Captain America is Secretly the Villain of Marvel’s New Civil War

Contains spoilers for Avengers: Twilight #2!!

As one of the most heroic figures in Marvel history, Captain America is usually a symbol of righteousness and justice. He’s one of the most decidedly “good” guys around, but he’s still only human, complete with all the fallibility that comes with it. In a future where old heroes are retired and forgotten, his drive to set the world to rights may ultimately turn him into its new villain instead.

Avengers: Twilight #2 – by Chip Zdarsky, Daniel Acuña, and Cory Petit – dives deeper into a future where “H-Day” changed the landscape for superheroes everywhere. Instead of continuing the business of saving the world, they were forced into retirement and blamed for countless deaths.

Steve Rogers was among the defunct heroes, but seeing his beloved country give into fascism and censorship pushed him to return to action. Unfortunately, he is operating largely out of his own sense of justice, instead of turning a critical eye toward the situation, leaving him open to potentially being led astray by unseen forces.

Captain America’s Predictability Could Be A Dangerous Weakness

One of the symbols of the current world state in Twilight is the new Avengers. They’re shown performing only heroic acts, yet narratives are easy to steer with media control. The resistance, led by Luke Cafe, suspects the heroes are lackeys of a corrupt government, doing sinister deeds behind the scenes, but that same resistance already has at least one mole feeding information to their enemies. There’s something far bigger going on, and it includes both Red Skull and Ultron. Captain America could very well be playing right into their hands, and setting himself up to be the country’s villain, instead of restoring its freedom.

Although Steve is only looking to follow his sense of what’s right, his wife, and Luke Cage, both know how detrimental that can be. Rosa accuses him of turning everyone into “collateral damage” for the sake of his morality, and Luke literally has to slap sense into him when the public doesn’t shift to his side. If those he cares about see the negatives in his strong sense of right and wrong, his enemies certainly know how to use it to their advantage. If they’re manipulating the resistance for their own means, he’s playing into their hands.

In Avengers: Twilight #1, James Stark accuses Steve of being stuck in the old ways. In a sense, he was correct. Cap seeks to return the country to a different time – one without constant monitoring and every atrocity being tucked away out of view. There’s a lack of freedom that he finds abhorrent, and he chooses to take up his old role as a way to restore it. It was a predictable move on his part, perhaps making it a dangerous one. In Marvel’s latest bleak possible future, it appears Captain America’s noble intentions won’t immunize him from being used as a pawn.

Avengers: Twilight #2 is available now from Marvel Comics.