Is it bad that I sorta want Hydra cap? Obviously not cap willingly being apart of it but maybe similar in a way that Clint was brainwashed?
If what marvel was doing was akin to Clint being brainwashed, with a scene where Steve was forcibly mentally overwhelmed via comic book science it would be a different matter, but that’s not what marvel’s doing. What they are doing is monstrous, they are blatantly using Nazi imagery, influences from Nazi propaganda and a complete disregard for everything Cap is meant to be to create a narrative where fascism is the new exciting thing and our hero is and has always been our oppressor. This isn’t darkfic published under heavy warnings on AO3 intended as an exploration of character and morality under stress, Hydra Cap is intended as a deeply shocking and deliberate corruption of a character with incredible meaning to the oppressed, to be sold as the official byline of an influential company. More than that, Marvel is saying one of their historically most moral and justice loving characters is and has always been a Nazi. They have removed a powerful symbol of allyship and told us he was never with us foolish oppressed people anyways. They have made a character steeped in Jewish culture into a Nazi. They have explicitly shown Hydra Cap as “righteous” holding Mjolnir, thats literally saying Nazism is just and explicitly glorifying it. Its telling any white supremacist and racist and Nazi that they are righteous. That is incredibly, monumentally disgusting and inexcusable.
The fact that they have also made Magneto, a holocaust survivor into a Hydra operative is evil. It’s part of an effort to move Hyrda away from it’s alignment to Nazism, which honestly just makes Nazi ideology even more appealing to white supremacists. While they try and distance Hydra from Nazis, they also have really doubled down on their use of Nazi imagery, ideology and rhetoric in Secret Empire. I mean they have Inhumans being put in camps and operatives hail-ing all over the place for fucks sake, marvel it’s not subtle. By attempting to remove the association with Nazis, Marvel is making the ideals of Nazism something exciting, entertaining and appealing to a larger audience. It’s much easier to be a Nazi when you don’t consider yourself one and Captain America is backing you up.
If marvel was presenting Steve as having been brainwashed and his unwilling support of Nazism as a horrifying thing, I still wouldn’t be thrilled, but i wouldn’t be angry and afraid the way Hydra Cap makes me. Marvel is empowering real life Nazis through this storyline, and I can’t think of anything more incredibly monstrous and sinister.
Don’t support it. Ignoring Secret Emipre’s connection to the rise of fascism in the real world is reckless and ignorant at best.
@marvelentertainment and @nickspencerly have ignored the Jewish roots of the characters they are dealing with with cries of “it’s just fiction, don’t take it so seriously” and “good you’re angry, that means I am successful”. (i am paraphrasing here, their irl replies are much nastier) while either ignoring or revelling in the strong negative effect their explicit support of fascism has.
So Hyrda Cap in fic, before it was canon, with Steve as an unwilling participant is a whole different beast than the canon, loaded with Nazi rhetoric Hydra Cap. I’m not sure it can anymore be considered just to give any support to any form of Hydra Cap, even in fic, even in your scenario.
Real life Nazis use Hydra symbols and Hydra cap as images to justify their cause! It’s terrifying and marvel doesn’t seem care at all about the effect they are having on real life facism! I’m an art historian i KNOW how powerful images are and this is fucking terrifying especially since the creators are denying the power of their images!