Because the 2016 -2017 theme of the year for the comic book industry seems to be: Let’s Alter and F$%$# with Reality… which is much better than 2016 being the year of the curtain

Monday Morning Recap of:

DC Comics: The BUTTON – Part 3 and Part 4

Marvel Comics: The Road to Secret Empire and Secret Empire so far

Flash #22 The Button Finale

Batman #22 Recap

Return to Flashpoint

Batman #22 takes place in the Flashpoint Universe after the events of Flash #21.

Thomas Wayne recounts what should have been the end of the Flashpoint Timeline once Barry goes back and stops himself from saving his mother from being murdered by Thawne.

Thomas says that the Flashpoint Universe didn’t die, but continued like a patient on life support which allowed Aquaman and Wonder Woman to put aside their quarrel and war between Atlantis and Themyscira ( In the Flashpoint Universe Wonder Woman and Aquaman were supposed to be wed but before the wedding Mera was killed which set off a war between the two with humans caught in the middle)

Thomas plans to blow up Wayne Manor and the Batcave as the Amazons and Atlanteans are attacking and just as Flash and Batman appear after the Cosmic Treadmill was destroyed in Flash #21

Thomas thinks it is some kind of trick but Barry explains that it has been months since he “repaired” the timeline and that something has kept the Flashpoint Universe going.

Barry checks the vibrational frequencies and discovers that they are “right” meaning they aren’t on alternate Earth or alternate timeline.

Father and Son Reunion

While Flash is fixing the Cosmic Treadmill, the two Batman try and fend off the Amazon and Atlantian attacking forces.

Barry finishes the Treadmill and the invaders are deftly handled by the Bruce and Thomas but the father-son reunion is cut short as Flash says the Treadmill is starting up without him doing anything and whatever is holding the Flashpoint Universe around let’s go. Bruce tries to get his father to return with him but Thomas pushes Bruce on to the treadmill telling Bruce to let Batman die with him as he runs into the whiteness that is destroying the Flashpoint Universe.

On the Road Again

Flash and Bruce reenter the timestream where they are passed by Reverse-Flash, supposedly before his death in Batman #21, because he is holding the smiley button in his hand. Flash tells him he needs to stop but Thawne says he knows who the power of the button belongs to and they have never met someone like him.

Thoughts on the Issue

The issue was good, not great. It felt that the story was more of a lead into the final part of the story arc.

Unlike the previous issues, this felt like a time filler with no mention of the B plots like the Saturn Girl storyline (Batman #21) or the JSA tease (Flash#21)

The time between the beginning of the New52 Universe to the events of Rebirth is very “wibbly–wobbly, timey–wimey.”

This is the second mention of it being months since the events that happened at the beginning of the New52 Universe

Sure comic book time in and of itself is “wibbly–wobbly, timey–wimey,” it just seems to be more so in the New52. New52 Superman had already been around for years when Supergirl showed up in the New52 (even though the titles started at the same time with the New launch). But if Flash says it has only been months since he repaired the timeline then there is the question of just how much time has passed. (Maybe I will try and do another chalkboard illustrating my question.)

The next question is how much time has passed between the end of Flashpoint and when Batman and Flash arrive in the Flashpoint Batcave and find Thomas about to blow the place.

The first thing that came to mind was the Convergence event where the Flashpoint Universe was one of the realities plucked out and forced to do battle with the pre-Flashpoint era by Brainiac. But I think that DC Comics is trying to forget that the Convergence event even happened (which is a shame if you only consider the separate miniseries and not the main story line). So let’s say that Doctor Manhattan or whoever stops the Flashpoint Universe from disappearing and puts it on “life support” as Thomas Wayne compares it to. This only opens up more questions as to how long it was in stasis.

At the end of Flashpoint, Thomas seemingly dies after not only being pummeled by Reverse-Flash but also takes a direct magic hit from the Enchantress.

Thomas also says that Aquaman and Wonder Woman found something to finally agree upon… that Thomas is an enemy of both. However, at the end of the Flashpoint event nothing is really resolved or hinted at uniting the two.

If one wanted to find something that would cause the two to see Batman as a common threat it would be the events from Convergence. The Flashpoint Aquaman is defeated by the female Justice League members and left to die and Wonder Woman loses to Wally West, his twins (last time Iris and Jay are seen: :sniff::), and Fastback from The Amazing Zoo Crew.

Batman, on the other hand, realized that Superman may have been from Barry’s Universe and ended up providing sanctuary for Superman and Lois to have Jonathan once the Flashpoint Superman (who had lost Lois Lane of the Flashpoint Universe) brought Pre-Flashpoint Lois to the Batcave.

