Synopsis / Summary / Plot
As Harlem burns with the violence caused by the white supremacist Sons of the Shield (formerly Sons of the Serpent), a black man is being beaten by a gang of Sons. Suddenly, a shield crashes into the assailants and a hero overpowers the thugs; the victim looks up to see—a black man wearing the familiar red-white-and-blue of Captain America. Sam Wilson, the Falcon, has donned to costume of his fallen partner to demonstrate that Cap fights against bigotry and injustice. For the last three days, since Cap was killed, Falcon has been rushing around Harlem, battling the bigots and trying to restore order to the neighborhood. Falcon Cap manages to track down Ajanii Jackson, a black man in the pay of the Sons who helped ignite the riot, and tosses him off a roof, hoping to scare him into incriminating the Sons. When a gang of Sons of the Shield supporters arrive, Falcon Cap drops Jackson on them and leaps into the fray, fists flying. A black group shows up bent on violent revenge; Falcon mounts a fire escape to make an impassioned speech that Captain America stands against bigotry and stirs the crowd into taking action against the white supremacists. In the confusion Jackson has gotten away—allowing Falcon to tail him to the Sons headquarters. For his panicked betrayal, Sons boss John Mason orders him put in the gas chamber where he will be the test subject for a deadly virus engineered to affect only men of color. Falcon Cap arrives but he is too late to save the traitor from a gruesome death. He is beset by Sons guards led by the real Captain America, under mind control. Mason reveals that the "disintegrator beam" was actually a teleporter and now the hero is the slave of the very group he fought against. Falcon is unable to hold his own against the much more powerful Super-Soldier, until he spots an electronic device on Cap’s mask and tears it off. At this point the Falcon’s black supporters arrive at the building and try to force their way in; Mason responds by releasing the deadly virus. The problem is, the virus affects everyone, and Falcon risks his own life to seal up the gas chamber before Cap carries him to safety. He wakes up in the hospital to the news that the Sons of the Shield have been discredited. He tells Cap that the only colors that really matter are not black and white but the red, white, and blue.