Captain America: Steve Rodgers --he's an agent of Hydra in new Marvel comic

So for comics fans this will be a bummer. Cap has been a double agent working for Hydra all along. I don't read the comic any longer ( haven't for years ) but this is a bold daring and amazingly stupid idea IMHO.

New Captain America Book Suggests He's a Member of Hydra »

 

Well said. They were talking about this last night on a late night conspiracy radio show. Unless it's part of some complex plan to infiltrate Hydra while creating minimal suspicion, it seems pretty ridiculous.

 

I wouldn't describe it as bold or daring at all. It's just a cheap gimmick. Superhero comics these days are all about gimmicks and stunts designed to shock their ever-shrinking audience of mostly middle-aged guys who've been reading comics for years and are bored and jaded. Probably the biggest cliches in superhero comics today are:
1. Killing someone off
2. Resurrecting someone who had been killed off
3. Turning a hero evil
4. "Everything you know is a lie" type stories in which the fundamental nature of a character is "revealed" to be false

I'm surprised readers get at all shocked, excited or interested in these type of plotlines anymore, since they are so overused and predictable. But they apparently sell. When the stunt is over, everything is invariably restored to normal, and it's on to the next "shocking" gimmick. Boring. I wouldn't call it stupid, though, since they know their audience and what sells to them. It would be stupid of Captain America comics were at all consumed by the mainstream, but they are not, and won't be anytime in the future.

 

I was being sarcastic. Note the word stupid after that.

 

Such a horrible idea. What a way to take a dump on the character's long and heroic legacy.

Is this the beginning of Marvel moving toward the dark, jaded side of the spectrum that DC has inhabited for the last decade? Meanwhile, DC is backpedaling that stance with Rebirth, moving toward legacy and hope. Interesting.

 

Yeah it's the type of idea that DC would have done 10 years ago and then realized it was a big oopsie

It's an intersting idea. For another character not Cap.

 

People really seem to be up in arms over it, which is kinda silly cuz as soon as another creative team takes over the book, they'll just ret-con Cap back to normal and pass off the "Hydra" story as a dream sequence, an imaginary story, an alternate universe, or whatever.

 

Yes, it could be rebooted but as a character Cap resonates with some people. Silly for you perhaps but he's an iconic character.

What if a classic movie were re-edited by someone who had nothing to with the movie and, again, it became the default version out there?

 

Something tells me this won't last and is just Marvel's way of knocking the similarly controversial DC Rebirth, or vice versa...

 

I'm just sayin, nothing is ever permanent in comic books. Just wait a few months, it'll go away and everyone will pretend it never happened.

 

Very true and it is clearly designed to increase readership but what a crummy way to do it.

 

What I find funny is that I've been a DC fan all of my life until about 3 or 4 years ago when I quit DC for good after the New 52 garbage started. Also quit all the Marvel books I was getting because they were just awful and every year was a new Fantastic Four series or some other series that's been around forever. When Marvel recently started up some titles AGAIN I actually got back into Dr. Strange and Spidey. Dr. Starnge I've always liked but the last version of him before this latest reboot was just awful. The new series is great. The art of Chris Bachalo is very well suited to the writing/story. With Spidey I was really thrown because I was NEVER a Spider-Man fan. The title just called Spidey is fantastic. Wise ass Peter Parker still in school...and the best is that each issue is a self contained story. No story arc that lasts 5 or 6 issues. Each issue is a separate story. Now with this crap they are pulling with Cap they are basically doing what DC did 3 or 4 years ago. I don't understand the logic other than $$$$. Marvel doesn't have to do shock value in their books and neither does DC. Now I hear that DC is basically going back to multiverses before Crisis On Infinite Earths which is just fine by me. Maybe I'll get back the JSA or All-Star Squadron that I loved back in the 70's and 80's. I was going to pick up the Cap #1 then heard what they were doing and said "Aint getting my money." Unfortunately there are a lot of collectors that will still buy the books because they don't want to interrupt their collections. Sometimes though you have to draw the line...and here's where it is for me.

 

DC pushed the darkness to the limit with the setup to Infinite Crisis, which dealt directly with how dark the DC Universe had become. Things were so bad that the original Superman (who was living in a pocket dimension since Crisis On Infinite Crisis but was able to see everything that was going on) was convinced that the current Earth had to be replaced with his. It wasn't until the death of Superboy (Conner Kent) (who saved the Multiverse with his sacrifice) and seeing Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman able to stand together despite their differences that he was able to see that there was there was still hope and that the current Earth deserved a chance.

I've read the first issue of DC Universe Rebirth and I'm looking forward to how the story turns out. Since Geoff Johns is the writer, I'm hopeful that it will work due to his previous works (such as Green Lantern: Rebirth).

 

Like you, I basically stopped reading DC after the first issues of the New 52 mainly because I just didn't enjoy the comics all that much. While there a few bright spots, such as the return of The Metal Men, I just couldn't get much enthusiasm for the titles.

