Captain America Writer Gets Death Threats Over New Comic Storyline
Comicbook fans have reacted with fury over a recent plot in the long-running Captain America series which has revealed that the hero is in fact an agent for evil Hydra organisation.
Writer Nick Spencer has even been sent death threats online.
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Spencer tweeted on Wednesday: “I can’t respond to 9000 tweets per second, but if I could, I would say I admire your passion.”
But the flippant remark has gone down rather badly.
Most fans seem to be upset over the racial aspects of Cap’s unexpected volte-face, and the disregard for the legacy of the character.
Ouch.
Captain America was devised by Marvel legends Jack Kirby and Joe Simon, both Jewish, who purposely created him as a opposition to the growing threat of the Nazis in Europe, with the first comic emerging in 1941.
As if their intentions were not blunt enough, ‘Captain America Comics #1’ sold a million copies and featured the all-American hero punching Adolf Hitler full in the face.
The shadowy organisation Hydra has always been linked to the Nazis, one of its key leader Baron Wolfgang von Strucker being a former Nazi officer.
The new story explains that Steve Rogers’ mother is the key to his double-agent status, after she is seduced into working for Hydra when another woman delivers her from her abusive husband.
So Rogers has spent his superhero career in the shadow of his mother’s allegiance to Hydra.
All that said, there could still be a twist in the tale.
The comic is only the first in new series 'Captain America: Steve Rogers’, so there is perhaps time for another big reveal down the line.
Image credits: Marvel/Twitter