This week Secret Empire #10 releases signaling the end of this seemingly never-ending event, and yet I am still behind on my catching up.

This week the Mighty Captain Marvel and Deadpool tie-ins also wrap up in their regular series, so once they are done I will post about those issues and the events inside the Darkforce Dome.

I have also included the visual timeline that I am doing where I try and put the tie-in issues where they belong chronologically…why you ask because I am a masochist.

So here we go…

Secret Empire Tie-ins (ongoing series)

In this post:

Secret Empire: Brave New World

Sanctuary – The Invaders

The Origins / Backstory of characters in the Main series

Humor Stories

Secret Empire #9 (with Spoilers)

Previous Secret Empire event Posts:

Still to Cover: Tales from Inside Hydra Avengers #9 – 10

U.S. Avengers #6 – 9

Deadpool Vol 4 #31 – 35 . Under the Darkforce Dome Uncanny Avengers Vol 3 #24 – 25

Doctor Strange Vol 4 #21 – 24

X-Men: Gold Vol 2 #7 – 8 Beyond the Defense Shield Utlimates 2 #7

Mighty Captain Marvel #5 – 8

All-New Guardians of the Galaxy Annual #1



Secret Empire: Brave New World #1 – 5

Background:

Secret Empire: Brave New World is an anthology of sorts with one story that runs through all 5 issues which deal with Captain America’s teammates from his WWII Invaders days (Submariner, Human Torch, and Toro) while the others are short little vignettes featuring different characters.

Plot Synopsis – The Invaders

The story opens with an Atlantian trying to assassinate Namor. His bodyguard mentions that this is the second time in a month. Namor orders that the checkpoints and lockdowns be extended throughout the city.

He is also informed that he has two visitors waiting outside the city gates, who claim to be Namor’s friends from WWII requesting sacntuary from Hydra.

The Torch (Jim Hammond) and his sidekick Toro (an Inhuman).

Namor informs the two that he is doing whatever he can to remain neutral since Hydra outnumbers and out powers the forces of Atlantis.

Namor captures the two heroes and has them put in the cells with the other dissidents, saying Hydra would not look fondly on to him harboring two wanted men.

As the two sit in the jail cell, Namor ponders the Rebellion attacks the Palace which turns out to be a distraction so that the rebels could rescue Torch and Toro.

It turns out that the leader of the Rebels is none other than Namor’s cousin:

After freeing Torch and Toro, the rebels attack the armory hoping to control the one weapon that will help them topple Namor…

Turns out it is a giant jellyfish monster

which Torch releases without thinking about the consequences.

Toro is able to help them recapture the beast only to be taken prisoner again along with Namora, who requests that her execution for treason be public.

Namor laments the fact that Atlantis is slowly descending into tyranny. He has not only been betrayed by his cousin but his trusted soldier, and close allies. His bodyguard tells him that he did make a choice that lesser men might not be able to do.

As Namor is about the behead Nomorita, he is struck with a trident by a rebel assassin and attacked.

Meanwhile, his bodyguard visits Torch and Toro in their cell, saying he is there to free them as Namor is tackled by rebels.

Bucky reveals himself to Torch and Toro and tells the two they could have handled things with a bit more tact and that he has bee trying to help Namor with the Rebellion

The three go and rescue Namor from the angry mob and Namora reveals that this was her plan all along so Namor would listen to the people.

Later in the Throne Room, Torch asks again if they are welcome to stay to which Namor replies they are not unwelcomed. Namor realizes that in bowing to Hydra he sacrificed freedom for safety and the sacrifice was to great for his people.

Namora says that until the people of Atlantis fully trust Namor again they will share the leadership role which Namor says is acceptable… the big softie.

Where do the events of the story take place in the overall timeline of Secret Empire:

The story takes places sometime after the events of Secret Empire #3 when the Hydra-Avengers destroy the temple to convince Namor to give Steve his shard of the Cosmic Cube and Captain America #25 where it is revealed that Bucky is alive, was rescused by Namor and has been serving as his bodyguard.

Is it necessary to read to understand the read the Tie-In to understand what is happening in the larger story?

No, but it does show the consequences that Namor faced from his subjects after he tried to protect them from further confrontations with Hydra. It also shows what Bucky was doing between the time Namor rescued him and his reappearance in Captain America #25 and Secret Empire #8 and 9

Brave New World: The Vignettes

The one and done stories are either humorous, show life during the Hydra occupation, or serve as an origin story or back story for characters that appear in the main series. While usually not important to the over all story, most were nice palette cleansers from the serious and dark regular series.

