There’s a new criminal operation bubbling up in the Marvel Universe and it could be led by none other than Donald J. Trump.
After the events of Marvel’s Civil War II, the Marvel Universe is in serious tatters. With superhero teams broken up, and new rivalries forged, the chaos left in Civil War II’s wake is the perfect breeding ground for what appears to be Marvel’s next big villainous apparatus, “Secret Empire.” The reason why many believe this organization could be tied to the Trump presidency is because the first “Secret Empire” from the 1970s was spearheaded by Richard Nixon.
The original Secret Empire was created by writer Steven Englehart in the wake of the Watergate Scandal. Coming to terms with the Nixon administration during this fraught time inspired Englehart to turn Nixon into a bonafied comic book villain in Captain America and the Falcon. Now Nick Spencer is set to channel his own political frustrations in a new Evil Empire story.
Spencer is no stranger to tackling politics within his books. After turning Steve Rogers into a HYDRA agent through a cosmic brainwash that rewrote Rogers’s memories, Spencer had the new Falcon fight a literal group of social justice warrior-themed villains.
While both storylines were met with controversy, Spencer at least has shown undaunted by putting contemporary politics into his dual Captain America comic books.
As U.S. residents ready themselves for the Trump presidency, pop-culture will hopefully incorporate this new reality into major works, and there’s no better place to start than a new Secret Empire storyline from Marvel.
Secret Empire will hit comic book stands in 2017.
