U.S. Agent (2021 series) #4

When the hidden Helicarrier rose into the air over Ephraim, West Virginia, Kate Tolifson threw her brother U.S. Agent John Walker overboard. As he plummeted to Earth, his mind went back to the disastrous event in Puerto Rico when he was assigned to clear some protesters from a beach and accidentally triggered a riot. The government dispatched their Active Denial System to fire a heat ray at the protesters and, to protect them, Walker hurled his shield and destroyed the valuable weapon. For this he was fired by his superior (and lover) Valerie Cooper. Now Cooper contacts him and they puzzle out that Kate disabled the “missing” fuel cell to remove its containment field and exposure to the cell turned her hair purple and drove her mad. Then Walker hits the ground, protected by his shield which is now ruined….

The new U.S. Agent, April Manning a/k/a Saint, kneels before his master, Morrie Watanbe, who has no idea who Manning is. We see a flashback to an incident in Brazil, where a group of martial arts students fight armed soldiers at a lighthouse on a beach. Manning was the sole survivor and Morrie was one of the three masters overseeing the exercise. Manning defends his beating of Lemar “Battle Star” Hoskins because of his strong ideas about what a Black man should be. As he walks off, Manning shrinks as his super soldier drug wears off. His pilot warns him not to take another dose too soon but he does….

Cooper does not know who the new U.S. Agent is, as she is no longer in charge of the program but suspects some fat cat political donor bought the rights to create his own superhero. And that Kate, wanting to emulate her big brother, got some of the new serum from him. We see in flashbacks that this is what did happen, Manning persuading a Senator to allow him to uncover what is being hidden in Ephraim; Kate became his lover so that she could gain power too and take action against the rural hicks she hates so much….

Walker discovers the badly beaten Lemar and tells Morrie to fly him to a trauma center while he goes to stop Kate and the new U.S. Agent. The latter, powered up once more, lands on the Helicarrier to find Kate. Walker, having hitched a ride on a crop duster, shoots at Manning but then his plane is destroyed by a giant saurian monster that was buried beneath the Helicarrier….