Captain America (2025 series) #4

After the incident of new Captain America David Coulton attacking an American soldier who shot and killed a local boy in Iraq, there was much debate on his future. His commander overruled everyone else and gave him the option of picking up the shield again.…

In a town square in Latveria, Doctor Doom shows off the captive Resistance leader Marius Wolf to the assembled crowd. After making a speech praising his rule and ridiculing democracy, he orders Wolf to be executed by a gunshot—but a familiar shield sails out of the crowd and knocks down the gunman. Captain America (Steve Rogers) steps forward and announces that no one else will die that day. Having found his stand in the modern world, he faces Doom as a radio signal comes in his head that the other team is under attack…

…on their mission to find the hostages. New Cap and Chill are pinned down; their comrade Slate finds a spot on the roof and shoots down the attackers. They reach the building where the last two hostages are being held and find the husband and daughter of Ambassador Hartley unharmed. Then Chill stabs the husband in the back, to New Cap’s shock. Slate explains that the mission wasn’t to rescue the hostages but to silence them. The USA had helped Doom take power and then he betrayed them; the embassy staff knew the truth and the Commandos were sent to make sure no one talked. New Cap attacks his comrades to help the girl escape. Slate chases her and New Cap hurls the shield to conk her….

Meanwhile, Cap is battling Doombots and having a rough going. During a pause, Cap demands that Doom show himself to be a man and do his own fighting. Doom sees through Cap’s trick but agrees that Doom is a symbol of his nation and so they set up a fight, Latveria versus America. Doom hurls energy blasts injuring people in the crowd. Cap is appalled and saves an old lady with his shield. Doom scoffs. They have a conversation about a leader’s responsibility to his people; Doom seizes Cap by the throat and that’s what he was waiting for. Cap attaches a device created by Reed Richards to depower Doom’s armor for a few seconds. Cap rips Doom’s mask off and the people start throwing stones at him and then punches his lights out, with the words, “Reed Richards says hello.”

Doom is rushed to safety by his Doombots and Cap calls New Cap to ask about the hostages. Dave responds that “we’re the bad guys;” he is completely unhinged, having killed Slate and he wants to stay to fix it, killing them all….