Story #2Chapter Six
Writer: Fred Van Lente. Penciler: Andy Smith. Inker: Tom Palmer. Colorist: Veronica Gandini.
Synopsis / Summary / Plot
April 1944:
Captain America pilots the captured
Hydra tank through the wall of the enemy fortress in his mission to stop the
Red Skull. Flashback to 1940, when the first dose of
Abraham Erskine’s experimental super-soldier serum had disfigured
Johann Schmidt, Erskine was in the dungeon awaiting execution when he explained to
Arnim Zola that the serum was a success: it enhanced what was inside the subject—the fault was Schmidt’s in failing as a human being.
Eva, a servant at the castle, called Zola to dinner—then drugged those who ate. Revealing herself to be British
Agent 13 (better known as
Peggy Carter) she freed Erskine from the dungeon and gunned down any guards standing in their way. She was forced to tell Erskine that his family had died years earlier and that Schmidt kept it a secret to continue having leverage over the captive scientist. An unhinged Erskine wanted to go back and kill Schmidt but 13 persuaded him that lending his aid to Schmidt’s enemies would be a more effective vengeance. She summoned a plane and carried them off to safety where
Howard Stark appealed to him to join the allied cause. Now, in the present Cap is battling Hydra agents when the
Howling Commandos make a violent entrance….