Maybe Hydra Started A Cab Company?

Now THIS ONE started just as I was getting back on the grid.

With those fateful words fans of the original Captain America threw a fit! Parodies and angry comments abounded. But how bad is it really? And why the fallout? I have my thoughts, but first my fellow reviewing person Cferra has allowed me to post his review of the infamous Steve Rogers: Captain America #1 so that this panel is in the proper context. And to get me back in the comic review format:

I wanted to find the cover in CFerra’s review. Since I couldn’t this is still better than the pin-up with the wrong shield.

Captain America: Steve Rogers #1

or at least that’s what the Grand Comic Database calls it

(Marvel; July, 2016)

I can’t find it anymore to quote from or link to, but Michael Medved once co-wrote a piece called “The Betrayal Of Captain America”. In it they wrote about how writers who disagreed with any positive views of the United States wrote stories in which Steve followed their perspective. The one strongest in my mind was how during the first Gulf War (the second had not yet happened when the article was written) Cap seemed to sympathize with an Iraqi terrorist, even though everyone, even the crowd against Desert Shield/Storm knew Sadam didn’t belong in Quait. Their thought was that the two countries should solve their own problems even though we were asked for help and Sadam would have gained a stranglehold on the oil market, which are the two reasons given for going in. Yes, I agreed with this war but not the second one, evil as the deposed/deceased Iraqi leader was. That’s all I’m saying on that because this isn’t a political blog. It’s a storytelling review blog. I just figured someone would ask.

The reason I even brought it up is that Steve Rogers appearing to have been a Hydra sleeper agent doesn’t sit well with those fans because too many writers have put their own social/political spin on him. Heck the character started out as two Jewish men who wanted to drum up support for joining in on the Nazi-punching, which we only did after Japan got us in a punching mood. (Japan used to be evil. They got better. People forget that.) So assuming they wanted to make the “old-timer” look bad thinking that is what they need to make Sam, the former Falcon and current co-Captain America, look better in light of that controversy, which I’ve already written about.. And if you don’t think that’s likely, remember what they did to Nick Fury to push the movie version into the Marvel universe, complete with unnecessarily ruining Dum Dum Dugan to bring in the beloved Agent Coulson.

(I don’t think I had the chance to get into this one. For the uniformed, Nick Fury Sr was shown to have gotten a bit overprotective of Earth and blew up planets of potential threats–except the ones Marvel wanted to keep using apparently. Meanwhile, his loyal friend Dum Dum Dugan, a man who went toe-to-toe with Godzilla, was revealed to have been a life model decoy–a type of android SHIELD developed to resemble actual people–the whole time. Somehow a LMD standing up to Godzilla isn’t as badass.)

And as I’ve said before, I like Falcon better as The Falcon because it was his own unique identity. Now he’s just the latest version of some other identity, which is actually a step down for Sam.

Then of course there’s this:

You may remember when David S. Goyer had Superman cut ties with America, supposedly to help push Man Of Steel, a movie he was a writer on, to international markets. People were really upset. “The American way” may have been added because the Cold War with the Soviet Union was just starting up but it’s hard to imagine Superman without it. The Ancient One isn’t (yet) turned into a Celtic woman in the comics (done so in the movies allegedly because China doesn’t like its bullying Tibet to look bad) but I’m expecting it. Changing the nature of the character to suit any agenda, whether it’s pushing the non-comics media or a social/political one, will always annoy those fans who hate to see a favorite character ruined, which is most of a character’s fans. (Insert Man Of Steel joke here.) So I do understand why people get mad about these things. It’s not that it’s a change and change is bad. Some changes are good, some are bad, and some are really bad. Change for change’s sake rarely ends well but change that advances the character, while still having naysayers, will be rewarded.

That all said, Cferra raises a good point. Actually he raises two good points but we’ll get to the death threat crap at a later date, since that’s an article itself…which I will be surprised if I’ve never done a commentary about that already. We don’t know what Nick Spencer has planned. We don’t know that Steve is going to turn evil, was brainwashed as a kid by the Hydra recruitment campaign, or if he’s working as a double agent or not. We also don’t know, Cferra’s joking aside, if Jack Flag is about to become a mess on the ground or not. It’s the first issue of a new storyline and a new comic series from a writer whose name I don’t recognize. (Then again, I’ve reviewed so many comics only certain names stick with me.) Despite the Nick Fury situation you can’t assume that every heel turn story is going that route or else writers can’t tell those kinds of stories where the hero only appears to be evil. Spencer may be succeeding in fooling the audience but that shouldn’t backfire before #2 hits the comic stands!

Yes, we should voice our opinions when our favorite characters are being done wrong. I do that here, on social media, and when I talk to other people in person on many occasions. However, to jump to conclusions is to ruin your potential enjoyment of a tale and looking like idiots when the thing concludes. Let’s see where Spencer takes this story before tossing shields at people.

By the way, if you want to see more from Chris “Cferra” Ferraiolo, his website has more episodes plus the sprite-based webcomic Starbolts. No Mega Man but a lot of 80s references.