Red Zone, Part 6

A flesh eating bio-weapon called Project: Bloodwash has been unleashed by the Red Skull. While Captain America went to confront his old foe, the Scarlet Witch has been charged to prevent the weapon’s “Red Zone” from expanding beyond the town of Pierre, South Dakota. To this end, Warbird has used her energy powers to burn a massive pentagram shape around the town. This will give Wanda the means of amplifying her hex power enough to hold back the cloud. When she casts her spell, a massive torrent of water erupts from the ground, blocking the spread. However, this spell is powerful, but Wanda promises that she’ll hold it for as long as needed.

At the Pentagon, Iron Man and the Black Panther have forced their way into the office of the Secretary of State. There they discover that the Secretary — a man named Dell Rusk — was actually the Red Skull in disguise. Worse, he has both Henry Gyrich, Falcon, and Captain America prisoner. In the case of Cap, the Skull has trapped his old enemy in a glass cage that is being pumped full of Project Bloodwash.

The Red Skull boasts that he will turn America into a graveyard that he will be able to take over because he is immune to the bioweapon. He will then blame the attack on Wakanda, sparking a war against the African nation. Enraged, the Black Panther brawls with the Red Skull — vowing to break his jaw — while Iron Man tries to free Captain America. However, when Iron Man opens the barrier between him and Cap, the Skull activates a trap that shoots enough electricity into Iron Man’s armor to short out all of its systems. Meanwhile, the brawl with the Black Panther continues on as the two men are nearly evenly matched.

After checking to make sure the seal between the Bloodwash and Falcon is air tight, Iron Man tries to get Captain America to safety. This task is made all the more difficult due to Tony’s armor weighing him down. That’s when he notices that Steve has stopped breathing. With no other choice, Tony removes his helmet to give Cap CPR and gets him breathing again, even though this infects Stark with the Bloodtide.

By this time, the Falcon has finally woken up and seeing the situation used his ability to mentally command birds to call Redwing and a swarm of birds to attack the Red Skull. This distracts the villain enough to give the Black Panther the upper hand. The Black Panther lives up to his promise and breaks the Red Skull’s jaw, and he goes down like a ton of bricks. Now that they know that the Skull is immune to the Bloodwash, T’Challa says he’ll take great pleasure getting the necessary blood to craft a cure.

Eventually, a means of neutralizing the Red Zone is put into production. The airforce is then deployed to spray the solution over South Dakota. When Ant-Man wakes up, he’s back at Avengers Mansion where Jarvis informs him that the crisis is over and Scott’s daughter Cassie is safe and sound.[1] While downstairs, Tony Stark and T’Challa have learned from this experience and have negotiated a mutual exchange deal between Stark Enterprises and Wakanda’s scientists. When Tony holds out his hand to shake, he expresses his hope that this isn’t just business. After a moment’s consideration, T’Challa says it isn’t and the two shake hands.

Upstairs, Captain America commends Henry Gyrich on a job well done. Working as a double agent to expose Dell Rusk was enough to prove his value to the team.[2] That’s when the President arrives and commends the Avengers and Gyrich for a job well done. He has also come because he has offered Warbird a position as Chief Field Leader for the Department of Homeland Security. Carol has decided to accept the offer and Steve gives her his blessings. Asking to speak with Captain America in private, the President says that if there is anything else Steve needs to just ask. Rogers takes this as an opportunity to express his concerns about America developing bio-weapons. He asks the President to shut down any other such programs that may exist. The Commander-in-Chief understands and says he will try his best.

Finally, at a hospital in South Dakota, survivors of the Red Zone are recovering quickly thanks to the cure.[3] Including a little boy that the Avengers rescued early on. When he wakes up he finds the Vision and Scarlet Witch by his bedside. The Vision welcomes the boy home, something that Captain America promised to do from the start.

Recurring Characters

Avengers (Captain America, Iron Man, Scarlet Witch, Black Panther, Vision, Falcon, Warbird, Jack of Hearts, Ant-Man), Red Skull, Henry Gyrich, Edwin Jarvis, Redwing

Continuity Notes

1. Here, Jack of Hearts is contained in some kind of stasis bed. Jarvis says that they’ll be coming for him soon. Since Avengers (vol. 3) #58, Jack of Hearts needs to be placed in a specially prepared Zero Room to drain off his access energies, otherwise he will reach critical mass and explode. We learned this in issue #61, and that it is getting worse. It’s later reveal that his sudden instability is due to the fact that his body is absorbing gamma radiation from his teammate the She-Hulk something that won’t be uncovered until issue #67. The problem will solve itself when Jack is seemingly killed when his body explodes in Avengers (vol. 3) #76.

2. Dell Rusk has been strong-arming Gyrich into leaking Avengers data to Rusk since Avengers (vol. 3) #61. Since issue #64, he and the Falcon have made arrangements to play along with Rusk’s requests in order to find out who he is and what his agenda is.

3. A news report here states that the She-Hulk went missing while the Avengers were trying to stop the Red Zone. She went berserk in issue #67. The Avengers will track her down and fixes her problems in Avengers (vol. 3) #72-75.

Topical References

• The President of the United States is depicted as George W. Bush. This should be considered a topical reference as he was only president from 2001 to 2009.