New Captain America: Secret Empire Teaser Released

01/12/2017 12:58 pm EST

Last week, Marvel Comics released a mysterious teaser concerning the Secret Empire. The teaser features Steve Rogers' Captain America shield in the center of the Secret Empire logo, suggesting the teaser involved Rogers. The teaser was sent out with the headers "A House Divided Against Itself Cannot Stand," presumably a reference to Abraham Lincoln's speech in which he quoted Jesus's words from the synoptic gospels.

A second teaser went out yesterday that encouraged readers to "Trust the Secret Empire," again with Steve Rogers's Captain America shield at the center.

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Today, ComicBook.com received the third teaser. The teaser reads, "The Secret Empire Will Defend You" with the same Captain America shield and stylization.

No further context was provided, but it is easy to speculate that these teasers are foreshadowing an upcoming event involving the villainous Secret Empire that will take place in the pages of Captain America: Steve Rogers and possibly in other related books. The "house divided" quote suggests the Secret Empire may be infiltrating the United States government.

The Secret Empire is a villainous organization in the Marvel Universe that was first created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby in 1966. The organization organizes by numerical rank with the leader called Number One. The most famous Secret Empire story was published in 1973, when writer Steve Englehart revealed that Richard Nixon was the Secret Empire's Number One and that the Watergate Scandal was part of the organization's evil plans.

Captain America is currently acting as a villain himself. Steve Rogers' entire history was rewritten by the sentient cosmic cube called Kobik, who had been groomed by the Red Skull. Now Steve Rogers acts as the hero Captain America but is secretly a Hydra agents. He may not exactly be loyal, though, as he seems to be hatching his own plans to dethrone Red Skull as Hydra's leader.

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You can see all of the Secret Empire teasers released so far in the gallery below. The Secret Empire event, whatever the exact details may be, kicks off sometime in 2017.

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