Having finally recovered his true memories, Captain America looks over the New York skyline, reflecting on his history: super-soldier, frozen in ice, Avenger, partner to the Falcon, romance with the now-deceased Sharon Carter…. He heads home knowing he will be up all night completing an art job as Steve Rogers. Unnoticed by the hero, an elaborate barge heads toward the prison at Ryker’s Island; arriving there crew employs a dish-like projector to drain all electric power from the facility. Armed men enter and rescue the drugged Mister Hyde. The brutish villain comes to aboard the palatial floating headquarters of French mercenary Batroc the Leaper. Batroc is shocked when Hyde casually reveals he does not have the five million dollars promised for his escape and easily resists the Savate master’s attacks. Hyde then pressures the mercenary into supplying the manpower for a massive crime—whether he wants to or not….
The next morning Steve is just finishing his assignment when Bernie Rosenthal drops by; as they share a breakfast, she notices several oddities about Steve: he has only instant food and all his records are music from the 1940s. Unwittingly she asks about a picture of Sharon Carter on the mantel and when Steve becomes upset, she changes the subject to the breakout from Ryker’s the previous night. Steve determines to let Thor or Daredevil handle Hyde and heads to work but he is distracted from having gone without sleep for 30 hours. When he learns that the prison raiders had French accents, however, he suspects Batroc the Leaper and dons his Captain America gear to investigate. Meanwhile, Batroc and his men, following Hyde’s plan, hijack the Roxxon oil tanker Queen of Egypt and send their demands: one billion dollars or they explode the tanker in New York harbor. Cap is in D.A. Blake Tower’s office when he receives the threat…and one more demand: they want Captain America as a hostage. A short while later, a barge carrying the ransom in gold and cash and the bound Cap approaches the tanker. When the two villains and their henchmen board to inspect the loot Cap sets off a gas trap that knocks out the underlings. Cap denounces Batroc for involving himself in terrorism while beating him senseless. Unfortunately, Cap, his reactions dulled from lack of sleep falls before the fists of the brutal Mr. Hyde…. Later, Cap awakens to find himself suspended by chains from the front of the tanker, which is set to ram the docks and create a massive holocaust….