Secret Empire #0

History

The groundwork for Secret Empire #0 was laid as far back as 2016's Avengers: Standoff! — also written by Nick Spencer — in which the sentient Cosmic Cube Kobik, manipulated by the Red Skull, rewrote Steve Rogers' memories and restored his youth while secretly encoding him as a Hydra sleeper agent. Spencer continued building toward this endpoint through his dual-track run on Captain America: Steve Rogers and Captain America: Sam Wilson. Marvel announced the event in February 2017 with a creative team that included Spencer (writer), Daniel Acuña and Rod Reis (interior artists for issue #0), and Steve McNiven, Andrea Sorrentino, and Leinil Francis Yu handling subsequent issues; the issue shipped April 19, 2017, with a cover by Mark Brooks and additional variants by Rod Reis, Elizabeth Torque, and Ron Frenz. Editor Tom Brevoort and associate editor Alanna Smith shepherded the title, and Alonso publicly framed Secret Empire as Marvel's corrective event — a story designed to give all of its heroes a common enemy after two consecutive events had pitted them against one another.

Trivia · 8 facts

• Published April 19, 2017 by Marvel Comics; written by Nick Spencer with interior art split between Daniel Acuña (approximately 30 pages of present-day story) and Rod Reis (5-page WWII-era prologue in a distinct painterly style).
• The issue serves as the opening chapter of the 10-issue Secret Empire miniseries (numbered #0–10 plus an Omega issue), released bi-monthly from April through August 2017 under Editor-in-Chief Axel Alonso.
• Core story beats: Rogers simultaneously activates three catastrophic threats — a Chitauri invasion deflecting Alpha Flight and Captain Marvel into Earth orbit, an Army of Evil assault trapping heroes inside a Darkforce dome over Manhattan, and a SHIELD helicarrier collision engineered by Doctor Faustus — then reveals himself as Hydra's Supreme Leader to Sharon Carter aboard the Helicarrier Illiad.
• The issue brings to a head the 'Hydra Cap' storyline that began in Captain America: Steve Rogers #1 (2016), itself rooted in the Avengers: Standoff! event where Kobik — a sentient Cosmic Cube shaped by the Red Skull — rewrote Rogers' memories to make him a lifelong Hydra believer.
• Quasar (Avril Kincaid), who had been established as the one hero capable of eventually breaking the planetary defense shield, suffers an apparent death in this issue when struck by a living Chitauri ship — though she is later found severely injured rather than killed.
• The issue shipped with a main cover by Mark Brooks and multiple variant covers including a Rod Reis villains variant, an Elizabeth Torque variant, and a Ron Frenz variant; a Collector Corps exclusive and a Walmart bundle pack exclusive also existed.
• Issue #0 was reprinted in the Panini Deutschland Secret Empire collection (#1, February 2018) and is collected in the hardcover and trade paperback editions of Secret Empire alongside issues #1–10, Secret Empire Omega #1, Captain America #25, and material from Free Comic Book Day 2017 Secret Empire.
• Marvel announced that Secret Empire would be followed by an 18-month hiatus from large crossover events — at the time described as the company's longest such gap in twelve years — positioning the story as the close of an extended event cycle rather than a springboard to the next one.

Full credits

Key issues in Secret Empire

Variants (5)