Why Captain America is a Hydra agent. Captain America turned out to be a Hydra agent

In the world of superhero comics, everything is real. That is, everything. Anything, any way, anywhere, when and with anyone - there are no limits. But even in this universe of superpowers and outrageous twists, situations can arise that cause fans to chill their limbs and drop their jaws to the floor.

Accurately now we are witnessing one such turning point, turning everything upside down and shaking the foundations of the painted universes. On May 25, the first issue of the Captain America: Steve Rogers comic book was released, the screenwriter of which spat - according to the pandemonium that has risen on the Web - in the face of civilization. Namely, Nick Spencer made Steve Rogers, better known as Captain America, a secret agent for Hydra, an unscrupulous Nazi organization seeking total domination. Moreover, according to Spencer's version, the cap was a double-dealer for all 75 years of his existence. Ever since Joe Simon and Jack Kirby launched Captain America Comics #1 in March 1941.

And if you can't appreciate the scale of the tragedy, just imagine, for example, Yulian Semyonov's secret letter, just released, confessing that Stirlitz was a double agent. In a word, one should not be surprised that the world's leading media have already devoted materials to the sensational comic - from Forbes to The Independent, and bacchanalia and evil frenzy reign on the Internet for the sixth day.

Captain America was purposefully created as a deeply, exemplary patriotic character (see Joe Johnston's 2011 feature film Captain America: The First Avenger - and beyond). And he even looks like a walking star-striped bogey, victoriously giving the mandibles to the fascist reptiles. While "Hydra" is one of the most dangerous and anti-human organizations in Marvel's opuses, in battles with which the cap of his vibranium shield did not spare ...

It's time to quote the floor polisher-Basov from "I'm walking around Moscow": "Oh! The plot! Huh? The plot, right?". Captain America: Steve Rogers entered the stores, and it turned out that one of the lines of the comic - to the horror of readers - tells how in 1929 the mother of the future Captain recruited an agent for the Hydra, which had just begun to spread its tentacles ... And here we are we already see how in our time Rogers with a stone face says "Hail Hydra".

Shock. Trembling. Hysteria. Curses. Dozens of photoshops. Threats to stop buying "Marvel" comics as a species. Serious accusations of anti-Semitism. “The fact that Captain America was made a Nazi hurts me as a Jew. The Jews created this character to fight Nazism,” reads one of many such tweets.

James Gunn, the director of Guardians of the Galaxy, who dared to express the opinion that one should not take the plot twist of the comic book to heart, was immediately branded from all sides as an anti-Semite, a latent Nazi, the perpetrator of the Johnny Depp divorce scandal (sic!) and wished him a painful death cat.

"Sometimes the pop culture characters we love don't do things the way we want them to. Sometimes it's because of a poorly written story, sometimes it's just because the creators have different ideas than we do. We can complain about that." "but to exaggerate the significance of such things is unhealthy, as well as to attack other people because of them. If you do this, it means that there are probably much more serious problems in your life that you should pay attention to," Gunn advises his readers. However, it is unlikely that fans filled with righteous anger are able to heed him. And it is possible that somewhere in the bowels of the Web, a plan is already ripening to drop a sand-lime brick on Spencer's head.

Although you can't refuse one thing with Marvel - they celebrated the 75th anniversary of one of the most recognizable and "grossing" superheroes enchantingly. So, it gurgled and sparkled even among those who have nothing to do with this segment of entertainment at all, and apart from strips about the cat Garfield, I never read anything.

Marvel doesn't seem to like Steve Rogers, aka Captain America. In any case, nothing good has been done to him in recent years. First they killed him and put Bucky in his place. Then they resurrected in such a way that it would be better not to resurrect. Then they got old, replaced by Sam Wilson and pushed into the background.

Finally, Rogers returned to his youth and his own line of comics Steve Rogers: Captain America, the first issue of which was released on May 25, 2016. And in the very first issue, it turns out that when the hero of all America was still a kid, Hydra recruited him and his mother. Hydra, Carl!

According to the writers of the new arc, Captain America all these years (that is, 75 years) was a secret agent of a fascist organization. Needless to say, the whole fandom instantly "bombed"! However, Marvel does not deny their intentions. “We knew it would be a slap in the face for people,” says Tom Brevoort, Managing Editor at Marvel. “His mission is to spread the goals and ideals of Hydra. If that means destroying the Marvel Universe, then so be it."

