At a secret SHIELD hospital, a seriously injured man receives a visitor, who apologizes for that happened to the patient….
Flashback to six weeks earlier: Captain America launches himself into action against a band of clown-masked terrorists atop an elevated train. The angry hero tears into them knocking one into the windshield of a car passing below. The driver loses control, heading for a child; Cap swoops down and snatches the girl to safety then prepares to beat the wounded crook—when Captain America stops him. The first Cap turns and runs—into the path of an oncoming truck….
Now Steve Rogers is visiting William Burnside, the mad 1950s Captain America in the hospital and tells him his story, the parts the rogue hero does not know. Steve never wanted to be a hero, he just didn’t want to be afraid. Picked on by bullies, a disappointment to his mother, he wanted the world to be fair, which is why he sought so eagerly to join the war against Hitler. As Captain America he got his chance but he and Bucky were uncomfortable with the propaganda side of the job, but realized he was a symbol. The comic book was not accurate but its creators still received death threats from American Bundists (Nazi supporters). After the US entered the war, the uniform became more than propaganda, Cap was now a leader against all his instincts; he was supposed to be the first, not the only, Super-Soldier. He took on the mission gladly because people were depending on him—and when he lost Bucky and was frozen in ice, he felt like he let people down. While he was gone, the government tried to continue the mission with replacement Caps, including Burnside—who was kept a secret from Steve. When they first clashed Steve became aware that he could not control what people thought he stood for. During the Secret Empire mission, he wrongly decided that he had to abandon the symbol but not the mission—and it took the death of another replacement to bring him back. The mission goes with the symbol and the hardest thing about being Captain America is understanding that the mission is too big, it will never end. But it has for Burnside: his death has been announced to the public, a phony funeral staged, and he will be sent to another hospital for rehabilitation. The burden has been taken from him but Steve is there to carry the burden for as long as he can….