There are big time spoilers ahead for today’s issue of Steve Rogers: Captain America! Don’t say you weren’t warned!
For seventy five years, Joe Simon and Jack Kirby’s Captain America was a beacon of the very best ideals of America, regardless of politics. Or at least he was until today, when Marvel’s latest relaunch depicted Cap as the ultimate sleeper agent for Hydra. And now Marvel wants to pretend that writer Nick Spencer’s new take on Cap somehow fits with the character’s long history without resorting to brainwashing or some impostor in the role.
In a new interview with Time Magazine, Marvel editor Tom Brevoort said “Issue 2 kind of winds the clock back a little bit and lays out exactly how and why things are the way they are. And it lays out a roadmap for where things are headed in the future. At this point, I don’t want to say too much definitively because I want people to read the comic books. But people will be able to connect the dots and follow the trail of breadcrumbs.”
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Brevoort added that the twist has been in the works “since the beginning of when Nick started writing the Captain America titles, which would have been the end of 2014. So right around there the conversations first started about this.” To further Cap’s turn to villainy, he murdered one of his sidekicks in the closing pages of the issue.
“On the most fundamental level that the most trusted hero in the Marvel universe is now secretly a deep-cover Hydra operative, a fact that’s really only known to the readers and to him,” related Brevoort. “That makes every interaction he has with anyone take on a second layer, a second meaning.”
Naturally, long time Captain America fans are not going to go for this. But the beauty of comics is that retcons can always make the worst twists go away. Brevoort even hinted that there will be a way out of this turn some time down the road.
“I certainly believe it’s not a gimmick. It’s a story that we spent a long time on, that’s compelling and captures the zeitgeist of the world. It will make readers wonder how the heck we’ll get out of this.”
What do you think about Cap’s new loyalties? Hail Hydra, and share your thoughts in the comment section below!
