Captain America #14 — Chip Zdarsky and Ton Lima Unleash Steve Rogers and Doom on a Soul-Binding Quest

Steve Rogers and Victor Von Doom share a battlefield in Chip Zdarsky’s run, hunting a weapon that can kill a demon. It’s a high-stakes alliance with Valerio Schiti’s cover art setting the tone. Here’s why this issue is a must-read.

There is a certain electric tension that comes from watching Steve Rogers and Victor Von Doom standing back-to-back. You know they don’t like each other. You know their methods clash. But when the threat is big enough, and the stakes involve souls and demons, even the world’s greatest hero and its most notorious villain have to find common ground. That’s the delicious friction Chip Zdarsky has been building, and in issue #14, that friction turns into a blaze.

The setup is pure mythic scale. Steve and Doom are bound together in a war zone that feels unfamiliar and dangerous, hunting for a weapon called the Antidivine. This isn’t just a sword; it’s a tool powerful enough to destroy Mephisto himself. That’s a heavy target. And naturally, because this is the Marvel Universe, they aren’t the only ones looking for it. Someone else has their eyes on the prize, setting the stage for a three-way scramble where trust is the first casualty.

What makes this issue sing is the creative synergy. Ton Lima’s art brings a gritty, lived-in texture to the war zone that makes the supernatural stakes feel grounded and immediate. You can feel the weight of the mission in every panel. But the real draw is the character work. Watching Steve try to navigate Doom’s complex history, especially when Doom’s first love is involved, adds a layer of emotional vulnerability we don’t often see in these cosmic battles. It’s personal, it’s intense, and it’s handled with Zdarsky’s signature insight.

If you’ve been riding the wave of this run, you know Zdarsky has a knack for taking familiar icons and putting them in moral gray areas that feel earned. This issue doesn’t just add to that; it deepens it. The dynamic between Steve’s idealism and Doom’s pragmatism, tested by a supernatural threat, is the kind of storytelling that makes you turn pages just to see how they resolve the immediate conflict, let alone the larger arc.

One thing to keep in mind: the cover by Valerio Schiti is a stunner, but it’s just the tip of the iceberg. The interior art by Ton Lima carries the visual weight, and the variant covers are moving fast, so if you’re looking for that Schiti variant, it’s worth grabbing while it’s still on the shelf. This is one of those issues that stands out in a run full of highlights, so don’t sleep on it.