Summary
- Captain America plays a significant role in Uncanny Avengers, taking charge of a new team and leading them into battle against Orchis' "Captain Krakoa" impersonator.
- Throughout the series, Captain America has been plagued by his memories of Secret Empire, a fact Uncanny Avengers has emphasized more than once.
- Uncanny Avenegrs looks poised to explore the fallout of Secret Empire by painting a parallel between Hyrda-Cap and the fake Captain Krakoa, possibly giving Captain America a chance for true closure.
Uncanny Avengers' return in Fall of X was pretty surprising. While bringing back the Avengers Unity Squad in the Krakoa Era makes sense, relaunching Uncanny Avengers this late in the proceedings feels a bit like a missed opportunity. However, the book has been doing pretty well, as writer Gerry Duggan and artist Javier Garron deliver an action-packed ride. The premise is pretty interesting. Orchis has recruited a secret villain to steal the Captain Krakoa costume and impersonate the mutant nation's great hero. As "Captain Krakoa," this imposter has brought together a group of mutants to act as terrorists, further turning the public against mutants.
Captain America plays a significant role in Uncanny Avengers. While he always shines as a leader and champion of the underdogs, the comic has also spent time highlighting Cap's inner struggles. A lot has happened to Steve Rogers over the years, and even he has regrets he can't shake. One of the biggest ghosts to haunt his mind is Secret Empire. The Hydra-zation of the Captain America mantle weighs heavily on Rogers. Given Uncanny Avengers has made a point of frequently bringing up that event, it's worth exploring exactly what this dark period means for Captain America and his new team.
United They Fall
The new Uncanny Avengers team came together at the worst time possible. Orchis made their most devastating attack against Krakoa during the Hellfire Gala, but it wasn't the only facet of their assault. While Nimrod, Doctor Stasis, and Omega Sentinel spearheaded the strike against mutants, Orchis sent a mystery villain to the X-Men's Treehouse to steal the Captain Krakoa costume. Forge had created the suit so mutants with combat skills but no powers could still go out into the field. As part of Orchis' plan to make humanity hate mutants even more, the new Captain Krakoa gathered Blob, the Fenris Twins, and Wildside to his side.
Rogue, Psylocke, Deadpool, and Penance teamed up with Captain America and Quicksilver to fight against this new version of the Mutant Liberation Front. For Cap, the battle against Captain Krakoa has gotten pretty personal. Captain Krakoa ravaged Captain America in battle, but that's not the half of it. Captain Krakoa played off Captain America's iconography. Captain Krakoa was meant to be Krakoa's Captain America, the hero who represented everything good about the nation. Captain Krakoa tricking mutants into working with him to commit terrorist acts highlights how easily a mantle like Captain America's can be abused, which has reminded Cap of the worst thing that ever happened to him: Hydra Supreme Steve Rogers. Captain Krakoa has reminded Cap of that dark episode in his life for multiple reasons.
A Not So Secret Empire
Secret Empire isn't a well regarded story, but it had some potential. The build-up to it doesn't really get the credit it deserves, because it did a great job of setting the story up. Captain America's super-soldier serum had run out again, reducing Steve Rogers to an old man, which is why Sam Wilson took over as Captain America. Rogers ended up working with the Uncanny Avengers, which meant that he got pulled into the situation on Pleasant Hill. Pleasant Hill was a SHIELD supervillain prison facility that used Kobik, the sentient Cosmic Cube, to keep the villains pacified by taking away their memories. Avengers: Standoff ended with Captain America's youth being restored, but there was a catch. Red Skull, who had possessed Kobik back when she was a Cosmic Cube, made sure Kobik changed Steve Rogers' past so that he would've always been a Hydra agent.
This set the stage for Steve Rogers: Captain America, where readers learned about Cap's Hydra's past. Obviously, this was a controversial idea. Captain America was created by two Jewish creators — Joe Simon and Jack Kirby — to battle the Nazis. Many fans believed that turning Cap into what amounts to a Nazi was disrespectful. However, looking at the build-up in Steve Rogers: Captain America, it was actually a pretty smart idea. The specter of fascism was rising in American politics at the time, so turning Captain America into a fascist had great thematic resonance. Seeing Captain America use his considerable skills to subvert democracy and slowly but surely set up everything he needed to take control of the US was terrifying, revealing what Cap could do with no morals. Several people suspected something was wrong with Cap — like Captain Marvel, Sam Wilson, and Sharon Carter — but they weren't able to stop Captain America and Hydra's takeover.
