Synopsis
After destroying the Outer Circle from the inside as Revolution (in Captain America Finale) Bucky Barnes has kept that id, and we see him on a worldwide mission which takes him now to Lake Como to confront Contessa Valentina Allegra de Fontaine about her organisation OXE (which we've never heard of before but it apparently worked for the Outer Circle). He says he's not here to kill her or destroy OXE. Rather he wants them as partners in a new Thunderbolts team to terminate the Red Skull permanently. They put down their guns.
Later we see Sharon Carter in Argentina in her latest guise (since the Cold War Omega event) as the Destroyer with her explosive neganite bat attacking a Nazi base (although they have crates with the Hydra symbol on). After she's finished she thanks Bucky and Val for inviting her on this mission which she's keeping secret from her boyfriend Steve Rogers, especially since it involves the former Madame Hydra (in the Secret Warriors series). As they move towards their real target Destroyer says she thought there'd be a 4th team member, who Val says is on his way. At last they see the castle base of the Red Skull (which is when we actually get told who the target is).
3 enhanced Master Men rush out to defend the place. Bucky fires explosive bullets which take out 2 of the MMs. The 3rd catches 1 and throws it back to hit Val. The MM leaps on her fallen body but she surprises him (and us) when her face splits open and a big gun pokes out and blasts him. She explains that the real Contessa died in a Russian Gulag years ago and the Outer Circle put a backup of her mind in this LMD.
They head into the castle and along the way Val (experimentally?) makes parts of herself invisible. And Bucky remarks that Skull has been killed or discredited many times before but always comes back stronger. This mission will start a process of deleting him completely. This castle is the place he uses to broadcast his message of hate worldwide. They enter his studio to find soldiers with hi-tech weapons defending a huge hologram of their leader who welcomes them. Sharon accuses Val of leading them into a trap, but Val replies that the trap is for their foes. Bucky advises her to watch the sky ...
... as overhead a man dives out of a plane and he has a shield with a star on it. He crashes shield-1st through a skylight and the shield and the fist of Bucky's cyborg arm meet with a concussive forces that knocks the Nazi soldiers over. Sharon thinks it's Captain America, but the shield is red and the man is Alexei Shostakov, the Russian Red Guardian. As he joins them in battling the recovered soldiers he says that White Widow (Yelena Belova) told him to come here, and Val informs him that she's 1 of their operatives now. But the target *is* Red Skull as he was told.
They break through a door and find the actual Red Skull in his podcast room. He thanks Barnes for getting rid of the Outer Circle who were an impediment in his rise to world domination. And his men have now looted lots of good stuff from their bases. He faces them with a hi-tech gun and a spiked ball on the end of an energy-tether. Red Guardian addresses him as Aleksander Lukin, the ex-KGB General who has shared his mind with Skull since he had Winter Soldier (Bucky) kill RS' body in CA(2004) #11. Skull claims to have taken over completely and Lukin is no more.
As RS batters at RG's shield with his 'mace' he fires his gun at Destroyer who absorbs the blast with her neganite bat. He comments on her using the codename of 2 men he defeated in WWII, and she gives him a welcome from Brian (Falsworth) and Roger (Aubrey). Meanwhile Bucky's fighting soldiers and Val is using cyber-tentacles to break in to Skull's computer system. Skull has Destroyer and Guardian remotely on the ropes when Barnes interrupts with a cyborg sock to the jaw. RG throws his shield to him to hold off Skull's mace until Bucky throws it to knock the gun out of Skull's hand. RS continues to spout hate as his ball fires some of its spikes as mini-missiles which Sharon shatters with her bat. Sensing defeat Skull starts to give the castle the order to self-destruct but Guardian stops him by throwing him at Revolution who beats him into submission and tears the Skull mask off to reveal Lukin's face.
Skull reminds Barnes that he's killed him before but he always comes back. But Lukin regains control for 1 last time and asks Bucky to kill him. Barnes tells Skull that they're going to to tear down his organisation completely. And when he does return they'll be ready for him. And he shoots him in the head.
The Contessa tells them she's downloaded complete details of Skull's network. Guardian hands over a bottle of vodka he was asked to bring, and Bucky uses it as a Molotov cocktail to set fire to the place. And they leave in triumph.
But in a dark room somewhere filled with gold, jewellery and equipment things spring to life and a figure claims to have spent the last 80 years (ie since WWII) in the dark while pretenders roam the world. He suggests that *he* is the real original Red Skull, and the world has forgotten how terrible he really is.