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Quick Summary
Just outside Reno NV, a government re-education facility is being attacked by a lone, shadowy figure... a figure of death! Crossbones kills sentries and guards to kidnap (or liberate, depending on youre view, I suppose) a young lady being held there.
Meanwhile, over Mongolia, Nick Fury, Captain America, Sharon Carter, and a SHIELD strike force are on a helicopter transport over Mongolia. They are on their way to Lukin's corporate headquarters, which is on the border between Russia and China. In flashbacks, we find out that CA didn't want Sharon coming on this mission, because he wants to capture the Winter Soldier, not have him killed in the conduct of the raid. We also find out that due to the lack of evidence against Lukin, that this SHIELD raid doesn't have sanction - Fury is conducting it off the books, on his personal authority.
The assault begins, with SHIELD and Captain America smoothly taking down guards, receptionists, and everyone else who might spring an alarm. They hit the boardroom where Lukin and the Kronas Board of Directors are meeting to discuss their acquisition of Roxxon... and are stymied by White House and U.N. officials, who demand that they leave Lukin alone unless they have proof that he's responsible.
They don't. The only evidence they have leads to Jack Monroe.
They leave, and the White House and U.N. officials reassure Lukin that there will be consequences/sanctions levied against CA and SHIELD for the raid. Lukin excuses himself. Lukin's aide is very worried about the risks Lukin is taking, and Lukin half-jokingly tells him that if he's going to worry like an old woman, perhaps Lukin should change him into one... the aide is outraged, and Lukin tells him he was only joking... and that he has better uses for the power of the Cosmic Cube
On the helicopter ride away, Cap vows that this isn't over, and that he'll see Lukin brought to justice. Fury does him one better - he wants Lukin dead.
Meanwhile, back in the States, Crossbones, while pulling the girl with him on their escape, reveals that she's not who she thinks she is - that she's Synthia Schmidt, the daughter of the Red Skull!
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Commentary
And the Winter Soldier storyline continues...
- Next issue is a digression, dealing with Captain America's part in the House of M mega-crossover event. The real question for me becomes, did Brubaker work some Winter Soldier hints into the House of M crossover?
- When the preview for CA #9 hit, I predicted - successfull, for a change - that the girl was Synthia Schmidt. Yay me - and Yay Brubaker, for remembering that part of the Red Skull's legacy. Of course, the open question is why is Crossbones kidnapping her - is he working a plan of his own, or did the Red Skull leave instructions as to what needed to be done upon his death?
- With most of the evidence pointing to Jack Monroe, one has to wonder if the reason they decided to frame Jack Monroe is because of the resemblence he has to the Winter Soldier (both being, in essence, grown up versions of Bucky). Of course, carrying on with my contention that the Winter Soldier is some version of Jack split off by the Cosmic Cube, perhaps they framed Jack because he's DNA would match any evidence left by the Winter Soldier.
- Congratulations to Ladd Everitt, a long-time friend and correspondant who was blown away by CA #7 - he and I exchanged a ton of IM on the issue when he read it!
- Michael Lark flies solo on this issue, and does a good job; I fear that my praise may seem lukewarm besides the applause I've showered on Steve Epting recently, but the storytelling and draftsmanship was extremely well-done, and (at least for me) very reminscent of the classic Cap stories illustrated by Gene Colan.
- Overall, not much seems to have advanced this issue, except to raise the bar on the consequences of their failed raid on Lukin; Fury and Cap are both in hot water, and the raid was obviously predicted, and well prepared for. Lukin is a planner, and planned to use their raid for his own purposes - getting CA in more hot water, this time with the White House and the UN. He is goading Cap, pushing his buttons more thoroughly than the Red Skull or Zemo ever did - screwing with his memories, the desecration of CA II and III's graves, the Bucky/Winter Soldier strategim, making him witness the mass murder of hundreds of people in Philadephia, framing and killing Jack Monroe, getting him in trouble with the White House and the U.N. The only place he hasn't struck - yet - is at Sharon Carter directly, even when he had her at his mercy; it makes one wonder what he has planned for her...
- Contact with the Cosmic Cube is making Lukin a little more megalomaniac, and a little less focused; his threat against his aide was telling, in that he's beginning to fantasize about what whims he might indulge with the Cosmic Cube. He's leery of wasting its power yet - I don't think even he understands how much power the Cube has, and whether or not the power-up from the Philly firestorm is permanent or just a temporary re-charge.
- I think that whatever his ultimate aim for Captain America, Lukin has made a potentially fatal miscalculation; the devotion and dedication of Crossbones to the Red Skull. Whether he's obeying post-mortem instructions from the Red Skull, or whether he's playing an operation of his own, I think that what he's putting in motion will fall like and unsuspected hammer-stroke on Lukin in the end.
- Could this all be a deeper game being played by the Red Skull? He can't have been unaware of Lukin's animosoty, and with Arnim Zola and his other resources, I wouldn't put it past him to either (a) clone himself and set the clone up for his own assassination, or (b) let himself be assassinated so that he can be "removed from the chessboard" while continuing to work behind the scenes. What if this - including Lukin's attacks on CA - are part of his own master-plan?
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