This issue of Captain America launches a new three-part storyline under the broader “Fighting Chance” arc that began in issue #425, following the decline of Steve Rogers’ health as his super-soldier serum breaks down. Here we meet a new character (seen as the cover), inspired by Captain America, who will eventually help him accommodate his newfound limitations. (Another will be introduced in the next three-parter.) Also in this post we see a brief appearance of Cap in Avengers, as his role of the team continues to diminish, and a lighthearted set of panels from The Incredible Hulk (matching his recent appearance in issues #417-418 for Rick Jones’ bachelor party and wedding).
Our main story begins with our hero exerting himself… for science. (I’m sure that explains the mask too, somehow.)
Doctor Keith Kincaid gives him bad news that isn’t surprising, and when he asks why he hasn’t taken it easy like ordered, Cap gives the old “when things go south” speech.
Dr. Kincaid suggests again that he call in some other experts, but Cap’s pride prevents him from accepting more qualified help. Normally we would expect him to understand that his stubbornness is compromising his ability to do his job, so we can assume his image as the strong and stalwart Sentinel of Liberty must be very important to him (not that this excuses his behavior).
At the same time, Rachel receives some disturbing news of her own from the Black Widow, who does not mince words.
I respect that Natasha acknowledges her own checkered past as well as that of many other Avengers… but then again, none of them are dating Captain America!
After leaving Dr. Kincaid, Cap wonders where Rachel has gotten to, and Natasha chooses this time to mince words.
Rachel actually goes to see Bernie to arrange a confession for killing Snapdragon after confirming in the last issue that she’s really dead. Bernie counsels the danger of doing so, given the questionable court system at A.I.M. Island where it happened, and when Rachel responds that she can’t handle the guilt, Bernie recommends she seek therapy. (Not a bad idea, although Bernie didn’t seem sincere!)
So it’s back to work for our hero, who checks in with Peggy Carter about the abducted children whom Americop was looking for in the last story. She gives him a message from Kathy Malper, a federal prosecutor who is presumably asking him to help with the computer crimes case that brings him into contact with the Man without Fear in Daredevil #326-332, before patching him into Fabian to ask for a costume upgrade.
After wrapping up his uncomfortable team-up with Daredevil, during which he definitely doesn’t exert himself in the least, Cap returns home to greet his old friend Arnie…
…and tries out the gear he asked Fabian to make. (Cable would be proud.) Unfortunately, the designer doesn’t get a chance to explain what’s in each and every pouch—so many pouches—because Rachel plays the “we need to talk” card, which is usually a bad card indeed.
When they get alone, Rachel suggests they break up (while questioning if they were ever really together), citing neglect and alienation of affection. (Or at least she would have had she talked to Bernie about this too.)
Cap tries to take the blame, but then Rachel invokes the opinion of his fellow Avengers and makes it a public relations issue. Cap tries to argue that he doesn’t care what anyone else thinks—as long as it’s not about his physical condition, that is—but is interrupted by news about the missing kids and an old foe, and asks Rachel to come along, both to help and to talk (more).
Let’s take this chance to switch gears and travel to a college “somewhere in the midwest”—they couldn’t even bother to pick a state?—where we meet Cathy Webster, a top student with no physical skills whatsoever who is offered a way to improve the latter (almost like a project of rebirth). She refuses based on her principled ethics…
…which we see again when she gets elbowed by another young woman on the soccer field, after which her coach advises her to be more aggressive and “push back a little.” Cathy tells her that two wrongs don’t make a right, at which the coach scoffs (but somewhere, a Cap smiles).
To drive the point home, when we see Cathy’s dorm room there is a Captain America poster on the wall, and when she is caught with a young man there (actually her roommate’s date), she covers for her roommate, judging in the moment that she would rather risk the suspension herself than risk it happening to her “friend.” Her loyalty is clearly misplaced, but nonetheless it demonstrates her noble character.
Unfortunately, Cathy does get kicked out of school, so she agrees to the experimental treatment if only to have a place to sleep (and plan how to tell her parents what happened). After completing the treatment—which seems to consistent mainly of self-affirmation messages in the vein of Stuart Smalley—Cathy is suddenly strong and agile with amazing fighting skills. Professor Wentworth tells her subject that she should use her new abilities to fight for women’s equality and against sexism, so Cathy modifies one of her (former) roommate’s dance outfits and crashes a frat party to teach the attendants about feminism.
But as a large-scale fight breaks out, Cathy finds herself chanting “Hate men! Hunt men! Hurt men!” in her head while she thrashes the latest pledge class. She starts to realize Wentworth’s experiment may not have been what it seemed, which is confirmed when she tries to find the good professor and discovers the true content of the tapes. Feeling used, she commits to fighting for autonomy and self-determination as the Free Spirit.
(We will learn later that, gasp, Wentworth is not the professor’s real name—and she’s not even a professor! She is someone familiar, however, and predictably nefarious.)
Back to Cap, he’s catching a few zzz‘s while Zack Moonhunter flies him and Rachel to Zemo’s castle and Rachel ponders the ethics of breaking up with someone going through health issues. (And why is she looking straight at us? You never look straight in the camera! Cut!)
After she and Cap paraglide to the ground, they are led by Zemo’s mushy robots (eww) into the castle, only to discover Baron Zemo has both a face and a bride. (It’s up to you to decide which is more shocking.)
Cap dodges the questions about the contents of his holster and asks about the kids, whom Zemo is more than happy to claim as his own.
After a scene from an ideologically-flipped Sound of Music, Zemo defends what they did, and tells his new family to show Cap a trick they’ve learned.
Well that’s not a nice trick.
This continues in the next issue, but before we finish, let’s check in one of Cap’s increasingly infrequent and inactive appearances in Avengers with issue #378, in which the Black Widow asks her consigliere for his thoughts…
…and he validates her concern. (“Gee, sure is good to have you around, Steve.”)
Finally, in The Incredible Hulk #421, Steve thinks he sees someone he used to know, but is self-aware enough to know it’s not him. (Well, probably not him—keep your hopes up, someday it might be.)
ISSUE DETAILS
Captain America (vol. 1) #431, September 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: Twilight’s Last Gleaming.
Avengers (vol. 1) #378, September 1994: Bob Harras (writer), Stewart Johnson (pencils), Tom Palmer (inks), John Kalisz (colors), Bill Oakley (letters). (More details at Marvel Database.)
Collected in: Avengers Epic Collection: Taking A.I.M.
The Incredible Hulk (vol. 1) #421, September 1994: Peter David (writer), Gary Frank (pencils), Cam Smith (inks), Glynis Oliver (colors), Joe Rosen (letters). (More details at Marvel Database.)
Collected in: The Incredible Hulk Epic Collection: Fall of the Pantheon.
PREVIOUS ISSUE: Captain America #430 (August 1994)
ALSO THIS MONTH: Daredevil #332 (September 1994)
NEXT ISSUE: Captain America #432 (October 1994)
THE VIRTUES OF CAPTAIN AMERICA 
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