I hate that costume! Hated that storyline!
Secret Empire as a concept had potential, but it was executed very poorly:
-it sets up Tony to be the hero to fill Steve's shoes, but he fails. Then they set up Sam, and he contributes but doesn't take the main role in the final fight either. No, it's the real Steve Rogers, despite being trapped in timey-wimey stuff most of the story, and he fights Stevil alone despite there being no need to, seriously, when another character says, "this is something Steve has to do on his own", I'm like, why, the comic made it abundantly clear that Stevil is NOT our Steve Rogers, so our Steve has nothing to prove to anyone
-HYDRA are flat out Nazis and fascists, and yet the comic tries to inject some inappropriate use of grey morality by claiming, "well, since HYDRA took over the U.S., test scores have improved and such!" I thought this was going to be revealed as false information being given to Stevil by the other HYDRA leaders to maintain his loyalty, but no, the comic grossly tries to make it seem like HYDRA being in charge did lead to a few positive outcomes amongst the negative outcomes. Oh, and the comic company gave out HYDRA gear to comic book store owners to wear to promote the first issue, to symbolize HYDRA taking over. Yeeeeaaaaah, no decent person wants a group linked with Nazis to be displayed in anything but a negative light, so this was insanely tone deaf.
-Tony acts like the heroes had this coming, given all their recent inner fights they've had (Civil War 1 and 2, Avengers vs. X-men). While it's good he acknowledges that as heroes they need to be better and find better ways to resolve inner conflicts, it's ridiculous to act like what is happening is connected to that much. No, they could not have predicted the insane way Stevil replaced the real Steve, and HYDRA's plan to take over was very planned out and would have likely succeeded regardless of there being recent hero vs. hero conflicts. Like, good job Tony owning up to your all's recent shortcomings, but how about we put that on the side for now and instead focus for now on defeating the fascists who took over who are the obviously real ones to blame for the current awful predicament.
-in this story trying to be quite serious, a key player is a new character called Barf. Or Puke, it was one or the other. What the hell?
Like, keep Stevil and HYDRA's initial take over, it is quite well written in the strategy. Drop any moral ambiguity with HYDRA, they're fascists, and any "positive" reports are false reports designed to deceive the general public. Have Tony and Sam work together to find out what happened to the real Steve and they're the ones who find him and bring him back. Have Stevil get powered up by the Cosmic Cube but as all the heroes unite, the other HYDRA soldiers lose faith and quickly scatter. Stevil turns to his allies and realizes he is alone and as he turns to face the heroes, we get a two-page spread of all the Marvel heroes united on one side while Stevil stands alone. Thus delivering a message purely through the visual: fascism is the tool of the selfish and cowardly (thus their abandonment of Stevil once they realize they will likely lose now), while true heroes stand together. Stevil's powers make him formidable but he is ultimately defeated by the heroes' combined might, with Steve, Sam, and Tony delivering the final blow.
Still, I guess the Secret Empire comic as it was was still not as awful as the prior event, Civil War 2 AKA let's have Iron Man and Captain Marvel compete to who can be the bigger asshole by each focusing on only the two opposing extremes of using an Inhuman's power when a very obvious non-extreme approach to using said power was always on the table. Like, I really find so many of Marvel's event storylines frustrating, whereas most of DC's event stories are more forgettable as opposed to infuriating. I'm hoping when I get around to reading it that Marvel's Blood Hunt event is good: Blade is possessed by something and is leading an army of vampires on a conquest so extreme that even Dracula is siding with the heroes to stop it. That's pretty cool and a simple but fun premise, so hopefully I like the execution.