SECRET EMPIRE #1
Writer: Nick SpencerArtist: Steve McNiven
Marvel: Marvel Comics
Reviewer: Masked Man
Well that was weird. See that big picture of Spider (Peter Parker) Man on the cover, yeah he's not in this issue- neither is old man Logan or Rocket Raccoon. So, Issue #0, which basically told us how Captain America revealed himself to be Hydra, took command of the U.S. Military, and how he side-lined many superheroes. Issue #1 now jumps ahead an untold amount of time into the future, to where Cap and Hydra own the U.S.A. lock stock and barrel. And I'm having a hard to bridging the two issues.
Backing up, welcome to Nick Spencer's Secret Empire! The what if Captain America was evil and wanted to take over the world. Joining Spencer on this epic adventure is fan-fav artist Steve McNiven. Now as I reviewed issue #0, I spoke about the nuttiness of the new Marvel U status quo. Where Hydra won World War II with Captain America's help, but then a Cosmic Cube let the Allies win, then a living Cosmic Cube restored Captain America's memory of it all. It's all long and confusing, so I don't plan to go over it again. You either accept it or you don't.
Ok let's talk spoilers! As the issue starts, Hydra is in full control over the U.S.A. They even printed new history books for the schools. While the mutants have safely escaped to an island, Hydra agents are spending their time hunting down Inhumans (are we still doing this Marvel?!). Meanwhile, Captain Marvel and team are still trapped in outerspace fighting an endless horde of Chitauri warriors (even though the Chitauri can't hurt the planet, as the shield locking out both Captain Marvel and them. You'd think after a few months Captain Marvel would go to another planet for help, but nope). Dr. Strange and company are still trapped in New York City by a darkness dome created by Blackout (seriously!? Blackout - well Madame Hydra is helping, but still). What about the other superheroes? Well the Avengers themselves now work for Hydra (no explanation why). The Champions and a collect of other heroes (Hawkeye, Black Widow, The Thing, Iron Heart, etc) have set-up a resistance base (but all their missions have failed). As for Captain Hydra America himself, he's trying to manage it all, with his new Hydra buddies: Baron Zemo,Viper, Arnim Zola, etc. Meanwhile, he's trying to convince his old buddies, (the elderly) Sharon Carter and Rick Jones that it's all good. Although for the issue closer, Cap has Rick Jones killed. Since he managed to steal some data and handed it off to A.I. Tony Stark (who doubts it's worth). More logically, Madame Hydra wants Cap to get his hands on a Cosmic Cube and restore the timeline (which should have been job one, instead of wasting time and effort on taking over the USA, ah well).
As I said, the time line confuses me. As in some cases a lot has happened between issue #0 and #1 (new text books and security cameras in every school and classroom), and in other cases nothing has happened at all (Captain Marvel still floating in space). Also, what happened to the army, congress and the President? Did no one challenge Captain Hydra America when he said he's the king now? I kinda wish they didn't do a #0, and just dropped us into this new world order, like Brian Michael Bendis did in (yes is was really bad) AGE OF ULTRON. Bendis didn't try to explain how it all happened (because on some level you just can't), as it was more important to just get us in this new world. Another weird thing is Caps' point of view. Even though Madame Hydra says he is 'Hydra', Arnim Zola and others don't think he's 'Hydra' enough. As he doesn't want to be a mean dictator. Aside from trying to make him still identifiable, I'm not sure why Spencer would do this. As it seems to go against the whole concept of evil Captain, and turns it into a man trapped by circumstances concept. Spencer has a nice collect of scenes here, but the execution of the plot doesn’t seem to be as well planned as he thinks it is.
As for Mc Niven, I have neither praise or disrespect for his work here. It's all fine, matter of fact work, with a nice attention to detail. To a degree, it almost looks like he didn't take much time planing pages, panels and poses out. But then rendered the hell out of everything.
One last odd note before I go, Sam Wilson is back to being the Falcon. That's really odd to me because if there was ever a point where Sam could really argue the legitimacy of being Captain America (even over Steve), this is it! That said, two issues in, and it seems like Spencer is marking off a check list than writing a story: Crazy concept- check, everyone's roll determined- check, high tension scenes- check, the gel in which everything works together- oops.
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