So I Read Today… Secret Empire #1 to #10 // by Marvel Comics...

So I Read Today… Secret Empire #1 to #10 // by Marvel Comics (2017)

Brace yourself. I really want you to read this.

Another year is about to finish and Marvel Comics just wrapped up the big event of this year. Secret Empire as an idea might have sound really good on paper, but its execution was one of the biggest clusterfucks ever done in the history of comic books. Bear with me as we go down the memory lane to understand why this event was doomed to fail from the start.

It all begins in 2016. Marvel just launched a Steve Rogers solo book after making him young again in the “Avengers: Stand-Off” storyline. In #1 we get the first major revelation of the aftermath of that story: Steve Rogers is revealed to be a Hydra Agent and he has been one since WWII. Not only that he’s #2 to the Red Skull who’s Hydra Supreme and wields Professor X brain as a psychic weapon. After the Unity Squad (The Uncanny Avengers) “helped” him to get rid of that little inconvenience he makes his move to take command as Hydra Supreme in the company of most of his Rogue Gallery as henchmen or seconds in command, from Baron Zemo to Prof. Faustus and Arnim Zola. His “true” past is revealed to us and we learn how he was dragged to Hydra in the first place. When everything is into place and the heroes are in disarray after the Second Civil War he reveals himself by defeating every single of his now former friends in seconds and picking up Mjolnir proving himself “worthy” of leading the USA. If Marvel knows how to do something is the set-up of any of their events as it was done with Secret Invasion, World War Hulk or Secret Wars 2015 just to offer a couple of the most relevant examples I can come up with right now. The delivery of the punchline is where most issues arise.

Let take in consideration for a minute that this story was published in a time when the USA is more divided than ever in the real world and factions of the American society are literally tearing each other apart for what they believe it’s right (recent events in Charlottesvile were worldwide trending topics, showing much of the actual issues of North America right now and most of them are racial). From a marketing point of view, turning Captain America into an icon for a fictional group of Nazis was the worst move they could have ever done or at least one done with a terrible timing. Even for the fans that actually use their common sense and knows that this story won’t end with Cap as a Nazi this was cringeworthy to put it mildly. A series of missteps along the way didn’t help either, mainly Marvel wanting comic stores to decorate with an Hydra theme to sell the event. The final offense was of course Marvel’s editorial damage control.

Statements asking for the patience of fans and to just follow the story didn’t stick or appease anybody. Continuous claims by leading writer Nick Spencer claiming that this was “not a doppelganger, not a clone, this IS Captain America” or that “the event wouldn’t be solved by fixing everything back with the Cosmic Cube” feel of deaf ears. What we got in the end was a fairly generic event with a deux-ex-machina ending that is even worse than the now infamous “No More Mutans” of House of M. Here I’ll tell you everything you need in one paragraph:

With Cap having declared himself Hydra Supreme and sealing the world into a shield he duped Maria Hill and the Ultimates into making, he begins asserting his power over the USA with the acceptance of society. He manages to engulf and trap New York (and most of the urban super heroes) into a black vortex and turns another group of them to his side. The cosmic cube is broken into various pieces and Hydra wants them all back. A ragtag team of heroes lead by an A.I of Tony Stark makes every single effort they can to get them first. The race is won by Steve 8 out of 9 times. In the process he obliterates las Vegas, invades Wakanda, kills the Black Widow, Rick Jones and almost kills Bucky Barnes he also tells the world to play by his rules or else. Meanwhile a memory of what Cap used to be is lurking inside the cosmic cube finding people he deems familiar (from Hawkeye to Sharon Carter and The Red Skull) when he finally finds Kobik (the “soul” of the cube who is sentient) he’s wished back to reality by Sam Wilson and Bucky and beats the shit out of Hydra-Cap using Thor’s hammer . Kobik then proceeds to put everything right again but leaves the destruction made by Hydra stick so people can rebuild. That’s it. That’s the meat of the story. Of course there is more to it. But that’s what makes this story what it is.

The dialog on the 10 issues is very good and consistent to what we have seen from Steve and the heroes in the last 10 months or so, but the plot degrades into fairly generic superhero fare and it feels rushed. Maybe affected by editorial after taking such a beating from unfriendly comic media outlets like Bleeding Cool or The Outhouse. The art is what suffered the most: It was not so long ago that Marvel was consistent in their events and had one artist for the whole run of it. Out of Original Sin and Secret Wars every event since Avengers Vs X-Men features multiple artists and this hurts the flow of the story. In Secret Empire we had Steve Mcniven opening  the event in #1 and closing with a good chunk of #10. The other issues feature assorted art by Andrea Sorrentino, Rod Reids, Daniel Acuña, Paco Medina and Leinil Francis Yu. In my opinion this hurts the flow of the story and it’s a huge distraction, especially since some of the art styles used don’t mesh well with each other. I may be the minority but I would gladly take a delayed book well penciled by one artist that brings the best he has to the script of the writer.

All in all this could have been so much better. The idea might have been wild in 2015 when it was conceived, but the time of his execution was poor to say the least. This is not a defining event and I can only hope that after being beaten so bad for the past few months because of it Marvel pulls their shit together and make good on the word of killing events for at least 18 months (or more). Secret Empire is the thing that should not be.

Prof_Dan

Posted in: Reviews & Appreciation