Here we are, halfway through Civil War II, wading through all the different tie-in issues and short series including Spider-Man, X-Men, and our favourite red, white and blue newly made fascist, Captain America. Just as the title says, Steve Rogers is still a secret hydra agent and in this tie-in we get some good, but sort of obvious, idea of what he is planning. I’ve seen a few posts on CBR and other websites straight up spoiling the end of the book, I won’t be doing that here.

Last time I wrote about Captain America everyone was freaking out about Steve Hailin’ Hydra in Issue #1, so far we’ve got 3 other books showing some of the how and all of the why. We’re seeing Steve Rogers childhood experiences with a state side hydra group which are partly responsible for Steve’s current allegiances. These are some of the best parts in this new run of Captain America books for me, it feeds my curiosity and has me genuinely excited for issues to come. The pages that aren’t dedicated to Steve’s tortured youth are a mix of brief and brutal action followed up by Steve Rogers personal Hydra rhetoric and beliefs. This issue definitely lays Steve’s ambitions to bare and provides us with a reason for what he’s done so far, but I feel were still missing out on his absolutely true intentions. Right now I don’t truly trust what Steve Rogers is saying when he’s talking with other characters who are in on his secret, it seems like he’s even keeping it to himself.

With everyone hating on Captain America after issue #1, I thought it was a great story opportunity to turn the character on his head, add some depth, and make his book interesting again. Where it ties into Civil War II, as the cover might have you think, is only has a few pages of the over-sized 33 page issue showing brief moments and conversations dealing with the story of Civil War II. I’m glad it doesn’t wade too heavily into the Civil War II story, as typically those books are all philosophy of precognition and the repercussions of following through on it, not very much action or events that feel important outside of Civil War II. We’re also introduced to a few story threads that will hopefully tie in nicely to Hydra Cap’s story.

The art team changed in this book which visually, doesn’t feel to different, but I was really enjoying Jesus Saiz art in this series. Luckily the color artist is still Rachelle Rosenburg who has been doing a fantastic job conveying the emotion and general tone of the book with her use of reds, greens, and blues.

Overall I liked this issue, for it being a over-sized issue I felt there were some unnecessary plot points that could have been left out, this is very clearly due to it being a tie-in issue with Civil War II. Even with the art team changing out, there isn’t a major disconnect between the issues before this thanks to the color artist. The story is moving forward quickly enough that by the time Marvel NOW! 2016 we should have even more answers to Steve’s time growing up with Hydra.