Captain America, Agent of HYDRA: My Two Cents

Short little post before X-Men: Apocalypse. Marvel has just ‘revealed’ in their latest issue of Captain America that Steven Rogers has been a HYDRA Agent since before being inoculated with the Super Soldier Serum. I thought about getting up on my soapbox, decrying this change as being offensive, disgusting, and just plain wrong. But, there are plenty of other folks doing that right now. Got to love the Internet. Instead, I’d like to be a voice of reason.

Marvel is a business. Their goal is to make money. This is neither good or bad, it’s just a fact of life. And, while I do not like the means, this choice in changing the quintessential good guy into an amoral villain will get them sales. It was exactly like back in 2013 when they “Replaced” Peter Parker as Spider-Man, by putting Doc Oct’s mind in Peter’s body. Heck, it was this announcement that got me buy comic books again, as I wanted to see where the story went. I was in college at the time, and an English Major, reading anything for fun was kind of impossible a good chunk of the time. Just an FYI. I remember when this was going on, all of the writing staff was saying that this was a “permanent change.” That Octavius’s bodysnatching of Peter Parker was going to be their Spider-Man moving forward. Know what happened? By July of 2014, they were laying the groundwork to bring Peter Parker back. Why? Because that is the character fans want to see. Removing him as the head hancho for a little bit recreated interest in the character, and once the ‘newness’ of the more violent pseudo-Spider-Man wore off, Marvel returned to the status quo.

Captain America's 'relationship' with HYDRA.
For me, this is an unchanging truth.

Now, personally, taking Captain America and essentially making him a Nazis is a much bigger and worse change then trying to make Octavius a Hero. It makes fans question every moment when they empathized with Cap, or every time they cheered for him. This is the man that every hero rallies behind. The one that the Punisher could never risk injuring. The one that fought Nazi beside Wolverine and the Howling Commandos. Who believes in heroes, be they arguably incredibly dangerous like the Hulk, or offkilter and possibly mentally ill like Deadpool. The man that stops armies, simply by standing in front of them. The idea that he is a spy, and perhaps the greatest threat to the Marvel Universe is just… impossible to accept.

Sorry, got off on a tangent. This is supposed to be semi-hopeful. My point is, that despite the possible designs of the writing staff, and Marvel execs, the change didn’t stick. Peter Parker is back swinging webs and being a hero. This Captain America, Agent of HYDRA, thing will likely end the same. In about six months to a year, they will back pedal, reveal that Steve is either a triple agent, or being mind-controlled, or been replaced by yet another Skrull. It’s the nature of the beast. They try different stories, shaking characters to their core, in the hopes of drumming up sales. Things that work, work well. And stuff that doesn’t, well, it gets retconned pretty quickly.

What I’m trying to say is, my fellow fans, it’s alright to be mad at this change. I sure as heck am. But, don’t forget that a change as insane as this one is a publicity stunt. Much like killing Brian off of Family Guy. Sure, we’ll have to deal with some weapons grade BS for a while, but eventually, Captain America will be on the right side again. I’m so confident in this, let’s set a timer. I predict that, one year from today, we will either have or have had an announcement that this particular story is going to be changed. It could be any reason, Cosmic Cube reality re-write, revealed triple agent status, Skrulls, clones, alternate Universe Captain America, and those are just the possible explanations off the top of my head. The story is always changing, in good ways and in bad, all we can do is wait and see where this particular story takes us. And that's all I have to say about that. Next time, for sure, X-Men: Apocalypse

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