Captain Hydra?

Well, as potentially ignorant as I am, I decided to jump into the fray:

http://geekklesia.blogspot.com/2016/05/captain-hydra.html

I just kinda roll my eyes at stories like this these days. I suppose it will be an interesting ride for awhile, but it will all get fixed in the end. These days I'm much more interested in character stories that explore the iconic essence of a superhero or villain, rather than "event stories" that change the status quo for shock value.

I get that this part of typical comic book "event" writing, and that it will be reversed or somehow undone by the end of the story arc. What I'm most concerned with is that this will taint the character. For 75 years we have been told that Cap is a man who "just a guy from Queens" who "hates bullies" and wants to make a difference. He has been held up as a symbol of what America can be - the promise of the American dream. I also get that they are mining some toss off lines and scenes that show him to be prejudiced and racist on occasion, but rather than dealing with them as this is Cap as a product of his time (read America 75 years ago), they have gone to an extreme and made him out to be a sleeper agent of the organization he has worked very hard to destroy over his history. Let him deal with the ugliness of his past actions and beliefs in a way that bolsters the character, not undermines it.

As I mentioned, he should be a symbol of the promise of America; I fear that by going in this direction, the writers will make him more a symbol of the reality of America, as broken and divisive as it is. I don't know how they can reclaim the hopefulness and moral groundedness of the character after this.

I am sure that they will attempt to guide the story back, but I believe the damage is done.

Depends on how ridiculous a retcon you're willing to accept, but every concern you mentioned can be erased. (He was just an alien. The evil Mr. Reality-Bender did it! He was brainwashed to think he had a different past, etc.) Of course, it may take longer than just this story arc for them to "come to their senses" and revert him back. Over at DC it took around 10 years or so (I think) to bring Hal Jordan back to life and wipe away the "insane villain" part of his history to restore him to a more classic hero. If they commit to this for awhile, then yeah, you cxould be looking at a stained Cap for as much as a decade or more if they think people like it. But I'm guessing they'll clean this all up much sooner.

The good news, (as I discovered with DC), is that back issues are a great source of comic book fun while we wait for writers and editors to return to something we'll enjoy! (5 years and I'm still waiting...)

Oh, I agree. Any retconning or "course correction" will take a while to play out enough to wash the bad taste out of people's mouths.

That said, I worry about our fandom when people take these properties so seriously that death threats and wishing malice on writers and editors who disagree with their cherished vision of what the character should be.

I briefly glanced at a synopsis of a video for just this subject the other day (I think the title was "Fandom is Broken"). As I recall, the main point was that fans are not artists and creators, but consumers. The properties do not belong to them, therefore, they cannot dictate how or when or why. Their only choice is to consume or not. Death threats, etc., are not only inappropriate and wrong-headed they are counterproductive and feed into whatever negative stereotypes still remain for geeks.

I made my case why I thought it was a bad move. But at the end of the day, I do not own Marvel. They can do as they please. I will be sad, but I will cherish the previous 75 years' legacy.