Captain America muses on how, on a
quantum level, time does not exist, it is all one long now. This is to explain
how the next few pages are to be understood….
Cap is called to a Brooklyn
Heights crime scene by Misty Knight of the police’s Aberrant Crimes Division. A
man duct-taped to the wall of an apartment was burned to ash and Misty is
consulting with Cap. While this goes on, we see the crime itself: A.I.M.’s
serial killer Henry Cavenaugh has taped the victim to the wall, explaining how
the shadow equations have determined how he will one day be at the forefront of
a peace movement that will stop a war—so Henry is there to prevent that from
happening. Henry then covers the walls with mystic symbols, sealing the
victim’s spirit in so it can’t pass along to another person to continue his mission.
Henry fires flames out of his eyes and the victim is burned to ash; Henry then
sifts through the ash and picks out a small crystal, all that is left of the
victim. Henry drops the crystal into a box with the other souvenirs….
While one part of the story is
replaying the murder, Cap and Misty are investigating it; Cap was brought in
because there may be a connection to A.I.M. The sister of an A.I.M. researcher
found some of his code and sent it to the police and just hours later she
killed herself, jumping off a pier, indicating a supernatural component to the
code. The code resembles the magic symbols covering the walls. Cap is dubious
because A.I.M. isn’t usually concerned with magic. Misty calls in her other
expert: she takes out a figurine of Doctor Strange, utters the magic words
(“There’s no place like home”), and the real Strange’s astral form animates the
figurine. Strange explains how he has given out 47 of them, ready to inhabit
once called on. Then Cap is told the other reason he is there: among the runes
is a picture of his shield, indicating he is next. Cap mind goes back to 1938…
…when he was
engaged in his mission of heckling the German American Bund, attacking their
ideas of racial purity by comparing iron swords (pure element, weak) and steel
swords (mixed elements, strong). Teen Steve is ridiculed by the speaker and
chased off. As he walks away, he is picked up in a car by mobster Meyer Lansky
and taken to his office. There, Lansky explains his interest in Steve: he too was
a little kid who had to stand up to the big guys. Steve explains his hatred of
the Nazis as his opposition to bullies who are cowards and will wilt when
facing superior numbers. Lansky, who is Jewish, explains his own concern with
the Nazis and he wants to stop them. He has done some harassment but he has
learned there is a big event coming, called “Operation: Garden;” he has had his
men investigate but they didn’t get far because they look like gangsters while
the police can’t be trusted. So, he wants Steve to look into the matter and
report anything he finds on the operation. Steve agrees….
Six weeks ago,
on A.I.M. Island, Travis Lane, Arianna Walters, and Henry Cavenaugh met. Lane
and Walters explained to Henry how he would take on a new guise as the Emissary;
an armored suit and injections of a super serum have been prepared as well as
exposure to gamma radiation. The demon Asmoday appeared, citing how human
agents cannot be trusted, so for this operation the demon must bond with the
Emissary. Travis Lane balked because of the implication: as Asmoday leaves
Lane’s body, he is consumed by fire and dies gruesomely. The demon entered
Henry’s body to observe the next part of the operation….
As Cap departs
from the crime scene, he is confronted by Henry, now the Emissary; Asmoday within
tells Cap that having let him live decades ago was a mistake so now he must
die. The Emissary attacks, Cap braces for action….