Even though you’re not a comics fan, there’s a pretty decent likelihood you’ve already heard this news, but if you haven’t: in Marvel’s latest gimmick, they’re revealing that your beloved American patriot was a HYDRA double agent all along.
Yes, that HYDRA, that evil Nazi offshoot organization we’ve spent two Captain America movies hating on. A new Captain America comic series, Captain America: Steve Rogers, reveals in its first issue that Steve Rogers has spent the better part of a century working for said evil Nazi offshoot organization. It turns out Steve’s mom had joined back in the 1920s, and he so happened to follow in his mother’s footsteps. Understandably, Chris Evans isn’t happy.
Hydra?!?!? #sayitaintso
— Chris Evans (@ChrisEvans) May 26, 2016
And according to Marvel writer Nick Spencer (Superman, Spider-Man) and editor Tom Brevoort (Civil War, comics version) interview with Entertainment Weekly, it’s not a different Cap. It’s the same Cap we all know and love. (Well, knew and loved.)
“The one thing we can say unequivocally is: this is not a clone, not an imposter, not mind control, not someone else acting through Steve,” Spencer says in the interview. “This really is Steve Rogers, Captain America himself.” Welp.
One thing’s for sure—it’s all a marketing gimmick to get people interested in the new comic, and it’s working. It’s trolling on a narrative level. Us reporting on this already means it’s working, but here’s why we have to speak up about it: when you really get down to it, this big deal is the sad state of storytelling today. Mere solid, chin-down writing will no longer drive sales and views and high ratings. You have to deliver something big and shocking just for attention’s sake. For shock’s sake. Why do you think Hodor had to hold the door this week?
Never mind that turning Captain America evil means every virtuous thing he’s done, every noble thing he stood up for no longer really means anything. And worse, once the story is over and they’ve done all they wanted to do, they’ll find some way to hit the reset button to go back to status quo ante. Everything means nothing, and it’ll mean even nothing-er because hey, we can retcon all the questionable shit—or even the emotionally resonant shit—away anyway, like Captain America dying at the end of Civil War.
And if comic sales are down that they’d have to resort to something so gimmicky, maybe it’s time comic publishers took a long, hard look at the stories they’ve been telling, and how nothing really changes despite all the promises a reboot brings.
In the meantime, we’ll let Tumblr sum up our feelings for us:
Photo from Geekculture. Image from io9.