Captain America: Sentinel of Liberty #4 (2022)

[CAPTAIN AMERICA: SENTINEL OF LIBERTY #4

Writers: Jackson Lanzing and Collin Kelly

Artist: Carmen Carnero

Cover Artists: Carmen Carnero and Alejandro Sanchez]

Back in Brooklyn after his epic battle at The Forge, Steve goes to check up on Bucky, who is deep into figuring out the conspiracy situation with Alpine's help --

“If you’ve got some clever espionage skills you’ve been hiding,

now would be the time. Or maybe you could be the very best cat

and go down to the bodega, pick me up some more aspirin…”

Alpine AKA The Best Girl

in Sentinel of Liberty (2022)

[art and text

found at abuckygirl]

Steve and Bucky finally pool their intel. Steve tells Bucky about the Outer Circle comprised of five all-powerful individuals called The Money, The Power, The Machine, The Love and The Revolution, who play the world like it's a game using encrypted messages and pawns. They intended to use Captain America as a pawn too but the Shield's creator tried to stop that (and warn Steve) by putting their conspiracy symbol on the Shield to expose them.

Bucky tells Steve that five assassins called Starpoints (corresponding to the Shield's central star) exist to enforce the Outer Circle's cruel game and twisting of history. The Winter Soldier is one of them. Bucky and Steve share a tender bonding moment and then formulate a plan to fight the Outer Circle together.

[found at crying-over-supersoldiers]

The New Destroyer which Steve and Bucky fought in issue #1 is also a Starpoint, and so is the silver metal superpower adversary which Steve fought at The Forge (whose name, it turns out, is The Redacted). The Redacted has followed Steve to Brooklyn and they engage in another epic battle. Steve tells The Redacted that he is neither a monster nor a machine but a person with a sense of moral decency (doesn't want to kill kids or inflict unnecessary collateral damage) and persuades The Redacted to choose to help Bucky and him defeat the Outer Circle instead of serving them.

So it appears that the Achilles Heel of the Outer Circle is the existence of Free Will. People are not just pawns of the Outer Circle unless they choose to be.

Hmmm. Is that really the case?