Hail Hydra: Captain America is Actually Not a Nazi
WARNING: SPOILERS AHEAD FOR CAPTAIN AMERICA: STEVE ROGERS #1
Hey heroes! I know a lot of people are very disappointed by the events taking place in Captain America: Steve Rogers #1. In fact, most people are enraged. I want to do two things with this article, both inform and give my opinion on the matter.
The issue contains three different stories. The first being Captain America, Jack Flag, and Free Spirit taking down a Hydra Suicide Terrorist who is trying to blow up a train full of people. The second being flashbacks showing how Robbie Dean Tomlin's life lead to him becoming the suicide terrorist on the train. And the third being flashbacks to when Steve Rogers was a little kid.
Robbie Dean Tomlin was an ordinary kid whose parents fought a lot. He suffered in school and his family was poor. He ended up in prison and joined the White Supremacist group. He eventually got out of prison, got a job, got fired, started doing drugs, watched his girlfriend overdose, got clean, and eventually reunited with his old cellmate who insisted he needed to come to these secret meetings and that it will change his life. The meetings turned out to be for Red Skull's new Hydra.
A lot of Red Skull's speeches are actually very reminiscent of Donald Trump's "Make America Better Again" speeches. He uses the men's fears and emotions to get them to believe in his cause and is only amplified by the fact that he has stolen Charles Xavier's mutant powers and is using them to further implant these feelings in the men's heads.
Robbie fully joins Hydra and tattoos the mark on his chest and decides he needs to die for the cause. And to do that, he has to blow up an entire train full of people. Captain America, Jack Flag, and Free Spirit save the people but they cannot save Robbie so Captain America detaches the front car from the train and jumps out at the last second as the train blows up.
In the flashbacks to Steve Rogers' childhood, it shows his father, Joseph, yelling at and publicly humiliating Sarah, Steve's mom, for him being unemployed and she makes all the money they have for their family. He feels she likes to show off to everyone that he's a deadbeat when all she wants to do is be more involved in the community. A woman named Elisa Sinclair shows up and saves Sarah by taking down Joseph and insisting he goes home right away. He goes home and she treats Sarah and Steve to a nice dinner at a restaurant.
Later, Baron Zemo is trying to reform the Masters of Evil with new low level villains and wants to make a return to leading Hydra. Captain America, Jack Flag, and Free Spirit show up to stop him but he gets away in his plane with Dr. Erik Selvig, whom you may remember from the Thor movies, who is tied up inside. Cap leaves the Masters to his teammates and jumps onto the plane to stop Zemo. After Jack Flag and Free Spirit make quick work of the new Masters, Jack decides to help Cap when he sees him about to fall out of the plane. He boards the plane and immediately knocks out Zemo and helps Cap back onto the plane.
In the flashbacks, Elisa tells Sarah that she and her son should join their secret society as it will help make the world a better place. That secret society is revealed to be Hydra. Back in the present, Cap throws Jack Flag out of the plane and turns back to Dr. Selvig to say, "Hail Hydra."
Cue the outrage. One of the most notable responses I've seen is people claiming that Captain America is a Nazi. That is just plain incorrect. If you know anything about Captain America, he is clearly at the age of 18 or 19 when he joins the military and becomes Captain America during World War II. That means that when he was a kid, Hydra already existed and the Nazi party hadn't come to power yet. In fact, Hydra had been around for millennia before the Nazis had been thought of. They had many ties with ancient members of the Kree, the early Inhumans like Hive (as seen in Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.), and many Asgardian beings and technology. In fact, Hydra only used the Nazi party to spread their ranks and in the midst of World War II, they quickly cut their ties and made it clear they were a separate entity. It's not like Cap said "Hail Hitler" at the end.
Writer Nick Spencer has made it clear that this isn't a clone or brainwashing, this is actually happening. I can't say for sure because the story is only beginning but my theory is that this is an outcome of Kobik, the sentient Cosmic Cube girl, who altered reality to make Steve Rogers young again and gave him back his super soldier powers. This is also meant to be a way to put both Captain Americas on the opposite sides of the American politics. Sam Wilson is an example of the Extreme Left Wing and is a clear Liberal Democrat. Steve Rogers is actually planned to become an example of the Extreme Right Wing and is a clear Conservative Republican. There isn't meant to be a connection with today's Hydra and the Nazis but more of a connection with Donald Trump and his supporters' views.
But the important thing to remember is that this is still comic books and nothing ever stays the same forever. Just like when Batman was replaced by Nightwing or when Peter Parker and Otto Octavius switched minds before Otto died from cancer. It all comes back because most fans can't deal with too much change... or so it seems.
- Jessie S. Galindo, editor-in-chief and head writer of Messed Up Comics. Follow him on Twitter and like us on Facebook.