Captain America: Steve Rogers #2 Comic Book Review/Recap

Captain America: Steve Rogers #2 The secret history of Cap revealed

Captain America: Steve Rogers #2 Recap

In their arrogance, SHIELD took a cosmic cube, a thing of unlimited power, able to shape reality with a simple thought. It became sentient, and they were able to convince it to work with them. And what did they do? They built a prison. Because they are meager and small. Because it is all they know. And in their foolishness, they never asked the right questions, like, where did this cube come from? And who is its rightful owner?

Years ago, the Red Skull once had this cube, but in a battle, Steve Rogers was able to shatter it. SHIELD took the pieces to study these remnant. That did not end well. They were not worthy of its power. Luckily, it was not all in vain. Something beautiful was born. This young child, named Kovik was new to this world, but her power was insurmountable. SHIELD recruited Dr. Selvig to talk with her, and better understand her.

Meanwhile, the Red Skull was bored. Having Charles Xavier’s powers means he is no longer challenged by anything. Everyone just does what he says… but it isn’t the same as conquering a people. When they bow, he wants them to mean it. And his daughter Sin only comes to him with more of the same – a mind controlled army, green and yellow leotards, doomsday machines, infiltration. It’s all so… uninspired. It’s all been done before. The Red Skull wants something new – something convoluted – a challenge – something that will break his enemies once and for all.

Suddenly, a guest appears in the form of a young girl. Alarmed, the Red Skull orders his man to kill the intruder, not caring about her young age. She is unharmed by the attack. So Sin steps in, only for the child to notice her facial dis-figuration, and instantly restore it. The young girl is as confused by this as the villains are. Everyone is yelling at her, but she thought the Red Skull would be nice. He used to be nice. When she was little, they made a whole world together. He held her in his arms. But then there was a fight… and she was broken.

The Red Skull realizes this little girl is the cosmic cube, his cosmic cube! She mentions that these weird SHIELD people are talking to her and trying to be friends, even though she accidentally hurt them. But Kovik isn’t comfortable with that, and wants to be the Red Skull’s friend instead. And the man was all too happy to oblige.

With this new ally, the Red Skull knew he would have his victory. Providing both a line into SHIELD and unlimited power, Kovik would be the key to all of this. A hacker may have exposed SHIELD’s lies and slowed down his plans, but his enemies were also humbled while Steve was torn apart from his closest ally. While all this happened, the Red Skull bonded with the sentient cube, teaching her of a HYDRA that brought happiness and peace to the world.

One day, Kovik mentioned that she doesn’t understand the people at SHIELD. If they want to make the world a better place, they should just join HYDRA! Kovik also mentioned she has been doing a good job keeping the Red Skull and HYDRA a secret. After all, she doesn’t want to ruin the big surprise party. But she does mention that Dr. Selvig was on to her… so she had to make some… changes. The Red Skull is shocked at this, but Kovik reassured him that everything was fine, and teleported them both to SHIELD headquarters. There, Dr. Selvig was shocked at their appearance… and got on his knees. It’s a true honor for him to finally meet the supreme leader. Trying to make sense of this madness, the Red Skull looked into the man’s mind… and saw something incredible. Memories he couldn’t have had of a life he couldn’t have lived. A life within the HYDRA of Kovik’s stories.

And there it was. This is how they would all fall. The Red Skull ordered Selvig to develop the concept of Pleasant Hill within SHIELD. Naturally, such a perverted and insane idea would be heartily approved at the highest of levels. From there, it was easy to manipulate Zemo into staging a coup within the prison. Capturing Steve and Maria Hill, the villain attempted to topple SHIELD, at least for a time. From there, the Red Skull infiltrated the prison himself, posing as a priest, and using his telepathic abilities to let Zemo lead Steve and Maria to Selvig.

They deliberately tricked Steve to leave, only for him to run into Crossbones. From there, knowing that Kovik likes Steve, the Red Skull knew she would do anything to save him. She would remake him into the hero he once was… but different, like Selvig. She would make him HYDRA.

This is how the Red Skull broke Steve Rogers. This is how he finally wins. He always knew Cap would be the pinnacle of man, were it not for his corrupted soul. But now, together, these two will do wondrous things. They will lead an army. They will inherit the Earth. They will kill Steve’s friends. They will turn everything the man ever fought for into a pile of ash. And then, Steve will kneel before the Red Skull and utter the words… Hail HYDRA.

Captain America: Steve Rogers #2 Review

Hello and welcome to Comic Island! My name is Arden, and this is my recap, and review, of Captain America: Steve Rogers #2!

Wow, well, now this was… completely unsurprising. You can see my review of the first issue where I predicted exactly this coming, but hey, this was still a great comic. Just so we’re all aware, comics are written well in advance of publication. So all those smug people out there thinking this is Marvel or writer Nick Spencer’s way of walking back the whole Hail HYDRA incident, you’re wrong. This was always the plan, and they’ve been hinting at it for some time. These people who I am reluctant to call critics were wrong. They clearly don’t know much about comic books, everyone jumped to conclusions they shouldn’t have, and they all made a big deal out of nothing.

For those who cried wolf who were a little more self-aware about how silly this whole thing is, boy, is it fun to see the cognitive dissonance right now. People are desperately trying to cover up their own folly with stuff like, “oh, it was just a publicity stunt,” or, “oh, this is all Nick Spencer’s fault” whatever, anything to avoid admitting they were wrong, eh?

But the fact of the matter is that this is a pretty well written, well drawn comic. Yes, a hero turning bad isn’t anything new, and Marvel has been relying on this plot a little heavily these days, but honestly this sort of thing has been going on for ages, and there’s nothing wrong with it. If anything, this is the exact sort of back to basics formula that for ages I and many other fans have been clamoring for. There isn’t some unnecessarily complicated personal drama, angst ridden brooding, or any other nonsense, it is just a hero triumphing over adversity. In this case, that adversity being his own corruption. But this will play out like all the other stories like this will – we’ll see Cap being evil, working for HYDRA, and coming into conflict because of it, only for him to eventually be returned to normal and kicking the Red Skull’s ass six ways to Sunday.

Well, maybe. The fact that we’re getting these revelations already in issue two, coupled with certain comments by editor in chief Axel Alonzo and writer Nick Spencer makes me think this is only the tip of the iceberg. Remember that as far as Marvel is concerned, they very much already have a perfectly good Captain America, and I agree. Sam Wilson has and can carry the banner just fine on his own. So I wouldn’t write off this story just yet. Pretty much anything can happen here, and I’m looking forward to seeing how it plays out.

Yes, this all was probably done just to sell comics. I don’t know why people think that’s a valid criticism though. That’s kind of the point of the business to begin with? I think, what it really comes down to is that some people are miserable for the sake of being miserable. That’s not to say that if you didn’t like this comic you are a cynical jerk, but well, some people will only ever see what they are looking for. If you believe that comics are worse than they used to be when you happened to be reading comics as a kid, well, you’re kind of wrong for one thing, but that’s all you’re ever going to see. Misery is all you’ll get from life if that’s all you look for. The bottom line comes to this – I had fun reading this comic. And you probably will too, especially if you read the Pleasant Hill story, but really if you just sit back and enjoy the ride it’s a neat issue that sets up a lot and has some really great moments. And now that we have an explanation that makes sense for the major revaluation in issue one, I’m just can’t wait to see what happens next.