Wednesday, April 19, 2017

Secret Empire | Comics

Captain America turned out to be a true believer of Hydra ideals and siege control from within as he planned out!

Running S.H.I.E.L.D. these days, Captain America sends Captain Marvel leading Alpha Flight alongside Guardians of the Galaxy on space to hold a line of defense when a huge Chitauri Wave shows up. From Helicarrier bridge, Steve sends Ironheart and Iron Man to work up a Planetary Defense Shield that was taken down earlier by a Hydra bomber.

In the mean time, a group of super-villain attacks New York who was all former prisoners of Pleasant Hill and The Defenders were sent to take care of them. Hyperion and Quasar goes down while Nitro explodes in the middle of Manhattan. Announcing a state of emergency, Secretary of Defense made Steve Rogers command of national security.

The Shield suddenly goes back operational and cavalry arrive at New York as Avengers Unity Division, causing the villains flee. Before they could celebrate this victory, Commander Sharon Carter receives transmission of a collision with another Helicarrier and within moments they are under attack by Hydra goons under control of Doctor Faustus.

Cap then steps up telling everyone to hold their fire and the Hydra agents hail him as their Supreme Leader before taking Sharon into custody, who is baffled to learn that Steve was a traitor. Carol tries to communicate about opening a portal to Earth but Rogers made it clear that he want them occupied behind the shield with Chitauri waves.

Before being ambushed, Tony Stark A.I. eventually figured out the Chitauri invasion was a ploy to lure out the heavy hitters off Earth and the shield was never down. As Baron Zemo engulfs the island of Manhattan in a Darkforce dome using Blackout's powers, Iron Man sends out a distress call for heroes to assemble and Hydra takes over White House.

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Secret Empire | Comics

In a new world order established by the evil empire, Inhumans are being forced to register and all mutants moved to New Tian. From his internment, Rick Jones passes a data to reveal the truth about Hydra Cap through a young hacker named Rayshaun Lucas to Ms. Marvel, Spider-Man, Totally Awesome Hulk and Viv Vision of the Champions.

Resistance against the regime is formed by Ant-Man, Black Widow, Giant-Man, Hawkeye, Hercules, Quicksilver, Rescue, Stingray, Thing, Tigra and Wonder Man. Cap has been leading a Hydra' version of The Avengers with Black Ant, Deadpool, Odinson, Scarlet Witch, Superior Octopus, Taskmaster and Vision to ruthlessly deal with any threats.

Neither Rick, nor Sharon agrees to swear loyalty to Hydra and when Rick is sentenced to death by a firing squad to make a statement, he dies saying "Avengers Assemble". Meanwhile, Steve reunites with Madame Hydra to acquire the Cosmic Cube and rewrite history of World War II. They then raze the entire city of Las Vegas with their Helicarriers.

Upon analyzing info sent by Rick, Tony came to conclusion on how the sentient Cosmic Cube named Kobik has altered Cap while saving him during "Standoff" fiasco after she was befriended with Johann Shmidt AKA Red Skull. Steve became a perfect soldier to Hydra, who then overthrew Shmidt to complete his own plan to rule the world.

So, he tried for Winter Soldier to join Hydra and his refusal led Zemo to launch a drone plane with Bucky in it. Kobik was shattered into fragments that got scattered in places and finding all of the pieces is the only way to turn things around as they once were. Cap is also actively looking for the Cube to reshape reality as he see fit in Hydra's image.

Natasha Romanoff takes it upon herself to kill off the evil Cap and the Champions tagged along to her help. Ant-Man, Hercules, Mockingbird and Quicksilver volunteered to go and retrieve all the Cube fragments with Tony and Falcon agreed to help them cross the border. However, he ended up taking his old mantle of Captain America once again.

Things started escalating as they show up at the doorstep of Ultron, now wearing the skin of Henry Pym. In the mean time, Hydra Cap struck treaty with enlists The Punisher as his enforcer and brings back The Incredible Hulk back from dead. All of these led to a grand showdown when the X-Men showed up right before an unexpected revelation.

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Dread of Distrust

For more information on Secret Empire event, you can check out these links below.

Secret Empire (Comics) Wikipedia

Secret Empire (Comics) Marvel Wikia

Here is your links to buy "Secret Empire" from Marvel Comics in issues on Amazon.

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Secret Empire 01

Secret Empire 02

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Secret Empire 04

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Secret Empire 10

Here is your links to buy "Secret Empire" from Marvel Comics on Amazon.

Secret Empire Prelude

Secret Empire (Softcover)

Secret Empire (Hardcover)

In 2017, Marvel Comics hired writer Nick Spencer (Ant-Man – Second-Chance Man, Doctor Strange – Damnation) and illustrator Daniel Acuna (Uncanny Avengers – Avenge The Earth, Uncanny Avengers – Counter-Evolutionary) to conceive the plot for "Secret Empire" crossover event, which is collected in a limited series that ran for eleven issues.

Then there were a group of artists David Marquez (Defenders – Diamonds Are Forever, Defenders – Kingpins of New York), Leinil Francis Yu (Operation – Zero Tolerance, X-Men – The Hunt for Xavier), Paco Medina (New X-Men – Mercury Falling, New X-Men – Nimrod) and Steve McNiven (Civil War, Death of Wolverine) to fill in for some extra.

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Hydra Supreme Leader

Pages that are drawn by artist Andrea Sorrentino were the literal down point of the entire story as some of the characters were completely unrecognizable from their appearance. Artist Rod Reis on the other hand, did quite fine compared to the former.

Following the events of "Time Runs Out" and "Secret Wars", everything was restored and Steve Rogers came back to existence alongside many others. When trying to save his life after an attack from Crossbones, sentient Cosmic Cube Kobik actually created a new version of Captain America that was loyal to Hydra and the real one became a memory.

Turning Captain America into a fascist and altering reality to let Hydra assume control was a bold move by Marvel though, or maybe rather stupid one. Bringing Hank Pym/Ultron hybrid into the mix as well as the deceased Green Goliath was unnecessary. Turning Frank Castle into an agent of the uprising evil empire was also really uncalled for.
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