The reaction of the public on the issue turned out to be more or less unequivocal. Go to Twitter and look at the top hashtags. #SayNoToHYDRACap now in the top of Twitter, which certainly pleases the bosses of the publishing house. Here are some publications that do not go beyond censorship:

Even Chris Evans is shocked

Critics were more lenient towards the comics. Portal Screen Rant notes that Marvel does a good job of storylines in which the good guys step on a crooked path. Tony Guerrero, author of Comic Vine, isn't happy to see the childhood hero become a villain, but commends the publisher for the twist. In his opinion, "it's the kind of thing that makes comics fun and exciting" and no one wants to read the same stories for years.

The opposite opinion is expressed by David Pepose in a review for the site Newsarama.com. He agrees that the heroes need reinvention, but criticizes the reincarnation of Rogers, saying that one could just as well say that the Punisher was an angel all this time. This twist just doesn't inspire confidence, and just because it's unexpected doesn't make it good.

And in fact: the hero, who at his first appearance hit Hitler in the face, all this time worked for a pro-fascist terrorist organization? The main problem with this turn is that there were no prerequisites for it. Captain America has always been the epitome of a hero in the Marvel Universe, and it doesn't make much sense to cover up so deeply on the side of good. And what happened so exceptional that it's time to rip off the veils?

Some have linked Cap's new role to the Civil War II global event... and that's something to play with. It is clear that all this nonsense was started only for the sake of sacrifice to the god of sales. But Captain America is on Hydra's side in the Civil War - it really could work. And how much do we know about Hydra? What does it mean to be recruited by her? The organization has gone through several reincarnations, so it's hard to tell what ideals Rogers is fighting for. An interesting commentary on this subject is given by the same Brevoort:

Everything may not be so simple. He [Steve] didn't wear a black hat instead of a white one - he wore a green hat.

The whole world turned its attention to the mess that the authors of the new adventures of Steve Rogers brewed. Now, under the heavy gaze of the fandom, they will have to disentangle it. Who knows, maybe it will work. In the meantime, the editors are stocking up on popcorn.

On April 19, the zero issue of the new global event in Marvel comics - Secret Empire, will be released, in which the Marvel Universe will change forever. But this time, these are not big words, since the main and most important change has already occurred - America's most honest, patriotic and fair superhero first became a secret agent of the sinister organization Hydra, and now he completely led it.

Beware spoilers!

How did it all start?

The Hydra Agent Captain's history began long before Secret Wars. At that time, Steve stopped being Captain America, because during a clash with Ren Shen (a former SHIELD agent who turned into a supervillain nicknamed Iron Nail), Rogers lost.

He lost his super-soldier serum and became a ninety-year-old man.

At that moment, Steve realized that he was no longer capable of being Captain America and gave the shield to his friend Sam Wilson, the famous superhero nicknamed "The Falcon".

Unable to be a superhero in his former form, Steve became a consultant to S.H.I.E.L.D. and his former colleagues. At this time, the Avengers learned about the Convergence of two worlds - theirs (616) and the Ultimate universe (1610). Despite all the efforts of the superheroes, the Convergence could not be stopped, and both universes perished. Thus began the plot of Secret Wars, at the end of which a new universe was created, and in it Rogers returned to life along with other heroes.

Steve gathers a team of Avengers - Uncanny Avengers, in which he personally invites Deadpool, emphasizing his merits.

At this point, the action of the Standoff crossover begins. Its essence is that an unknown hacker nicknamed Whisperer publishes data on a new SHIELD experiment online. It turns out that the organization was experimenting with the remains of the cosmic cube, and during one of the experiments, an accident occurred.

The fragments united into a living being with intelligence and taking the form of a girl. She was named after the project - Kobik.

It turned out that Kobik is able to change reality at will. And SHIELD, at the suggestion of Maria Hill (who replaced Fury's nickname as the head of the organization), decided to use this to their advantage. They created a small town in the American Outback and named it Pleasant Hill. This city is about halfway home to undercover SHIELD agents and various supervillains who have been given a new life with the help of Kobik.

They do not remember who they were before, for them there is no life before Pleasant Hill. Here they live, trying to make the American dream a reality.

The Pleasant Hill project itself was kept secret and therefore became a shining precedent. The Winter Soldier turned to Steve Rogers for help, because it was previously believed that the fragments of the cosmic cube were destroyed, and it turns out that Maria Hill, with her initiative, operates outside of her jurisdiction. Rogers personally arrives at Pleasant Hill, but it turns out that not all of the captives have forgotten their past lives.

One of them - Baron Zemo - with the help of another criminal Fixer (together they were once part of the Thunderbolts) decides to use Kobik against the Avengers and SHIELD. They return the memories of some villains, and when Steve Rogers comes to town, they start a riot, regaining their abilities and memories. Steve Rogers comes to the aid of his personal team of Avengers and another team of superheroes - All-New All-Different Avengers, but they are powerless against Kobik.