This, in my opinion, could be the event that makes Aquaman and Wonder Woman put aside their feud and focus on Thomas Wayne as a common enemy.

The Flashpoint Universe comes to an end in true DC Universe fashion:

My theory is that Thomas Wayne doesn’t die but goes to the Earth-2 of the New52 universe where he once again (unknowingly) takes up the mantle of Batman once Bruce is killed in the Darkseid invasion of that Earth-2

Thoughts on what may happen in the final installment of The Button in Flash #22?

I mentioned a few thoughts on this cover in a post a few weeks ago Rebirth Checkup previewing The Button

If you notice on the promotional cover has, like the original, has at least one of the small circles on the left. On the original cover, is Cliff Cornwall, an FBI agent, whom the US army “borrowed ” to hunt down spies and sabetours. He was a reserve army air corps officer,a skilled pilot, and also shows familiarity with deep-sea diving. On The Button promised cover you can just make out “Red Robin” which may mean a rescue attempt or more on the fate of Tim.

I doubt we are going to get any real resolution to the Watchmen/DCU overall story but more questions leading to the next part of the story in the return of the Justice Society and who has been messing with the history of the DCU and why certain players are being taken off the board.

While I would like to see Tim Drake back I think that the banner with his name is more of a tease or “red herring” for the issue and hope that we get some sort of JSA tease which connects to what I discussed months ago when talking about the DC Universe Rebirth Special (especially since the trade which in The Last Days of the Justice Society of America was released last week along with the Secret Origin issues of the JSA from the 1986 series).

The REBIRTH of the DC Universe (Part 4): Chapter 2 – Legacy

Johnny Thunder and the Justice Society of America ore, the Thunderbolt’s vast power may have contributed to Johnny’s continued JSA membership. Johnny would later serve as the historian for the team. Two of the things that I thought of when Wally tells Johnny to find the Justice Society: Last Days of the Justice Society of America Special (1986) one-shot which followed the Crisis on Infinite Earths . After Crisis, the DC editorial board decided to retire the JSA from DC universe continuity for a while. DC more than likely wanted to focus it’s energy on the new, “edgier” re-booted characters that were popping up post-crisis,which was no place for the Golden Age heroes. Another factor that may have lead to the JSA being ushered off into limbo was the fact that the JSA’s home dimension (Earth-Two) had been destroyed in the crisis and they didn’t really fit into this post-Crisis“brave new world” . The solution? Have the JSA stuck in limbo for an indefinite amount of time, with only Dr. Fate, the Spectre, Star-Spangled Kid and Power Girl somehow managing to escape the fate of the rest of the team. The JSA would later return in the 1991 event Johnny also alludes to the events of America vs. the Justice Society mini-series, which was published in 1985 right before the Crisis event. The series was set on Earth-Two and began with the discovery of Batman’s diary (The pre-Crisis Earth-Two Bruce Wayne had just been murdered) which indicated that the Justice Society was guilty of treason during World War II and conspired to cover-up their treason after the war was over. The JSA is put on trial and their history is reviewed. All the historical adventures involving the JSA are remembered, and details are added. It eventually reveals that the diary is a hoax created by Batman in an effort to have the JSA apprehend Per Degaton at a future time. Theory on the JSA being lost Since the events surrounding the original Crisis have apparently be altered and the Multiverse remaining intact (see Convergence and Lois & Clark: The Adventures of Superman), meaning the original Earth-Two and JSA still exist, but Johnny on purpose or by accident sends them to limbo, thinking he is protecting them from the government. Johnny however did not go with them into this limbo and lost the pen that holds Thunderbolt so he is unable to bring them back.

See link above for my complete thoughts.

Marvel’s SECRET EMPIRE

The 2017 Marvel Comics event is probably one of the most controversial events that the company has done.

It has been revealed that Steve Rogers aka Captain America is and was a sleeper Hydra Agent.

The following is based on the Road to Secret Empire TPB which includes the key issues that have laid the foundation for this event.

The phrase ‘Secret Empire’ is a call back to the 1970s and writer Steve Englehart use of Captain America to explore American self-identity. The inspiration for Englehart’s plot was essentially his reaction to the Watergate scandal and featured Captain America discovering a conspiracy that ran to the White House itself.

While investigating the subversive organization known as the Secret Empire, Rogers discovered that its leader was a high-ranking government official. While this traitor committed suicide after being discovered, the government covered up the whole affair by using a double.

To understand the weight of the term Secret Empire and understand the story Marvel’s about to tell one must realize that by invoking memories of Steve Englehart’s legendary run, Marvel is cautioning readers to expect a deeply political story, one that wrestles with questions of American self-identity and will stand in the shadow of the White House.

