Captain America makes a lonely visit to Arlington National Cemetery in the rain to meditate on wars he never heard of and to honor Americans who served in them. Suddenly with the lightning Thor appears to offer counsel. Cap explains how upset he is that there is no memorial for Bucky Barnes. Thor is disappointed and accuses him of losing perspective: Bucky died a hero’s death, the noblest a man can aspire to, and he has his honor in Valhalla. Thor reminds Cap that self-pity is no way to honor his friend, and takes his leave.
Over the following weeks Cap searches for any record of Bucky in government rosters… he joins the Avengers against the Lava Men and the Masters of Evil…he can also find no trace of his former love Peggy Carter or any other person he remembers from the War…except one….
Steve Rogers arrives at a nursing home to visit his former commander General Jacob Simon, now an elderly invalid. After explaining how he is still young after all these decades, Steve settles down to talk with someone his own age. Simon fills Steve in on the events that Tony Stark omitted from his overly optimistic survey (last issue): the steroid scandal in sports, the War on Drugs, the Oklahoma City bombing and the rise of the militia movement, new crimes like carjacking, identity theft, and human trafficking, Watergate, Iran-Contra, Vietnam, the collapse of the manufacturing industries…and what happened to the man who gave the "I Have a Dream" speech that so impressed him. Steve admits he did not now what he would do when the war was over, but he didn’t expect this; Simon sums up America as "phone sex and an eighteenth-place educational system." Later, after Simon’s death, his caretaker Carole presents Steve with the General’s signed portrait of Captain America. Chatting with Carole, Steve learns she has to keep working or she will be sent back to her own country, but scrubbing toilets is worth it because she is in America.
Returning to the Mansion, Steve finds the Avengers on full alert; suiting up as Captain America he joins them in the conference room to be briefed on a new threat, an alien invader who calls himself Kang the Conqueror. Soon the heroes are locked in combat with the villain outside Washington, and Kang announces his grand scheme: he has traveled back in time to make himself sovereign ruler of this era and will make the Avengers his slaves. Kang teleports them into cells yet Cap hangs on to challenge the enemy; Kang detects that Cap is also out of his right time. When Cap bashes his head with a shield blow, the enraged Kang waves his hand and Cap vanishes…to reappear in Times Square on V-J Day—August 15, 1945….