This issue launches a new three-part story within the larger “Fighting Chance” arc in which Captain America endures his ongoing struggle with his health as his super-soldier serum continues to deteriorate. In this specific story, Cap confronts a new threat: the Americop, who presents in the splash page below as a Punisher-type who has, or presumes to have, the authority granted a police officer (and proceeds to abuse it egregiously).
If this weren’t enough to prove he’s a bad guy, look how he steps on Mark Gruenwald’s name above!
Cap is blissfully unaware of the Americop for the time being; instead, he and Diamondback are watching Dead Ringer’s interrogation by NYPD Lieutenant Stone to learn more about the new Super-Patriot that appeared in issue #425 (and presumably died in the last issue).
When Stone asks the suspect to explain his ability to take on the appearance and abilities of dead people, Dead Ringer shows him by transforming into a person of interest to Diamondback—but unknown, at least by appearance, to Captain America.
Rachel flips out, earning a rebuke from her boyfriend about police procedure, but she’s only concerned about learning once and for all the final fate of the woman she apparently killed in issue #413.
While Americop is brutally thwarting a bank robbery in Kentucky, Cap checks in on the site of the fire that seemed to take the life of Super-Patriot in the last issue—but perhaps it didn’t after all.
(I assume Morgan has a rank within the New York Fire Department—it’s odd that Cap doesn’t use it.)
When Cap returns to his new headquarters (with a costume shop on the first floor as a front), he finds an old friend from childhood, last seen in issue #306 when he told Bernie he was moving to Florida.
Apparently Cap had reached out to him, so this reunion is hardly a surprise, but before he can finish showing Arnie around…
…he gets a message about an altercation in a Virginia diner that he suspects involves Super-Patriot, but no such luck. Even if he was fooled momentarily by Americop’s “uniform,” Cap realizes what he’s dealing with as soon as he hears Americop’s bluster, to which he responds with noble purpose.
Cap tries to conduct his own interrogation, but Americop is only concerned with finishing his “job”…
…but Cap has other ideas, including laying out the larger problem with what Americop is doing.
Good question, but we don’t get an answer (yet), as Americop proves he is very determined to finish what he started… but not as determined as Cap is to stop him. (Note how Americop describes Cap as interfering with law enforcement, as if what Americop is doing is legitimate.)
The action shifts to Rachel’s trip to New Orleans with Zack Moonhunter in search of Snapdragon—which we’ll see more of in the next two issues—but when we return to Virginia, Cap makes his objection to Americop’s “mission” very clear.
Cap’s message is familiar from his occasional run-ins with the Punisher, for whom Cap has more sympathy, given their shared military background. What’s more, Frank Castle never pretends to be a police officer or to be acting on behalf of the law, whereas Americop proclaims that what he is doing is consistent with the law, and accuses Cap of being a tool for disagreeing.
Cap’s physical ailment makes an untimely reappearance, and only the sirens of the “law enforcement establishment”—presumably also “sad instruments of liberal dogma” in the eyes of Americop—save him from his foe’s “justice.”
Cap wants to go after him, but wisely recognizes his new limitations.
As the legitimate authorities approach, Cap considers pursuing Americop, despite his physical weakness, but decides that, in the face of what he said to Americop as well as the damage to his reputation from Super-Patriot’s recent impersonations, he should stick to the letter of the law as much as possible.
His silent determination to “remain steadfast to my ideals and keep doing the right thing, no matter how tough it becomes” is as good a summary of Captain America’s integrity as I’ve seen!
(And we’ll see how well he fares with the local authorities in the next issue.)
ISSUE DETAILS
Captain America (vol. 1) #428, June 1994: Mark Gruenwald (writer), Dave Hoover (pencils), Danny Bulanadi (inks), George Roussos (colors), Joe Rosen (letters). (More details at Marvel Database.)
Collected in: Captain America Epic Collection: Fighting Chance.
PREVIOUS ISSUES: Captain America #426-427 (April-May 1994)
ALSO THESE MONTHS: Avengers #375 and Silver Surfer #93, Daredevil #329, and The Incredible Hulk #418 (June 1994)
NEXT ISSUE: Captain America #429 and Quasar #60 (July 1994)
THE VIRTUES OF CAPTAIN AMERICA 
I think Americop is a great villian. Superhero comics have always been about one overarching question: “What is the proper application of force?” Should force be used to protect and defend or should force be used to judge and execute? When is lethal force needed and therefore justified? Who gets to make these decisions? These questions were answered by the laws that govern our police. Americop’s a great foil for Cap since Cap does believe, as does the law, that force should be commensurate to the actual situation and that judgement is for society as a whole- represented by juries and the legal system. Of course, Cap also knows that our laws and they’re application aren’t perfect and need to be made better; but that doesn’t mean that police (or superheroes) can just go around being judge, jury and executioner. So a villain who shows us what police ought NOT to do is as valuable as a villain who shows us what other types of people ought not to do. Another great examination of the grim and gritty era from Gru. While the “grim” of that era was left behind, the idea that superheroes can and should kill has stuck around. Cap himself was tainted by it in Waid’s Sentinel of Liberty #1 when he’s okay, and even grateful, that Sharon kills the villain for him. Later, in Brubaker’s first issue, Cap joined the ranks of the killer superheroes himself.
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Very point, Chris, thanks — and yes, Cap has slid himself in recent years, which can be difficult to account for. (I know it is for me, at least!)
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The only way I can account for it is that (while some changes had been slowly creeping in for a couple years) Cap was essentially rebooted as a new version of the character with Brubaker’s run. He was changed too much to be the same guy he consistently had been since the latter part of Stan Lee’s run on the title (and, with a very few exceptions, since he was thawed out in Avengers 4.)
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