Steve Rogers Abandons the Captain America Identity Again

As the Power Elite's plan to ruin Captain Americacontinues to unfold, Steve Rogers has relinquished his costumed mantle and turned himself in for the murder of Thaddeus 'Thunderbolt' Ross.

January's Captain America #7 sees Selene Gallio meet with former Hydra leader Baron von Strucker, who now runs the Myrmidon, a private penal facility for the physically enhanced.

Selene questions if the prison is capable of holding Rogers, to which Strucker answers it will hold the framed Avenger long enough for Selene to receive what she hopes to get out of rendering her services to Alexa Lukin, head of the Power Elite cabal.

Steve and Sharon Carter meet with Bernadette 'Bernie' Rosenthal, Steve's old flame, as news goes public Captain America is wanted for questioning.

Whether Captain America's shield was held by best friends Bucky Barnes or Sam Wilson, "the shield was constant," Steve says. "And now it seems so obvious. Disgrace the shield and you disgrace the dream."

Steve admits his last meeting with Ross grew heated, but his alibi — that he was with girlfriend Sharon the night of the murder — is verifiable only by Sharon, who Steve suspects was sent into an ambush under the orders of Ross and a Lukin-controlled government.

Worse still, Bernie says, there's no official record of the mission where Sharon's supposed betrayal occurred.

Despite Sharon raising the point there's not a shred of physical evidence pointing to Rogers as the killer, Bernie reports Ross died with his back turned to the window and his spine was nearly severed.

"The blow was delivered with an incredible amount of force by a disk-like object," Bernie says, fingering Captain America's shield as the suspected murder weapon.

When Bernie suggests Steve get ahead of a warrant and turn himself over to the authorities, avoiding a fugitive status, Sharon opposes the move.

Meanwhile, Bucky tears through occupants of the Bar With No Name in search of Ross' true murderer.

The bloodied and battered bar goers have no answers, nor does supervillain the Owl, who criticizes Bucky for his violent vigilantism.

Sharon reports Bucky was unable to come up with a single lead, causing Steve to make his decision. The problem, Steve says, didn't start with Hydra using Captain America as the face of its Supreme Leader, but instead goes back further to his opposition of the Superhero Registration Act and his days as the rebelling Nomad and the Captain.

"How can I claim to serve my country when I constantly oppose it?" Steve asks. "How long can I carry this shield and fight the government that entrusted me with it?"

"You don't serve any 'government,' Steve. You serve a country," Sharon says. "And a country needs ideals. It needs dreams."

Answers Steve, "And what are the contents of those dreams? Freedom. Democracy. The right of people to choose."

Sharon says she can't stop him, but she's not going to let it go or stop fighting.

"I know, Sharon," Steve says. "In fact, I'm counting on it."

As Steve entrusts the shield to Sharon's care, Lukin views a news update: Captain America has turned himself over to police.

An arms-crossed Nick Fury Jr. stands in the corner of an interrogation room. Steve, now suited in the orange jump suit of a prisoner, is resistant to questioning about the shield.

Despite the shield being the "probable murder weapon," Steve says he lost it.

In his thoughts, Steve explains why he's submitted — for now — to the status of a convict.

"The name had been marred. The shield was lost. But believe it or not, there are things in this world older than Captain America," he says.

Meanwhile, Sharon makes her way underground.

"And what I was, what I represented, was a need as old as humanity itself. And the need for freedom, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, well, it is forever. You see, they could kill a dreamer. But they could never kill the dream."

"They could jail the revolutionary," Steve says. "But they could never jail the revolution."

Sharon makes her way deeper underground and emerges in a lab.

"Aeternum fillies, sisters. Again the Dryad summons us," she says. "Again the ancient serpent arises."

A portal in the center of the room crackles to life.

The Invisible Woman, White Tiger, Mockingbird, Echo, Misty Knight, Dr. Annabelle Riggs and the Jessica Drew Spider-Woman emerge out of nothingness.

"And the Daughters of Liberty rise to meet it," Drew says, ready for the revolution.

"Captain of Nothing" continues in Captain America #8, available February 27.