Secret Empire is a series of comics which Marvel ran in 2017. Issue 0 explains the premise:
Captain America’s reality has been secretly rewritten by Kobik, a sentient Cosmic Cube acting under the influence of the Red Skull. In Rogers’ new history, a Hydra agent recruited Steve to the villainous organization as a child, and he was raised to believe in their ideology: the strong ruling the weak, for the good of all…
Aside
This is the first “crossover event” I have attempted to read through. Doing so isn’t easy.
In comic parlance, ”crossover event” is a story with major implications for a breadth of characters within Marvel’s collected universe, told across multiple lines of comic books. It’s generally not required that a reader hunt down every different comic book line to get the story, the “main line” of the comics will do that, but what happens in the other issues offers ancillary perspectives on the same event.
It can be difficult, however, to figure out which comics to read, and when, as Secret Empire was released a few times a month, but its ancillary stories came out only monthly in some cases. Following this event live would have likely been much easier than it is to follow it a decade hence.
Although a reader could just hit the eleven issues of Secret Empire and get a complete story, I am no ordinary reader. So I didn’t miss when, for example, in between issues #1 and 2, what’s left of the Avengers persuade former Captain America Sam Wilson to smuggle them out of the country. But the persuasion, and the risk Sam has to take to do this, isn’t explained in Secret Empire. It is, however, in issue #22 of Captain America: Sam Wilson explored in major detail.
This post is about Secret Empire #4. In order to be up to speed on that, I’ve read:
- Captain America: Sam Wilson #21-23
- Uncanny Avengers #22
- Thunderbolts #12
- Captain America: Steve Rogers #16-17
- Deadpool #31
- Ultimates^2 #7
- The Mighty Captain Marvel #5 (but I read #0-5 because she’s one of my favorite characters)
- Secret Warriors #1-2 (which is AWESOME)
- U.S. Avengers #6-7
- Doctor Strange #21
So that was fifteen issues I read to bolster my understanding of the five for the main series. Pretty cool!
Anyway, Issue #4
I really loved this particular issue of Secret Empire, even though I expected not to. The cover details evil-Cap duking it out with Iron Man (the “real” Iron Man is comatose right now, thanks to Civil War #2 infighting, I think, and so the Iron Man in there is actually a blue-tinted hologram that can interact with his suit and everyone just… goes with it?). In the cover’s background, an oversized cyborg-Hank Pym watches with glee, his hands held out to suggest his puppeteering influence on the two.
I thought to myself when I saw the cover, “oh great, Civil War three. Haven’t we done this before?”
Aside #2
Before Secret Empire, two “Civil War” events happened in Marvel comics. These were also “crossover event” comics with lots of interconnections between different comic books. I have not attempted to read them yet, but I know the gist of what happened.
Civil War #1 (2006-2007)
Notice how similar the cover of Civil War #7 (2007) is to Secret Empire #4. This crossover event was also the inspiration for the Captain America: Civil War movie Marvel Studios put out in 2016.
The plot, basically, of both the comics crossover event and movie were that the US government wanted to register all superhumans and not permit them to act without government approval. Captain America, the same guy who in Secret Empire will turn out to have always been evil retroactively (yes, I wrote what I meant), will oppose this registration, hesitant to bind superheroes to the whims of any nation’s political agenda.
Opposing Cap is Tony Stark, aka Iron Man, who insists that government safety will give superhumans overdue guardrails and guidance.
It’s an interesting and nuanced concept, and shows Marvel’s ability to tell a sophisticated plot and give its characters depth and subtlety.
The aftermath is felt widely through the stories of Cap, Iron Man, Ms Marvel (ahem… Captain Marvel), the Fantastic Four, Thor, Spider-man, and a lot more of Marvel’s major IPs.
Civil War #2 (2016)
Ten years later, Marvel publishes Civil War #2. Ulysses can see into the future. Do heroes use his ability to stem off future catastrophes, or do they empower people to make better choices, preserving their free will? Philip K Dick would be proud.
Another time when Marvel poses an intriguing philosophical question with no easy answer, then tries to answer it (with punches, rockets, laser beams, mind control, and more).
Anyway, when I saw the cover of Secret Empire #4, you can imagine what I expected.
And that’s where it starts. Hercules faces off against Odison (formerly Thor), Ant-Man against Black Ant, Quicksilver against his sister, Scarlett Witch.
But quickly, the story veers—vociferously—away from what everyone, heroes included, expects.
Former Avenger, and founding member, Hank Pym, half-merged with the evil robot Ultron, stuns and captures all the heroes and forces them to sit down to dinner, in a gesture meant to remind the reader of simpler times, times before either civil war or secret empire, when they were a family cohabitating the Avengers’ Mansion.
The forced dinner party obviously collapses into sparring, but this time with words, not fists. Odinson (formerly Thor) suggests hologram Tony is drunk (imagine being so famously alcoholic that people think your ghost-hologram is drunk, too. Sheesh.), Hercules calls Odinson a disgrace, and so on.
Hank-tron cuts in. He says what we all have been thinking, and it’s a magical moment.
“Listen to yourselves—this constant bickering and battling, always at each other’s throats… it’s all you ever do anymore! What’s happened to you?! Where did it all go so wrong?!
You know, it’s just exhausting—and in this form, I can’t even be exhausted! I go through all this trouble to bring us back together, and you just—you just—
Do you want to know why Ultron built this city? Why he didn’t come after you yet again?
It’s because he didn’t have to. It’s because he looked at you and your war, Tony, and you and your scheming, Steve—
—And he realized he wouldn’t have to destroy anything—
—because you were already doing it for him.
You were going to tear each other apart, and burn down everything you built in the process. He didn’t need to lift a finger—
—he just needed to wait.
Good stories in any form subvert expectations. Issue #4 plays right into your expectations and then flips it all upside down and dumps it on your head. Comic books get a half-unfair reputation for their Sisyphean nature: Spider-man can never grow up because Marvel needs to sell the next issue. Captain America can’t just be evil because Marvel needs its heroes. Iron Man can’t be comatose forever—even if he has a holographic stand-in.
But these stories are not trapped in amber. They are not static. Hank Pym does leave the Avengers. Ms. Marvel becomes Captain Marvel. Jane Foster becomes Thor, and Thor becomes Odinson. Sam Wilson does come out from the Steve Rogers’s colossal shadow.
That’s what makes these stories so good. Progress. Not too much. Never fast enough. But it does come.
I’m excited to read how the Secret Empire progresses.
Bonus message
Thanks for reading this far! I wanted to share an exciting development forthcoming for this site: VAST Comics.
Predictable, I know. I’m making my own comics—writing, penciling, inking, and coloring. The first issue, Graelund: the Saga of Fleet #1 should be done and ready to buy and read sometime in July. Maybe. But anyway, be sure to subscribe if you’re eager to find it when it comes out!
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