Captain America: Hail Hydra! Miniseries: A Review

Writer: Jonathan Maberry; Artists: Sergio Cariello, Tom Scioli, Phil Winslade, Kyle Hotz & Graham Nolan; Covers: Adi Granov

Rating 4 out of 5 stars

I have often wondered why Hydra, Marvel Comics' globe-spanning terrorist group, does not regularly appear in the pages of Captain America. After all, Cap's arch-foe the Red Skull was indirectly responsible for the formation of Hydra's modern incarnation. Foreseeing the Third Reich's eventual downfall, the Skull dispatched Baron Strucker to join a secret society in the Far East and re-organize it into a Neo-Nazi organization. So it would seem a natural fit for Captain America and Hydra to be mortal enemies. Instead, Cap has spent a lot more time crossing swords with the high-tech subversive organization A.I.M., those guys in the yellow beekeeper suits responsible for creating MODOK and the Cosmic Cube.

From what I've heard, Hydra will be playing a role in the upcoming Captain America movie. Marvel obviously decided the time was ripe to have Cap engage in a major confrontation with Hydra in the comic books, and published the five issue Captain America: Hail Hydra miniseries. Presumably they'll have it collected as a trade paperback to coincide with the film's release.

Hail Hydra, written by horror novelist Jonathan Maberry, spans from World War II to the present day. At the same time, flashbacks to events throughout past centuries reveal that the organization that would one day become Hydra is far older than previously thought, dating back thousands of years and existing under a variety of names. (I haven't been following the recent Secret Warriors series, but as I understand it Maberry's re-imagining of Hydra's origins ties in rather neatly with what Jonathan Hickman has been doing with them over in that title.)

Maberry establishes Hydra as playing a long game, embarking over the millennia upon a two-pronged quest: to discover how to resurrect the dead, and to elevate man to godhood. In the Twentieth Century, this pursuit is taken up by Doctor Geist, who has allied himself with Baron Strucker and the Nazis. In issue #1 of Hail Hydra, Captain America and Bucky first encounter Geist in 1944, when he is reanimating fallen German soldiers, turning them into Das Auferstehugs Corps, a force of undead superhumans. Cap and Bucky deal Geist a major setback, but the mad scientist escapes.

The miniseries then leaps forward several decades. Issue #2 takes place shortly after the Avengers have revived Captain America from suspended animation. Geist, now a decrepit figure kept alive by cybernetics, resurfaces, drawing the Avengers into a battle with Das Auferstehugs Corps. This is all part of a ruse by Hydra to obtain samples of both Cap's super soldier serum and the thunder god Thor's blood. Having accomplished this, Geist goes to ground once more, planning to utilize the purloined blood samples to further Hydra's search for immortality and divinity.

The next three issues leap through various points in Cap's modern-day career, as his path crosses with Geist and Hydra's undead soldiers. Issue #3 takes place during the classic Steve Englehart & Sal Buscema run, most likely right before the "Secret Empire" story arc. #4 is set during the period when Steve Rogers resigned as Captain America rather than serve as a government lackey, and took on the identity of "The Captain." The final issue of Hail Hydra is in the present, when Rogers has become director of national security & superhuman affairs, and the revived Bucky has taken up the mantle of Captain America.

Although Maberry performs a significant retcon to Hydra's history in this miniseries, I did not mind. As I said before, it was already established that Baron Strucker formed Hydra out of a pre-existing group of subversives. It is not really too major a change to reveal that organization was actually part of a centuries-old global conspiracy. And Maberry's conception of Hydra fits in perfectly with the organization's motto "Cut off one arm and two more shall take its place." They are nearly impossible to destroy because they have dozens of quasi-independent cells around the globe. If one is defeated, another can step in to take its place. That durability and wide-spread presence becomes even more imposing once it's established that they are an ancient order who have had literally thousands of years to worm their tentacles into the foundations of countless nations and cultures.

Besides, I like the idea of Hydra being treated as a dangerous, formidable menace. I started reading comic books regularly in 1989. My first exposure to Hydra as a reader was in the early 1990s, in several stories penned by D.G. Chichester. The Red Skull arranged the resurrection of Baron Strucker (who had been killed by Nick Fury way back in Strange Tales #158, published in 1967). The revived Strucker reunited the splinter groups of Hydra and nearly destroyed SHIELD. That was my first impression of Hydra. I was disappointed that most subsequent writers at Marvel never really followed up on Chichester's stories, instead depicting Hydra as third-rate cannon fodder who were easily thwarted by whatever superhero they ran into that month. So I appreciate Maberry rendering them as a credible foe.

Maberry does a good job plotting and scripting the Hail Hydra miniseries. Coming from the horror genre, it is natural that he'd have Hydra utilizing a combination of science and the supernatural. The concept of reviving the dead to form an unstoppable army is not a new once, and neither is the idea of a man attempting to achieve divinity. But Maberry has Hydra combining the two goals. Doctor Geist is not satisfied with merely creating zombies or vampires or some other form of quasi-life. Rather, he wishes to literally resurrect deceased individuals, returning them to full life, and endow them with immortality.

The first two issues did seem to lack some focus. Perhaps this was due to Steve Rogers and his allies having no real clue to what was going on, or even knowing that they were fighting Hydra. But by the third issue, Cap has come to realize who his enemy is and what their goals are, and he spends the rest of the series on a driven mission to locate Geist and defeat Hydra.

