Marvel Comics just wrapped up Secret Empire, the event that CHANGED EVERYTHING.
When this started, for those who remember, it was revealed that Captain America was a naz… Hydra Agent. And a being named Kobik, the embodiment of a cosmic cube, has altered reality so that Captain America was a sleeper agent for the bad guys, the bad guys won, and by the end of the 9th issue of the 10 issue series, Captain America was the evil dictatorial leader of America with almost all of a cosmic cube in an Iron Man suit going to wreck the heroes.
Of course comic books have happy endings, so magically Kobik manifested the old, “real” Captain America from her memories, created him, and he threw down on himself.
So now, if we believe the story, the real Captain America was a horrible heel character who tried to destroy America, and the new de-facto Steve Rogers (who in the last few years has given up the mantle of Cap, hyper-aged, hyper-de-aged, and now for a second time in his existence has sprung from an imaginary dimension back into the real world) is a fresh creation, though the fresh creation is what we knew before.
So… it was ten issues of What If, essentially. I’m sure some pieces of it will remain, but let’s be real; when a story involves an omnipotent being that can recreate reality, none of the deaths and storyline changes matter.
This is the shocking norm of comic stories.
Once, DC had the nerve to kill Superman.
It didn’t even stick for a year.
Once Superman split into two pieces (blue and red) who looked like Tron rejects.
That didn’t even stick for a year.
Once fans voted to kill Robin. That stuck… for a little while. Now he’s the Red Hood, but not the original Red Hood. That was the Joker. Who killed Robin.
Of course we now know, from the time Batman was all-knowing on Metron’s chair, that there is not one Joker but three.
Only that… seems to have been dropped. Sort of.
Sometimes Marvel tries harder. But they’ve had this problem before.
On the one hand, in the first Secret Wars, Spider-man found a weird organic suit to replace his torn up red and blue costume. That suit ended up being Venom, and though almost everything else from Secret Wars was retconned away, Venom still exists. Though who Venom is any given day is up for debate.
On the other hand, there was once a story about Spider-Man and his clones. It comes back all the time. But in the most odd moment of it, we found out that Ben Reilly, the “clone” Spider-Man, was actually the real Peter Parker, and the Peter Parker that fans had known for years was a clone.
Only no. They retconned that.
And now Ben Reilly is back. But he’s crazy.
Or is he?
And Tony Stark is dead.
Or is he?
And Dr. Doom is Iron Man.
For a few more weeks.
Let’s not even talk about how Dr. Octopus put his brain in Spider-Man, Spider-Man died in Doc Ock’s body, and then the remnants of Peter Parker in the Otto-as-Peter brain somehow overcame Ock. Until Ock put himself in a robot. Then cloned a body. Then went into that. Then joined Hydra Cap.
I bet that all got retconned, too, and now Doc Ock is dead.
Except Spider-Man died in Ock’s body.
But he didn’t.
And people wonder why these stories are annoying. The truth is that comic books are about the status quo. The characters become iconic and must be preserved. This leaves little room for real story innovation, but it also creates a place where as fans you can place your hopes and dreams.
On Game of Thrones, anyone might die at any time. And only Jon Snow (of the main characters) has come back. We could lose one of those heroes forever.
Captain America could be nuked to dust and somehow, within three months, he’d be back and the same as always with limited ramifications from being destroyed.
It’s comfort at the cost of true storytelling. A recursive loop.
I dare Marvel to really change their status quo. Then leave it alone.