Captain America is currently evil in Marvel's comic book universe, in case you didn't know. He's loyal to Hydra now after having memories of his past reconstructed by the Red Skull and is currently seeking to overthrow Red Skull and lead Hydra himself.
That is, if the rest of the superhero world doesn't learn that he's secretly a villain. Steve Rogers has been working awfully hard to keep his Hydra connections a secret, and in the Civil War II tie-in issue of Captain America: Steve Rogers, fans get to see just how far Steve is willing to go in order to keep his allegiance to the villainous organization hidden.
Spoilers below for Civil War II and Captain America: Steve Rogers #5 below!
Captain America: Steve Rogers #5 is largely a retelling of various Civil War II events from Steve's perspective. As mentioned above, Steve has been hard at work attempting to take Red Skull's place as leader of Hydra, and those plans involve maintaining his cover as Captain America. However, his plans didn't account for the fact that a new Inhuman on the scene, Ulysses, would have the ability to predict the future with what appears to be pinpoint accuracy.
At any given moment, Ulysses might have a vision that reveals Steve to be the evil mastermind that he currently is. Steve attempts to confront Ulysses one-on-one and solve the problem, but is unable to get the Inhuman alone. That throws a wrench in Steve's plans, so he and his associate Erik Selvig come up with a new one, a plan that directly sets up the events of Civil War II #3.
Steven and Erik send none other than the Hulk-free Bruce Banner an anonymous letter and USB drive, a USB drive supposedly containing information regarding how to cure the gamma radiation that creates the Hulks.
It's revealed that this letter puts Bruce on the path to experimenting with gamma radiation on himself in order to find a cure, which in turn leads to Ulysses having a vision about the Hulk killing the Avengers, which then leads to a confrontation that ultimately results in Bruce's death in Civil War II #3. It's from there that the entire Civil War II event spirals out of control, with the gulf between Captain Marvel's pro-vision team and Iron Man's anti-vision team becoming even greater.
Though it's all a little far-fetched (how could Steve know that Bruce experimenting with gamma radiation would cause Ulysses to have a vision?), it works nonetheless. Steve kept his cover, while also causing a massive rift between Marvel's superheroes that is proving to take up most of their attention.
At least until Civil War II #5, which is also addressed in the new issue of Captain America. The final pages of Civil War II #5 show yet another vision from Ulysses broadcasted to all nearby heroes, a vision that clearly shows Miles Morales killing Steve Rogers.
Of course, none of the heroes who experience the vision have any idea why a good kid like Miles would murder one of the most iconic superheroes of all time. It seems likely Miles learns of Steve's secret allegiance to Hydra and kills him for it.
That puts Steve in a mighty tricky situation. Now other heroes will be investigating why Miles would want to kill him, and they might not have to look too hard to find the reason. That being said, Miles will be under plenty of suspicion himself. Steve will have to tread carefully if he wants to emerge from the event with his Hydra secret intact, and that will likely mean throwing Miles under the bus.
Civil War II #6 and Captain America: Steve Rogers #6 both arrive on Oct. 26, so expect more answers then.
