WARNING: The following contains spoilers for Captain America #28 by Ta-Nehisi Coates, Leonard Kirk, Matt Milla & VC's Joe Caramagna, on sale now.
Captain America has been battling the forces of the Power Elite since his most recent solo title began, and the entire story is about to come to a head after Skull's followers set off a dirty bomb in Central Park.
Everyone seemed shocked that Red Skull could convince people to take their own lives to further his cause. However, Captain America was not shocked in the least, and he explained to a distraught police detective how Red Skull could recruit so many fanatics.
Captain America was at the hospital with a police detective after the dirty bomb attack. When asked why he was there, Cap said that he would work as long as the police were working. He told the detective he could do a lot to help when it came to catching the people behind the attack. The detective said that he didn't understand what the United States was turning into. That's when Captain America explained that the United States grows its own brand of domestic terrorists, as the detective said he heard more attacks were planned across the country.
The police detective explained why he was at the hospital at that moment, even though he had been working for 24 straight hours. His brother Jamie was one of the people involved in the attack and likely wouldn't survive. He said he had four brothers, and three of them ended up as police officers too, with his brother Jamie the odd one out. He said that he was a disappointment to everyone, but he was also disappointed in himself. Captain America explained that these disappointments are how Red Skull finds the people who will blindly follow him to these extremes. The Avenger added that even he was one of these types of people once upon a time.
Captain America told the detective the story of Steve Rogers, a scrawny kid who was a disappointment to himself. He wanted to find a place to belong, someone who would take him and let him become the man he so desired. When the chance came for him to submit himself to the super-soldier serum and become the hero he always dreamed of, he jumped at the opportunity. As he said, it's harder to find one's place in society when you feel like a disappointment to the world with nowhere to go. Cap said that Jamie probably went to the Internet and found someone who said he would accept him in the Red Skull.
From the days Red Skull operated in World War II, he sought to find people who were discontent with the world around them and gave them the vision of a better world. When Skull returned years later, he used fear as a selling point to bring in the youth and an older generation that believed the world was not what they believed it should be. He uses that fear and preys on these people by offering promises of his future and lures them in like a parasite. Once he has his claws in them, these people will die for the Red Skull's beliefs. That is what Captain America has to face, and in a Marvel Universe that is becoming more broken, that battle is harder than ever before.
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