Bucky, on his part, is still trying to uncover what he began to uncover during Devil's Reign, involving a plan that began even before he became Cap's sidekick as a kid.
The zeroeth issue, which doubles as the 0th issue for Captain America: Symbol of Truth as well, was released in May 2022. Issue #1 was released on June 15, 2022. The Lanzing and Kelly run will conclude in August 2023 with Captain America Finale #1, with a new run by J. Michael Straczynski set to take its place in September 2023.
Between the sixth and seventh issue, there's a one-shot "Captain America & The Winter Soldier" that was published on November 16, 2022.
Storylines and events that are part of this run
Provides examples of:
- All There in the Manual: Lanzing and Kelly's Devil's Reign: Winter Soldier one-shot (which preceded Captain America #0) serves as a prelude to Sentinel of Liberty. It explains how Bucky learned of the Century Game and its players before Steve does in the main series.
- Arc Number: 5.
- The five-pointed stars on Cap's shield and Bucky's arm.
- Five members of the Outer Circle: the Money, the Power, the Love, the Machine, and the Revolution.
- The five assassins working for them; Winter Soldier, the Destroyer, the Dryad, the Redacted, and a MODOC (Mental Organism Designed Only for Control).
- Anti-Villain: The conspiracy was alledgedly started to prevent chaos the likes of what led to the First World War.
- Arc Words
- "The Century Game" — being the game the Outer Circle plays for world domination.
- "It's not your [X], it's theirs." and variations of such.
- Issue #4: "Everything in its right place."
- Audience Participation:
- Issue #6 gives the readers a key and asks them to decode thirteen messages hidden throughout the six first issues.
- Issue #11 gives another key for messages hidden in issues #7-#11.
- Bat Family Crossover: The upcoming Captain America: Cold War will serve as one with Captain America: Symbol of Truth.
- Bury Your Gays: In issue #10, Roger Aubrey, Brian Falstaff's boyfriend, dies heroically.
- Call-Back:
- It has long been established that Cap got the Vibranium shield as a gift from King T'Chaka of Wakanda. Here we see how it was forged.
- Steve moves into his childhood home, apartment 415.
- When Steve tells him to be careful around the fireworks, Bucky tells him that he spent decades running covert ops: ninjas fear him, he fought Wolverine to a standstill (in "Black Widow Hunt") and broke Loki's jaw (during his time as the Man on the Wall).
- When they find a glowing crystal, Bucky declares that he has had it with Infinity Stones and power crystals.
- To "Second Chances", wherein a man shot another man through another person (who survives).
- Back in the 2022 Hellfire Gala, Emma read Steve’s mind to ascertain his thoughts on her, only be embarrassed to learn that she apparently reminds him of his mother. In Issue #8, Steve reveals that Emma gave him a psychic code-phrase that he uses to call for her help: that phrase, much to his chagrin, is “Mommy.”
- In issue #8, Steve calls Aaron Fischer and asks him to activate the Captains network.
- At the end of Issue #8, Captain America ends up forming a new lineup of The Invaders to end AIM’s siege of Lower Manhattan.
- The Chessmaster:
- The Outer Circle. To them, civilization itself is a game.
- The Revolution. Though he prefers checkers.
- Continuity Nod:
- Steve admits that the heroes who followed him didn't have the advantage of Dr. Erskine's vita rays.
- Bucky reminisces about Ventolin, an alien space queen he was involved with a while back.
- Continuity Overlap: Sentinel of Liberty runs parallel with Tochi Onyebuchi's Captain America: Symbol of Truth. The Century Game is the main connective tissue between the books, as both Steve and Sam are dealing with different facets of the conspiracy.
- Convection, Schmonvection: Lampshaded. Steve acknowledges that the underground volcano he finds himself in doesn't have to be active to be dangerous. Then he surfs over a magma fall on his shield.
- Dead Man Writing: Subverted by Dr. Boka Agboje, who concedes in his message that he may be dead or just successfully in hiding.
- Distinction Without a Difference: Emma Frost insists that she is no genetic supremacist; rather, she is a genetic absolutist, who believes supremacy will reveal itself in "the evolutionary wash", i.e. whoever survives.