The stories that take place outside the defense shield and in the Darkforce Dome will be included with the post which covers the ongoing series tie-ins that take place in those places.

The Origins / Backstory of characters in the Main series

Birth of Patriot – Rayshaun Lucas

Mile Hydra – Giant-Man

Humor Stories

Propagandamonium – Gwenpool

Bob Agent of Hydra – Hydra Bob

New Tian

All The World’s A Stage – Emma Frost

Superhot – Emma Frost and Domino

Outside the Shield

Walls – Starbrand

Darkforce Dome

Back in the Fight – The Daily Bugle

Lessons – Blade

Hydra America /The Underground

The Last Place You Look – Misty Knight

The Origins

THE BIRTH OF PATRIOT

(Brave New World #2)

Characters: Rayshaun Lucas

Synopsis:

The story follows Rayshaun Lucas, the kid who delivered Rick Jones’ info about Captain America being changed by the Cosmic Cube to the Underground.

Rayshaun is looking for a way to help fighting Hydra. He volunteers in The Mound cafeteria helping the refugees from the attack on Las Vegas. One day he tries to stop some thugs from taking a young girls iPad and gets his ass handed to him. Hawkeye sees this as he is on his way to tell Shaun that A.I. Tony needs his help in the lab.

Tony tells him that he has been looking at his notebook which had sketches for a Patriot costume and gives him a case which contains a suit similar to his schematics.

Rayshaun is surprised and starts training.

The next time he sees the punks with the girls iPad, Shaun is there in his Patriot costume and takes care of the punks and returns the iPad to the little girl.

The story ends with him talking to Falcon and Spider-Man (Miles Morales) who have already gone off with Black Widow to kill Steve Rogers.

Where do the events of the story take place in the overall timeline of Secret Empire and is it necessary to read to understand what is happening in the larger story?

It is a good story but a have one small continuity nitpick. In The Champions, Shaun/Patriot is helping with the locating of survivors which is his first mission as a hero. In this origin story, however, the destruction of Las Vegas has already happened and The Champions have left with Black Widow. A.I. Tony even says this as they use a hologram of Black Widow during training.

It seems that they needed to establish Shaun as Patriot so he could give Sam Wilson the pep talk in Captain America #24 but this story was not coordinated with Mark Waid using him in The Champions tie-in.

— — —

MILE HYDRA

(Brave New World #1)

Character(s): Raz Maholtra aka Giant Man

Synopsis:

Giant Man, one of the scientist heroes with the underground and who finds himself looking for purpose prior to Secret Empire gets a backup story.

After a brief recap of his origin:

After his job with Ant-Man Securities ends, Raz finds himself sleeping on the couch of a friend who wears a bear costume. When his friend is evicted from his apartment Raz decides it is time to find a job and move on with his life.

When he arrives at the bus depot in Denver, to move in with his family, he finds that Hydra has taken over and calls Ant-Man to find out what is going on. Ant-Man tells him they are outside Vegas and they will come pick him up. When he arrives at his parents house he finds Hydra soldiers giving them a hard time, as they were reported to talking bad about Hydra.

Raz puts on his Giant-Man costume and takes care of the Hydra soldiers and saves his family who doesn’t know he is Giant-Man

Where do the events of the story take place in the overall timeline of Secret Empire and is it necessary to read to understand what is happening in the larger story?

Events take place at the beginning of Secret Empire.

The story is not important to the overall story but was a nice introduction for me who was not familiar with the Giant-Man character. Giant-Man does appear throughout the main series as one of the lead scientists at The Mound and is the one who develops the Time Capsule so Sam Wilson can rally the troops outside the defense shield and in the Darkforce Dome.

The Humor stories

PROPOGANDAMOIUM

(Brave New World #1)

Character(s): Gwenpool

Synopsis:

Hydra has taken over a local news talk show and Gwenpool is one of the “guests’ along with a Hydra bat wearing a Spider-Man mask.

The host interviews a group of militia fighters who give up their location and the host eventually takes out his Hydra so co-host whole Gwen is being, well Gwen.

— — —

BOB AGENT OF HYDRA

(Brave New World #2)

Character: Bob Agent of Hydra

Synopsis:.

Cleveland, Ohio

The story opens with a group of Hydra soldiers getting ready to apprehend an Inhuman in a grocery store.

