These two issues continue Captain America’s fight against the white-supremacist Sons of Serpent that began in the last two issues, while bringing Bucky and the Falcon back into the picture—with a shocking revelation about Nick Fury at the end. (Shocking, that is, unless you’ve ever read a Nick Fury story before.) And if the cover to issue #10 looks familiar: It’s an homage to this famous page from Captain America #113 by Jim Steranko and Tom Palmer.
Issue #10 opens with Mr. Rogers having come to Washington, DC, facing the Lincoln Memorial (as he memorably did on the opening page of Captain America #181) with the Washington Monument in the background.
Cap explains how his admiration of Lincoln has nothing to do with the wings on his head—which, I have to say, are extraordinarily large here—and everything to do with the 16th US President himself.
Speaking of “Peggy” and “Ricky,” Cap asks how the Life Model Decoys that served as his family are doing, and Nick explains how they were… repurposed, adding at least one more kid in the process.
Cap tells Nick about the Sons of the Serpent and his discovery that their high-tech weapons came from the US government, and Nick says SHIELD is on it: They’re attacking tonight, and Cap wants in.
As Cap and several heavily armored SHIELD agents descend on the Serpents’ headquarters, we flash back to an earlier discussion with Rikki “Bucky” Barnes, who really wants Cap to know she’s in this 100%, which Cap is happy to hear. She also reveals her bad feeling about SHIELD…
…which Cap validates without agreeing with it. He goes on to compare superheroes to police officers, not just in the sense that they share a responsibility to catch lawbreakers (but not punish them), but also that they need to listen to their guts when something seems off.
(The friend thing, though, he puts a pin in for later.)
Cap also touches base with Sam Wilson, who since they last saw each other in issue #5 (when Cap saved his life with some of his blood) has picked up a costume, “wings” that seem more like Spider-Man’s underarm webs, and a new name .
Is being a fighter pilot even a way to fight crime though? (I guess I did not get the point of Top Gun.)
Cap is not shy about his reservations about Sam’s readiness, but needs his help all the same, and Sam assures him he’s ready.
Back in the present, Cap starts asking the SHIELD agents about their backgrounds, which they find odd (for good reason)…
…but when understood in the context of Cap’s growing suspicion of SHIELD and Nick Fury, it makes sense, and is vindicated when he and his team are ambushed, and Cap orders the rest out before he is caught in an explosion.
Afterwards, the other SHIELD agents report Cap’s death to Nick, who says some nice words of remembrance before leaving by himself—unaware that he has a red, white, and blue stowaway in the trunk of his flying car. Fury drives them to the Serpents headquarters, where Cap sees Sam bound on a technological altar while the Serpent King preaches to his flock that Captain America is dead and the Falcon will soon follow, after which he removes his mask to reveal his face, the true “face of America”… Nick Fury himself.
In issue #11, Cap reflects on how he’d figured some of this out, but not everything.
Meanwhile, Bucky has infiltrated the Serpents’ headquarters as well, crouched in the ceiling looking down at SHIELD guards, and considers the weight of what she is about to do and how easy it would be to back away. But then she thinks of what her hero would do…
…and does the same.
Meanwhile, Nick is announcing that the Sons of the Serpents will attack Washington, DC, tonight, ahead of a nationwide assault, but someone else would like the floor first…
…to speak on behalf of his country.
Cap calls Nick out on the flames he and the Serpents are fanning, appealing to the war hero he hopes is still inside…
…and challenges him to a fight, man to man.
Having finished her air assault, Bucky assesses her performance and finds it lacking (which is also what Cap would do, of course). Then she looks at what is behind door number one… and he looks awfully familiar.
Meanwhile, the two old men fight with both fists and words, with Nick expressing resentment at others getting a helping hand while Cap sees it as giving people a start and then expecting them to put it to use.
After landing a blow, Nick stands up and gives his best Ozymandias impersonation before sicking the other Serpents on Cap, who is surprised but not surprised that Nick broke the rules.
While Nick continues to whine, Cap takes advantage of the strange physics of the Heroes Reborn universe and throws his shield vertically to free Sam.
Next we get this stunning double-page spread of Captain America and the Falcon fighting side-by-side “for the first time.”
Here are Cap’s thoughts made a little bigger for the benefit of older eyes like mine—it’s probably reading too much into them, but it would be nice to think that reconnecting with Sam is what triggers Cap’s buried memories of the 616 universe.
Cap is too distracted by the fight to see Nick aiming what looks like a bazooka at his head, but when he hears the BLAMM, he turns around to see it was the real Nick Fury who pulled the trigger, ending the “life” of Nick Fury, Life Model Decoy and Serpent King.
After they and the uncorrupted SHIELD agents clean up the Serpent nest, Nick tells Cap that “it was an LMD all along” and that while he did bring him back to enjoy a normal life, he didn’t reactivate him as Captain America, nor did he give him his LMD family.
(Perhaps he would have brought Captain America back for the upcoming issue #13 crossover, which is actually titled “World War III”!)
Nick’s a little offended that Cap never caught on, and Cap tries to explain but he just makes it worse. (“You were such a jerk now, how could I have known you had changed?”)
Cap and Nick share their thoughts on what happened, who was behind it, and where they go from here. Nick says that America needs Cap more than ever, and Cap is more than ready to serve.
The issue ends with Nick getting a message from another SHIELD agent that he needs to get back to New York to face the next crisis: Galactus! Come back for the issue #12 crossover between the Heroes Reborn titles to see how our heroes fare against the Devourer of Worlds…
ISSUE DETAILS
Captain America (vol. 2) #10, August 1997: James Robinson (writer), Joe Bennett and Al Rio (pencils), Sandra Hope and Al Rio (inks), Wildstorm FX (colors), Richard Starkings and Comicraft (letters). (More details at Marvel Database.)
Captain America (vol. 2) #11, September 1997: James Robinson (writer), Joe Bennett (pencils), Sandra Hope (inks), Nathan Lumm (colors), Richard Starkings and Comicraft (letters). (More details at Marvel Database.)
Collected in: Heroes Reborn: Captain America.
PREVIOUS ISSUES: Captain America #8-9 (June-July 1997)
ALSO THESE MONTHS: Avengers #10-11 (August-September 1997)
NEXT ISSUE: Captain America #12 (October 1997)
THE VIRTUES OF CAPTAIN AMERICA 
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