So when people say Nick Spencer is a terrible writer, do they actually mean to say "I hate the concept of Hydra Cap," or is his actual writing bad? Doesn't seem so bad to me. Also, is why do people freak out so much about a story that has so much riding on its development and conclusion? I'd say those are pretty important to judge his work by. Sure, I could hate it by the end, and I think some things are pretty dumb, but I don't think it's fair to judge until it's finished. The art is great, and it is an interesting situation for many characters to deal with.
I think this is maybe the 2nd time you've asked, specifically, what is bad about Spencer's Hydra Cap. I didn't answer before, mostly, because I rather not spend too much energy and time talking about why I think something is bad when instead I could choose to talk about a comic I liked. It's also something that's been discussed here relatively frequently so it often feels like we keep on circling back on the same topics.
That being said, I'll try to say what *I* think is bad about Hydra Cap in a way that's relatively short. I won't be addressing a lot of my issues with it but hopefully Ill have hit on the big bits.
Concept wise, no it's not a terrible idea. It's something Simon and Kirby did themselves when they had the Red Skull brainwash Cap into a Nazi.
Hell, it *could* be a very well executed and interesting concept applied to character, but Spencer's take simply isn't.
My biggest problem with Spencer's take on Cap is that he, as a writer, simply does not understand the power of symbols and the responsibility of handling those symbols. This goes for every story a creator makes, but he fails especially bad here. I think almost every issue I have with Spencer's writing stems from that.
Take Hydra as a "fascist occult group that aligned itself with the Nazis but that's totally not Nazis." Hmm OK, so that means Hydra figured everything the Nazis were doing was just fine because they were advancing the fascist agenda. Of course, this means that Hydra were directly contributing to the genocide of millions of Jewish people, LGBT, minorities and dissidents.
So what does Spencer do with this? Instead of owning up and dealing with that this means Cap is a full blown white supremacist who worked for a government that killed millions and millions, Spencer writes it off as talk that the collaboration with the Nazis was simply something that "got out of hand" (I believe this was the actual quote)
As if the eradication of peoples is just something that happens on accident and therefore Hydra Cap is not someone who is in part culpable for the death of millions.
So, could you do a book where Cap has actually been a sleeper agent for an occult fascist group? Yeah most definitely, but you absolutely do not get to have your story take place in actual history while not dealing with the nastier side of it.
The thing is Spencer wants to take credit for the shocking thing without having to do the hard work of it actually saying something and just keeps pointing to the next thing on the horizon and saying that's where it will all come together. He wants you to believe that he's not a bad writer and he's begging you to keep reading his bad books and to preserve judgment.
The thing about that is that monthly comics is a serialized form. They come out in installments and are designed as so. Nick Spencer isn't writing Secret Empire #5 as *only* a chapter in SE meant to be consumed after #4 and before #6. He's writing it to be consumed 2 or 3 weeks or whatever in between the other issues. Which is to say, if you can't break down and criticize installments as well as heap praise on them when it is earned then why release or bother with them at all?
The whole "keep reading to find out how we definitely address those criticisms you brought up" is a fucking sham to get you to buy and read more bad comics. There's a kernel of truth to it which is why it works on some level. But no one reads the first five issues of The Walking Dead then talks about how good it is and then is told by others they've got to reserve judgment until they've read the other hundred plus issues. Those issues of TWD were still good and the Spencer Cap comics are still bad even if Secret Empire: Epilogue #17 is any good.
I promise that when Nick Spencer is done with Cap, it won't feel fulfilling, it won't feel noteworthy. It will just feel empty like nothing was earned, and you'll be out of whatever amount of money it was that you invested to keep up with the story.
Quick hits:
Spencer's dialogue is a garbage fire, and if Steve Lieber is not around, then Spencer's comedic bits fall really flat
The art is mostly good through his run although I'm really not a fan of Jesus Saiz's coloring. Nearly everything is textured the same and there is weird decision to have strong diffused white light hit everything in a lot of panels.
Nick Spencer is super bad at twitter and can't handle a half tweet of criticism. He'd be gunning for worst person at twitter if it weren't for our idiot president and Russian spambots.
He also tends to pretend all political criticism of his work is invalid because he believes he's the most liberal person in comics and couldn't possibly create something that is 'problematic.' Especially given the fact he used to be a Republican as late as 2005.
Also, he's just a shitty person who got ran out of Cincinnati for being too much of a shithead (to put it lightly)
