New Brevoort Formspring

I’m having a hard time even getting people who are vehemently opposed to Secret Empire to even engage me. It really does feel like I’m shouting at the wind, or maybe being an apologist, but this is all extremely clear to me as a long-time comics reader.

I was someone who (as an opinionated 21 year old) was absolutely furious and reviled by Ultimate Captain America when he first showed up. That and the “evil Jack Kirby” from Millar’s Authority were the two things I was upset about the most in comics from that era. I’m also Jewish (whether that matters or not in this current situation, but I am throwing it out there). The current story doesn’t bother me in the least and it thoroughly bothers a lot of other people whose opinion I regard. I’ve been giving a lot of thought to just where the distinction lies. I think a lot of it is that Millar’s Ultimate Cap was meant to supersede the traditional one, a new more relevant representational Cap for a new time, one that generally called into question the relevance and worth of the original, that tried to discard it. It might be how lauded and successful Ultimates was. It might have been how Ultimate Cap represented Millar’s then view of America as opposed to the everlasting ideal of the American Dream. I think it’s the difference between a new paradigm/updating and just a story, which is what Secret Empire is.

I don’t follow Nick Spencer on Twitter, but I’ve read my share of interviews and it’s obvious that the intent is wildly different. Secret Empire Cap is meant to explore what happens if idealism goes wrong. It’s meant to reaffirm the things that Cap stands for by presenting a villainous version of the character with some of the same elements but sent down a different path and how that can change a person. It’s to create a traditional Marvel villain (like Doom or Magneto) “with a point,” one who sees himself as the hero in his own story. It’s about showing how that person can still be ultimately wrong. It’s also to examine some negative and dangerous current trends in America, but not in that same sort of deconstructionist, openly gleeful, somewhat exploitative way that Ultimate Captain America did. Nothing in Ultimate Captain America was supposed to affirm what 616 Steve stood for. Millar was trying to tear that all down as bullshit and hypocrisy instead. So far, I think the point of Secret Empire is exactly the opposite. It’s much more of cautionary tale and I’m pretty sure much like with the end of AzBats or Spider-Ock, the core of the character is going to be shown as superior in just about every way to the Secret Empire version by the end of this. 

Look, Gruenwald’s Cap is basically where I got my moral code from as a kid. Steve is hugely important to me as a fictional entity, but this is just a story and one that’s meant to reaffirm what’s most important about Captain America by taking a few elements away and showing the difference, by showing that it took all of the elements to make him into the hugely admirable character we all regard so highly, one that is more relevant than ever. I’m honestly having a hard time seeing this as anything else, and I’m not sure how people well versed with comics and well-experienced in reading them don’t pick up on that. I think the execution is more than solid enough to present it as such and it’s much more of a willful leap to see all of this as something else from the text itself and the interviews surrounding it.