Captain America, a prisoner of the ex-Nazi spy Lyle Dekker, awakens to find himself strapped into a chair, an electronic helmet clamped to his head. Dekker explains how his scheme of revenge was thirty years in the making….
When he plunged into the Ocean after his first meeting with Captain America (related last issue) he was picked up by the Red Skull in his submarine. For his failure to sabotage the Captain America film, he was tortured and ejected through a torpedo tube. He was found by some fishermen and taken to their port in Newfoundland where Dekker recuperated and slowly accumulated a group of criminal followers. At this point the villain sends several volts of electricity coursing through Cap’s head, jolting the memory of their previous meeting into his head…. Dekker had learned of two American heroes’ attempts to prevent the launch of Baron Zemo’s drone plane. When the craft exploded, Dekker’s men were on hand to rescue the survivor and bring him aboard the submarine (presumably missing the Russian sub that picked up Bucky). Steve was made to change into his Cap costume at gunpoint and taken to the villain’s Newfoundland hideout. There Dekker showed him his new experimental nerve gas and a mind-transfer apparatus. His scheme was to swap minds with the national hero and conquer the United States with the gas. Cap reacted by fighting his way through the guards and making his way out of the complex. He changed into his army khakis to avoid detection and hijacked Dekker’s plane. The villain ordered the plane shot down with the heat ray; the craft crashed into the ocean and the combination of the Super-Soldier Serum and brief exposure to the nerve gas put Cap in suspended animation, also causing him to lose his memory of these events. And now back in the present, Dekker outlines his new master plan: to transfer Cap’s abilities and his own mind into the Ameridroid thus enabling the ex-Nazi to conquer the nation….
[Brief interlude: Corporation agent Veda, at Avengers Mansion contacts her boss Kligger; the mastermind tells her they have procured the ideal agent to kill Captain America and to remain at the Mansion and await further instructions.]
Back at the villain’s lair, Dekker throws the switch and the transfer works: he is now a twelve-foot-tall copy of Captain America, ready to begin the New World Order….
Story #2…On a Wing and a Prayer!
Writer: Scott Edelman. Penciler: Bob Budiansky. Inker: Al Gordon. Colorist: George Roussos.
Synopsis / Summary / Plot
The
Falcon is unable to find his bird
Redwing. Suddenly an arrow barely misses him; an attached note summons the hero to a midnight meeting at
Washington Square Park or else the bird will die. That evening, an archery-themed villain,
Mortimer Freebish (he is still working on a sinister pseudonym), awaits with Redwing in hand. He plans to become "the greatest super-villain this side of
Doctor Doom" by defeating the Falcon in combat. A homeless man on a nearby bench rises and attacks the villain; it is the Falcon in disguise. Freeing Redwing from the glass bubble prison, he turns his attention to his enemy. The baddie fires several trick arrows but Falcon and Redwing are able to dodge easily. Freebish fires off an opti-arrow, which emits a bright light— blinding the villain, who forgot to wear his protective glasses. When his vision returns, he spies a homeless man on a bench. He assumes it is the Falcon in disguise again—and gets his faced punched out by the hero who is actually behind him.