The Top 10 comic books for 2017
By Alex Widen
Image by Marvel Comics
Dud of the Year: Secret Empire #0-8
If ever there was an overlong, unsatisfying, mistimed, and poorly executed crossover event, it was this one. Written by Nick Spencer and drawn by a slew of artists, it represented the culmination of a near two year Captain America story. In it, meddling with the Cosmic Cube had “revealed” that Cap was a HYDRA agent — a Nazi — the entire time. While the angle of Cap going bad or being replaced by a fascist version was not new, dragging it out and making it as vile as possible was.
At a time when real life white supremacists are on the march, this series made sure to unintentionally give them all the cosplay ideas they wanted. From Nazi-Cap somehow being worthy of Thor’s hammer (an allusion to Hitler’s fascination with Norse mythology) to meaningless deaths that were undone, the spectacle from start to finish was a mess. Almost every issue was overpriced and led to nothing more than hitting the boxes on a “shock value checklist.”
How did it end? The way everyone expected, it merely took too long to get there. And then it merely promoted the next crossover and the next sell. Everyone associated with this, which celebrated Capt. America’s 76th anniversary by making him an authoritarian, should be ashamed of themselves. Hiring the Waid/Samnee team to handle Cap after — the epitome of a feel-good team — is as close to an official apology that Marvel Comics can get.