This story and period of the character’s history which is seen as one of the most definitive of Captain America’s history since it was a deeply introspective arc that carried real political weight. The final outcome of the story saw Steve Rogers ultimately choosing to abandon the mantle of Captain America identity in order to work out just how he could fit into this new world which was different than the one he came from before he was frozen.

Just how far back do the roots for Secret Empire Go?

BRAINS!!!

The foundation of the story begins as far back as 2013, with the aftermath of Avengers Versus X-Men. Following the conflict between the two teams, Steve Rogers realized that the Avengers should have done more to help mutants, and not allowed the world to hate them. He formed a new sub-team of Avengers in hopes of unifying mutant and humankind, dubbed ‘The Unity Team,’ which was composed of a mix of classic Avengers and mutants, and would become known as the Uncanny Avengers.

The Unity Team was dedicated to bridging the gulf between man and mutant only to end up facing a particularly dangerous new threat.

Writer Rick Remender unveiled a new Red Skull, who was explained to be a clone of the original wit a horrific twist, the Red Skull was in possession of the brain of the recently-deceased Charles Xavier, and was able to use Xavier’s powers to build a following campaigning on a ticket of hatred, and swaying minds using the telepathic power of Professor X.

Captian America – The Geritol Years and Reborn

Rick Remender’s The Iron Nail storyline (Captain America #17 -21) featured the villain Doctor Mindbubble launching an insane campaign against the “secret dictatorship” of S.H.I.E.L.D. The outcome of story saw a few major plot points that would later lead to Captain America becoming part of Hydra.

The Super-Soldier Serum within Steve’s body was neutralized, which caused him to age rapidly to match his chronological age of over 90 years.

As a result of his aging, Steve decided to pass on the mantle of Captain America and appoints Sam Wilson as his successor following an attack on New York from Arnim Zola

The story also re-established the difficult relationship between Captain America and S.H.I.E.L.D. as Steve Rogers was faced yet again with examples of S.H.I.E.L.D.’s excesses under Maria Hill.

After Sam Wilson becomes Captain America, Nick Spencer who was writing Captain America at the time was getting the pieces in place for his Secret Empire story. In the second issue of Captain America: Sam Wilson. S.H.I.E.L.D. wound up in a spot of controversy when a hacker is known as the Whisperer – aka former sidekick of Steve Rogers, Rick Jones – leaked information about a secret Cosmic Cube project, Kobik. Both Sam Wilson and Steve Rogers were furious, and Rogers wound up becoming the new Chief of Civilian Oversight of S.H.I.E.L.D

Both Sam Wilson and Steve Rogers were furious, and Rogers wound up becoming the new Chief of Civilian Oversight of S.H.I.E.L.D., while subtle, it re-established the connection between Steve Rogers and the organization.

Welcome to Pleasent Hill

The roots of Secret Empire start to take hold during the Avengers: Standoff storyline.

Having learned of the top-secret reality-warping project from S.H.I.E.L.D. named Kobik, Steve is led to believe the project has been shut down only to learn from the Winter Soldier, Bucky Barnes, that the Kobik program had actually never been closed down, merely downgraded and used to create a prison in the form of a town named Pleasant Hill, where the goal was to turn the prisoner into model citizens by tampering the memories and appearances using Kobik, a sentient Cosmic Cube with the appearance and mentality of a child. . When Rogers confronted S.H.I.E.L.D. director Maria Hill about her deceptions, she took him to the town for a tour, trying to convince him to change his perspective.Baron Zemo broke free, and soon the Avengers were in serious trouble. They were assisted by a new Quasar, who seems likely to play a major role in the arc.

After Baron Zemo breaks free, and the Avengers were in serious trouble, Kobik uses her powers to restore Steve Rogers’s youth (and super-soldier-serum-derived abilities). Sam Wilson convinces Steve that he needs to take up the mantle of Captain America once more, claiming that the country needed the type of unity that he had fomented in the Avengers.

Captain America = Hail Hydra!???

Unbeknownst to anyone, Doctor Manhattan rewrites Steve’s memories.

Oops! I mean it was the cosmic cube Kobik, who had been indoctrinated in secret by the Red Skull in the ways of Hydra while she was still in S.H.I.E.L.D. custody. When she restores Steve’s youth, she turns him into what she thought to be the most perfect version of himself, using her innocently deranged set of values thus rewriting Steve’s memories and turning him into a member of Hydra. he made him Hydra as she pictures it – the Hydra of fairytales.

Following the events of Pleasent Hill, Steve reassumes the mantle of Captain America but this also means that Steve Rogers/ Captain America has lived his entire life as a Hydra double-agent.

