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dageek87 · 7 years

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Nick Spencer doesn’t read about the comic book characters he writes: A treatise

Ok. So fans have gotten a lot of recent news about the upcoming Secret Empire event. Needless to say, the girls are not pleased. It seems as though the new Hydra contingent will not only be headed up by Steve Rogers but that the Master of Magnetism himself, Magneto, will be amongst the Hydra rank and file.

I remember back in the days of 2016 when the first issue of Steve Rogers: Captain America came out. There was a civil war (teehee) amongst the fandom about Steve being revealed as a Hydra agent. The against camp argued that it was an insult for Captain America, THE CAPTAIN AMERICA to be an agent of a Nazi Death Cult considering he was made by 2 Jewish people (Jack Kirby and Joe Simon, also WW2 veterans) to fight said Nazis. The for camp then countered with creative license and give the story a chance and technically they’ve done this story before.

I was firmly in the against camp. Not only was it insulting to the Jewish creators, readers, fans, etc. It also didn’t make sense to me as I understood the character. The thing that makes the charater is his moral center. It is unshakeable not just because he was raised right or his life experiences. He is the way he is because he is. He would be Steve Rogers: Captain America regardless of anything. The man is incorruptable and he always bends to the side of goodness. Much like Tony Stark’s true superpower is his intelligence, Steve Rogers’s true superpower is his moral compass. This is why, depending on the times or the issues, Captain America is either with you or against you. And if he is against you, you are wrong.

However, after hearing all of these glowing “reviews” about the story, I relented and read. Don’t ask how I read the books. SHHH! Just don’t think about it! And my determination is that Nick Spencer’s run on Captain America and Marvel’s all around new direction with the character is good...if you don’t think about it too hard.

Like, no joke, if you know even a modicum about the CA continuity and that branch of the Marvel Universe, the story falls apart. While I was reading the comic, I was thinking wow this would be a great story if it was anyone else. The facts about Steve Rogers do not match up to any of his actions in the story. So here’s my issues and complaints.

SPOILERS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

1. It is revealed in the 1st issue, that Elisa Sinclair is a woman in his altered memories that turned Sarah Rogers, Steve’s mother, into a Hydra activist. Elisa engineers both Steve’s parents murders and absconds with Steve to Europe. 1st of all it’s public record that Steve’s parents died of disease. In the story they have yet to explain what happened to Steve’s grandfather (who was still alive when he was a child) or Steve’s childhood friend, Arnold Roth. This creates a problem because both characters would notice his kidnapping and fingers would be pointed at the weird woman who was constantly hanging around the house. Who also suddenly disappeared.

2. It is revealed in the run that Steve was sent to a Hydra school after he was kidnapped by Elisa. He develops a friendship with one Helmut Zemo, when Zemo defends him from some bullies. This is framed as a mirror of MCU Steve Rogers’s relationship with MCU Bucky. However, in the continuity, Helmut wasn’t even alive at the time. He was born well after CA “died.”

3. In the 1st issue, Steve tosses Jack Flagg from a plane leading to his death. Not only was it unnecessary, it was down right fucked up. Regardless what happens next, Steve killed an innocent man. On purpose. How can the character recover from that?

4. Then there is the issue of the serum. Spencer already set up that in the alternative memories that Steve didn’t get the Super Soldier Serum from Erskine. But the explaination doesn’t hold up under examination. The serum is designed to work on a mentally, emotionally, (morally?) perfect human. It’s almost magic. All other versions of the serum have failed to varying degrees on EVERYONE ELSE. Including the near perfect Isaiah Bradley because of flaws in character. If Steve was trained to be a morally corrupt nazi, wouldn’t the serum fail him too?

5. Kobik is the key to all of this and that is a PROBLEM. Mind you, Kobik’s character is so vaguely and poorly written by multiple writers, we don’t really know how exactly her powers work. I mean she has the power to turn Steve into...this with no resistance from him at all. We learn that she can change anything into something else in the Thunderbolts comics. She is the Cosmic Cube in the form of a 4 year old girl, whatever the fuck that’s supposed to mean. And she has been turned by the likes of the goddamn Red Skull?! I get it she’s 4, but either she’s a child or a god. Either she can competently weild her powers or not. And depending on who’s writing her, it’s either or.

