Captain America: Hail Who? Part II

by Kerey McKenna.

In Part I, I wrote that contrary to what you’ve seen in the headlines, Steve Rogers, Captain America, was never a sleeper agent for the organization of Marvel villains known as Hydra. He just thinks he is, thanks to his memory having been tampered with. Some readers have taken to calling the brainwashed and power mad corruption of Steve “Hydra Cap.” But Hydra is chock full of Nazis—Baron von Strucker, Baron Zemo, the Red Skull—and that brings us to another question…

Is Hydra Cap also Nazi Cap?

Hydra Cap believes that fascism is the logical means to bring safety and security to the world. But as for whether he believes in Nazism as well as fascism, I’m going to say no. He considers himself to be part of “True Hydra,” an ancient secret society that is fascistic in nature but does not discriminate based on race, nationality, and religion. While Steve believes that he and the Nazi Red Skull have both been serving Hydra for decades, they are still enemies. Crazy Hydra-brainwashed Steve is certain the Red Skull is a heretic.

Our Story so Far

The Hydra Cap story line has expanded from a Captain America tale to a Marvel Universe epic, "Secret Empire," in which brainwashed Rogers traded upon his irreproachable image of American idealism to call heroes into his cabal and consolidate power, eventually openly declaring his allegiance to a new fascist order for America. As a tent pole crossover event it has mined narrative possibilities that played well in previous crossovers “Civil War” (2006-2007, later adapted into the 2016 Civil War movie) and “Secret Invasion” (2008).

Just as “Civil War” divided Marvel heroes into factions, pitting former allies against each other, this new scenario again calls for heroes to rally to or reject Steve Rogers as their leader. And just as “Secret Invasion” had the heroes looking over their shoulders, unsure who they could trust amid a massive infiltration of their ranks by shape-shifting aliens, now they’ve been rendered equally paranoid by the legions of Hydra agents in their midst.

With America under the heel of Hydra Cap’s “Secret Empire,” a resistance of heroes has formed to fight the coup. The resistance even has its own Captain America, Sam Wilson—the Falcon—a former ally of Steve’s who had previously taken up Captain America’s vibranium shield in 2010 when Steve had to step aside temporarily due to illness.

So what’s next?

It’s hard to say. “Secret Empire” is still playing out through Marvel Comics monthly issues and like most crossovers it weaves the narrative through a rabbit’s warren designed to sell as many comic books as possible.

When Steve was restored to health in 2016, the stated plan (in story and at Marvel) was that both Steve and Sam would carry on as Captain America. But then Steve’s first issue back in action revealed his change of allegiance. Assuming Steve Rogers is defeated and brought to his senses, but loses the public trust, it stands to reason that Sam will remain standing as the only Captain America—assuming he survives. Of course, there’s the possibility that Steve won’t come out of it alive either: a persistent thread of the story is that he is prophesied to fall in battle. But even if the event ends in his “death” nobody expects it to stick.

Did Marvel go too far?

In the world of comics, death is cheap. Thanks to a deluge of high profile character deaths and resurrections, beginning with Superman in 1992, a jaded readership doesn’t expect dead characters ever to stay dead. Steve Rogers already “died” once, at the end of Civil War, and was replaced by his old sidekick Bucky Barnes, but was then resurrected in time for the 2011 Captain America movie.

If putting a hero in the ground doesn’t sell comics anymore, the writers have to resort to other measures, like dragging him through the mud. The “Face-Heel Turn”—a hero turning into a heel—is an overused cliché, both in professional wrestling (where the term originated) and in comic books. But perhaps this one was so shocking, Marvel was right to deploy it.

It seems to have worked. Marvel has been getting a lot of press because they get to release lots of shocking headlines in slow drip about new turns of the narrative. But not without controversy.

Critics argue that Marvel has crossed a line: that for the sake of shock value, Marvel irreparably tainted an American Icon. Captain America was created in 1940 by two Jewish Americans who had desperate desire for the United States to get into the war against Nazism. In view of that, many feel Cap should not be twisted into a fascist. Furthermore, by accident or design, Marvel is amplifying the anxieties of an America where Left and Right are constantly accusing each other of a nefarious plot to take over America from within, and extremists of all manner are coming out of the woodwork. With trust in the institutions of America shaken, our mythical heroes should be beyond reproach.

