Marvel’s Greatest Hero Turned Villain Capitalized On Real-World Issues

Marvel has had no shortage of horrifying villains in its eight-plus decades. Symbiotes like Carnage and Venom have carried out gruesome actions against others. Alien menaces like Galactus and The Brood have made catastrophic threats against the world on multiple occasions. And megalomaniacs like Doctor Doom and Magneto have made ongoing threats to world stability, seeking to despotically become Earth’s iron-fisted rulers. But the most terrifying villain of all, though, is the one who had once been a hero: Captain America.

One of Marvel’s more recent despots was especially troubling because he was also its noblest and greatest crime fighter. When the fascist group Hydra took over the U.S. in Marvel’s Secret Empire event in 2017, a familiar face led the coup. Namely, that of Steve Rogers himself, Captain America. Since World War II, Cap had been nothing less than the embodiment of nobility and the American spirit. Captain America had been seen as incorruptible and was a hero looked up to by all. But Secret Empire upended and blackened Steve’s reputation, and the man long seen as America’s greatest hero had become its most feared and tyrannical villain. Events occurring simultaneously in the real world gave the story even further impact on fans.

America’s Greatest Defender Became Its Worst Oppressor in Secret Empire

Marvel’s Secret Empire was a 10-issue event helmed by writer Nick Spencer. The series and various tie-in issues were drawn by Steve McNiven, Andrea Sorrentino, Daniel Acuña, Rod Reis and others. In the initial storyline, Captain America was revealed as a Hydra sleeper agent all along, going back to his earliest days in the 1940s. In the present day, Steve leads Hydra in a coup over the U.S. Government. However, the series later revealed Steve was caught up in some reality-altering machinations by the sentient Cosmic Cube, Kobik. And the evil Steve Rogers was actually an alternate-reality doppelganger, who the true, uncorrupted Steve ultimately defeated. Meanwhile, other superheroes banded together to defeat the forces of Hydra.

For anyone who harbored hope that this evil Steve was somehow a decent guy deep down, he quickly proved them wrong. Under Hydra’s heel, mutants were forcibly relocated to a sequestered area of California. Inhumans with manifesting abilities were required to register with the government. Manhattan was cut off from the rest of the world, and most of the world’s heroes were trapped in space, unable to offer aid. And Cap — now known as Hydra Supreme — ordered the decimation of Las Vegas solely as a show of force.

Hydra Cap has recently been seen as Captain Krakoa and is now the new Flag-Smasher. As Hydra Supreme, Steve had succeeded in the kind of absolute takeover only dreamed of by the world’s most ambitious super-villains. In the past, whenever the Atlanteans or Mole Man’s army or any other forces launched a takeover bid, the world’s heroes typically repelled them. But with Hydra at his command, Steve made quick work of the very nation he had spent decades protecting. The one-time Captain America had successfully overthrown his own government. Something the bad guys — super-powered or otherwise — had never accomplished with any lasting success.

Steve Rogers Had a Long Fall from Grace

In Secret Empire, Captain America wasn’t comics’ first good guy to break bad — Tony Stark’s seemingly gone bad multiple times — and he wouldn’t be the last. But his fall from grace arguably stands as one of the furthest. From the very beginning, Steve Rogers was always portrayed as unflinchingly good and undeniably honest. Growing up, he faced constant conflict on the hard streets of Brooklyn. But he always found a way to defend others, even at his own expense. He always took the high road. And when he wanted nothing more than to defend his country from fascism, he selflessly risked his life like no other had before. He became America’s premiere hero and a living symbol of everything his country stood for when injected with the experimental Super Soldier Serum.

So how could Cap ever join up with a fascist organization like Hydra? That was the question raised by outraged fans everywhere when 2016’s Captain America: Steve Rogers #1, by Nick Spencer and Jesús Saíz, hit the stands. The issue’s final page featured the now-infamous surprise cliffhanger, with Cap exiling many of Earth’s heroes in space before his evil utterance, “Hail Hydra.” Bereft of any explanation up to that point, Cap’s betrayal seemed gimmicky, contrived and grossly out-of-character.

