A month ago, Marvel stirred up a great deal of online controversy with the release of Captain America: Steve Rogers #1 and the reveal that Cap has supposedly been a Hydra agent his entire adult life. This week, a whole new controversy arose surrounding the follow-up issue, which revealed the truth behind that divisive twist. Some fans accused Marvel of caving to pressure and backpedaling on the Hydra Cap controversy. It really seems like Marvel is stuck in a no-win situation. But while the outrage over issue #1 was understandable (if overblown), this new Cap controversy just seems ridiculous.
Art by Jesus Saiz
It should go without saying that the creators and editors behind Captain America: Steve Rogers didn't actually scrap their plans and go back to the drawing board after the release of issue #1. Writer Nick Spencer and artist Jesus Saiz didn't suddenly shift the course of their ongoing story as a response to the online outrage. Unfortunately, those accusations gained undeserved legitimacy when Paste Magazine posted an article titled "Marvel Backtracks on Captain America Revelation After Just One Issue".
The simple fact is that Marvel couldn't possible have backtracked and commissioned an entirely new version of Captain America: Steve Rogers #2 in the 30 days since issue #1 hit the stands. Mainstream comic books aren't produced on such a rapid timetable. Writers generally turn in their scripts several months ahead of time, and sometimes even earlier depending how often the book in question ships and whether they have to skip ahead to accommodate multiple artists (as is now the case with many DC books). As for those artists, pencillers generally take 4-6 weeks to draw an issue and are usually well into their work on the next issue by the time the current one sees print. That's to say nothing of the extra time required for inking, lettering, coloring, edits and printing and shipping comics. The point being that it takes a lot longer than 30 days to put a comic together. Steve Rogers #2 was likely very close to being finished by the time issue #1 hit the stands.
But let's ignore the technical side of the business. It should be obvious from reading Steve Rogers #2 that the story wasn't hastily rewritten in response to fan backlash. The whole point of this comic was to explore the truth behind Cap's Hydra connections and shine a light on the trail of breadcrumbs Spencer has been laying since he first began his Captain America run last year. It examined the events of the recent Avengers Standoff crossover from a new perspective. It showed how this entire twist is part of a larger scheme by Red Skull to destroy his greatest enemy by secretly making him an ally.
Spencer has been seeding clues for months. Between the fact that Red Skull currently has the psychic powers of Charles Xavier and that Steve's health was restored by a fractured Cosmic Cube taking the form of a four-year-old girl, there was ample room to explain this Hydra twist without actually ruining Cap's good name. Issue #2 took a step back and traced the genesis of this twist, from the original birth of Kobik to her corruption by Red Skull to the moment when she rebuilt Steve's ailing body with a few modifications. Readers learned that she subtly rewrote his memories to make him believe he was recruited by a Hydra as a boy. And it should be noted that the Hydra our hero is loyal to is a very idealized, nonexistent version of the terrorist organization. It was literally pulled from a storybook Red Skull read to Kobik. She may have the power to alter reality on a whim, but she's also a scared, confused little girl in need of a parent figure. The real tragedy in this whole story is that Red Skull has taken advantage of her gullibility and convinced her that he's a benevolent ruler just trying to make the world a better place.
To Paste's credit, they later published a retraction on their original article, acknowledging that Marvel couldn't possibly have rehashed Steve Rogers #2 in a matter of weeks. But the there's still the insinuation that Marvel mislead or lied to readers. They point to a quote Spencer gave in an Entertainment Weekly interview, "The one thing we can say unequivocally is: This is not a clone, not an impostor, not mind control, not someone else acting through Steve. This really is Steve Rogers, Captain America himself,” before pointing out that this is, in fact, a case of mind control.
Now, I personally have no problem with creators outright lying to readers for the sake of prolonging a mystery. In today's spoiler-happy, social media-driven age, sometimes that's the only way to preserve any sort of secrecy. But did Spencer actually lie? Cap wasn't psychically brainwashed by Red Skull. His actions aren't being directly controlled by his old enemy. He simply has a series of false memories implanted in his head that now influence his actions as much as his true memories do. These memories cause him to make choices he wouldn't have before. Technically, it was still Cap's choice to throw his sidekick out of a moving jet. Maybe this is all a case of semantics, but there is a distinction to be drawn between mind control and what's happened to Cap.
The moral of all of this is that fans need to spend less time questioning Marvel's motives and more time examining the story Spencer and Saiz are actually telling. As I've already explored in the past, the goal isn't to tear a hero with decades of proud history. It's to give Cap new challenges to overcome and to find new ways of showing that Steve Rogers' innate heroism can't be overcome or drowned out. Sooner or later, Cap's status quo will return to normal, just as it did when he died or turned into a werewolf or gave up the shield. All that we can hope for as readers is that we get a good story out of it. And so far, we have.
"Between the Panels" is a bi-weekly column from Jesse Schedeen that focuses on the world of comics. You can see more of his thoughts on comics and pop culture by following @jschedeen on Twitter, or Kicksplode on MyIGN.
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