Books like Captain America: Steve Rogers, Vol. 1: Hail Hydra

3.5 starsSome spoilers! But seriously, this has been out for a while...I was kinda afraid this was going to be some political thing, and god knows I hate that sort of shit. Honestly, if I wanted other people's opinions on the state of my country/ world, I could just log on to Facebook and scroll through the hilariously witty (yet SO poignant!) memes from my friends on the far left or far right. Goddamn, that unfollow button has been a lifesaver!So it was with that nonsense in mind that I finally decided to wade into this 'controversial' comic book. How was it?Well, as my dear friend Jeff would say, Hail Hydra!Whoa! It was actually a lot better than I had hoped! Sure, there was quite a bit of poking at the politics in America right now, especially in the first few issues, but once you get past the initial ranty shit it sorta tapered off and made way for the story. And I thought using the Cosmic Cube Kid to rewrite Steve's memories was a fantastic way to turn him into Hydra's top agent. My opinion? Spencer put some effort into his new origin story and I quite enjoyed all the flashbacks. I know a lot of my friends were annoyed with how dialogue heavy this was (and it was!), but it didn't bother me as much as I thought it would. Yes, there was some fat that could have been trimmed. A lot of fat, actually.shrugsOverall, though, I didn't get bogged down (too much) by the exposition.I also liked seeing how Captain America was working behind the scenes, making him responsible for quite a few of the Civil War II 'mishaps'. But the main thing I loved was that even as an evil Hydra agent, Steve is still somewhat decent. <--in an extremely fucked up way!The best villains (think: DOOM) always truly think that they are the hero of the story. And by making Rogers a true believer in what Hydra stands for, he's the perfect example of someone who was indoctrinated by some culty belief system and thoroughly believes in its righteousness.Bottom Line: Captain America is still my favorite Marvel superhero (supervillain?), and Nick Spencer is a talented writer. I have faith that this is going somewhere cool...eventually.