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As the saying goes, you can’t make an omelette without breaking a few eggs — and, as it turns out, you can’t make a superhero event without breaking a few deadlines. Case in point: Marvel hasn’t just replaced the co-stars of the upcoming Captain America #6 as it reworks the series to more closely tie-in with its upcoming Armageddon event, it’s also pushed the book a month out on its publishing schedule, as well.

Some context may be necessary to understand what’s happening here. In August, Marvel announced that Captain America #6 would launch the second storyline in the relaunched series by writer Chip Zdarsky and artist Valerio Schiti in December by bringing the series into the present day — the first storyline takes place in Cap’s past — and tying it into the aftermath of the One World Under Doom storyline by introducing the United Captains. At the time, the team was described by the publisher as “loyal Super-Solders” to the United Nations Security Council. In addition to Captain America, the team would consist of new characters Captain Kingdom (representing the UK), Captain France, Red Widow (Russia), and The Star (China).

As per Marvel’s announcement at the time, the team would “assemble with Captain America to keep Latveria from falling into chaos, but upon infiltrating the unstable — and highly advanced — country, their true motives will be revealed.” The storyline would begin in Captain America #6, with art by Frank Alpizar and Delio Diaz, to be released on December 17.

Unfortunately, their true motives look set to remain a mystery... just like the team itself. On November 7, Marvel announced a change to the issue: the United Captains were no more, and instead, the issue will feature the return of S.H.I.E.L.D., the spy organization not seen in the comic book Marvel Universe since the Secret Empire storyline in 2017. In the press release announcing the change, writer Zdarsky said, “When we first announced plans for the second arc of this Cap run, I had a different idea in mind for the team supporting Steve. But when the possibility of a new S.H.I.E.L.D. came along, we just hit the ground running.”

Marvel editor-in-chief C.B. Cebulski added, “Ever since S.H.I.E.L.D. disbanded almost 10 years ago, the idea of bringing it back has come up at every creative retreat we’ve had. We’ve been working on the return of S.H.I.E.L.D. for a long time, and especially so over the past few months since our most recent creative retreat. After digging more into this Captain America story with Chip, Valerio, and our teams, it became clear that this was the right story and right time to do so. And with this year being the 60th anniversary since S.H.I.E.L.D.’s debut, we thought it was even more fitting to make this happen.”

There are two other changes to the issue that are worth noting — the revised cover now explicitly teases that the storyline is leading into Summer 2026’s Armageddon storyline (also written by Zdarsky), and the change to the storyline has delayed the comic by a month; it will now release January 21, 2026.

On the one hand, it’s not uncommon that details change in stories between original concept and publication, and it’s worth noting that Marvel announced and promoted the United Captains four months before the issue was set to be released, unusually. On the other, the early announcement of a group of new characters that, for the most part — the Red Widow has moved allegiance from the United Captains to S.H.I.E.L.D. as part of this rethink — seem set to no longer even appear is uncommon, and somewhat surprising; the early announcement suggested that the characters would be important to the Marvel Universe moving forward, but apparently not so important that they can’t be quietly folded away into limbo when a better idea comes along.

Perhaps even more surprising is how late this change seems to have been made at Marvel. The original version of Captain America #6 was part of the December 2025 advance announcements made by the publisher on September 18. As late as October 23, when the January 2026 issues were announced by the publisher, Captain America #6 was not on the list. (Neither, notably, was Captain America #7.) As Armageddon comes together across the next few months ahead of its June 2026 launch, it’ll be worth paying attention to whether other Marvel titles will be similarly impacted by revised storylines and delays as moves are made behind the scenes to set up the new status quo.

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