Avengers Assemble! Followed By The Echo of Gunfire: A Review of Secret Empires #1

Welcome back to another edition of Comic Relief! where I talk about all the goings on in the world of nerd.

On May 25, 2016, Marvel made a huge reveal to the world. A reveal that felt like an act of terrorism in the comic community. In the finale of Captain America: Steve Rogers #1, the titular character declared an allegiance to the evil organization of Hydra (comic book super Nazis essentially). The internet exploded, and to be frank, at a moment on the cusp of a troubling election, my heart broke. It was a complete betrayal of everything that Joe Simon and Jack Kirby had done in creating him. However, since then the series has become one of my favorite runs Marvel has ever done. Every issue is an emotional roller coaster, teetering on the hope that Captain America would overcome whatever had been done, that it was all a trick, and what's worse is that the way Spencer writes makes you feel like the old Steve is still there. However, instead you see this Hydra Cap using the qualities that made Steve the hero he was to betray and back stab all of his friends to further his agenda. Now all of those actions have culminated in his success in Secret Empire #1.

Following the aftermath of Secret Empire #0 (where Steve Rogers takes over the country and gets rid of the most powerful heroes who could stand against him), the issue starts off in a classroom. They are covering history and immediately you get to see just how much has changed in such a short time. Already the youths of the country are being told that Arnim Zola, not Abraham Erskine, was the scientist that designed that designed the super soldier serum for Steve Rogers, that the Allies LOST World War II but on the eve of defeat rewrote reality with their super weapon called a cosmic cube. The plans of Steve Rogers have come to fruition and it seems he is all but untouchable at this point. While Steve has kept some old allies around, most are in hiding and are being hunted. Hawkeye and Black Widow run a safe house in California for them and other super powered individuals. This is not the focus of the issue though. Captain Marvel, Alpha Flight, and the new Ultimates are stuck out in space facing an endless Chitauri hoard while they are prevented from returning home by the very tool that Captain Marvel implemented to save Earth from the Chitauri: The global defense shield.

Where the issue mainly focuses on is the impending execution of former compatriot Rick Jones, who for a time dawned the mantle of Bucky alongside Steve, but had since been a hacker that worked with Steve. He is being executed for seemingly delivering the "secret" to undoing all that Steve had done (of which I will theorize here in the second part of the article). Alongside that the issue focuses on the fact that Steve is not happy. This is a cause that Hydra Cap has devoted his life too, and he has accomplished it, so why does he look and feel so empty?

If you look at Steve's expression he almost looks ashamed

The issue has a very stirring finale. Steve Rogers sits in the chair of the oval office making an announcement, captioned with:

"It was a speech everyone said they'd never forget. But the truth is if you pressed them... no one could recite more than a few words of it back to you. They'd just tell you where they were... and how it changed them. We'd fallen so far... seen everything we believed in collapse and vanish. Evil had finally won."

Rick Jones is simultaneously marched out before his firing squad. He stares them in the eyes, and with a final cry of defiance he screams: AVENGERS ASSEMBLE! the guns fire, his body is limp, bloody, and the smoke from the bullet holes steam from within him. However, as it says in the book itself, the nightmare was just beginning, and with that the Hydra conquest for the world begins followed by those dreaded words of things to come: "to be continued."

This is an incredibly dark first issue of a very compelling arc. Honestly I don't feel I could ever do this issue justice with my summary, and to be frank I didn't even touch the scene between Rick and Steve because it's one that should be read, not described. However, what I want to do now is take a quick minute to do some theorizing.

Just How Will Hydra Cap Come To An End?

I feel this has been a question that fans have been wondering since the beginning, some with more enthusiasm then others, people want Steve back to who he was. In times like these characters like Steve Rogers shine brightest because they resemble all the good that people have faith in, so honestly this arc has a lot of people hurting. However, I am happy to tell you that this is all on the verge of ending, and I'd wager that we will see it's end before the end of the arc. 

Now the Hydra Cap arc is one that has been expanded over several titles: Captain America: Sam Wilson, Captain America: Steve Rogers, Civil War II, Civil War II: The Oath, Thunderbolts, and US Avengers. All that being said, I feel the secret to Steve returning to normal lies in the way he became Hydra Cap. Now according to Hydra Cap, and there is genuine real world (by that I mean existing within the 616) implications that this is the case, the Allies were on the verge of losing WWII thanks to his efforts as a sleeper agent to Hydra, when they created a cosmic cube and rewrote the history of the war. However, I believe it's more than that. In a recent issue of Thunderbolts, Kobik (the sentient cosmic cube girl who restored Steve and turned him into Hydra Cap) tries to do the same thing to Bucky in order to "fix him." Bucky is transported back to that mission where he and Cap went under ice, except this time it's just him strapped to the rocket and when Steve comes into the light he reveals himself to be Hydra and extends his hand for Bucky to join. Bucky refuses and Kobik pauses the reality and explains he has to say yes, just like Steve did to become the Hydra Cap. Bucky then screams at Kobik for ruining everything, however, that's not the part I want to focus on. Steve Rogers agreed to this Hydra rewrite, it had to be HIS choice, so what exactly is it that made him say yes?

I believe the answer to this actually lies in the pages of the last issue of Captain America: Steve Rogers. The Steve Rogers we all have come to appreciate is a man of conviction and morality. However, he has an Achilles' heel for the ones that he cares about. Now if their is one person that we can attribute his morality to, it's his mother. Her never back down attitude, and her early demise and last words (beautifully depicted during the Rick Remender run on the character) are what defined Steve's attitude and moral compass. So there is no doubt that when Kobik was showing him this alternative history, for 99.9 percent of it he resisted, that was until this moment below:

In the "history" where Hydra would have won, Steve's mother would never have died. Now, while this may not have been something his mother would have wanted, the overwhelming emotion of this scene would have certainly been enough to cloud Steve's judgement in the moment. Now, that brings us to this issue of Secret Empire. Hydra Steve has won. He has conquered the country, and driven his enemies to the wind, so why does he look like someone sent him a video on infinite loop of someone kicking his favorite puppy? The answer is actually in the pages of Civil War II: The Oath. Steve tells an unconscious Tony Stark that while he is different, the Steve Rogers he knew was still inside as well.  Something tells me that the Steve we know is going to start to fight for supremacy, because no matter how much he might love his mom, it is not enough for him to ignore the pain and destruction he is causing his friends.

Either way you slice this cake, if what we saw in the first issue of Secret Empire is any indication on how this arc is going to go, then it is going to be a must not miss.

This has been another edition of Comic Relief! See you again soon!