Secret Empire kicked off and readers got to see Captain America as they never had before. Steve Rogers still wore the Captain America costume in the beginning of his time as Hydra Supreme. The evil Steve, or Stevil as he's known to some fans, created his own Avengers team: a Chthon possessed Scarlet Witch, the Vision, and Thor Odinson, who followed Cap because he thought this Captain America was worthy of Mjolnir. Hydra Supreme Rogers started concentration camps for Inhumans and chased down his former friends. Rogers definitely played off his former reputation as Captain America. Hydra and Rogers used the iconography of Captain America to make sure the people of the US thought Hydra was right and that they were looking out for the public.
The mantle of Captain America was used to make fascism palpable to the public. Now, knowing the real world political discourse of the time, it's easy to see what Secret Empire was trying to do. Captain America is a symbol of everything good about the US, and Hydra Supreme Steve Rogers used that to destroy everything that Captain America was supposed to stand for. Secret Empire definitely got that across, but the story failed because of Marvel's usual event book shenanigans: a bloated book that stretched the story out way too much. Another problem was that Secret Empire had no impact afterward. Marvel knew that Secret Empire was a failure, so instead of keeping Hydra Supreme Rogers around and exploring what he meant for Captain America, the publisher killed him off, having Selene melt him down to nothing. Marvel dropped the ball spectacularly.
Uncanny Avengers Is Finally Dealing With The Fallout Of Secret Empire
Secret Empire didn't have to be bad, but Marvel seemed like they didn't want to do anything interesting with the story. This extended to the fallout of the book as well. Marvel could have used Hydra Supreme to talk about what Captain America means and how it's so easy to break that. The irony is that Ta-Nehisi Coates' Captain America run that came after Secret Empire, the one that dealt the most with the fallout of the event, would have been better if it embraced Secret Empire. It ended up with Red Skull appealing to the worst parts of the population of the US. That story could've had so much more impact if Hydra Supreme, wearing the face of America's greatest hero, did the same thing.
Uncanny Avengers picking up the fallout from Secret Empire is surprising, but it works very well. Many readers groaned when Marvel introduced Captain Krakoa. X-Men (Vol. 6) put the X-Men's Captain America, Cyclops, into the suit for a time, which made readers associate Captain Krakoa and Captain America even more. The idea felt lackluster, especially since it ultimately didn't seem to matter much to the overall story of the Krakoa Era. Bringing back Captain Krakoa for Fall of X finally made the mantle matter and definitely drew a parallel between it and Hydra Supreme.
Captain America never really had to deal with the fallout of Hydra Supreme's actions in any real way. Cap never had to look Hydra Supreme in the eye except for their one battle. He completely missed everything Hydra Supreme did, since the current version of Cap only existed inside Kobik. Captain Krakoa is acting in a similar manner to Hydra Supreme Cap — using a mantle meant to be positive that exemplified the best in a people — for treacherous purposes. Captain America has had to look at someone doing what was done to him in real time and that's had a profound effect on him. The Uncanny Avengers have questioned Cap's leadership because of how personally he's taking the whole situation.
Captain Krakoa Supreme?
Most readers assume that Captain Krakoa is going to be Hydra Supreme, resurrected by Orchis, which would finally give Captain America closure, something that he never really gotten after Secret Empire. Uncanny Avengers could have just been a simple story where the Avengers Unity Squad battled against Orchis. However, the way Duggan has brought back reminders of Captain America's greatest failures makes the book something special. An argument can be made that having a Captain America story in the middle of Fall of X isn't exactly the best idea, but that overlooks just how much Marvel has ignored Secret Empire since it ended. This is a perfect time to bring back Secret Empire.
Thematically, Uncanny Avengers and Secret Empire, or at least the build-up to Secret Empire, share a lot in common. Captain Krakoa was a hero of Krakoa, and when Cyclops wore the costume, he lived up to that. Captain Krakoa led the X-Men, Krakoa's Avengers, into battle to protect humanity. Captain Krakoa was the exemplar of Krakoa. Having a mystery villain (who is almost certainly Hydra Supreme Steve Rogers) take over Captain Krakoa to make Krakoa and mutants look bad, actively fighting against what Krakoa stood for is exactly what Hydra did with Captain America.
Uncanny Avengers marks the first time Captain America is truly coming face-to-face with the fallout of Hydra Supreme's actions. Hydra Supreme wasn't a clone of Captain America. He was Captain America. The Steve Rogers had their battle during Secret Empire, but Captain America never got the closure he needed. As Uncanny Avengers points out, that still haunts Steve to this day. Seeing another imposter ruin the legacy of a national hero has lit a fire under Captain America, and he'll do everything in his power to set things right.