Customer Reviews

Captain America by Steve Englehart, Vol. 1: Secret Empire (Avengers)

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4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
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1 star:		(0)

 

 

There's never been a more interesting or important Capt. America story arc than this 1970's classic by the great Steve Englehart. During the height of the national disillusionment that culminated with the Watergate scandal (current events actually shaped the development of the story as it unfolded), Steve Rogers questions what it means to be Captain America, and gives up the role for a number of issues (a daring move at the time). Often imitated, but never equalled. I still keep an eye out for anything that Englehart writes (most recently, the Dark Detective mini-series at DC).

This graphic novel collects some old issues of the Captain America comic from the Seventies--#'s 169-176--and features the adventures Cap has before giving up his role as the Star-Spangled Avenger. This means that Secret Empire is a story of a hero's growing disillusionment with his own country. I'm disappointed with how little we get to see inside Steve Roger's (aka Captain America's) psyche as the Watergate scandal breaks while Cap is simultaneously framed for murder and rejected by the citizens he has always protected thanks to a widespread conspiracy unfolding against him, but other than that, this is an entertaining story, which guest-stars CA's regular partner of the time, The Falcon, at his best.

The Secret Empire is a bunch of guys in hooded cloaks, but they have awesome weapons, a flying saucer powered by the mutant minds of various captured X-Men (and some of their foes), and agents placed in all the strata of American society, ready to assist, when called on, in the secret domination of their country. Quentin Harderman is one of those agents, and as the head of the Committee To Regain America's Principles--really just a propaganda tool of the Empire--his mission is to discredit Captain America by launching an insidious smear campaign with TV ads, and seal the deal by framing Cappy for murder with some help from a super-powered villain named Moonstone whom the public will be manipulated into seeing as great hero and replacement for Cap. Though the obligatory fight scenes pull focus away from the subtler aspects of what's truly cool here--do Cap and The Falcon really need to fight the Banshee in Nashville while pursuing a lead?--the intervention of realworld politics, like Moonstone on a talk-show glibly lumping the "Captain America scandal" in with Watergate, gives the Secret Empire saga clout.

The truth is, Spider-Man spent much of his career wanted for murder while being targeted by a powerful media mogul (you know who) in a relentless smear campaign--so what's so special here? And Iron Man was very similarly framed for murder by a villain trying to destroy all his credibility. Batman (well, okay, Bruce Wayne) has been a fugitive due to a frame-up. And most major heroes in comics have, at one time or another, given up their crime-fighter identities, often when the public doesn't want them around anymore. So why is it a bigger deal when THIS hero quits? Well, simply put, because he wears the Stars and Stripes, and functions as a symbol of his country, and even of his government. When Captain America decides to stop being Captain America not long after chasing Agent Number One of the Secret Empire into The White House and unmasking unthinkable corruption while inside its walls, it is a comic book with something to say about how powerful corruptors can make dupes of all of us. Very cool metaphor for the shocking truths being revealed in American politics at the time...even if this fictional counterpart features a flying saucer full of X-Men on the White House lawn.

I was originally going to give Secret Empire only a 3-Star review because of some clunky plotting (what happened to Mastermind, Unus, the Blob, and Mesmero; did they just wander off somewhere, after we saw them?). And Nick Fury could have just been edited out, since it's a few of his other SHIELD agents who figure cleverly into the story. But--The Falcon comes into his own, gloriously; I guess a bell rings because he earns his wings! And Moonstone is a memorable cad, even when he too discovers he's just another expendable pawn in the plans of the Secret Empire. So it's a gutsy storyline from the House Of Ideas in the Seventies.