- Double Agent: Bucky becomes one within the Outer Circle, taking the seat of Revolution in order to win their Century Game and dismantle the conspiracy from within.
- Eyes Always Averted: Played for Laughs. Steve enrolls in art school, but when they are supposed to draw a nude model, he barely glances at her.
- Friend to All Children: When he moves into the apartment where he grew up, Steve befriends his 12-year-old neighbor Amari, as well as the boy's single mother.
- Laser-Guided Amnesia: Inflicted upon Cap’s team by the upgraded MODOC, who wipes a full week’s worth of memories from them to keep them all distracted while AIM takes over Manhattan unimpeded.
- Living Legend: The Destroyer is suitably impressed with Bucky. During his training he always heard stories of him, the Great Century Weapon.
- Meaningful Name: Members of the Outer Circle have this.
- The Money's real name is Étien Argent. His given name means "crown"; his surname is French for "silver" or "money".
- The Power's real name is "Fortunov", or "son of Fortune". His first name is Wulf, which needs no explanation.
- The Machine is called Agboje, which means "power" or "practicality". Her first name, Ika, can be short for Erika, which also means "power".
- Interestingly enough, Gavrilo means "god's hero".
- Meet the New Boss: The villain of the second arc of the series is an all-new MODOC (Mental Organism Designed Only for Control), who’s not to be confused with the original MODOK (Mental Organism Designed Only for Killing), despite the fact that they’re both supervillains who are giant telepathic floating heads. Subverted in Issue #9, when it’s revealed that the old MODOK is the new MODOC, as the Outer Circle apparently did…something to him that triggered a new personality to overwrite the original.
- Mythology Gag
- One of Steve's new friends gather intel through his phone. When Steve thanks him, he says he can thank Tony Stark for the awesome StarkTech phone. Steve replies with his much-quoted line from Avengers: Endgame: "No, I don't think I will".
- Peggy informs Bucky that she didn't find him charming before his defection (to Soviet Russia) either. While we haven't really seen them interact before then in the comics, there is always that scene in Captain America: The First Avenger where Bucky flirts with Peggy and she ignores him.
- To the question of whether he can fight on believing redemption is always behind the next punch, Bucky says he can do that all day.
- Sharon is now working for the CIA, like she does in the movies after the fall of SHIELD.
- In issue #7, Sharon wonders if Steve plans to sit on America's ass while events unfold.
- No, You: When the Destroyer tells him he's gonna be nothing, Bucky retorts that it's the Destroyer who's gonna be nothing.
- Parental Abandonment: Amari's dad left them a few years ago, and when A.I.M. takes lower Manhattan by enclosing it in a forcefield, his mother is in Queens and can't get to him.
- The Reveal: The one-shot special reveals the true identity of The Revolution: Gavrilo Princip, the man who assassinated Archduke Franz Ferdinand in June 1914 — an act which single-handedly ignited the First World War.
- Right-Hand Cat: Once Bucky gets a position in the Outer Circle, his white cat Alpine becomes this.
- Rule of Symbolism: In-Universe. Steve brings his shield on his 32-mile morning run because he wants people to see it and what it represents, not him.
- Shown Their Work: As shown in the special, Gavrilo Princip lost his right arm while in prison.
- Significant Birth Date: Subvered. July 4, long held to be Steve's birthday, is revealed in the special to just be part of the Captain America propaganda image, and he was born on a different, undisclosed date.
- Significant Reference Date: The inciting incident happens on the Fourth of July — which also happens to be Steve's birthday.
- Smart People Play Chess: Defied by the Revolution, who finds checkers to be the superior strategy game.
- Symbol Swearing: Subverted by Redacted, whose swearing is redacted instead of censored.
- That Man Is Dead: Once he takes his place in the Outer Circle, Bucky lets the others know that he's no longer Bucky Barnes, the Winter Soldier, or the starpoint.
- Volcano Lair: The shield was forged in one. Steve finds it in Germany.
- Wham Shot:
- Issue #2. Bucky goes to an underground club in Madripoor to seek out information about the secret organization he has unwittingly been working for. He finds Peggy Carter.
- Issue #5. The Revolution tells Steve and Bucky that the person who kills him will be the next Revolution. Steve gets between the two to prevent Bucky from shooting the man. Bucky takes the shot anyway.
