WARNING: The following contains spoilers for Captain America #28, by Ta-Nehisi Coates, Leonard Kirk, Matt Milla & VC's Joe Caramagna on sale now.
The Red Skull is back, and he is controlling Aleksandar Lukin. He also has a strong ally in Lukin's wife, Alexa, who feels that the Skull is a better ally in their goal for world domination than even her husband.
For all of his faults, Aleksander is not as truly remorseless as the Skull. He has proven in the past that he is not willing to go as far as Red Skull to achieve his goals. Lukin rejected the Cosmic Cube when he realized what it was doing to him, while Red Skull wanted to ride it to the ends of the world. But in Captain America #28, Red Skull is running the show, and he has revealed his ultimate plan for Steve Rogers.
Captain America is struggling after Red Skull had his followers detonate a dirty bomb in Central Park. He knows that the people following Skull are just disenfranchised people who don't believe they have a place in the world. Aleksander spoke to Sinthea, Red Skull's daughter, on the phone after she orchestrated the attack and pulled in even more people to help them achieve their goals. When she called their followers wireless losers, the Skull said that his followers were "languishing in American decadence who will finally find their purpose in sacrifice," according to his warped worldview.
Red Skull believes that he is giving these people purpose and meaning; that these followers represent the destruction and the tearing down of the goals that define Captain America. The villains claims that Cap's dreams do not line up with how the world operates today.
The big terrorist attack planned by Sin was a trap to lure in Captain America. As they prepared to launch the attack, Cap showed up and attacked Sin, telling her to stay down and give up. However, she used a knife on Cap that drugged him, weakened him, and allowed Skull's people to attack and beat him to the ground. This was to make a point, and Skull needed Cap alive to succeed. The entire beatdown and decimation of Captain America was filmed and put online for the world to see.
Red Skull offered his own commentary in the video online, explaining that America was at one time a conqueror. Now, he said that America was just a caretaker that stands for a dead and lost dream of nothingness. At the end of the day, he says that Captain America — the man and the symbol — stands for nothing in the modern world. Skull then showed Sharon Carter saving Cap and told the world that men do not need women to save them. With these missives, the Red Skull isn't trying to killer Captain America physically; he's trying to kill the ideas that he represents.
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