The critics also say Marvel can’t have it both ways: Hydra can’t be the heirs of Nazi Germany and still be a mere caricature of villainy, safe for children’s play time.

Even the name “Secret Empire,” while presumably chosen to tie the event thematically with other famous Marvel crossovers, “Secret Wars” (1984), “Secret Invasion” (2008), and “Secret Wars 2” (2015), may not be so innocent after all. As the real-world KKK dubbed itself “The Invisible Empire”, so a “Secret Empire” has very sinister connotations for those familiar with white supremacy and domestic terrorism here in the U.S.

I’m not going to say here and now whether this story works; I will reserve judgment until it reaches its conclusion.

But I will say that this whole thing has made me start examining the almost too casual and familiar way visual works like films and comics have been invoking the trappings of Nazism—its symbols, its pageantry, its fabricated lore—without putting much thought into the horrors that it brought, the ideologies and historical forces that made it possible, and how to inoculate a culture against it.

I will also add this: I won’t be buying any of Marvel’s Hydra branded merchandise. Actually any merchandise with skulls on it. Not for a while. Yeah that’s probably going to be my SOP. No skulls. I mean, seriously. Why skulls?

Kerey McKenna is a contributing reviewer to Nerds who Read and SMOF for the annual Watch City Steampunk Festival in Waltham, Massachusetts. Check it out at www.watchcityfestival.com.

Captain America: Hail Who? Part I

by Kerey McKenna.

About a year ago, Marvel Comics ended Captain America: Steve Rogers #1 on one hell of a cliffhanger: the title character, the Sentinel of Liberty, the Star-Spangled Man with a Plan, the very symbol of American idealism, Captain America himself betrays an ally and declares his loyalty...TO HYDRA!

Now, a year later, the story line is coming to fruition in the form of Marvel's 2017 summer mega crossover event, “Secret Empire.” In it, Rogers uses his position as Captain America to bring the U.S. into the grip of the fascist cabal that he had fought for so many years.

So why is Steve Rogers betraying liberty for fascism, and why is this whole idea threatening to blow up in Marvel’s face?

Good questions, but first things first...

What is Hydra?

First appearing in Marvel Comics in 1965, Hydra is the go-to evil organization of the Marvel universe, an international cabal of “nogoodniks” with their tentacles in government and commerce through a vast network of fanatical secret agents and loyal cannon fodder. It bears a strong resemblance to SPECTRE (SPecial Executive for Counter-intelligence, Terrorism, Revenge, Extortion), the collection of James Bond villains that Ian Fleming introduced into his novels four years earlier. If Fleming or his lawyers had ever picked up a comic book and compared the logos of the two organizations, they might have taken Marvel to the cleaners.

In the 1960’s espionage adventures of Nick Fury, Agent of SHIELD, Hydra served the same antagonistic narrative function as SPECTRE in Bond: a group of apolitical villains for the hero to thwart.

The Marvel version had saboteurs and double agents, who when discovered by the heroes would declare with fanatical zeal, “Hail Hydra! Cut off one head, two more shall take its place!,” before biting down on a poison capsule.

Hydra had elaborate secret facilities, doomsday weapons, and legions of disposable henchman willing to throw themselves at Marvel’s greatest heroes.

Like SPECTRE before it or COBRA after, Hydra was staffed with every sort of stock villain: saboteurs, corrupt captains of industry, political cronies, ninjas, robots, and exotic femmes fatales. And although it had predated the Third Reich by millenia, it had its share of central-casting Germans evildoers. Like Baron von Strucker...with his monocle and Heidelberg fencing scars:

Or Baron Zemo with his love of...Germanic Runes:

Or the Red Skull…who is the Death’s Head sigil from the SS uniform, fond of swanning around in a bespoke Gestapo style leather coat:

Yes, like Argentina and Brazil after 1946, Hydra had Nazis.

Which for Marvel's classic action pulps made perfect sense. Hydra is an organization dedicated to evil, Nazis are evil, and therefore if they have Nazis in their organization they must be pretty dang evil. Indeed, other franchises discovered the benefits of tying their baddies to a real-life horrible regime as well. After all, what did “The Empire” of Star Wars look like, if not “Nazis in Spaaaace?”

