Captain America (2016) #1 SPOILERS!!! Major SPOILERS
matchkitJOHN
Posts: 1,030
I walked past it at my comic store but I may get later to see where they go. Then I read an article about it. Geez what the fuck! It does have me intrigued.
Drunk Cap has some splaining to do!
Drunk Cap has some splaining to do!
Comments
If you know:
A - Red Skull currently has the brain and powers of Professor X
B - Hydra didn't exist in 1926
Then the comic reads very different than if you don't know that.
Both of those facts are brought up in Avengers Standoff - Assault On Pleasant Hill Omega, so Spencer clearly wanted to drill that home rather than rely on your Marvel Universe history knowledge.
http://www.ew.com/article/2016/05/25/captain-america-villain-hydra-nick-spencer-tom-brevoort
If you've read Captain America - Sam Wilson #7, then you already know this is a Red Skull plot.
Oh, and when the Tony Stark we all know was killed, Marvel replaced him with a younger version of Stark. A college kid. It is regarded today as one of Marvel's most ridiculous ideas of all time. I think it's safe to say this Cap nonsense will be too, in the years to come.
Reading interviews does not equal reading comics. Things said in press releases may not resemble final storyline.
Red Skull has had the powers since Remender's Uncanny Avengers opening issue, so almost 4 years now. There's also an ongoing sub-plot with Red Skull and Sin in Uncanny Avengers since Duggan took it over. So that's probably going to eventually collide with this book's story, as Steve Rogers is a character in that book too.
NICK SPENCER:
Revealing that Cap has always been an undercover agent for HYDRA is a baffling move, and one which is sure to alienate a lot of fans, me included so I won't be buying it. If it turns out to be a much-heralded 'rebirth' of Captain America, then I can always get it in trade. Still, in a Marvel Universe with no Fantastic Four, a dead Cyclops, and Peter Parker now Tony Stark-lite, this revelation shouldn't come as much of a surprise.
All that still holds if someone has changed history or altered reality. It's sad when it's issue #1 of an ongoing book and you still have to remind people that there is more to the story. But that's Internet Town, Jake. Of course Spencer has to say, "This is what's happening". What's the point of having twists if you have to reassure people there will be twists? And in this era of where everyone thinks Marvel is a bunch of PC SJWs, they are really going to publish an ongoing book about a character created by two patriotic Jews, as a Nazi wrapped in an American Flag?
That's an interview, not a comic.
In the actual comics, the Red Skull, as written by Spencer, has stated Hydra was something brought back by Strucker from the east (this is the established continuity).
This places Cap's memories in this issue in doubt, it cannot have existed in the US in 1926, because it wasn't resurrected until WW2. This is reinforced by a scene in the same comic where Rogers life flashes before his eyes, unsurprisingly these new memories do not feature.
In the actual comics, as written by Spencer, Red Skull secretly saves Steve Roger's life from Zemo during Standoff, because he needs him alive for his greatest triumph.
Anyway you cut it, in the comics, it's a Red Skull plot. The questions for people following up to this point are - what has Red Skull done? And how does it get undone?
For new readers it's - why is this happening?
Don't mistake the marketing for the story. The story already started months ago, this is just the first time anyone noticed it.
Don't get sucked into the hype, let it play out. Try to enjoy the story and see what happens before you jump to conclusions. Don't judge a book by its cover (or the last two words of the first chapter).
I can't wait until I can say "I told you so".
I just figured he was still dead. I mean, a comic book told me he was dead, and comic books don't lie!
;)
At the end of the day, it's Big 2 comics. It's the house that Stan (co-) built, and sold and sold and sold.
It is as likely to stick as anything else meant to provoke and shock. Like dead Steve, old Steve, Wolf Steve, Steve that is addicted to ice, Steve that renounces the uniform and is the Captain, etc. Sure the editors will play the press, just like Stan did. But it's Big 2 comics. This is the game. As Fraction once put it, the job with these never ending serial titles is "to break the toys as artfully as possible before putting them back together again for the next person". This sounds like another angle of that.
M
But comics are on a hamster wheel. You can turn it forward, or backward, even flip it complete upside down, but you'll never really get anywhere. The wheel will turn on this too.
I am not sure how long this can last. Even a year seems unlikely. Cap being undercover secret evil has a lot of possibility but Marvel will probably take the more direct conflict route with everyone finding out the secret. A straight Steve Rodgers villian book probably has a short lifespan.
I dislike his new shield. It just looks unwieldy and Cap not really being able to throw it takes a lot away from the character.
I am not really a good judge on modern comic book art. I would say if you like the current "Marvel style" of art, then you will like this. It doesn't always work for me though. Some panels seem lifeless and sometimes I thought the sequential was missing in the sequential art of this book.
M
Of course its the Red Skull screwing around with Cap's mind, what better way to kick off Cap's 75 anniversary. It's lazy and predictable though.
@David_D may be right, Marvel must have killed off my Captain America back in 2007. The MCU is about all I have left and if the Russo brothers decide to make their version of Steve identify as a Samoan female Nazi, I guess I'll probably be done there too. I checked out of Cap-Wolf,. I checked out on the JRjr run. I can check out on this.
Maybe it force me to grow out of this hobby that I love, but for now, I just won't buy this comic. My Marvel pull-list is pretty thin these days already.