In the tradition of the old split “Tales of Suspense” books, we get a new story that takes place during the Silver Age. Captain America and iron Man hang out in Brooklyn just a few days after Captain America was thawed out in Avengers #4.
The story is told with the reader being able to see each character’s internal dialogue. Iron Man consistently underestimates Cap during an attack by robots, which gives us insight into Tony’s arrogance: How can a dude with a shield be as powerful as a man in a full, flying suit of armor?
Tony Stark’s gets hijacked by the enemy, and it is Cap vs. Iron Man.
Guess who wins?
Cap does, naturally, when the robot is unable to control his mind because he has a stronger will/sense of personal identity than Tony.
These issues are split into two stories, with the second half being plotted by Mark Waid but with a script assist by Brian K. Vaughn. It’s about a mutant telepath named Randall Jefferson who has been driven insane by his powers and now believes he is Captain America. Chameleon is hunting for Jefferson, because the mutant “heard” some top-secret SHIELD stuff.
In the end, Cap saves Jefferson and tells him that when he learns to control his powers, he can be a part of SHIELD’s ESPer Unit. But we never see Randall again and he’s never been a part of the unit in any of the old comics that told about that Unit, which is too bad. That would have been a neat way to give a back-story to some side character nobody ever paid attention to. Missed opportunity, but still a great story.
Issue #5 has a third story by Roger Stern and Ron Frenz. It’s a just a few pages, but it is about Steve Rogers’ ancestor (named Steven Rogers) who worked with Ulysses Bloodstone during the Revolutionary War. We’ve seen him before–in Captain America’s Bicentennial Battles. This story becomes the main story in #7, which then has another back-up by Vaughn that shows Captain America talking with President Roosevelt about the death of Bucky.
I am enjoying the heck out of this series!