Spencer had a plan, of course, but devoted fans at that point didn’t know or care. Spencer’s Cosmic Cube explanation came along soon thereafter. However, many readers found that revelation convoluted and equally contrived and remained unsatisfied. Whatever the origin and resolution of Cap’s turn to the dark side, though, what happened in between was clear. Readers didn’t like Captain America as a villain, and an especially reprehensible one at that. This was a character that had decades of stories showcasing his heroism in the rearview mirror. The events of Secret Empire, when compared to even the worst of the hundreds of storylines coming before it, made Cap seem all the more despicable.

Secret Empire Was Rooted in Real-Life Fears

Most crossover events in comics are far-reaching, both in terms of scope and circumstance. Such events have involved grandiose plotlines like multiversal incursions. Or apocalyptic catastrophes. Or even Marvel’s recent vampire crossover event, Blood Hunt. Secret Empire, though, was far more down to earth and featured a more relatable threat. It wasn’t even particularly global in nature, although its events did have global impacts. There were super-villains aplenty, of course, but the threat was rooted in a “mere” hostile takeover of the U.S. government — a threat many felt was a distinct real-life possibility. And still do.

The reality-altering genesis of the threatening scenario was a definitive comic book plot, sure, but the consequences stemming from it felt all too real. From the onset of Secret Empire’s first issue, America’s way of life has become no different than that of Nazi Germany. Schools and state-controlled media preached revisionist propaganda. Children were conditioned to praise the government and turn in potential resistors. Those demonstrating superpowers, such as emergent Inhumans, were subject to indefinite imprisonment in containment facilities. And Hydra destroyed an American city in an authoritarian attempt to quell resistance.

Captain America — that is, Hydra Supreme Commander — even had his longtime ally and one-time best friend, Rick Jones, executed for treason. This act, and those above, were all carried out by Hydra’s fascist regime — and all under the auspices of Steve Rogers. These deeds — and all others committed by Hydra under Steve’s leadership — were the very definition of war crimes. Atrocities authorized by the man believed at one time to be America’s greatest symbol of freedom, life and liberty. This wasn’t Cap wielding the Infinity Stones at will or a man who had achieved godhood. Steve Rogers was a mortal man responsible for the kinds of real-life acts committed by real-life despots. These are acts that seem all too real a possibility, at least compared to using the Cosmic Cube to turn one’s enemies into protoplasm. And even more frightening because of it.

Secret Empire Evoked American Anxieties of the Day

Captain America Personified Political Fears

Captain America’s hostile takeover of America’s governing body came when Americans were awash in political uncertainty. The nation’s divisive 2016 Presidential Election culminated with Donald Trump’s lawful and democratic victory. Trump took office only three months before publication of Secret Empire #1. His election, though, nonetheless came as a surprise to many Americans. Some harbored concerns over the country’s potential and eventual shift towards a more conservative agenda. An agenda some feared would evolve into an outright fascist government.

Intentionally or otherwise, Secret Empire played on those fears. The series served as a kind of cautionary, four-color tale of what America might look like under a fascist dictatorship. Many of the series’ microcosms symbolically evoked real-life events in the country’s new political landscape. In Secret Empire, much of America’s population fell under Hydra Cap’s sway, to the astonishment, or disgust, of the rest. Such a following couldn’t help but evoke comparisons to those following Trump’s lead. As well as the corresponding contrasts from the nation’s more moderate and liberal demographic. This notion was metaphorically characterized in Nick Spencer and Andrea Sorrentino’s Free Comic Book Day: Secret Empire issue, when Hydra Cap shockingly picked up and wielded Thor’s hammer, Mjolnir. The moment punctuated an important realization: regardless of one’s support for him, Cap and his government were now in power.

In the heat of victorious conquest, it’s the kind of moment one would expect from Thanos, or the Red Skull, or Loki. Or maybe a different one-time hero gone bad, like the once-turned Tony Stark. Or the ever-conflicted Hulk. Or the morally ambiguous Wolverine. But not Cap. Not the morally true, living and enduring worldwide symbol of freedom and democracy. Captain America should be considered ethically unbreakable. His character’s descent into evil turned him into one of the publisher’s most terrifying supervillains at the best and worst time it could have possibly happened.