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I really didn't want to get sucked into this event, not because I'm anti-Hydra Cap (people complaining about that for the sake of it need to get over themselves) but because Civil War II burned me so hard I was considering dropping Marvel altogether. I decided to go back and read Captain America: Steve Rogers to get a taste of what Nick Spencer was doing, because I started to realize I was just avoiding this for the sake of avoiding it. I ended up loving the series, especially Steve's flashback narrative which really gave me solid motivation for Steve's new(/old?? ohh??) character. So I actually got excited for Secret Empire, which came as a complete shock.
The zero issue, I think, hit a bit harder than this, because I gave myself such a condensed lead up immediately before reading it. However, this issue is also successful, primarily due to Spencer's ability to handle the multiple situations and characters he has going in effective ways. It's great to see the Champions take more of an active role as their own title has generally been isolated for the most part, and Spencer excels in writing them. Cap and Sharon is a really weird and creepy situation, and I'm curious to see what happens there. I also love the ability to portray Cap as not simply a raving lunatic drunk for power, but a morally confused master strategist. People saying "Cap would never do this or that" seem to be missing the point that he is also having these discussions in his head. The art does get a little bit lacklustre through the middle, but in all honesty with the amount of tangible written story going on in this issue I feel like that's understandable. To those complaining about price, I will say it's a hefty book, still maybe not worth the $5 depending on the person, but considering it has about double the content of a $2.99 DC book, it's hard to justify that complaint.
Don't go into this one without a bit of preparation. And don't judge it without giving it a fair shake. Highly recom
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