BW Media Spotlight

Mention “Secret Empire” to a comic fan and this immediately springs to mind.

We all know this moment. What followed was a series of stories leading up to Secret Empire as fans raged against the idea of Captain America, a character created by two Jewish men in response to the rise of the Third Reich and the US not doing anything to help their European allies until Japan dragged us into the war by attacking Pearl Harbor, would join Nazi’s scientist group (at least in the 616 Marvel universe.) In order to hide his reveal of why Cap turned (compared to DC, who rewrote the villain reveal in Zero Hour to protect their twist then years later revealed twists in the newspaper) they tried everything to soften things. “The Cosmic Cube rewrote Steve’s history. Hydra wasn’t originally Nazi scientists but a cult that worshiped a space alien or something.” This did nothing, and with the rise of politics coming into stories (see also what happened with Captain America under later writers) this was scene as another attack on the United States and it’s way of life, a political move to make a statement. That may have been the only thing that the critics were wrong about, making it also one of the few things the creators didn’t screw up. Maybe.

Just on the surface of the plot I wanted nothing to do with this story. Even if there weren’t political overtones with this, we’re talking about another “darkening our heroes” moment and I’m well past done with that nonsense. So I treat it like I do anything with “Civil War” in the title from Marvel and reject it out of general principle. As I’ve said many times, quality of work does not equal quality of adaptation and this is not how I want to watch our heroes acting. The closest I’ll coming is watching tonight’s Showcase, a three-video overview of the event from Atop The Fourth Wall, because I know at least Linkara’s jokes will be more entertaining that the comic itself. So I bring that gift to you tonight. Enjoy.

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