In the new version of his past, Steve was orphaned by Elisa Sinclair and enrolled in a Hydra academy when he was a child, where he was severely indoctrinated for almost a decade. At this time he also befriends a young Helmut Zemo. At this time Steve still lacked any physical prowess, but Hydra’s leaders recognize his promise and give him the mission to travel to New York and assassinate Dr. Erskine, the creator of the Super-Soldier Serum.

Before he could carry it out the assassination of Erskine, an act of bravery from Steve prompts Erskine to recruit him into Project Rebirth (which turns him into Captain America). Erskine is assassinated by Helmut, and German defector and secret Hydra sympathizer Arnim Zola took over Erskine’s place, eventually turning Steve into America’s first super-soldier, having him join the war efforts afterward as Captain America even though Steve wanted to fight against the Allies, his superiors insisted he remained acting as a spy.

Once again in the mantle of Captain America, Steve uses the ever-growing threat of Hydra to his favor, Rogers proposed the creation of a bill known as the “S.H.I.E.L.D. Act” , which once passed, drastically expanded S.H.I.E.L.D.’s authority within the United States in areas concerned with law enforcement, mass surveillance, and resource allocation. Along with the passing of the S.H.I.E.L.D. Act, Captain America becomes the director of S.H.I.E.L.D. after Maria Hill is put on trial and was found guilty for the fiasco at Pleasant Hill, which led to her deposition.

Before revealing his true plans which are now playing out in Secret Empire, Steve secretly served the Red Skull, even though he repudiated his vision of Hydra, and set out to kill him.

As part of his secret plan to kill the Skull, Rogers abducted Baron Zemo, now considering him an ally due to Kobik’s manipulations, and Dr. Erik Selvig after faking their deaths, both of whom the Red Skull originally had ordered Steve to kill.

So what has Steve Rogers done to pave the road to Secret Empire?

Killed Jack Flag, Red Skull and signed off on Bucky Barnes’s death:

Captain America: Steve Rogers” issue #1 (The issue that broke the internets)- Captain America back in action, trying to stop Hydra from destroying a train full of hostages and capture Baron Zemo. Accompanying him on those missions were his old allies and protégés Jack Flag and Free Spirit. This was all classic Captain America comic book goodness. The mission things took the darkest of turns when Jack Flag disobeyed Steve’s orders and realized he was really after missing scientist and fellow Hydra agent Erik Selvig. To keep Selvig a secret, Captain America regrettably had no choice but to kick Jack Flag out of the plane like a paper doll. Flag would later die moments before Cap was about to finish the job, afraid that Flag may wake from his coma and reveal what really happened.

When Red Skull had been defeated by the Uncanny Avengers and had Xavier’s telepathic brain removed from his head, the Skull was left weak and vulnerable. While the Red Skull believes that Steve was working for him and his Hydra group Steve was planning on how to remove Red Skull from the playing field with the help of both Crossbones (a longtime ally of the Skull) and Sin, Skull’s daughter, Steve threw the Hydra Supreme Leader out of a window, and to his death. While he killed the world’s greatest Nazi, it was done because the Skull was a threat to Hydra and had perverted it to suit his own desires. Having killed Red Skull, Steve Rogers was able to step in as the new Supreme Leader and use Hydra to pursue his own ends.

In the new history of Steve Rogers’ World War II past, Bucky Barnes was responsible for the death of Baron Zemo’s father, Heinrich Zemo, who Steve had met as a student at Hydra school and looked up to a mentor. And so, back in the present day, Zemo managed to capture Bucky Barnes and tied him to a missile that would rocket him to his death, just like what had happened to Zemo’s father. Bucky, leader of the Thunderbolts and who was well aware of Steve’s past being altered by Kobik, was captured by S.H.I.E.L.D. and interrogated about the whereabouts of Kobik.

Bucky eventually is rescued from S.H.I.E.L.D. without giving up the location of the Kobik, who has more or less become part of the Thunderbolts. Zemo captures Bucky Barnes and has him tied to a missile that will rocket him to his death, just like Bucky did to Zemo’s father. But before firing the missile, Zemo plays Bucky a message left by Captain America. In that message, Steve not only tells his partner goodbye, but he also says that Zemo, as his friend, deserves his revenge as a means to torture to Bucky. When Bucky is last seen, the missile explodes and have no idea what happened to Bucky but it is suggested that Captain America gave Zemo the okay to follow through on his old partner’s death.

