Issue #11 of Captain America: Sam Wilson sees Cap choose a side in the Civil War-sized battle of wills between Iron Man and Captain Marvel.

Captain America: Sam Wilson follows the adventures of the former Falcon as he wields the shield as Captain America, a legacy passed on to him by Steve Rogers himself, after Steve was removed of his serum and de-aged. Writer Nick Spencer is responsible for carrying on both Steve and Sam’s stories concurrently, and even though Steve’s back in action, Sam continues to serve as Cap in tandem with his old partner, putting his own spin on what it means to be a true patriot.

Previously, in ‘Captain America: Sam Wilson’…

Most recently, Sam’s story was home to the most emotional event of the Civil War II arc so far – the funeral of Colonel James Rhodes, aka War Machine, killed in action while fighting alongside Captain Marvel to defend Earth from a threat predicted by the Inhuman Ulysses.

Rhodey was Tony Stark’s best friend and Carol Danvers’ lover, so the leaders of each new Civil War faction both have cause for enormous personal heartbreak over this loss, but Marvel chose to highlight the grief of the black community over the loss of a hero like Colonel Rhodes by producing an issue that focused on this perspective. Sam came together with many other black superheroes including Storm, Luke Cage and Black Panther to arrive as a unit to Rhodey’s funeral, and after reflecting privately on what it meant to be a black Captain America — something everyone in-universe has been trying very hard to pretend isn’t all that big a deal, except that it very much is — he delivered the eulogy to a crowd of thousands outside Philadelphia’s A.M.E. Church.

The events of the memorial were bookended in issue #10 by an update on the other major issues that Sam currently faces – due to his taking sides on a number of partisan issues, he’s dealing with increased criticism of the right-wing media, amplifying public opinion that he isn’t a worthy Captain America. He’s also just gotten wind of a new threat — the Americops, a private policing initiative dreamed up by businessman Paul Keane and backed by senator Tom Herald. Their faceless army was deployed in high-crime neighborhoods and has immediately been accused of profiling and excessive violence. Civil unrest is growing, and it’s caught the attention of former New Warrior Rage, who’s a walking, talking example of “it does what it says on the tin.”

“Even when you’re right, you’re an…”

Captain America: Sam Wilson #11 opens on our leading man commenting on the conflict that appears to be escalating at every turn. Aside from the major rift opening between his Avenging colleagues, Sam is in the midst of trying to figure out what to do about his Americops problem. Dozens of citizens are using the Captain America hotline — a service Sam set up when he parted ways with S.H.I.E.L.D. and became a free agent — to report the danger and discord that the droid-like authority figures are bringing to local neighborhoods.

Sam and his team — the bionic-armed detective Misty Knight, former pro-wrestler turned gadget guy Dennis Dunphy, and the brand-new Falcon, who’s actually a genetic falcon hybrid, Joaquin Torres — recount the creation and implementation of the Americops by Keane and Herald, and the fact that Herald got a bill passed that forces federal law enforcement to share resources with the Americops. They sift through the claims that were sent into the hotline for hard evidence of unlawful targeting, as Sam’s very reluctant to rush headfirst into a political situation without proof, especially with “the other thing” going on — the other thing being the drama surrounding Tony, Carol and Ulysses in Civil War II.

During separate one-one-one missions with Iron Man and Captain Marvel, both faction leaders try to recruit Sam to their cause, pitching why they’re right and why the other’s attitude is a problem. However, Sam’s main question is one we’re all asking — how does it work? How does Ulysses’ ability to predict future events manifest itself? In a beautiful set of juxtaposing panels, craftily illustrated by Daniel Acuña, Tony and Carol explain why or why not “how it works” matters, with Carol claiming that the fact that it does work and could help should be enough, and with Tony applying scientific reason to theorize that Ulysses doesn’t actually see the future, his mind determines predictions from processing some sort of algorithm of probability and statistical averages.

This is where I know that Tony’s hooked Sam, because like it or not, if Tony’s logic holds up, what Ulysses can do — best intentions or no — is nothing more than profiling, a problematic idea at the best of times, and particularly sensitive to Sam right now. Carol reveals that she hasn’t convinced as many allies as she’d have liked, but also claims that she has stopped caring what people think, which sounds like a dangerously arrogant path to follow, and it gets worse when her spiel spins into something resembling the stance taken by a growing number of politicians, comedians, pundits, writers and other public figures — that operating within the constraints of “political correctness” is holding us back as a society. However, Sam admits, “I do hate being on his side,” a feeling exacerbates when Tony — on a totally unrelated tack, of course – offers to bankroll Sam’s base of Captain America operations.

Continuing with the directness and transparency that have characterized Sam’s tenure as Cap so far, he films a video to lay out his position on the public disagreement between Iron Man and Captain Marvel, coming down hard against Carol’s plan of “profiling the future.” However, he’s interrupted by urgent calls from his team to come check out the current news broadcast, which features Rage being taken into custody for attacking the Americops in his Brooklyn neighborhood.

Rage — real name Elvin Halliday — was thirteen years old when he fell into toxic waste that morphed his body (but not his mind) into that of a gigantic, super-strong, adult-aged man. He’s usually fought on the side of good, but, as Sam explains, the name says it all. Defending his less-empowered neighbors, a verbal confrontation between Rage and the Americops — who appear to truly be robotic, mechanical beings, not human — turns violent. Camera phones come out, CNN gets on the scene, and Captain America, despite his trepidation, flies out to intervene, the awareness that he’s about to take another big stand while the world watches weighing heavily on him.

Meanwhile, yet another new potential threat looms. In the books’s closing scene, a military team debates their plan of attack on an alleged terrorist cell, and their leader exhibits his scorn for drone strikes — not because he’s a humanitarian, but for the blood-thirsty reason of not getting to see the target’s faces as they’re killed. This unpleasant character cuts a familiar figure – his silhouette, with cowl and shield, looks just like Captain America, original flavor, but that can’t be — Sam carries the traditional round shield these days. Even with Steve’s recent transformation into a Hydra devotee, this isn’t him — it’s John Walker, U.S. Agent, and that means we’re in big trouble.

U.S. Agent was created in the 1980s as a direct foil to Captain America, to counter the character’s themes of patriotic ideals being a good thing. In the past, U.S. Agent has been both hero and villain, and in his first appearances tried to publicly discredit Steve Rogers, but he later actually served as Cap himself. Given that Sam is currently upsetting a lot of people with his own interpretation of what his patriotic duty means, perhaps some of his detractors seek to replace him with a patriot with very different values.

Who are The Americops? We’re promised answers the next time we catch up with Sam – are they man, machine, some freaky combination of both? Also, #givebacktheshield is still trending. Is that why the Senate’s got U.S. Agent on the line?

Captain America: Sam Wilson #12 will be released on Wednesday, August 17.