Jeff Mace, an alternate Captain America, has a conversation with Elder of the Universe, the Contemplator. Facing his own mortality and an end to his costumed days, Mace and Steve Rogers take on the past to face a costly future.
When the original Patriot is diagnosed with a terminal illness, his greatest regret is that he never lived up to the challenge of being Captain America. The Contemplator decides to rectify this by transporting him and the other three men who served as Captain America to an alternate universe in which Adam II has enslaved humanity and replaced most the them with subservient androids.
