8 Reasons Why Secret Empire Didn't Work

Secret Empire, Marvel's big summer event by Nick Spencer and a cavalcade of artists, told the story of Captain America - Steve Rogers - having been revealed as a secret Hydra agent, who (unbeknownst to us all) had been planting the seeds to start a full-scale fascist regime in the land of the free since the end of WW II.

In the process, he killed friends, endangered others, and started everything from book burning, re-education centres and even internment camps for Inhumans.

Yet through all of it, Marvel and Spencer himself tried to argue that Hydra were not Nazis, that this was the real Captain America, and urged fans and readers who were vocally offended and outraged by the story to give it a chance and wait until the end.

Well, the story is now over, and ultimately, it did not work. The story was a mess, with little in the way of a through line, and had an ending that left many feeling lied to, hurt or just outright bored.

There are many reasons for why people didn't like it, just as there are those that did, but here's a few of those reasons for why Secret Empire ultimately failed as a Marvel comics event.

Just what was the change that this event brought?

Normally, when a Marvel event comes around, it promises us that 'nothing will ever be the same again'. And certainly, sometimes, the status quo of Marvel is changed up. Rarely for good, usually things will eventually revert, but you will get some sweeping changes afterwards.

Civil War led to the Superhuman Registration Act and the Initiative happening for a while, Secret Invasion led to Dark Reign and so on.

Secret Empire hasn't really changed a thing. Although Marvel is going into its new Marvel Legacy publishing plan come September, it's hard to say that this is connected to any changes brought about in the Marvel heroes.

Certainly, the final issue of Secret Empire tried to suggest that the heroes were renewed in purpose, but frankly, if they weren't committed to the purpose of fighting Nazism wherever it raises its ugly head in the first place, then they weren't heroes to begin with.

So in Secret Empire's case, prior to the event, the Marvel heroes wanted to fight evil and Hydra... and after the event they want to fight evil and Hydra. It's literally unchanged, bar a few major character deaths and the destruction of a US city and millions of inhabitants (though they kinda glossed over that, and in another Marvel book the city seems completely unharmed).