Clark Gregg Responds To Big Captain America Hydra Twist

With his youth and vigor restored, fans of Marvel Comics have been looking forward to the return of Steve Rogers as Captain America, but last week, they were rocked by the news that Steve Rogers is, and has been since he was a child, an undercover operative for Hydra.

Steve Rogers: Captain America writer Nick Spencer and Marvel editor Tom Brevoort are responsible for the twist and have promised the revelation won't have a simple (usually preposterous) comic book-y explanation.

"This is not a clone, not an imposter, not mind control, not someone else acting through Steve," Spencer told EW. "This really is Steve Rogers, Captain America himself."

Rick Remender, the previous writer on Captain America, was planning a story in which Hydra infiltrated various institutions of government and superhero teams, but when Spencer took over, he simplified it to "one very valuable Hydra plant."

Spencer explained, "So I started asking, who's the worst person it could possibly be? It was really obvious straight away that there's nobody who could do more damage and nobody that could be a more valuable Hydra plant than Steve Rogers. That was really the genesis. It sprang pretty organically from story ideas that were already on the table."

Some fans haven't been super-receptive to the twist and have voiced their displeasure by sending death threats to Spencer via social media sites. Much of the outrage stems from Captain America now being associated with a group with ties to the Nazis, especially since the character was created by two Jewish men, Joe Simon and Jack Kirby.

One of the many celebrities coming to Spencer's defense is Clark Gregg, who we all know as Captain America super-fan and Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. director, Phil Coulson.

@clarkgregg thank you sir! I think you'll like where it goes :)

— Nick Spencer (@nickspencer) May 29, 2016

Pick up your copy of Captain America: Steve Rogers #1 today!