Captain America #297
All My Sins Remembered
Captain America has been defeated in battle against Mother Superior and is now being given to Baron Zemo to finish of. Mother Superior is insulted because as the daughter of the Red Skull she believes she has the right to end the life of her father’s greatest enemy. However, the Red Skull insists on giving Zemo the one worthy enough to eliminate the Captain and sends her away.
Baron Zemo is looking forward to ending the life of Captain America as he blames Steve Rogers for causing his father, the original Baron Zemo, getting his hood glued to his face by Adhesive X. This caused his father to become obsessed over Cap until he died in battle. Helmut tried to avenge his father, first as Phoenix. That battle ended when Helmet was dropped into a vat of Adhesive X himself. However, whereas his father had his mask glued to his face, Helmut was not wearing one at the time and was horribly scarred as a result.[1]
Soon Captain America and Nomad are forced into a virtual reality simulation where Steve is forced to relive the day the original Bucky allegedly died.[2] This time however, Jack Monroe is standing in for Bucky Barnes. Unsure if this is all real or just a dream, Steve and Jack go through the motions as they relive the events of that fateful day in 1945. Also playing his part is Baron Zemo, who is playing the part of his father. This replay of history unfolds just as it did decades earlier. Captain America and Bucky try to prevent Baron Zemo from stealing a new experimental drone plane from the Allied Forces. Battling Zemo’s android minions the pair are knocked out.
Elsewhere in Skull House, the Falcon, Bernie Rosenthal, and Arnie Roth are still trapped in a holding cell. However, their captors have stopped paying attention to them for the time being. Bernie convinces Arnie and Sam that this is the perfect time to try to escape and the Falcon begins flying around room to see if there is a way for them to get out. Sam quickly finds a ventilation shaft where that might be their way to freedom.
Back in the simulation, Baron Zemo has dressed his enemies in army fatigues, Steve and Jack are tied to the drone which has been rigged to explode. Just as in the past, Steve manages to break free from their ropes. As the drone takes off, Steve and Jack race after it on a motorcycle in the hopes of disarming the bomb on board. As in the past, Jack leaps onto the drone and begins trying to disarm the bomb. It’s at this moment that Steve looks in the side view mirror of his motorcycle and sees his aged face looking back at him. Realizing that this is yet another manipulation and not wanting Jack to be killed in the same way as his old partner, Steve leaps onto the drone and pulled Jack off of it just moments before it explodes, saving his life in the process.[3]
While Captain America rejoices over his victory, Baron Zemo protests. As the simulation comes to an end, Zemo can’t understand what went wrong as Captain America was supposed to relive the death of his partner. His failure pleases Mother Superior as this proves her the rightful heir of the Red Skull legacy. The two then begin fighting until the Skull breaks them apart and reveals that his plan was far more insidious than it appeared. As Captain America and Nomad begin waking up from the simulation, the Red Skull explains to Cap that he made him relive his past tragedy as a gift. As it turned out, the machine didn’t just create a simulation, but created a pocket reality where Steve and Jack actually relived that moment in time and had they died in the simulation they would have been dead in real life. The Red Skull wanted his final battle with Captain America to be one where his foe was complete — no longer burdened with the question on if he could have saved Bucky or not.
However, the Red Skull intends that there be no more masks and removes his own to finally reveal his true face to Captain America for the first time, revealing that the Red Skull is an incredibly old man.[4]
Recurring Characters
Captain America, Red Skull, Nomad, Falcon, Mother Superior, Baron Zemo, Arnie Roth
Continuity Notes
The relationship between Captain America and the Zemo family is a complicated one. The details:
Captain America has fought Heinrich Zemo back during World War II. The tale of how he had his mask glued to his face was told in Avengers #6.
Heinrich was responsible for the explosion that seemingly killed Cap’s wartime partner Bucky and put him in suspended animation for decades, per Avengers #4. Bucky didn’t die, but became a Russian assassin called the Winter Soldier, but Cap won’t learn this until Captain America (vol. 5) #14.
Zemo accuses Cap for ruining his family. However, this is not entirely accurate. As revealed in Captain America: The Medusa Effect #1, Hilda Zemo betrayed her husband to Captain America and died in the process.
Surviving into the present day, Heinrich Zemo died in a final battle against Captain America in Avengers #15.
Helmut Zemo first attempted to avenge his father in Captain America #168, leading to the accident that horribly disfigured his face.
Captain America #350 reveals that Arnim Zola took a DNA sample from Captain America while he was blacked out here. Zola would use this sample to create a clone of Steve Rogers body for the Red Skull’s mind to be transferred into following his physical death in issue #300.
This simulation recreates the events of two different stories that delve into the day Captain America went into suspended animation. There is the iconic original story in Avengers #4. However this story also adapts elements from Captain America #56. That story tells about Cap’s battle with the androids and how he got free from the ropes. Although this story is not overly clear, Steve got free of the ropes thanks to his future self trying to interfere with events in the past. This pivotal moment in the history of Captain America has also been expanded upon in Captain America (vol. 1) #220, (vol. 4) #24, (vol. 5) #4, 8, 6, Captain America: Sentinel of Liberty #12, Captain America: Reborn #4, Captain America: Man out of Time #1.
Next issue it is revealed that the suspended animation treatment that the Red Skull was exposed to back in Tales of Suspense #79 has worn off and he is now rapidly aging.
Topical References
World War II is stated as happening 40 years prior to this story. This should be considered topical due to the Sliding Timescale. As the timescale pushes the Modern Age forward in time, the number of years between it and the end of World War II continues to grow longer with each passing year.
