Lots going on in this issue–three separate stories.
First, Steve “The Captain” Rogers is still pissed at Tony Stark for enabling a prison break and just generally being a selfish dick in the whole Armor Wars storyline. He returns the new shield Tony gave him, and then fights him. He should have fought him before he gave the shield back.
Tony escapes, and Cap has to let him go because he’s not strong enough to defeat him without his shield. But before Tony leaves, he makes a pretty badass threat:
That might be the first time someone made a threat using the word, “Ethics.”
Then a second story:
…about new Cap and his black Bucky who now calls himself Battlestar. They literally upstage, and arrest, their former partners Left- and Right-Winger.
And finally, a third story: Something’s brewing with the Serpent Society.
They have some new members, but one of them, Fer-de-Lance, is actually working for Viper of Hydra. And there are some other infiltrators. On a screen, we get our first looks at Boomslang and Coachwhip, both Hydra operators.
At the end of this segment of the story, Diamondback calls the Captain America hotline for help–she can’t trust anyone in her own crew anymore, but she figures Cap will at least be honest with her, even if he doesn’t appreciate her being a criminal. That’s a little weird.
This is the beginning of the “Serpent Wars” story. So, Armor Wars ties-in to the beginning of Serpent Wars.