The road Marvel Comics has bring to Secret Empire has see Steve Rogers turn from sleeper broker tofull - on supervillain . But Secret Empire # 1 , out today , goes well beyond that : it makes Captain America complicit in horror so extreme it ’s hard to see how the character can ever return to being the bomber he once was .
Secret Empire # 1 — by Nick Spencer , Steve McNiven , Jay Leisten , Matthew Wilson , and Travis Lanham — doesn’t immediately pick up afterthe event of Secret Empire # 0 , which chronicled the reveal of Captain America ’s deception of his friends , allies , and the globe at large . Instead , it ’s an unspecified number of calendar month after , with Hydra in ascendence of the United States , and Captain America at its question .
Heroes still essay to resist — spearheaded by a group spark advance by Black Widow , Hawkeye , and the A.I. center of Tony Stark go out of a hidden groundwork in the Nevada desert , with the untested Champions run sorties against Hydra patrol in Vegas — but for the fair America citizen , Hydra is now their leader . And while Marvel Comics has blow over accusations ofHydra ’s past links to the Nazis , and evenattempted to traverse the political undertones of Secret Empire , it ’s hard to read Secret Empire # 1 and not draw parallel of latitude between Hydra ’s dominion and the lift of the Nazi company in ‘ 30s Germany . book have been burn in classrooms , history has been rewritten .
Inhumans are being round up and detained in internment camps .
All this , and more , is willingly accept by the populace . betimes on in Secret Empire # 1 , there ’s an logical implication that the populace take Hydra ’s fascist dominion due to low - level psychotropic manipulation , mind - interpolate chemicals included in the fluoride of America ’s water supplies to make the land docile .
But Steve Rogers does n’t have that excuse : he ’s the one issuing these orders , and concur with his villainous council that these actions are necessary for him to hold control until Hydra can find the cosmic cube formerly get it on as Kobik for themselves , and utilize its powers to alter realness to Steve ’s will .
But even then , there are hint of Steve ’s now - inevitable return to the submarine sandwich he once was , even in this grim present of Hydra ’s total domination . A pre - planned day of carry out enemies of the state — including Steve ’s former friend Rick Jones — keep being delayed , much to the chagrin of Steve ’s fellow council members , and the implication is that it ’s because the view of public executions is still a line Steve is hesitating to cross .
That deform out not to be the case , as show in the most gut - churn moments of Secret Empire # 1 . After get a line of one of the Champions ’ less - than - subtle deputation in Las Vegas , and a chat with Madame Hydra reminds Steve of what Hydra is fighting for , Captain America decides it ’s time he showed the populace the strength of his judgment of conviction .
Namely , the public carrying out of his older friend , and — even more horrifically — the obliteration of Las Vegas as penalization for the Italian sandwich ’ continued ohmic resistance .
We do n’t actually see Steve give the order — in comical books , that means there ’s a agency for this to be wriggled out of ; it could be revealed that this was an extreme natural action taken without Steve ’s regard by the rest of the Hydra council , and it ’s something he ’ll disagree with after the fact .
But even if that turns out to be the case , he is the one who get the Hydra Empire to power , and now must be judged by its most shameful and heinous of legal action — action that are far beyond the villainy Steve has engaged in prior to this point in Secret Empire .
Yesterday , Marvel take the unprecedented step ofdelivering a statement to ABC News , pleading for lover to see how Secret Empire go on before recruit any more furious criticism at the serial publication . On top of that , the assertion in a circuitous style “ spoiled ” the climax of Secret Empire , revealing that by the end of it , Captain America will be restored to the torpedo that he always was . The fact that that ’s the case is n’t entirely surprising — it ’s usually what happen in your typical “ good bozo gone bad ” floor .
But can Steve Rogers really turn around from this and add up out of it the same hero he was before this narration ? What will be interesting is to see how whatever follows Secret Empire handles Captain America trying to be a hero again in a world where he ’s have so much pain , end , and death .
Captain AmericaComicsMarvelSecret Empire
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