This issue completes the three-part story featuring the Americop, revealing his identity and backstory, amidst the longer arc involving Captain America’s deteriorating health.
The double-page below picks up where the last issue ended: Americop has rejected Cap’s offer to work together, the former investigating a child-trafficking ring and the latter rescuing Rachel and Zack Moonhunter from Damon Dran and his goons (seen at the right).
Below I’ve blown up the panels at the bottom right, showing Cap’s reaction to Americop’s refusal to acquiesce to the bad guy holding hostages, a tragic necessity in the life of a hero.
Cap makes his impatience with Americop known, as well as his opinion of self-appointed “law enforcement” like him.
After Rachel manages to break free, one of Dran’s men throws “gas-grenades” down the stairs, leading Cap to strategize…
…while Americop succumbs to the gas after watching his bullets have no effect on Dran.
Rachel manages to get outside and starts to plan a rescue mission, and Cap remains inside, trying to save Moonhunter while struggling to hold his breath.
Of course, this would be difficult enough without considering his current deteriorating physical condition, and eventually Cap loses consciousness too.
Cap wakes later to find himself bound with Americop and Moonhunter, and forced to listen to Dran’s plans to take over the world—just kidding, he just wants money.
No one recognizes Americop without the mask, so he explains he is Bart Gallows, a frustrated police officer who was tired of “the slippery lawyers and liberal judges abusing the public trust and making a mockery out of justice,” so he decided to deal with criminals in a more decisive way. (These, of course, are the lawyers and judges who, however imperfectly, enforce the civil rights of criminal defendants to make sure they are proven guilty before being convicted, a central tenet of justice represented in the famous saying that “it is better that ten guilty persons go free than one innocent person suffer.”)
Next, Dran admits to a role in the child-trafficking operation Americop has been investigating, and when Cap promises him justice, Dran dismisses the very idea, preferring to think of the world only in terms of winners and losers.
Cap realizes the futility of further debate, but silently draws a distinction between Dran, who proudly recognizes no principle above self-interest, and Americop, who claims to follow principles but misunderstands them (whether consciously or not).
After Dran’s thugs rough up the captive men for a bit, Americop shows that Cap does not have a monopoly on focused resolve.
Cap thinks “sure, I could do that too, usually” and reluctantly compliments Americop before he runs off, only to be replaced by Angela Golden, the woman who kneed him in the principles in the last issue. He promises to protect her and Dran from Americop, but she doesn’t seem worried.
After Americop finds Dran’s weapons cache, he fires away, alarming Angela, who seems to be warming up to Cap’s entreaties…
…or not.
After she leaves, Cap decides that trying to bust loose is worth the cost to his own health, while he hums a medley of “Anything You Can Do I Can Do Better” and “I Want to Break Free“…
…but even his will has to face the limits of his body. Luckily, however, Rachel phoned a friend.
Naturally, Cap beats himself up for having to be rescued and that his teammates will know about his condition, and Natasha hears a familiar name (with whom she tussled on her own and earlier with Daredevil).
The WHUTs signal a chopper taking off with Dran and Golden, and when Cap notices Americop readying to take them down, he wonders how he can stop them…
…and it’s Rachel again with the save as she introduces Cap to yet another old friend. It’s very hard to watch as he can’t even throw it far enough to hit Americop. (That’s what he gets for his futile attempt to free himself earlier.)
The chopper is destroyed, and Cap promises to hold Americop accountable, but the vigilante scoffs and flees, with our hero powerless to follow.
Angela Golden is presumed dead, but Damon Dran the “Indestructible Man” lives on to face Natasha again (years later). Moonhunter tries to put a positive spin on events, but Cap is preoccupied with what this adventure has revealed about his future (and Rachel plays a scene straight out of a 1950s romance comic).
ISSUE DETAILS
Captain America (vol. 1) #430, August 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 ISSUE: Captain America #429 and Quasar #60 (July 1994)
ALSO THIS MONTH: Daredevil #331 (August 1994)
NEXT ISSUE: Captain America #431, Avengers #378, and The Incredible Hulk #421 (September 1994)
THE VIRTUES OF CAPTAIN AMERICA 
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