The girl changes the heroes, forcing them to forget about their past lives and turn into ordinary people.

With great difficulty, the heroes regain control and rescue all the surviving SHIELD agents, whom Baron Zemo and the villains under his control have taken hostage.

Here is the meeting of the elderly Steve with Crossbones. The criminal beats Rogers to a pulp, and only thanks to the appearance of Kobik, Steve manages to win.

The girl returns Rogers to his usual form, again making him a super soldier. Along with this, Steve gets his youth and something more. He regains his memories of the "real" past.

Now Steve is a secret agent of Hydra, who all these years has only played the role of a hero. At the end of the crossover, the heroes capture Kobik in a special energy field, but she disappears in an unknown direction.

Kobik, along with the Winter Soldier and several villainous former prisoners of Pleasant Hill, creates a new team of Thunderbolts and hides in Antarctica.

At the same time, Steve Rogers begins to act. He finds Baron Zemo, missing after the events in Pleasant Hill, and arranges for him to have a fake death.

The whole world, including SHIELD, thinks that Zemo died during an operation in the small island nation of Bagalia. But in fact, Captain America saved his life. And not only to him.

On the plane, in addition to Zemo and Jack Flag (more on him later), was also Dr. Eric Selvig. Steve Rogers saved the lives of both Zemo and Selvig, but he had to hide them in his secret base, which Steve borrowed from one of the supervillains, after killing him.

How did it happen that Steve Rogers changed? His old enemy, the Red Skull, is to blame for this. The original Skull has been dead for a long time, it has been active in Marvel comics in recent years. The clone is a complete copy of the original villain, but more ambitious.

When the Skull learned of Charles Xavier's death, he stole Professor X's body in order to cut out part of his brain and sew it on for himself. So he acquired the ability and became a very capable telepath.

After the events of Pleasant Hill, the Skull launched a new campaign to reorganize Hydra. He began to recruit new agents to train them in various methods to attract people to the organization. And at some point, Kobik appeared in front of him. She remembered the Red Skull from the days when he wanted to get the artifact in order to defeat Captain America.

Then Kobik was a solid cosmic cube, but it already had consciousness. It remembered Skull. And he decided to use it to his advantage.

From the girl, the Skull learned that she was being kept at the SHIELD base and was being studied. Dr. Selvig became the curator of her program. The skull began to devote a lot of time to the girl, treating her like a child, and she, in turn, decided to help her friend. She changed Dr. Selvig, similar to how she turned the supervillains in Pleasant Hill into normal people. Selvig became a secret agent of Hydra, and along with his views, his past changed. Trying to read the doctor's mind, the Skull was convinced of this.

Then a grand plan was born in his head. He decided to turn his main enemy - Steve Rogers - into a faithful servant.

With Selvig's help, he pitched the idea to Maria Hill, and she created the Pleasant Hill initiative. The Skull had thought of everything. He knew that the villains would start a riot, and the Avengers would go there along with Captain America. He himself went to the city, assuming the appearance of a holy father. Skull had Crossbones beat the elderly Rogers to a pulp so that Kobik's interference would not be suspicious.

When the girl saved Steve's life, she made him loyal to Hydra. What she didn't know was that in fact, Rogers was originally supposed to be a member of Hydra. He was simply made to forget about it.

How has Captain America's past changed?

The Captain America Steve Rogers series details Steve Rogers' past. We previously about his childhood. As a child, Steve was left an orphan and was brought by Eliza Sinclair to Hydra. He ended up in a camp for young agents, where children were trained to be full members of the organization. There, Steve met Helmut Zemo, his best friend for the rest of his life. Despite his best efforts in training, Rogers was a very frail child, but Elise saw potential in him. She insisted that he, having matured, go to the United States to perform a special task - to obtain information about the serum of super soldiers from Dr. Abraham Erskine and kill him. In the States, due to physical data, Steve fails to get into the army, but one day he meets Erskine in a coffee shop where Rogers worked part-time. There, he impresses the doctor by returning a bag stolen from a woman by a thief.

Abraham invites Steve to his project, believing that he is the one Erskine has been looking for for a long time

When Rogers has the opportunity to kill the doctor, he passes, but Helmut comes to his aid. He kills Erskine, and asks Steve to stay in the super-soldier program to be made into Hydra's strongest weapon. So Steve Rogers becomes the main symbol of American democracy and goes to the front, where he helps the Allies fight the Nazis and Hydra. Steve keeps in contact with Hellmuth, passing him information useful for the organization.

With the help of the Red Skull and Kobik, Steve remembered his life before the change of the universe, but he did not forget everything that happened after. He remembers both his lives and begins to set in motion a plan to transform the world into what it really should be.