As Marvel lore grew over decades of comics, and Marvel wanted to spread its stories to TV and film, Hydra had another advantage over actual Nazis: it avoided complications from laws in some countries that highly restrict the use of Nazi symbols for entertainment or merchandising.

It was in movies and TV that Marvel was able to realize the full narrative benefits of creating a chain of villainy from WWII into the present era, first in the film Captain America: The Winter Soldier and then in the companion TV series Agents of SHIELD. It was revealed that the fascist splinter group everyone assumed Captain America had thwarted in the 40’s was roaring back with a vengeance into the new millennium. Enemy scientists captured by America at the end of WWII infested the military complex that they were meant to serve and twisted it to their own ends. Eventually, our brave heroes didn’t know who they could trust among their allies or in the government because anyone could secretly be a Hydra agent.

So is Steve really Hydra now?

Good news, everybody. Steve Rogers is not Hydra after all! Never was. He just thought he was and acted with all the determination and moral certainty that makes him such a good hero.

As the story arc plays out, we discover that Steve’s memories have been manipulated. His archenemy, the actual professed Nazi and white supremacist, the Red Skull, convinced him that they were on the same side all along.

The actual mechanics of how this happened are another rabbit hole. The short version is that the Red Skull made a wish that Captain America serve Hydra. Let a reality-warping magical being worry about the nitty gritty.

Okay. Steve only thinks he's Hydra. But does he think he's a Nazi? And is any of this good for Marvel?

For the answers to these questions, see Part II of "Captain America: Hail Who?," here on Nerds who Read.

Kerey McKenna is a contributing reviewer to Nerds who Read and SMOF for the annual Watch City Steampunk Festival in Waltham, Massachusetts. Check it out at www.watchcityfestival.com.

She is Wonder Woman: Hear her Roar!

Movie Review by Michael Isenberg.

Sorry about the title. My friend Kerey committed me to it in his Introduction to Wonder Woman here on Nerds who Read. He told the whole world that if the movie was good, that was what I was going to call my review. If it wasn’t, the title was going to be “Blunder Woman.”

So obviously it was good. In fact, it was awesome. Which disproves two beliefs that I've held for some time: 1) that Hollywood can’t make a good movie with a female superhero, and 2) that DC Comics can’t make a good movie with any kind of superhero.

Over the years, legions of female superhero movies have bombed at the box office. Conventional wisdom in Hollywood was that female superheroes just didn’t sell. Brainy pundits put their intellectual heft behind various theories as to why not; the theories ran the gamut from sexism to sexism. Apparently the audiences were sexist for not going to these movies. But IMHO, the reason the audiences stayed away was because these movies just weren't very good. And that wasn't because the audiences were sexist. It's because the writers were.

They insisted on giving their female heroines what they perceived as female missions: Supergirl (1984) fought a witch. Elektra (2005) babysat. Catwoman (2004) took on an evil manufacturer of cosmetics. It was as if Hollywood were telling women, “Stick to girly things, even if you have superpowers.” I remember the 1976 pilot of the TV show The Bionic Woman, when the title character used her cybernetic implants to help with the cooking. There was a discussion about it in English class the next day, and the teacher, a woman’s libber (as feminists were called in those days) who once gave us an assignment to write letters to companies protesting sexism in advertising, visibly cringed.

Indeed, it’s difficult to discuss female superheroes without getting into feminism and sexism. On the surface, one would expect feminists to embrace strong female characters who defy conventional gender roles. But these characters are usually insanely hot women in impractically revealing costumes (the superheroines, I mean. Not the feminists). If you've read my novel, Full Asylum, then you know I like insanely hot women in impractically revealing costumes. They're fun. But some feminists see it as objectification of women. For example, last year, when the UN named Wonder Woman actress Gal Gadot as its Honorary Ambassador for the Empowerment of Women and Girls, the decision was met with a firestorm of protest. A petition, signed by 44,000 people, complained that, “Although the original creators may have intended Wonder Woman to represent a strong and independent warrior woman with a feminist message, the reality is that the character's current iteration is that of a large breasted, white woman of impossible proportions, scantily clad in a shimmery, thigh-baring body suit with an American flag motif and knee high boots --the epitome of a pin-up girl.” (They say that like it’s a bad thing :-) ) To complicate matters, Gal Gadot is from Israel, a country not exactly popular with the globalist crowd that hangs out at 1st Avenue and 42nd Street. Within two months of beginning her assignment, the UN fired her.

