hawkeye asks for a full account—and is told that Bucky was responsible for the Philadelphia bombing and the murder of Nomad/Jack Monroe. Natasha tells that angry Clint that Bucky deserves a second chance—such as she and Clint were given….
President Obama also wants a full account. At the White House, Steve explains Bucky’s history as a Soviet assassin and saboteur then fills in the background of how the Russians had recovered his body from the English Channel and erased his memory program him as a killer. Steve later used the Cosmic Cube to restore his mind—though he also served the Red Skull more recently…. The President is at a loss for what to do next, since the media is poised to exploit the issue for ratings. Steve is likewise at sea….
But where is the new Captain America now? He is mopping up a band of neo-Nazis, who are gathering to take back America under the leadership of someone who may be Master Man. Steve meets with Cap and warns him to prepare for the worst; Bucky insists on facing his past—so the next day he turns himself in to federal authorities to face trial on treason charges. When the insane and disfigured Sin hears the news she bursts into hysterical laughter and has to be returned to her cell in the asylum….
Story #2Underneath the Skin—Part 1
Writer: Sean McKeever. Penciler: Filipe Andrade. Inker: Filipe Andrade. Colorist: Chris Sotomayor.
Synopsis / Summary / Plot
Rikki Barnes is awoken in the dead of night by the sudden appearance of the
Black Widow at her window. Donning her
Nomad outfit, she meets the Widow on the roof; the master spy takes her on a mission to stop the
Second Shadow doomsday cult from mass producing a chemical compound that would turn their agents into undetectable suicide bombers. Their plan is simple: infiltrate the Second Shadow facility; Black Widow will destroy the chemicals while Nomad rescues the inside man who will have erased the formula from the cult’s computers. The only thing unclear to Nomad is why the Widow chose
her as a partner. The two enter the building but are quickly surrounded by guards and captured. Nomad awakens before an interrogator who wants to know who their informer is; the same offer is being made to the two prisoners: the one who reveals the name will die quickly, the other, not at all….