Story #230 Minutes to Live!
Writer: Stan Lee. Layouts: Jack Kirby. Penciler: Dick Ayers. Inker: John Tartaglione. Colorist: ?.
Synopsis / Summary / Plot
After destroying the
Sleepers,
Captain America plunges into the ocean and is picked up by the crew of a
US Navy vessel. In
New York, a band of conspirators in a hidden sanctuary tests a microscopic amount of
Inferno 42, "the most destructive element of all time" The tiny sample annihilates a model city, delighting the villains, and the only thing preventing furtherance of their sinister plans is the fact that a
SHIELD agent has stolen the master cylinder of Inferno 42. At home,
Steve Rogers is depressing himself with memories of
Bucky, his long-lost girlfriend
Peggy, and his discomfort with the new world he’s woken up in. He goes out walking restlessly through the streets and is startled to see a young woman who resembles his lost love. Steve sees her drop a cylinder-shaped package and a man pick it up for her, switching it for one in his possession. Around the corner, this man is attacked by
Batroc the Leaper, a hired killer who is a master of
Savate, who opens the package and finds a cheap vase. Realizing that the agent must have passed the package to the young woman, Batroc goes after her. Meanwhile, Steve tries to alert her to the package switch but she denies it, but also seems to recognize him; she dismisses it as folly since this fellow is too young to be her sister’s wartime boyfriend—Steve Rogers. Moments later, a loud noise causes Steve to switch to his Captain America outfit and pursue the girl, finding her struggling over the cylinder with Batroc. Cap battles the Gallic baddie until the latter notices that the girl is gone with the cylinder. Batroc tells Cap that the cylinder was damaged in the struggle and in only thirty minutes it will explode destroying the entire city. The complication: the young woman is an agent of SHIELD and has hidden in a secret refuge known only to the secret organization….