Secret Empire recap: Hydra. A lot of mean. A lot of places.
By Matt Conner
Secret Empire hits three places this week: Atlantis, Denver, and your nightly newsroom. What does the Brave New World book add to the summer event?
Secret Empire: Brave New World #1
Cover by Paulo Siquiera and Marcio Menyz
What happened? In the first story of this anthology book, the android Human Torch and Inhuman Toro go to their war buddy, Namor’s, to hide out from Hydra. But Namor wants to keep off Hydra’s SONAR, so he imprisons his friends. I’m assuming this takes place before Steve Rogers ordered war with Atlantis for hiding cosmic cube fragments…
In the second story, the new Giant Man moves back to Denver after losing his boyfriend and his job with Ant-Man’s security firm in Miami. At home, Hydra goons rough up his family for dissidence. Guess they weren’t expecting to take on a giant…
In the third piece, Gwenpool and a local news anchor have to spread propaganda for Hydra, but they sneak truthful jokes in before fighting their way free.
Was it good? Yes! The first story had the menace we expect from an event about Captain America’s slide into fascism. Jeremy Whitley writes the second story with the charm and heart found in The Unstoppable Wasp every month, and I hope this leads to a Giant Man ongoing set in Denver. And Nick Kocher’s jokes under Tana Ford’s pencils make the Gwenpool story clever and hilarious despite the scary subject matter.
Recommendation: I rarely suggest you buy the anthology books in Marvel’s events. But I think this one’s got a great bunch of talent, and it’s the only chapter on the stands this week, so I hope you’ll consider it.
Next: Recap last week's chapters of Secret Empire!
I approach summer crossovers with the glass half full, but the quality in Secret Empire the last two weeks could convert even the event-fatigued.