How Does This Set Up Secret Empire?
Until this issue, I freely admit that I’d not really focused on the flashbacks in Captain America: Steve Rogers. Like the Red Skull, I’d assumed these showed us glimpses of the world as Steve Rogers remembered it; I’d not realized that Kobik had literally written these things into reality.
Here’s the question, though; did Kobik create Elisa Sinclair? Or did she unwittingly open the door for something great and terrible, something ancient and powerful, to weave itself into the history of the Marvel Universe? Given the grandeur of Elisa Sinclair, I wouldn’t be surprised if the latter is the case; I suspect that Elisa Sinclair is a cosmic force that stood outside of time, and took advantage of the opportunity to insert itself into reality.
Whether this is the case or not, Captain America: Steve Rogers #14 has just breathed new and terrible life into Hydra. We have a High Council, composed of some of Hydra’s greatest minds and most skilled tacticians. We have a conspiracy woven into the fabric of the Marvel Universe, one with unknowable power. And we have a new Madame Hydra, one greater than any we’ve seen before.
Nick Spencer has just given us a version of Hydra that’s more fearsome than ever before – and not just because Steve Rogers has become the ultimate double-agent. Under the leadership of this new Madame Hydra, the forces of Hydra are more terrifying than anything Marvel’s heroes have ever faced. And when you remember that Steve Rogers, the man sworn to defend the world, is actually an ancient of Hydra…
Well, let’s just say things don’t look good for the Marvel Universe. This year’s summer event looks set to be more explosive than I’d have ever dared imagine.