There is some confusion as to what is going on in the first issue. Cap and Bucky learn about Geist and his collaboration with the Nazis from the German Resistance, and one of their members, Trude Lohn, accompanies them on the raid. But at the end of the issue we learn that Trude's associates belong to Hydra. It makes no sense for members of Hydra to reveal to the Allies what Geist has been up to. It seems as if two different arms of Hydra are working at cross-purposes here. Maberry never clarifies whether or not Trude was a part of Hydra, or if her resistance group had merely been infiltrated. If I had to make a guess, I'd say that Trude was unaware her group had been compromised, and that Hydra didn't learn that she was working with Cap and Bucky until it was too late to halt their attack. But it would have been preferable if Maberry had clarified matters.

As I said, the last three issues of Hail Hydra are the strongest. Geist's scheme in issue #4 is truly twisted and diabolical. He is not merely interested in inflicting loss of life and material damages on the United States. Instead, he intends to strike a devastating psychological blow against the country. This makes Hydra seem a more prescient threat, as that is often what motivates real-world terrorists, to demoralize their enemies. And even then, Geist knows that any destruction he does manage to inflict is collateral damage, as his primary goal remains the search for immortality and godhood.

The final issue has Steve and Bucky leading the Avengers in a massive assault against Hydra. Maberry makes the interesting narrative decision of having Geist's plans collapse from within. Rogers' dogged, unrelenting pursuit of Geist over the years, combined with the mad scientist's ever increasing awareness of his own mortality, cause him to forget Hydra's policy of long-term planning. Instead Geist rushes to finally complete his experiments, and his haste leads to his downfall. The ending is something of a deus ex machina, but considering the entire miniseries dealt with the quest to achieve divinity, that is actually rather appropriate.

Each issue of Hail Hydra features a different artist, to distinguish the jumps in time period. This was a nice idea, and for the most part the results were successful.

The artist of the first chapter is Sergio Cariello. In the past, I have found his art to be somewhat exaggerated and rough. Cariello must have worked at tightening up his drawing and achieving more realism to his style, and it shows in this issue. He definitely illustrates some very dynamic battle scenes, and he has strong, dramatic storytelling. Even the opening pages, with Cap, Bucky, and Trude sitting down to discus their mission, are interesting and engaging due to Cariello's layouts and "camera angles."

I felt the second issue was the weakest, artwise. Tom Scioli draws it in his Jack Kirby inspired style. As this chapter is set during the early days of the Avengers, the intent was obviously to achieve a Silver Age feel with his work. Unfortunately, Scioli art is too loose and sketchy, and a lot of his are figures posed rather awkwardly. I've seen Scioli's work before, and it usually looks better than this. The art here gives the impression of having been drawn in a hurry. Scioli is probably capable of doing better than this.

The talented Phil Winslade previously illustrated the beautiful DC Elseworlds graphic novel Wonder Woman: Amazonia, as well as collaborating with Steve Gerber on both Howard the Duck and the extremely offbeat Vertigo miniseries Nevada. Winslade turns in some detailed, dramatic artwork in Hail Hydra #3, which has Cap, the Falcon, and the Black Panther fighting a horde of Hydra-revived zombies in Wakanda. The historical flashback scenes are also meticulous in their detail, giving them a feeling of authenticity.

Kyle Hotz seems to specialize in dark, macabre characters. He draws some suitably moody art for issue #4, really conveying the horror and sickness of Geist's scheme. Some of Hotz's figures are a bit distorted in places, but in a way that adds to the twisted atmosphere of the chapter.

Issue #5 is drawn by an artist I have always felt was a bit underrated, Graham Nolan. I've enjoyed his work since I saw it on the Batman books in the mid-1990s. Nolan is the artist who designed the villain Bane, and he had a lengthy stint penciling Detective Comics. For much of the last decade, Nolan was working on newspaper strips, drawing The Phantom and Rex Morgan, MD. Recently Nolan has returned to comic books, penciling several issues of X-Men Forever. He does a fantastic job wrapping up the Hail Hydra miniseries. There is a full-scale battle between the assembled Avengers and the hordes of Hydra, and Nolan superbly illustrates this climactic confrontation, infusing it with dynamic energy.

The covers for all five issues are by Adi Granov. He does a nice job on them, but I did find them a bit too similar in composition, the figures looking somewhat posed. The best of the five was the cover to issue #4, with Steve Rogers fighting a swelling mass of grasping zombies. Although he really should have been depicted in the replacement red, white and black costume that he wore in this chapter, rather than his Captain America uniform. Perhaps commercial considerations led to him being in his regular outfit.

Also, the placement of the logo on the cover to first two issues is poorly thought out, with first the Hydra insignia and then Giant-Man's face being obscured. The production team must have realized their mistake, because they retooled it on issue #3 to prevent the Falcon from being blotted out.

Anyway, while somewhat uneven in places, Captain America: Hail Hydra in an entertaining, exciting story. Jonathan Maberry's scripts are interesting and ambitious. I'm looking forward to re-reading the entire miniseries in one sitting, to see how it flows. And for the most part, with one exception, the artwork on the books is of a high quality.