A few weeks after Captain America: Civil War blew up the box office, Marvel Comics blew up Captain America. Captain America: Steve Rogers #1, released Wednesday, contains a twist so shocking fans are already calling for a boycott. SPOILER: Captain America has been a double agent working for Hydra this whole time. His mom joined the Nazi-like agency in the 1920s, and Rogers was recruited as a child. The reveal casts 75 years of Captain America comic books in a new light. Here's what you need to know:
- The Verge explains why the shock is, well, so shocking. “One of Marvel Comics’ most idealistic and incorruptible superheroes” is now “one of the company's greatest villains.”
- Time has an interview with Marvel executive editor Tom Brevoort, who says they've been planning the reveal since 2014. “It’s a story that we spent a long time on, that’s compelling and captures the zeitgeist of the world.”
- The Wrap collects outraged reactions from all corners of the Internet, from “absolutely disgusting and horrific" to #SayNoToHYDRACap. “75 years of an amazing character with one of the best marvel back stories and it all means nothing now," laments one fan.
- The news was so big that social media spoiled it for die-hard comic readers. “If there is one thing algorithms don’t care about, it’s your spoiler sensibilities," HitFix states.
- Brevoort, speaking to CNN, says Captain America actually being a Hydra agent reflects the US at the moment. “In an allegorical fashion, you want to make his adventures about where America and where the world is."
- Finally, io9 implores everyone to just calm down for a second. "Let’s not pretend this is real, or permanent … I look forward to Steve Rogers eventually being revealed as a quintuple agent or something.”
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