Here begins a 7-year run by Ed Brubaker that is largely one very long story. And it’s one of the very best comics produced by Marvel consistently across that entire 7-year span.
It starts 5 years in the past, where Red Skull and a General Lukin have captured Soviet Super Soldier Red Guardian, and they assassinate him.
So much for that version of the Russian hero. Anyway, Skull and Lukin then discuss a person inside a tube (yay! I get to use my tag!) from Lukin.
Flash forward to the present, where Red Skull is admiring his Cosmic Cube…
…only to be shot in the back by someone who retrieves the Cube for General Lukin. Yes, at the end of issue #1 of his run, Red Skull is dead.
Before this, just about every writer who took on Captain America worked towards a big “closing arc” featuring Red Skull. Brubaker turns that on its head and kills the villain in issue #1.
Excellent.
The stage is set.
Oh, wait. Captain America is in this, too. He’s shown losing his temper battling some terrorists and dating Sharon Carter. But the villains are the stars of this first issue. Cap seems stuck–still missing Bucky and days of the past.