6. Then there’s the biggest problem of all: Steve Rogers’s friends and the rest of the superhero community. Bucky has been knowing Steve for years. Sharon and Steve share a bed. And Sam has done both (no joke). If anyone knows anything about Steve, it’s them. So there’s no real reason that they haven’t found it out yet. The only person who know’s Steve has been brainwashed is Kobik, Red Skull and a brainwashed Eric Selvig. The people who know him the least. Now to be fair, they tried to explain why his friends wouldn’t suspect him. But that dog ain’t hunting. Especially with Bucky, who knows firsthand what someone being turned looks like.

I could go on. It seems that Nick Spencer is a shock value type of writer. He writes something shocking in one issue then tries to make it make sense later and it is not working out. It also seems like this dude really doesn’t like the character and really wanted to write him in the worst light. Spencer has written a conniving, power hungry, meglomaniac, who hates doing his own dirty work. There is nothing honorable about this Captain America. Nothing is redeemable about this Captain America. And that’s the point. Nick Spencer, much like Zach Snyder and Frank Miller with Superman, wanted to break this character. Because it is fun. It’s exicting to put our dark fantasies into the mouths of our icons. It certainly is easier to write.

But therein lies the problem with life and comics. No one walks away from their wrongdoings clean. Hank Pym didn’t get redeemed after he beat Janet Van Dyne. We’re still talking about how Iron Man betrayed and imprisoned his friends during the 1st Civil War. This fall from grace that the original Captain America is facing is a fall in the worst way. Because it is not him, mainly. But also, this a fall he won’t be able to walk away from. I legit don’t know what they can do with Steve Rogers after this except kill the character and put him on the self. For them to go be to the way he was: the occasionally self- righteous but good at heart Pater Familias would ring hypocritical. It would be unearned.

And now he wants to do this same thing to one Eric Lensherr. I hate Hydra Cap and I am sad that the character came to this. But making Magneto Hydra is the greatest slap in the face to the people who made comics what it is today. People have this notion that Magneto is a bad guy because he hates humans. This is a false equivalency that is shared with his inspiration Malcolm X. See they hate so they are just as bad as their enemies. This is All Lives Matter at its worst. Magneto has a right to be hostile! Humanity, in particular the Nazis, killed the whole of his family. Humanity was the reason his current family is broken. He lost his whole life to the bigotry of man, so you damn right he hates humanity. He learned how to hate and kill (to paraphrase) from the foot of his masters! Magneto is an adversary, he is an antagonist, he may sometimes even be a villian. But a bad man? How could he be when everything he does is for the betterment of his PEOPLE! The people who are being killed due to bigotry and bottom lines. And now the alledged House of Ideas is lumping him in with a group of people he fought his whole life against?! A group of people who wouldn’t hesitate to kill super Jewish ass?! If anybody was to be the hero of this Nazi Death Cult takeover story, IT’S MAX GODDAMN EISENHARDT because NOBODY knows better what Hydra is capable of than him!

Now, I’m hot. Let me wrap this up. I don’t want anybody to get me wrong. I would love to see twists and changes in these characters. Stasis is the death of characters like these because they do not live and die in just one book. They are legacies, passed down through the years. So long as there are new and interesting stories to tell, they should be told. Or else they go the way of Prince Valiant or the Shadow. But these characters don’t just belong completely to one person. They belong to the company, yes. But without the consumer, without the fan. They are worthless. And there is only so much you can bend, and ignore the history of the character until you have warped it for good. Stories have meaning and a bad story leaves everyone worse off. My best advice to people who are mad at the direction Marvel is going with these characters is to read up and watch the stories where they get it right. Then write, draw, envision the characters the way you see fit (within the legal limits though). And lastly use your power as a consumer to show the company the way. Boycott this event. Support other artist who are doing the work and telling the stories, especially if they’re women and POC. Hell, I might have to fall on the sword and see what the Distinguished Competition is up to. Maybe they will fix it, maybe they won’t but it doesn’t have to be something you tolerate.

Fin

#nick spencer #captain america #hydra cap #magneto #secret empire #longest i have ever wrote about comics

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