Everyones favorite down on his luck Hydra Agent, Bob is on the job.

Bob scales the building with another Hydra soldier but is knocked off after an explosion from inside the building.

Luckily he is still attached to his line and ends up right outside the window from the Inhuman:

and like that Bob is one again victorious.

Where do the events of the story take place in the overall timeline of Secret Empire and is it necessary to read to understand what is happening in the larger story?

Does it really matter? These are fun and short. Maybe things will play out that they are important to the eventual outcome of Secret Empire…or not.

— — — — — — — — —

Secret Empire #9

Limbo

Kobik, in the form of a young girl, tells Steve Rogers that she messed up and she was just trying to make everyone happy….but made things worse and tells Steve to remember…

Washington D.C.

Baron Zemo arrives and greets Hydra Supreme Leader Steve Rogers and tells him he has a trophy for him…T’challa aka Black Panther, whose has been deposed as the King of Wakanda.

Zemo wants to kill him but Rogers, says to wait so the whole world can watch and tells Zemo to wake the army that sleeps.

As Black Panther is being led away, one of the guards tells Steve that the delegation from New Tian has arrived.

meanwhile,

The reunited heroes who were trapped in the Darkforce Dome and outside the defense shield are making their last stand led by Captain America Sam Wilson

Spider-Man (Peter Parker) also shows up and joins the battle against Hydra, so do the U.S. Avengers and other heroes around the world.

The Hydra-Avengers join the fray while Steve meets with the White Queen, who surrenders her Cosmic Cube shard.

Zola confirms that the shard is real but Emma says that she is ready to negotiate a cease-fire, to which Steve says “no dice” which is the wrong answer since Magneto agrees with Emma that no matter his deal with Hydra, no mutant will bow down.

Zola informs Steve that they have enough of the Cosmic Cube to weaponized and that he found something in Tony Stark’s lab that will let Steve do so.

— — — — — — — — —

Outside the battle still rages on, the X-Men from the X-Men: Gold series have joined in the fight after they were also stuck in the Darkforce Dome.

Just when it looked like the heroes would be defeated an unlikely hero decides he has had enough and switches sides and fights with the Underground against Hydra

— — — — — — — — —

Back on the Hydra Carrier

Taskmaster and Black Ant have been assigned to guard the recently captured teen-heroes The Champions and provide the much-needed breaking of the tension with a humorous moment:

— — — — — — — — —

As The Champions join the battle they see Ms. Marvel but have no time to catch up and hug.

Viv Vision finds her father (Vision) and says that she can help him get rid of the virus that has been controlling him and making him work for Hydra.

Doctor Strange confronts Scarlet Witch and realizes that she is being possessed. He uses a Summon spell to return Thor (Jane Foster) from the mystical realm she was banished to (this will be covered in the next Secret Empire post on the ongoing series tie-ins), but because she does not have the hammer, she reverts back to Jane Foster.

Doctor Strange then turns his attention to exorcising Chthon from Wanda.

— — — — — — — — —

Hydra Airship

Zemo is leading Black Panther to his cell.

On their way, they pass the “Master of Evil” who were put in stasis after they attacked NYC. As Zemo is bragging about how they have brainwashed the Masters, the guards who are escorting them are attacked.

Bucky Barnes attacks Zemo and just as Zemo is about to kill Bucky with his sword, Black Panther chokes Zemo from behind, telling him that he talks too much and knocks Zemo out before he can warn Steve.

— — — — — — — — —

Elsewhere on the Hydra Airship, Doctor Faustus is in the process of retraining Sharon Carter, so that she will be loyal to Hydra and Steve.

Sharon brings the good Doctor his tea as he requests, thinking that she is bending to his will, only to discover she has slipped a non-lethal toxin into his drink. She then access the computers with the intent of bringing down the Hydra fleet.

In Zola’s lab, Steve is being fitted with some kind of Iron Man like armor which is powered by the Cosmic Cube.

— — — — — — — — —

Cosmic Cube Limbo / Kobik

Kobik and Steve Rogers talk and as they do Steve begins to remember bits and pieces of his past, only to be shown what has transpired

Steve realizes that the place he is trapped is Kobiks mind.

Steve asks her to bring him back, but she says she can’t because it is too late and she runs away

— — — — — — — — —

The heroes outside believe they are winning the war against Hydra until Black Panther arrives and tells them to run.

— — — — — — — — —

Should be interesting to see how this wraps up …