Suffice to say, to make a movie in this genre is a hazardous endeavor, rife with pitfalls. Filmmakers must contend with producers skeptical about seeing a return on their investment and leftists eager to pounce on any misstep. Surprisingly, it’s DC Comics who figured out the formula for success.

I say surprisingly because ever since 2005’s Batman Begins, DC movies have been positively grim. They forgot to make them fun. The lone exception was last year’s Suicide Squad. It was fun. It sucked in every other respect, but it was fun.

With Wonder Woman, however, DC got it right. It's very simple: The secret to making a good female superhero movie is to make a good superhero movie. Which means a well-constructed plot, great characters, memorable lines, a mission worthy of the heroine’s powers, and fun.

Wonder Woman nailed it in every category.

The movie starts with her origins, and in this the writers stuck closely to the well-known source material, which Kerey covered in his primer. Born and raised on the Amazon island of Themyscira, Diana’s life changes when an American Military Intelligence officer, Steve Trevor, washes up on one of the island’s beautiful white sand beaches. Albeit in the case of this movie, he doesn’t so much wash up as is dragged up by Diana, after his plane bursts through Themyscira’s cloaking shield and plunges into the ocean. Diana then rescues him from the watery depths. Safely on the beach, he finally comes to and sees Diana looking down at him, with a face without pain, fear, or guilt. So basically it’s the Dagny Taggart meets John Galt scene in Atlas Shrugged, with the genders reversed. And wet clothes.

Steve is reluctant to reveal his mission, but when the Amazons bind him with the Lasso of Truth, he spills everything. Beyond the shores of Themyscira, the world is at war. World War I, to be precise. Steve has just learned that Germany plans to deploy a horrific chemical weapon. He was on his way to England to warn the Allies when enemy aircraft shot him down. Diana is convinced that the Amazons’ nemesis Ares, God of War, is behind this global conflict. The only way to bring peace to the planet is to kill him. Thus she has a mission that’s worthy of her: nothing less than ending the War to End All Wars. And while that’s not exactly Steve’s mission (he thinks a little smaller and is understandably skeptical of the whole God of War angle), their missions are parallel and so they sail off to England together on a rickety old ship that just happens to be sitting around tied up to a Themysciran wharf.

What follows is one part Splash, as Diana adapts to the “modern” world of 1918, and three parts Captain America as our heroine leads a DC version of Cap’s Howling Commandos into combat. That’s a little weird actually, because supposedly one of the reasons for switching the venue from World War II to World War I was to avoid similarities to Captain America. Add one part Return of the Jedi as Diana…well, I won’t give away that part. What I will say is that it’s all very well-paced. Whenever I started to think, “They could use an action scene about now,” WHAM! There’d be an action scene.

The character of Diana is well-fleshed out (pun intended): a fierce and confident warrior, but a thoughtful one, ever mindful of the consequences of her actions.

Steve is less cerebral, but quite likable. He is adept at shifting into various personae in his capacity as a spy. In one scene, at a party, he disguises himself as a German and conducts an expert seduction of Dr. Maru, the inventor of the German weapon, only to blow it when Diana walks into the room wearing a stunning evening gown. Indeed, Steve’s inability to ever know what to make of Diana is comical, but in an endearing way, not an awkward 1970’s I didn’t expect a girl to be strong way. Definitely good chemistry between them. One of the funniest scenes is when they are in close quarters on the sailing ship, Diana wants Steve to sleep with her (or, at least, next to her), and gentleman Steve figures he better find out how much she understands about sex. It turns out she understands a great deal—from reading, at least—and has concluded that males are necessary for procreation but have little to contribute to pleasure. It’s a funny line that doubles as a sop for the feminists. (My right-of-center friends will be happy to know that the movie contains very few such sops. There's one other line about women in the cabinet room and that's about it. No girls-against-the-boys, no men-are-stupid.)

Much as I liked Steve and Diana, it was the secondary characters who were my favorites—Steve’s feisty secretary Etta Candy; Sameer, the con man with a thousand alter egos; Charlie, the sniper who couldn’t shoot; and The Chief, a native-American war profiteer. One of my few criticisms of the movie was that after it introduces us to these great characters, it doesn't give them much to do.