Rogers' plan is very complex, and his main point is to eliminate the current leader of Hydra, who leads the organization astray, using it to his advantage.

With the help of Dr. Selvig, Steve tries to find Kobik, as only with her help can he return everything to its place. But while she's with the Thunderbolts and unavailable, Rogers has other things to do. For example, he seeks the resignation of Maria Hill from the post of director of SHIELD, citing her complete irresponsibility during the situation with Pleasant Hill. Then after the Second Civil War, Steve, thus gaining access to all the resources of the organization. Moreover, with his submission, a bill is being passed that expands the powers of SHIELD and allows military intervention in the activities of any other state.

But that's not all. Rogers orchestrates a Chitauri alien invasion to divert S.H.I.E.L.D. and the superheroes' attention to the problem, while his personal Avengers team (which he had left shortly before) are confronted by the Red Skull. Skull takes control of most of the team, but Deadpool's insanity helps him avoid the villain's telepathy. Together with Spider-Man, they defeat and save the others.

The mutant Rogue takes the leader of the Hydra to the Beast, who performs an operation to extract part of Professor X's brain.

Steve also sets up an uprising in the small European country of Sokovia by providing them with nuclear weapons. He makes the Red Skull think it's his idea, and while the tape threatening America is being broadcast from Sokovia, SHIELD Squadron is flying there, Steve starts final preparations. He decides to kill the Red Skull.

After sneaking him out of the hospital, Steve brings Skull to a secret hideout, where he is brutally beaten and thrown out the window. The former leader of Hydra is crushed to death.

Rogers takes control of the organization and enters the finish line. He is now aided by Baron Zemo and the new Hydra Council, which includes his mother, Eliza Sinclair, who has not aged in decades.

Does anyone know the secret of Steve Rogers?

In the twenty-seventh issue of the Deadpool series, three superheroes move from the future to the past. Their task is to kill Captain America in order to prevent Hydra's rise to power. But unfortunately, with the help of Deadpool, Steve Rogers kills them all.

At the same time, SHIELD agent Phil Coulson notices that something does not add up in the Captain's story and begins his investigation.

The mercenaries Taskmaster and Black Ant, while examining the remains of the damaged plane in Bagalia, in which Baron Zemo is believed to have died, find a recording that shows Captain America saying "Heil Hydra". They tried to sell the tape to Mary Hill, who was on the run, but they were caught by Madame Hydra and given the choice of working for her or dying.

How has the character of Steve Rogers changed?

At the beginning of the Captain America episode, Steve Rogers was joined by Steve's friend Jack Flag on Zemo's ship. When Steve discovered him, he had to throw Jack off the plane in the hope that he would crash to death. But Jack survived, although he fell into a coma. For a long time, Steve tried to decide what to do with him, and in the end he asked Dr. Selvig to make a poison that would not leave traces. When Rogers came to the hospital with a syringe to finally kill Jack, he was confronted by his girlfriend, who informed Steve that she had decided to turn off the life-sustaining equipment in Jack, because she did not want to see him in this state.

Steve was ready to kill his friend, but did not do it, because the circumstances were favorable for him.

Another example: when Kobik teleports Bucky Barnes' mind into the past and he wakes up in his young body during World War II, he decides to right all the wrongs that led him to become the Winter Soldier. Through his fault, Heinrich Zemo, Helmut's father, dies. Because of this, Zemo decides to take revenge on Barnes at the first opportunity. He ties him to a rocket aimed at the Allied camp. At that moment, Steve appears.

He offers Bucky an option where he can survive - he needs to become part of the Hydra and say "Heil Hydra". Barnes refuses, and Steve agrees with Hellmuth that he will have to be killed.

The rocket flies to the camp, where Bucky is killed in an explosion.

During the Second Civil War, an Inhuman named Ulysses appeared. His ability is that he can see the future. Steve and Selvig were afraid that in one of the visions, Ulysses would see the real identity of Rogers, so they had to set up a big threat. Selvig forged the results of the gamma radiation studies and anonymously sent them to Bruce Banner. He began to experiment on himself, and Ulysses in one of the visions saw how he again turns into the Hulk. This resulted in Bruce's death from an arrow by Clint Barton (Hawkeye).

In other words, Steve Rogers indirectly killed his friend and teammate.

It turns out that Captain America, who remembered his real past, is not a villain. He kills, deceives and betrays, but he does it not for his own sake or by order. He does not need power over the world, money or chaos. He just wants to return the real story, to make everything the way it really was. And he will stop at nothing in his pursuit.

Rogers wants his justice to prevail and people stop living in lies, because the world around them is not real. And he is not alone in his struggle. He has many followers. All together they are the Secret Empire, which will soon reveal itself to the world.