Avengers: Endgame - 13 Things It Actually Took From The Comics

8. "Hail Hydra"

If you wanted to find a more controversial story-arc in Marvel's recent history, look no further than Secret Empire.

Nick Spencer's much-maligned dive into Captain America was ill-timed and needlessly overwrought, with the writer having revealed that Steve Rogers was actually a secret agent of Hydra his entire life. Throughout the event, Marvel maintained that this was the 'real' Captain America and that there wouldn't be any easy answers to resolve the story.

*Cue theme from Curb Your Enthusiasm*

In the end, it was revealed that Steve had been remade by Kobik, a force from within the cosmic cube. Everyone let out a collective sigh of "what was even the point?", and Marvel immediately followed the event with a Captain America series that showcased a more traditional version of the character.

How does this tie to Endgame? Well the way Secret Empire revealed that Rogers was a Hydra agent involved him pushing an agent out of a plane before proclaiming "Hail Hydra." The panel was mocked endlessly online, and though the whispering of the phrase in Winter Soldier was pretty memeable in and of itself, having Cap recite the infamous phrase in the film worked both as a cheeky dig at Secret Empire and as an effective callback to the Russos' first Marvel feature.