My other criticism (not counting some nits) was the movie’s occasional flirtations with being profound. It didn’t really work. For example, in a modern-day epilogue, Diana concludes, after decades of studying mankind in war and in peace, that what the world needs now is love, sweet love. Thank you, Burt Bacharach. A tired, cliché, oversimplified analysis of what ails us. And completely unnecessary.

Because Wonder Woman does just fine on its own without tacking on a pseudo-deep message. It’s a great, great movie: exciting, visually gorgeous (and not just because of Gal Gadot), and did I mention fun? When I saw it last night, and the end credits began to roll, something rare happened: the audience applauded. Okay, I confess. I started it. But I wasn’t the one who yelled, “Woohoo!” Judging from reports of women-only showings selling out in Austin, TX, and some positive buzz on websites like Ms. Magazine and Bustle, it’s possible that when the reviews are in, it’ll turn out that even feminists like it. If DC keeps this up, Cinema Sins may have to stop counting “DC Comics” as a sin.

Want more Amazon women? Check out the novel Full Asylum by Nerds who Read editor-in-chief Mike Isenberg. Available, appropriately, at Amazon.com.

Photo credit: Indian Express

My Big Fat Greek Origin Story

An Introduction to Wonder Woman, Part II
by Kerey McKenna.

Only hours left until the Wonder Woman movie premieres, and Mike, my editor, is still demanding background. Much as I want to tell him to do his own damn research, I suppose I am the resident expert on comics here at Nerds who Read.

In Part I of my Wonder Woman primer, I covered the origins of Diana of Themyscira and began describing some of the people in her life, specifically Steve Trevor, Diana’s sometime romantic interest who always seems to be in need of rescuing. If Steve is the Lois Lane in her life, then the Jimmy Olson is…

Etta Candy

At least I thought she was the Jimmy Olson. Boy, did I bite off more than I could chew. Trying to summarize and contextualize Etta Candy for this article almost broke me. She was part of the Wonder Woman comics’ lore of the Golden Age but I can’t think of another peripheral character that has had so many re-interpretations and different narrative roles in a superhero mythology.

Etta Candy first entered the narrative in the 1940’s as part of a gang of college co-eds that tagged along on Wonder Woman’s adventures. In stark contrast to the thin and graceful brunette Diana, Etta was blond, short, and rotund but brassy, vivacious and always rolling up her sleeves to brawl against enemy henchmen.

Since then, most adaptations have veered drastically away, in any number of directions in age, race, body type, and narrative function.

In some versions, such as the upcoming movie or the first season of the Lynda Carter Series, Etta is a co-worker of Steve and Diana in military intelligence and is just kind a of a wacky character from their office providing a bit of workplace comic relief.

In other versions she is a rival for Steve's romantic intentions and her proportions have been slimmed down from Rubenesque to fit and trim.

When David E. Kelly’s tried to adapt Wonder Woman to a TV series in 2011, Etta was changed to a meek and long suffering “Girl Friday” for Wonder Woman.

In yet other versions she is a capable intelligence officer in her own right and in charge of Steve Trevor’s spy agency. A bit like Amanda Waller in Suicide Squad, but competent.

Suffice to say, if the plot calls for a role for a woman in Diana and Steve’s life off the island there’s a good chance it will be filled by Etta, in one form or another.

If Etta’s back story seems confounding that’s nothing compared to…

Wonder Girl

Ms. Not-Appearing-in-this-Movie. If you’re really interested, see Wikipedia.

Who are her enemies?

Operating as long as she has, Wonder Woman has made her fair share of enemies, ranging from the mundane and mortal (Nazis and gangsters), to the mythic (gods and monsters), to the weird (mad scientists & aliens).

Ares, the God of War, is most likely to be Diana’s main antagonist in the movie. While Diana and her people are favored by most of the Greco-Roman Pantheon, Ares is often their sworn enemy. Amazons are wise in the ways of war (thanks to the patronage of Athena), but they are also wise in the ways of statecraft and do not seek out conflict. That puts them at odds with Ares, who feeds off man’s hatreds and works behind the scenes to fan the flames of war. As man’s capacity for destruction grows, Ares's efforts, left unchecked, might one day destroy the world.

