Marvel Goes Into Damage Control Mode By Defending Captain America’s Secret Empire

When it was first revealed that Captain America is secretly a Hydra agent, fans were not happy – to say the least. The story has since continued to play out, but the reveal that history has been altered has done nothing to quell the rage of those who are disgusted at seeing America’s greatest hero essentially acting as a total villain.

A big part of that is due to the current political climate and readers wanting to turn to Captain America as a form of escapism. Unfortunately, Secret Empire doesn’t look set to provide that, as Steve Rogers battles the entire Marvel Universe, something which has now forced the publisher to go into damage control mode to defend the story.

“With Marvel Comics’ ‘Secret Empire,’ the forces of Hydra have taken over and, due to the villainous actions of the Red Skull, have manipulated Marvel’s greatest hero, Captain America, and forced him to adopt their cause,” the statement.

At Marvel, we want to assure all of our fans that we hear your concerns about aligning Captain America with Hydra and we politely ask you to allow the story to unfold before coming to any conclusion. Captain America, will always be a cornerstone of the Marvel Universe who will stand up for what is right, and ‘Secret Empire’ will be the biggest challenge Steve has ever faced.”

As you may already know, ABC News, like Marvel, is owned by Disney, so this is pretty transparent. So too is the fact that the article attempts to downplay the controversy, a lot of which stems from the fact that Hydra is a group which has frequently been associated with Nazism (just look at Captain America: The First Avenger).

While common sense says that this story will wrap up with Cap back to his old self, the damage has already been done and Marvel may have very well lost an awful lot of readers as a result. They’re hoping to turn that around later this year with a return to a more familiar Marvel Universe, but it could be too little, too late. Still, they deserve the chance to tell this tale and it has been pretty intriguing, if nothing else.

Secret Empire kicks off this month and will continue right through the summer. Stay tuned for our review on issue #1, coming tomorrow.