#NotMyCaptain and #SayNoToHydraCap
In the light of the recent, horrific, decision from Nick Spencer to re-write Steven Rogers as a Hydra supporter his entire existence, I’ve spent a great deal of time trying to come to terms with this choice and what it means for the overall community.
Steve Rogers was a poor boy growing up in the great depression. A child living sickly during the eugenics era. A walking talking symbol for all the depraved and undervalued “less thans” of the world who would never amount to anything. He was the victim of child abuse.
His mother, Sarah Rogers, was a nurse who fought every day and night in order to get food for her son. Medicine for his sickly body. Money to keep the roof over their head. They were poor and weak, and she tragically died of illness.
Steve Rogers volunteered for the army because it was the right thing to do. Even though he was sickly and small, he still made the choice to fight. And when he physically became capable of fighting back, he did so with grace and humility for seventy five years.
First written into being by Joe Simon and Jack Kirby, Steven Rogers was the paragon for freedom and strength that two men living in an era of intense anti-semitism conjured to be their sigil. Their safe guard.
He fought back against the Nazis for them. He showed that even if you weren’t physically capable, you could still become something more. You could still have a good heart. You could still make friends with the gay kid down the street.
You could still make the right choices, even if they are hard. You can still succeed.
Steven Rogers is a character who shows the world that even when everything is going wrong, even when your father is beating you into the ground, even when your mother is dying and you’re broken and small— you get up. You don’t ever give up. You make it work.
Steven Rogers is what makes Captain America so great. The title can go to anyone, Bucky Barnes and Sam Wilson both proved that. But both Bucky and Sam were striving to also match the legend that Steve provided. Both struggled to come to terms with the legacy Steve left behind.
Steve is the small man’s hero. The hero of those who are weak and downtrodden. The hero of those who have been pushed to the ground and who struggle to stand up.
He’s a good man. The Good Man.
He’s the human who can lift Mjölnir. He’s the hero who always makes the right choice. Even if it’s the hardest choice in the world to make. He keeps going, even though he’s so tired.
And Nick Spencer made him Hydra.
To be clear, Spencer’s decision to make him Hydra is almost as damaging to Steve’s character as revealing that Superman had been breeding Earth as his eventual world do reign as king. As damaging as saying Batman and Joker had been in cohoots this whole time. As damaging as saying that Daredevil’s always been able to see.
And I say almost, because none of these examples truly explain the vast cultural and historical implications Spencer’s destroyed. Steve Rogers stood to defend the Jews from Nazis, from Hydra. By saying that Steve has been Hydra this whole time, is saying that Steve was purposefully manipulating events to willfully let Hydra succeed.
Ever person he failed to save? Now was a purposeful death in his careful calculations. Ever child that he left behind? On purpose. Every mission he failed? On purpose. Every friend he lost? He was glad they died. He planned everything. This diabolical mastermind who pretended to care about his allies because he needed to manipulate them.
Spencer’s calling 75 years worth of readers stupid because they couldn’t figure it out sooner. They weren’t let in on the joke. They didn’t realize who he really was beneath the stars and stripes.
Steve wanted the Jews to be persecuted, clearly. He agreed with Nuke all this time, clearly. He fought against Red Skull as a matter of farce. He let all his allies die or be tortured because he needed them to suffer.
He let Sharon Carter stay imprisoned, and was more sad that he lost a viable test subject in their unborn child, than he was in that child’s death during Sharon’s desperate attempt to escape Hydra.
He willfully trained Bucky Barnes as a future Hydra asset, then purposefully led him into torture and captivity to make sure that he followed Hydra’s plan.
He turned his back on everything — and in doing so, he has been stripped of everything that makes sense for his character.
Not only him, but Sarah Rogers too. She didn’t live her life to see Steve become Hydra. She lived it so he could be a good man. And by calling Steve Hydra, you are ruining that woman’s greatest hope and dream of a good future.
Nick Spencer has killed Steve Rogers. He’s killed him more effectively than any other writer in history. By committing this act of Character Assassination, Spencer has forever damaged Steve’s reputation. His legacy. Has tarnished him in a way that is unjustifiable and horrific.
Spencer has no concept of who Steve Rogers is as a character. Has no understanding of the massive impact Steve’s character has on the comic community. Steve isn’t a gimmick to be played with, he’s the bullied child’s one hope for a good night. He’s the abused wife’s strength when she keeps getting up at the end of the day. He’s the jewish community’s savior when they look to someone to defend them from anti-semitism.
Spencer’s decision to make this change is not a positive step for Marvel. And even if it’s written as a shock tactic to drive up sales, it’s a racist, bigoted, and anti-semitic decision that strips a community of their savior and turns him into their persecutor.
He’s made Martin Luther King Jr. applaud the KKK.
He’s made Abraham Lincoln a slave owner.
He’s made Judy Garland homophobic.
He’s taken a hero, and slathered him in shit.
This is not how heroes are to be treated. Especially not heroes with such a long and positive history. Captain America deserves better than Nick Spencer.
Steve Rogers deserves better than Nick Spencer.
Joe Simon and Jack Kirby, who wrote Steve Rogers as a hero for all those who desperately needed a hero in their lives, deserves better than Nick Spencer.
And this run is completely unacceptable.
Shock is a wonderful writing technique, but it must be used to shock an audience into excitement. Not shock them into revulsion and protest. Not shock them into hate and boycotting measures.
Not shock them into writing essays begging for the removal of Nick Spencer from the Captain America comics.
But in truth, I would rather have Steve Rogers die, happy and content as an elderly man, never to return to his younger state, then suffer through the horrific character assassination that’s been given to him.
Many years ago I read a fanfiction by Robin4 on fanfiction.net. It’s the Promises Unbroken series, and in the 37th chapter of the final installment, Promises Defended, she writes the following line:
“There was a well-known axiom in the publishing business: no one was untouchable. Politicians were fair game. Famous figures made good targets. Children were easily exploited, and [sports] players never knew when to shut up. Genuine heroes, however, were to be respected. Such figures came along rarely, and oftentimes the various sides of the real media quadrangle could not even agree on what was defined as ‘heroic’…let alone who was a hero. But when they did agree, that line existed. It was not to be crossed. Real heroes were untouchable.”
Steve Rogers is Untouchable.
And I say No to Hydra Cap.
Hydra Cap is Not My Captain
and Nick Spencer doesn’t deserve the privilege of writing Steve Rogers’ story.
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