What are her powers/abilities/equipment?

By virtue of her years of Amazon training, and the patronage of the Greco-Roman gods her people worship, Diana is as beautiful as Aphrodite, swifter than Hermes, and stronger than Hercules. She is a superb athlete and martial artist. Other powers tend to vary from adaptation to adaptation. She may be able to fly like Superman or speak any language, including the languages of the animals.

It’s hard to pin down how strong Wonder Woman is. Certainly strong enough to lift a car or a tank above her head. But can she, say, bench press more than Superman can? Can she beat Superman or Batman in a fight?

General consensus is that she isn’t as strong as Superman, but she’s a trained martial artist while Supes presumably only has a few tips imparted by Ol’ Pa Kent on how to throw a punch. Wonder Woman’s prowess in hand-to-hand or with melee weapons exceeds that of Batman, and as she has superhuman speed, endurance, and strength, she is one of the few people to have ever bested the Dark Knight in a fight. (Fight Superman, he cries, "Martha!" Fight Batman, he cries, "Uncle!")

Diana’s most iconic pieces of equipment are her wrist bracers and lasso. The metal bracers allow her to deflect not only hand-to-hand attacks but also arrows, bullets, lasers, and whatever else the bad guys throw her way. As for her lasso, it has the power to make anyone bound with it tell the truth—which proved rather embarrassing to Lois Lane.

But binding brings us to Wonder Woman's weakness: binding. If she is herself ensnared by a man (sometimes by her own lasso, sometimes by anything else), she loses access to her demigod powers. To re-earn the favor of her patron goddesses, she must be released, or even better, free herself using cunning and guile.

Another piece of iconic kit is her plane, a semi-magical aircraft that is invisible (but leaves her visible in the cockpit). Sometimes the invisible plane is contemporary to the setting, sometimes it is a highly advanced piece of technology beyond anything else in the world.

Wonder Woman’s costume has gone through some revisions over the years but has usually returned to a red, white, blue, and gold color scheme. It most often consists of red boots, a blue and white star spangled bottom, a red top with a gold eagle embellishment topped off with a tiara. The general evolution has moved from something a dancer or gymnast would wear, to something fittingly inspired by a hoplite warrior. About every 10 years or so there is an attempt to do something drastically different like a tracksuit/jumpsuit or a leather biker jacket but these major changes never seem to stick.

Conclusion

Well, hopefully this guide has given you some grounding for the lore of Wonder Woman before you head into the theater and my editor enough background to write his review. The bottom line: Wonder Woman lore is always in flux.

Wonder Woman premiered in a time when one of the greatest contributions women could make to the war effort was to take on administrative and industrial jobs so that men could go off and fight. She has been present through every subsequent wave of feminism and been with us as women’s role has changed in the military, in the workplace, and in the family. Many would argue she helped champion and inspire some of those changes in roles.

Further Reading

Wonder Woman’s creator, Dr. William Marston, his wife Elizabeth Olive, his live-in girlfriend Olive Bryne, and the open polyamorous relationship the three of them had would be worth an article in its own right. They’re covered in the Secret History of Wonder Woman by Jill Thorpe and Wonder Woman Unbound by Tim Hanley.

Since 2011 Wonder Woman’s monthly series have been entangled in reboots of her character and/or the greater DC Comics universe. Some of these stories are quite worthwhile, but as far as Wonder Woman adventures you don’t need to consult Wikipedia to understand, I recommend the collections Sensational Comics: Wonder Woman, Volumes 1 and 2, an anthology series not tied to any particular era or continuity.

Wonder Woman Earth One by Grant Morrison and Yanick Paquette was an attempt by DC comics in 2016 to tell Wonder Woman’s story to a new audience. The authors actively resisted entangling her story with a greater DC universe.

Similarly, 2009’s direct to video animated Wonder Woman Movie does a great job of telling Diana’s origin story as a rip-roaring standalone adventure.

Kerey McKenna is a contributing reviewer to Nerds who Read and SMOF for the annual Watch City Steampunk Festival in Waltham, Massachusetts. Check it out at www.watchcityfestival.com.

Photo Credits: Costumes worn by Wonder Woman by BoyBlue