Updated: Marvel Backtracks on Captain America Revelation After Just One Issue

(Note: Here be spoilers, naturally. You’ve been warned.) After one issue, Captain America is no longer a Nazi. The only surprising thing here is how quickly Marvel backtracked on their initial choice, though it was clear Captain America would not actually be a Hydra agent forever. In an interview with ComicBook.com, Marvel Editor-in-Chief Axel Alonso said that in Captain America: Steve Rogers #2, it will be revealed that Captain America just thinks he’s a Nazi, err, I mean, Hydra agent, because he had false memories implanted by “Kobik, the sentient Cosmic Cube who became a girl.”

In an interview Captain America: Steve Rogers writer Nick Spencer gave with Entertainment Weekly just one month ago, he said, “The one thing we can say unequivocally is: This is not a clone, not an imposter, not mind control, not someone else acting through Steve. This really is Steve Rogers, Captain America himself.” Well, turns out it was some form of mind control.

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Later on in the former interview, on the topic of the backlash, Alonso said, “We’re trained to anticipate a strong reaction to change or a big plot twist like this, whether it’s a female Thor or the new Ms. Marvel or the Korean-American Hulk. We didn’t expect the reaction to be anywhere this big.” To compare these incidents of backlash completely misunderstands the issue. White men were angry about Thor being a woman and the new Ms. Marvel and the new Hulk because they meant increased diversity in spaces that used to solely pander to white men. However, people were upset about Captain America being made a Hydra agent, effectively stand-ins for the Nazis, because it betrays a character who was created as an anti-Nazi symbol by two Jewish men during World War II.

A previous version of this article made insinuations that Marvel changed its editorial direction on its second issue to accommodate fans. Paste would like to clarify that a cosmic cube would be necessary to pull off a publication feat of that magnitude and it was an inaccurate implication. More on that here.