Essential Captain America #2

In "No Longer Alone!", Captain America finds himself facing a rampaging Hulk in the heart of New York City, a battle that leaves him determined to protect Rick Jones from the dangers of heroism. When Rick discovers Bucky Barnes’ old uniform and insists on wearing it, Cap reluctantly agrees—officially naming Rick his new partner. Together, they quickly confront a HYDRA plot to poison the city’s water, testing their bond in a series of fierce skirmishes.

In "Tomorrow You Live Tonight I Die!", Captain America is ambushed by HYDRA assassins under Madame Hydra’s orders, setting off a chain of betrayal and confusion. When Rick Jones joins Cap in training, a hidden message triggers a dangerous hallucination, drawing both into a deadly game of pursuit and deception. As Cap is captured and confronted by a HYDRA robot, Rick escapes to warn him—only to find that the man he’s trying to protect may not be who he claims to be.

In "The Strange Death of Captain America," the world mourns the fall of a legend—Steve Rogers is dead, and even his identity is revealed as a deception. As SHIELD and the Avengers gather for a somber wake, HYDRA strikes with a gas attack, but the real mystery unfolds when Rick, tracking the threat, sees Captain America ride in on a motorcycle, very much alive. The story unfolds with sharp tension and a twist that redefines everything, all while keeping the truth just out of reach.

In "The Coming of... The Falcon!", Captain America finds himself stranded on a tropical island after the Red Skull uses the Cosmic Cube to banish him. There, he teams up with a resourceful falconer from Harlem, a man caught between his loyalty to the Exiles and his growing empathy for the island’s people. As the two forge an unlikely alliance, the falconer is inspired to embrace a new identity—becoming the Falcon.

In "Now Falls the Skull!", Captain America finds himself locked in a deadly game of identity when the Red Skull wields the Cosmic Cube to swap bodies with him, leaving the Falcon to question everything he thought he knew. As the two battle across the battlefield, the Cube’s reality-warping power twists their every move, while MODOK races to stop the chaos by activating the Catholite Block—designed to dismantle the Cube’s influence. With the Cube’s power collapsing, the Red Skull vanishes, but the cost of the swap may be far from over.

In Harlem, the Falcon is on the run after being framed for the murder of a Diamond Head member, a leader of an anti-white hate group. As Captain America and the Falcon close in on the group’s leader, they uncover a shocking truth: the man behind the violence is Rocky the Lynx, a high-ranking Maggia lieutenant using the Diamond Heads to destabilize the neighborhood for a takeover.