America investigated the disappearance of Mexican teenager Joaquin Torres after he was abducted by the Sons of the Serpent. After fighting Armadillo and capturing the leader of the hate group, Captain America discovered that Joaquin was being used in the experiments of Karl Malus who turned Joaquin into a bird/human hybrid using Captain America's pet bird Redwing. When Karl Malus was defeated, Captain America took Joaquin in. When it was discovered Joaquin's bird/human hybrid condition wasn't temporary, Captain America learned from Claire Temple that Joaquin's condition was permanent due to Redwing being vampiric and sporting a healing factor. When Captain America was captured by the Serpent Society and thrown out the window by Viper, he was saved by Joaquin. Using his link with Redwing, Captain America telepathically sent Joaquin the knowledge on how to fight where he held his own until Misty Knight and Demolition Man showed up. After the Serpent Society was defeated, Captain America allowed Joaquin to become his sidekick, enabling him to become the new Falcon. During the 2016 "Avengers: Standoff!" storyline, Sam, after defeating the Green Skull, is contacted by Whisperer (an alias of Rick Jones). After meeting Whisperer, he learns that S.H.I.E.L.D. never discarded the Kobik project as he thought they did. He meets with Steve Rogers, where they follow a lead to a town in Connecticut and are later picked up by S.H.I.E.L.D. agents. He then meets the Winter Soldier and rescue S.H.I.E.L.D. agent Avril Kincaid from the Blood Brothers, who informs them of a super-weapon hidden in the town that Baron Zemo and the other villains are looking for. They then head to the bowling alley where Kobik uses her powers to restore Steve Rogers to his prime when he was about to be killed by Crossbones. They begin looking for Kobik again only to discover that Baron Zemo had Fixer invent a device that would help find Kobik as Kraven the Hunter rallies the villains to help with their goals. Upon not being able to successfully locate Kobik, Steve Rogers decides to rally the heroes so that they can take the fight to Baron Zemo. In the aftermath of the incident, Steve and Sam plan to keep what happened at Pleasant Hill under wraps at the time being. After the "Standoff!" storyline, Sam begins to face public pressure to return the shield and mantle of Captain America to Steve, as does Maria