Captain America #18-21 (2006): 21st Century Blitz

Captain America goes to Britain and gets help from Agent 13, Union Jack, and Spitfire in his search for General Lukin. Winter Soldier is there, too–also in pursuit of Lukin.

What Cap finds, however, is a new version of Master Man–and this time, he has a subordinate family of Master Men.

He’s the nephew of the original Master Man.

Cap defeats the new Master Man and burns his face, but the villain retreats and meets up with his boss, Red Skull.

And this is where the various plotlines all start to merge. As Master Man takes his second shot at Cap, Red Skull awakens a new and much stronger Sleeper robot to also attack Captain America.

Bucky arrives at this point and he and Cap team up for the first time since this series began…

They seem to have not lost a beat in terms of battle rhythm, and Bucky is just as reckless as he was during their last battle with Red Skull.

They’re able to fight off the robot while Union Jack and Spitfire fight Master Man, and Cap uses a battle strategy to lead the team and defeat both enemies. Winter Soldier flees once the battle is won–but we later see him call Nick Fury to ask for a new arm.

At the end, Red Skull goes on TV to announce his own return.

General Lukin also goes on TV, and blames all of the super-characters, including Captain America, Spitfire, and Union Jack, for what he calls the “terrorist attack” launched by Red Skull.

Thus Red Skull has managed to begin to turn the world against Captain America.

Next comes the Civil War tie-in.