Script: John Ney Rieber
Pencils/Inks: John Cassaday
Colors: Dave Stewart
Letters: Richard Starkings and Wes Abbott

Captain America #1: "Dust"
36 pages + cover • June 2002

Steve Rogers helps search for victims in the rubble of the World Trade Center attacks on September 11. As he reflects on the attacks and their meanings, Col. Nick Fury comes up to him and tells him that he needs him to head to Kandahar, Afghanistan. Rogers wants to continue working at the Trade Center site, looking for victims, and aggressively lets Fury know that in no uncertain terms. Fury capitulates and walks away. Later, Cap rescues a Muslim man who is about to be murdered by a white man who lost a loved one in the attacks. Cap explains to the would-be killer that he shouldn't succumb to racial hate, but work to fight the real enemy.

Seven months later, in a town called Centerville, an airplane drops hundreds of small bomblets that cause major death and destruction. Nick Fury is prepping Cap on his mission. He is to go into Centerville and try and take out Al-Tariq, the terrorist who is leading his followers to destroy Centerville. Fury gives Cap a "CAT tag", standing for Casualty Awareness Tracking, which he says will help them know if Cap ever gets killed in action. They drop Cap into the streets of the town and he is faced with total carnage- burning buildings and demolished properties. He rushes to fulfill his mission.

Captain America #2: "One Nation"
23 pages + cover • July 2002

Al-Tariq forces take over a church in Centerville, holding townspeople hostage while Fury briefs Cap on his mission (in flashback). Currently, a TV newscaster is forced to broadcast Al-Tariq's speech on live TV, telling Captain America he wants to come and fight and die for his crimes as an American. Cap races through the city streets, leaping around tripwire that will detonate explosive booby traps. On his way to find Al-Tariq, he gets involved with many of his terrorist shock troops before finally coming upon a foursome of children who brandish weapons against him.

Captain America #3: "Soft Targets"
22 pages + cover • August 2002

While Al-Tariq lectures his reasons for destroying Centerville (the town is home to a factory that makes bomb components for the US military), Cap struggles against the children who are facing him down. They are all amputees from land mine accidents, reengineered with new limbs and a fighting spirit by Al-Tariq. Cap tries to talk them out of being violent, but they attack nonetheless. One of them pulls the cord on hand grenades tied to his body. Cap leaps on top of one of the children to save him from the explosion. The boy realizes Cap is actually good, not evil like Al-Tariq had told him and drops his weapon.

Al-Tariq goes out to a TV journalist doing a live broadcast and starts a sermon against American "terrorists" that he is leading a war against. Cap leaps down on him and punches him out before he can push the button on the explosives wired in the church. Cap sees a CAT tag around his neck, with the light going from green to red, revealing that Al-Tariq has died. Cap stands in front of the live broadcast camera and tells viewers that it is not America that is responsible for the death of Al-Tariq, it is him alone- Captain America- and he unmasks to show the face of Steve Rogers.

Captain America #4: "untitled"
22 pages + cover • September 2002

In CIA headquarters in Virginia, Nick Fury consults with CIA commanders. They are concerned about Captain America revealing his face to TV audiences. Despite not having security clearance, Cap barges into the war room past armed guards. Fury allows him access, and once there, Cap drops Al-Tariq's CAT tag on the table. He asks where the CAT Tag came from, and wonders how a plane got 300 miles inside American airspace to drop bombs on Centerville. He doesn't get the answers he wants, and he leaves, with the CIA leader telling him and Fury he can make their lives hell if they don't cooperate with the mission. Fury hands Cap his next mission itinerary: he is to fly to Dresden and meet up with a liaison for further instructions.

Cap gets on his bike and rides off into the distance, contemplating how his life would be more normal if he was like every other American: with a wife, kids, a house and a normal life. As he rides past a July Fourth celebration at a park, he crosses a dam bridge. He is shot at by a large troop of para-military assassins. They knock him off his bike and he has only one place to go: he leaps over the side of the dam. He grabs hold of a flagpole to stop his fall, but they shoot at him from above. He falls, in a burning glow of fire, into the river below.

Captain America #5: "untitled"
22 pages + cover • October 2002

The citizens who have been watching the fireworks notice Captain America being attacked on the dam, and they witness his fall into the river. As they all call in for help, the assassins work their way down to the rivershore to make sure Cap is dead. He manages to attack them and his super fighting skills overtake them all in a matter of minutes. Cap stands over one of the assassins and asks him who he is. The man has a CAT tag around his neck which he claims gives him "freedom from death." But in an instant, the green light turns to red on the CAT tag and the man falls over dead. Nick Fury lands in a helicopter and Cap asks him what the deal is with the CAT tags, and why the terrorists thought it made them immortal. Fury responds that they've equipped American troops with them in a bid to keep up with the terrorist technology.

While flying to Dresden, a German woman recognizes Steve Rogers and they debate world politics in the aftermath of September 11. Once in Dresden, he reflects on the terrible toll paid in the town during WW II. He goes to meet the liaison but as soon as he enters the building he notices a time bomb about to explode. He covers himself from the impact of the explosion with his shield, and the building falls in on him.

Captain America #6: "untitled"
22 pages + cover • December 2002

The building collapses all around Cap, but he maintains alertness and is ready to do battle with the foe who set him up for this trap. The man who set the trap goes into the rubble to make sure he's made his kill. He spots Cap down in the wreckage, still moving, and drops a grenade down at him. He's saved once again by his shield and rushes out to face the madman. Cap sees the man wearing a CAT tag and rushes him, beating him down to the ground. He holds him by the scruff of the neck and interrogates him while a cadre of policemen begin to surround the area. It turns out that these "police" are actually camouflaged assassins in the employ of the terrorist. After Cap asks him what the nature of the CAT tags are, he tells the assassins to form a perimeter and give him ten minutes alone to defeat Cap. He tells Cap that the CAT tags are capable of killing anyone that wears them, and it's a part of military technology he has been selling American forces in a bid to one day kill all American soldiers who wear them. Cap tells the man that America will never fall for that and beats the living daylights out of him, then carries him out of the wreckage and delivers him to the authorities.

-- synopsis and panel images by Gormuu