Marvel’s Most Controversial Captain America Could Become Its Next Great Villain

Captain America has long been one of the most important Marvel Comics heroes of them all. I would go so far as to say that without Cap, Marvel never would have became the force they are today. He was the most popular Marvel hero of the Golden Age, holding the line against DC’s legends. His return in the Silver Age was exactly what the House of Ideas needed and he’s since become one of the most beloved heroes ever. Cap has always been the exemplar of everything a hero could be, created by two Jewish men in the days before World War II, and he has been through all kinds of changes. However, there was one that enraged fans, all while planting the seeds for a villain that could be an icon.

2016’s Steve Rogers: Captain America #1 ended with a massive shock – that Cap was a sleeper Hydra agent. Marvel went all in on this, telling readers that this was the Cap we had been reading since the beginning and not some kind of alternate universe interloper. This version of Steve Rogers used all of the tactical wherewithal we had seen him use to battle the villains against the United States and his former allies, allowing Hydra to conquer the country and begin setting things up for world domination in Secret Empire. While this story is one of the most maligned modern Marvel stories, it did something a little unexpected – it kept the Hydra Supreme version of Cap around. In the blockbuster Krakoa Era, he would be freed by Orchis and used against mutants, eventually becoming the new Flag-Smasher. Hydra Cap as Flag-Smasher is the perfect new villain and it’s about time that he showed up everywhere.

The New Flag-Smasher Is the Villain Marvel Needs In the 21st Century

Captain America has starred in some amazing stories and that’s what makes Hydra Supreme Cap so cool. The character’s history was changed by the Cosmic Cube, so every time we saw Cap in those old stories, it was him as a hidden Hydra agent. While there are definitely issues with the idea of making a character created by Jewish creators into what is essentially a Nazi, an evil Steve Rogers is something of a unique idea. We had never gotten to see the character like this before and his actions in Secret Empire, Uncanny Avengers (Vol. 4), and West Coast Avengers (Vol. 4) show just how dangerous he can be.

This version of Captain America is the one who has fought side by side through the greatest battles with the heroes. He’s the one who has shared all those moments with them, and that’s what makes his low current stature so strange. This is a character who can have a grudge with just about every character you can imagine. Sure, there’s the easy ones like Bucky and Sam, but then there’s also Iron Man, Thor, Wolverine, Hawkeye, Scarlet Witch, and a million others who shared close relationships with this person who has been lying to them the whole time. There’s so much that can be done with all of this, and yet Marvel still has barely used the villain.

Making him into the new Flag-Smasher is also pretty interesting. The original Flag-Smasher was an anarchist; he wanted to destroy every country because he believed that they held back people’s freedoms. Making Hydra Cap into the Flag-Smasher is an interesting modification on the concept. He also wants to destroy the governments of the world, but he wants to replace it with the fascist order that he grew up with. One of the things about Steve Rogers that we don’t always talk about is how charismatic that he is; he can convince anyone to follow him into Hell and back. This new Flag-Smasher has that same gift of gab and could easily create a new army with himself at the head.

The new Flag-Smasher is, and I say this with no hyperbole, the most dangerous villain in the Marvel Universe. This is Captain America and we’ve seen him figure out ways to beat just about every hero and villain out there. He knows everyone’s weaknesses and he can twist his former relationship with the other heroes. He trained a lot of them. He knows how to hurt them in ways that their foes don’t. He’s an expert tactician and can inspire just about anyone to follow him. The fact that no creator has taken the character and built him into the next big thing is honestly kind of insane to me. It’s super rare to be handed a villain this perfect. You can throw him at any hero out there and there’s so much to work with. I don’t like Secret Empire – I sold my copies of it last year – but I love the idea of Hydra Cap. In fact, Marvel could use this version of the character to fix a mistake that DC made with a similar villain.

Marvel Can Do the Batman Who Laughs Right

The Batman Who Laughs is one of the biggest missed opportunities of the recent times. DC created the character in Dark Knights: Metal, a version of Batman who had been given a Joker virus that made him into a monster. The Batman Who Laughs was popular for a time and then DC overexposed the villain, putting him front and center everywhere. Fans got tired of the Batman Who Laughs and his death in Dark Knights: Death Metal was cheered by most readers (remember when Justice League Incarnate #6 teased the Batwoman Who Laughs and the uproar that caused? Good times). If you look at the Batman Who Laughs, him and Hydra Cap are quite similar and Marvel has a chance to show DC how it’s done with him.

The new Flag-Smasher has exactly the kind of potential that the Batman Who Laughs did, but DC was serious about making the BWL their main villain for a fe wyears. With Hydra Cap, he already got his chance, but instead of killing him or removing him from existence, they kept him. It’s about time they did something with him and the Batman Who Laughs direction is the right way to go. This is a villain who could shake the Marvel Universe, using his history with the characters to make his threat that much more acute. The Flag-Smasher can succeed where the Batman Who Laughs failed.

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