I didn't have a problem with the original Multiverse since it was fairly simple (the main problem with it was that the creative teams didn't keep things straight, such as Black Canary somehow moving from Earth-Two to Earth-One without an explanation). It was Earth-Two was DC's original Earth, and Earth-One was the current Earth, and the few other Earths were fairly easy to understand. Even when they introduced two more Earths (Earth-Four and Earth-Six) during Crisis On Infinite Earths it still wasn't confusing.

Now, due to Convergence we now have the following multiverses: The original Multiverse, Hypertime, and The Post-Infinite Crisis Multiverse (plus the Flashpoint Earth). This is far more confusing that what we had before Crisis On Infinite Earths.

While I enjoy self-contained or very short stories (two issues), I also enjoy long plotlines too as long as they are well written. One title that known for long plotlines is Legion Of Super-Heroes where they would have sometimes four or five plotlines going on at the same time (in some issues a single page might be used to move some of the plotlines forward) with some of them resolved. Then again, with Legion Of Super-Heroes it is a title more than 20 regular characters so subplots are a way of keeping all of the members visible. As an illustration, before the introduction of subplots there were some members that I didn't see for a long time (such as Dream Girl who I only saw once in 30 issues on one page in one backup story but became a major member later in the series).

 

Yeah, it surprises me anyone would get upset or outraged about this. Marvel and DC have employed this kind of shock value storytelling for at least 20 years now. The pattern's been repeated so many times that no one should be the least bit surprised or take it the least bit seriously. Today's superhero comics have fully embraced a fan-fictiony style of storytelling, I guess probably because they are written by ex-fans and they only people that read them are longtime hardcore fans. The thing that surprises me most though is that these shock value storylines still sell. But they do. Kill off a superhero, you rack up piles of extra sales. Why? Who are the idiots buying extra copies of these books, believing they will become "valuable"?

 

It reflects a lack of imagination IMHO and is a sign of desperation to increase readership.

 

This Captain America business is just the most recent example of the corporate thinktank style of comic book storytelling. In the old days the business was primarily Jewish New Yorkers (it's fascinating to realize how from the days of vaudeville, Jewish men were at the core of just about all aspects of the entertainment industry. Music, movies, TV, fashion, books, you name it). In comics, they were replaced by guys like Roy Thomas and Jim Shooter, basically comic book nerds with a great love and respect for the medium. Currently, it seems like most of the most recognized comic creators come from overseas. Hardly the old 'bullpen' atmosphere that used to be the norm. With modern tech, much as in music, the creators don't need to even be on the same continent. You'd think this would be a good thing but between the loss of old school asthetics, new tech, and stories being told about American heroes by people who weren't raised here, and ultimately, the takeover of the medium by corporate bigwigs looking for the next TV show, movie, and toys/products, something's been lost. This fact isn't lost on the companies, they can sense something's off, so they continue to try to re-invent the wheel. Creators are hesitant to create due to fear of their creations being stolen by corporate, this is why there's such a lack of new characters and concepts at the big two. On top of all this when you add the moral abyss society currently straddles, where death, gore, and sex are the norm, this has all seeped into the storytelling, creating an overall nunbness. Kids/fans today don't even worry about their heroes dying, as they always come back from it. They don't remember a time where death was dealt with as a finite reality, if someone died, they stayed dead. It helped create an underlying tension knowing your hero could be killed, and that he would NEVER kill as it was the ultimate evil. As far as Captain America becoming an agent of Hydra, it's such a pathetic plot device, especially since nobody's gonna accept it, so it's a given that it won't stick. I stopped buying comics a long time ago but remain a fan thanks to my library. S'funny, as sad as I feel for the kids today not being able to enjoy comics like I used to when I was a kid, my daughter sends me pics of my 5yr old grandson, decked in his Iron Man suit, surrounded by his Iron Man toys and I realize, there'll always be true believers, 'nuff said!

 

Might be a good idea to see how the story plays out, rather than attack it based on one panel in the first part of a story arc. It might still turn out to be terrible, but we don't know where the story is going yet.
Kind of reminds me of the uproar over Superior Spider-Man TBH, and I personally loved that storyline.

 

Another apology for American Exceptionalism. Very sad.

 

That, as well as an virulent anti-social mindset that seems to prevail among many contemporary comic book writers.

And yes, I called them "comic books."

 

I think we all call them comic books. At least I have since I was 5 years old.

 

Some people in the field insist that they be called "graphic novels", in an attempt to lend an air of credibility and elevate them beyond the realm of disposability.

 

That has to be coming from "Newer" collectors. By newer I mean anyone below the age of 35. There is a HUGE difference between a comic book and a graphic novel. There are some titles that the companies do that don't deserve having a monthly comic book release...those need to be turned into a graphic novel that comes out once a year.

 

Seems that the big guys like Marvel and DC have lost their cool. This is why I moved to independent comics, even though they're not 100% safe from terrible writing and retcons.

 

Don't read comics now.
No interest in concept.