Synopsis
The Red Skull realizes that it would be far more fitting to eliminate Captain America himself, so with the power of the Cosmic Cube, he reassumes his own form and teleports himself to Adolf Hitler’s former retreat at Berchtesgaden. The villain then brings Cap and the Falcon into his presence, vowing to destroy Cap’s newfound ally as well. The Skull begins by caging Redwing and tricking the Falcon into crashing into an invisible barrier when he tries to intervene. The Skull then restores Cap to his true form, startling the Falcon with the discovery of his mentor’s identity. Cap goes on the attack but the Skull encases himself in transparent rock, which he then causes to explode, showering the heroes with stones. An enormous wave floods the room carrying the heroes away. At A.I.M. headquarters, MODOK, explaining to the reader how he escaped certain death in TALES OF SUSPENSE #94 by encasing himself in mental energy to survive the explosion, he orders his scientists to activate the Catholite block which will destroy the Cosmic Cube. Back at Berchtesgaden, the Red Skull has trapped Cap and the Falcon in a desert, where he confronts them. Cap hurls his shield, knocking the Cube out of the Skull’s hand, and when the villain tries to recover it, it melts in his grasp. Attacked by Redwing, the Red Skull finds the Cube still retains enough of its power to allow him to teleport to safety. MODOK gloats over his victory. As the heroes survey the aftermath of the struggle, Cap tells his partner, “We beat him…with a little help from…fate.”