One month ago: Baron Zemo visited an old Thunderbolts storage facility and discovered the Ghost collecting Zemo’s database records. While there, Zemo mentioned the new Captain America and Ghost informed him of the hero’s true identity….
Today: The Falcon (Sam Wilson) contacts Steve Rogers to express his concern about Bucky Barnes, the new Captain America. His behavior is becoming erratic as though the recent confrontation with the 1950s Cap (issues #602-605) had changed him. In battle with the Wrecking Crew, new Cap became so reckless he nearly lost his life and allowed the villains to escape with their loot. Steve agrees to meet with Bucky….
Bucky Barnes awakens from a grim Steranko-inspired nightmare to find his lover Natasha (the Black Widow) gone on Avengers business. He heads to his new workout room for some exercise….
Two weeks ago: Baron Zemo, with his sidekick Fixer, tracked down ex-Nazi Iron Hand Hauptmann on the island of the Exiles and forced him at gunpoint to agree to honor a debt owed to Zemo’s late father….
Today: Bucky meets with Steve and Sam in a bar and characteristically denies any problem. Assuring his two old friends he is fine, the pals talk sports for the rest of the evening. Steve takes off in a SHIELD hovercar and Sam offers Bucky a ride home since the latter seems a bit drunk. Just as Bucky realizes he has been drugged, Sam starts Bucky’s motorcycle and is caught in an explosion. The watching Zemo pronounces phase one of his plan complete….
Two days earlier, at the Kurtzberg Institute for the Criminally Insane, an alarm going off provided the distraction for Zemo to enter unseen and contact one of the patients, Sin, the now hideously disfigured daughter of the Red Skull. He asked a favor: the complete story on Bucky Barnes’ survival and the key to his destruction. Sin laughed insanely….