What do you think it will take to repair Steve Roger’s character from the blemish of being a nazi? From what I can tell, Marvel thinks that because its Kobik’s and Red Skull’s fault, it doesn’t permanently affect Steve Roger’s image and realCap’s integrity will automatically be restored when hydraCap is gone.

I had a thought about this, because I think Marvel is wrong about that. You can’t spend two years with HydraCap being the status quo without that having a substantial effect on the character (my problem with that started with Issue #1 where HydraCap murders a superhero – if that doesn’t have consequences, your writing is bad, because murder should have consequences).

So I had an idea about how to end “Secret Empire” (which, btw, that title is beyond annoying given the way that Nick Spencer has been trying to have it both ways re: HYDRA as a Nazi organization. Hey Nick, we know where that term comes from!):

My idea is that one of Steve’s friends – Sam Wilson, Bucky, etc. – is really devastated about the way that the revelation of Steve being a HYDRA agent has destroyed his reputation and the public’s faith in what he represented, and they decide to go to the X-Mansion and talk to Beast about using his time machine…Thus, when the big showdown between HydraCap and the good guys happens, at some dramatic moment, HydraCap throws his shield at a hero…and thus guy catches it:

That’s right, it’s 1940 Steve Rogers – drawn like Chris Evans pre-serum, given the mindset of who Steve Rogers would have been – and he proceeds to beat the living hell out of HydraCap, because that’s how Steve Rogers deals with fascists.

And then the new status quo is young Steve Rogers being a hero without the serum (at least to start with), and I dunno, hanging out with the Time-Displaced Young X-Men over in X-Men Blue.