Bad Decisions in Comics- Editorial

Once again the world of super hero comics has been rocked to its very core, and fans aren't having any of it. In the premier issue of Steve Rogers: Captain America, it is revealed the Marvel icon is in fact a secret agent of the Nazi cell known as Hydra; Cap's long sworn enemies. Many readers all over the globe have been decrying the decision to turn Cap evil (and rightfully so) but does this plot-twist signal the end of a veritable comic book legend as some are proclaiming it to be? Honestly, I don't think that's the case, but lets dig a little deeper shall we?

I'm sure this is going to go over well...

To be blunt, American super hero comics have been plagued with bad decisions like this for literally decades, and I won't fail to admit that I'm perhaps a bit numb to these sort of actions by this point. While I don't really want to claim that any of the fan's outrage at such an outrageous choice in writing is unjustified, in that same stroke, I don't think this is a situation where Cap can't recover from such a move either. Think about it, how many times has some truly horrendous writing worked its way into a super hero comic you love to read? Plenty of heroes are rife with awful writing choice, after god-awful writing choice, but all of them have managed to walk away in the long run.

Remember that time Spiderman made a deal with the devil? Or the time Spiderman turned into a giant man-spider and gave birth to himself? Or how about the time Captain America gave up in a fight against Iron Man? Or the time Superman renounced his American citizenship? Or the time Superman died? Or hell, how about the time Ms. Marvel got raped, only to give birth to the cross-dimensional being who raped her, only to marry him? Remember all of those awfully written moments in super hero history? And these examples aren't even remotely scratching the surface of how deep the list can seriously go.

This is simply another case of another character falling victim to another bad writer. It pains me to say it, but this is an unfortunate circumstance that happens to every super hero at some point. While the writer (Nick Spencer) may be stating that "This is going to stick" and such, we all know that more than likely, when a new writer is set to take up the mantle for Captain America, the Hydra reveal will be the first thing getting scrubbed out of the script due to the current fan backlash. It may take years to resolve, but if anything else, we'll all see this moment in Cap's long history as nothing more then a dark time when he suffered from some abysmal creative choices.

Of course that isn't me entirely making light of the impact this sort of moment has, or even implying that because things like this have occurred in the past it makes the decision okay. Longtime fans, and even new fans of Captain America feel legitimately wounded by this move (and they have every right to) and I don't want to say people should not to feel some degree of anger. What I'm ultimately saying, is that this is not the end of Captain America. Sure the wound sucks, but much like any wound we suffer, this will heal over time. Sure, it may leave a scar, but we'll all learn to move on.

One does have to wonder though why they would decide to perform this level of character assassination on Cap, when he's perhaps the biggest he's been since debuting in the 1940's, but I think our big take-away from this should be to recognize what's actually happening. And what's happening is this: It's a marketing move, plain, pure, and simple. Just like any other time, with any other character, Marvel wants to boost sales of their comic. With the recent success of the Captain America: Civil War film, Marvel wants to capitalize, and the best way to do that is through some sort of controversial plot-twist, because love it or hate it, controversy sells.

If we really want Marvel to know how we feel, we need to do more than speak out on social media. We need to cast our votes at the cash register. The comics industry is exactly that, an industry, and in any business, that which fails to sell ceases to be made. I'm well aware that sometimes Marvel will say sales be damned when a particular book is receiving high critical praise, but it's usually a war of attrition, and that's a war the fans are very well equipped to win. The Mark Wade run on Daredevil I think stands as a good example of this in the recent past. His run on Daredevil has been seen by copious amounts of fans as irreverent and terrible to say the least, and even though his run lasted for five years, Marvel ultimately ended that run due to consistently poor sales. The same can happen with Captain America.

Now I do want to clarify that this brief editorial honestly isn't meant as a call to action to make the Captain America comic fail, but it is me saying that before we start declaring a long lived character dead, and ruined forever, perhaps we should consider stepping back and assessing the landscape. We have a situation where something is happening that we don't like. Sure it sucks, but with the right push things can improve. If we want things to improve, we have to know where to push. While I'm sure some would want me to delve into all the different sociopolitical implications this plot-twist has, I think I'll leave that to the likes of those far more versed than I to expound upon.