Manipulated the heroes against each other in the Civil War II event :

After the Inhuman by the name of Ulysses, developed his powers which allowed him to the gift of seeing the future. Both Tony Stark and Carol Danvers disagreed on what to do with the knowledge that came from the young Inhuman. One wanted to use his powers, while the other believed that this power couldn’t be trusted. Following the tragic death of War Machine, the two heroes started a war over Ulysses and how best to use his powers. Afraid that the Inhuman would use his precognitive powers to learn that Steve was a secret agent for Hydra, set out on a mission to kill the young hero, only to be stopped, unseen before he could deliver the fatal blow. As it turned out, Iron Man was also in the room, and Stark who kidnapped Ulysses in a move that lit the war between the superhero community.When the conflict escalated to blows at the halfway point of “Civil War II,” the battle was interrupted when Ulysses’ evolving powers showed every fighting hero a new vision of the future, one where Captain America was dead at the hands of Miles Morales. This played heavily into everyone’s thought about the conflict. Everyone, that is, except Steve Rogers, who accepted his fate if it was meant to be. But Iron Man and Captain Marvel were still fighting over Ulysses. The day before the final fight, Captain America had a heart-to-heart with Iron Man. Tony was surprised that for the first time they were both on the same side of a dispute, but also of how glad he was for it, seeing as if he was on the same side as Captain America, that that could only mean that he was on the absolute right side. What Tony didn’t know was that Hydra Steve needed Tony to lose this war, so Steve played Tony’s mind and his feelings, which in turn made Tony question and doubt himself, something that led to him losing the war, and his apparent death. Orchestrated and aided the Chi’tauri alien invasion:

The plan to control the world and establish a Hydra rule is largely dependent on an alien attack. Steve has said multiple times, he strongly believes a theory established by a man named Ivan Kragoff, aka the Red Ghost, the theory that stipulated that allowing an alien attack on the world would effectively dwindle its over-saturated population and cause an upheaval, one that would open the door for worldwide change: a means to an end, an opportunity.The Red Ghost had already established that such an alien attack could be carried by the Chitauri race. Similar to insects in some regards, the Chitauri oblige by a Queen, and when they do not have one, they will search for one and let nothing stand in their way. As it turns out, Steve has an agent in Montana, harvesting some very peculiar eggs, Chitauri Queen eggs. In their search for it, the Chitauri attack Earth in waves of millions, and there is only Alpha Flight led by Carol Danvers aka Captain Marvel and a Planetary Defense Shield stopping them. Destroyed Planetary Sheild and left Captain Marvel cut off from Earth to face Chi’tauri invasion:

When trying to save her position as Director of SHIELD, Maria Hill introduced the Planetary Defense Shield, that would cover the entire planet and protect it from any form of alien invasion. Even after Hill was replaced by Captain America, Carol Danvers took it upon herself to oversee construction of the shield to help in her fight to protect planet Earth from all threats that emerge from space.With the massive Chitauri army stretched back to the ends of the solar system, the Planetary Defense Shield was Earth’s best defense. Steve Rogers dispatches a Hydra suicide bomber at the shield’s base station which took the shield out of commission so Carol Danvers and her Alpha Flight team were the only ones in space to fight off the thousands of Chitauri aliens attacking the Earth. Just when everything seemed to be looking up when they managed to eliminate the wave and the Defense Shield was repaired and activated once more. Captain Marvel only needed a portal open to let her team and wounded inside under the protection of the shield. Carol tries to open up the shield but is unable to access the controls. She hails Steve and asks him for help. This was the moment Steve finally let his true colors shine. Turned out Captain America already had the shield’s codes before he had it blown up, he just needed the strongest and most powerful heroes out of his way. With Captain Marvel, Alpha Flight and the Guardians locked out and left at the mercy of the next wave of Chitauri that were fast approaching Steve got his wish. The NYC Blackout:

Also as a way to prevent the heroes still on Earth from interferring with his plans, Captain America arranges a large supervillain attack on New York City perpetrated by all of the villains who had been a prisoner in Pleasant Hill. Out for revenge, they took their fight to Luke Cage and his Defenders, Doctor Strange and the Uncanny Avengers. The battle was all but won for our heroes, until everything turned dark.Just outside the city, Baron Zemo, accompanied by Blackout, who has the power to control the Darkforce, a dangerous form of negative, extra-dimensional energy, plunges the city into darkness and trapping the heroes.



As one can tell Secret Empire is a deeply political story and a divisive story that has fans in an uproar, especially long-time Captain America readers (which I am sure will result in a return to staus quo for the Captain). Writer Nick Spencer has demonstrated comics, can have the power to act as a mirror to real life; and in so doing, reveal something about the world in which we live.

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I will continue to follow the Rebirth and Secret Empire storylines here on the blog as events unfold.