History ComicBook / SecretEmpire

The main series was a ten-issue mini-series that started with an issue 0 in April, then continued on bi-monthly until August. There were multiple tie-ins involving, at the very least, ComicBook/XMen, ComicBook/SpiderMan, [[ComicBook/Avengers2016 The Avengers]], [[ComicBook/{{Champions2016}} Champions]], ComicBook/GuardiansOfTheGalaxy, ComicBook/TheInhumans and ComicBook/TheDefenders.

* CoversAlwaysLie: The cover of Issue #1 features, ComicBook/SpiderMan, ComicBook/OldManLogan, [[ComicBook/Thor2014 Thor]], ComicBook/{{Storm}}, [[ComicBook/MsMarvel2014 Ms. Marvel]], [[ComicBook/FantasticFour Human Torch]], ComicBook/{{Medusa}}, and [[ComicBook/GuardiansOfTheGalaxy Rocket Raccoon]] despite that none of them actually show up.

* ''[[ComicBook/NickSpencersCaptainAmerica Captain America: Sam Wilson]]'' #22-24

** During the ''Uncanny Avengers'' tie-in, one New Yorker compares the Darkforce situation to the events of ''ComicBook/{{Inferno}}''.

* ''[[ComicBook/MarvelNOW2016 Occupy Avengers]]'' #8-9 %%[[labelnote:F]] Last issue is the GrandFinale of the Occupy Avengers series.[[/labelnote]] I'm leaving this commented since I can't find a source

* NotSoDifferent: In ''Captain America Steve Rogers 19'' Sharon points out to Steve that despite his insistence he really is no better than Red Skull.

-->'''Issue 6 {{Narration}}:''' This is the story of how we fell for the last time. The moment we were broken. Overrun. We gazed upon the devastation -- [[SelfInflictedHell and we found in it ourselves]]. [[JerkassRealization We saw everything we'd done to cause it.]] [[MyGodWhatHaveIDone How had we managed to fall so far?]] How had we managed to sink so low? Had we lost our way? Why did we do this to ourselves? Why did we do this to each other? [[DarkestHour And so we closed our eyes, and prepared for judgment.]] [[SillyRabbitCynicismIsForLosers But not all of us. Some of us still knew how to be heroes.]] And in that moment of reprieve -- we began to remember. Began to remember how to stand again. Remembered the evil we stood against. [[WeHelpTheHelpless Remembered who we fought for.]]

* AliensMadeThemDoIt: Cthon, while possessing Scarlet Witch, has her and the virus-controlled Vision passionately kiss before a mission with the Hydra Avengers, despite the pair's relationship ending years ago.

* GiantSpaceFleaFromNowhere: Kriggoroth, a giant monster who briefly appears in Issue #1, demanding that the humans allow him to sate his hunger by devouring them. Where he came from is left unknown, although he mentions that he once made that same demand from the humans' forefathers.

** Issue #2: [[spoiler:A woman is saved from the Serpent Society by...Steve Rogers?!]]

* ANaziByAnyOtherName: Hydra-fied US is mainly a generic totalitarian regime, with strict regulations for the population, persecution and imprisonment of dissenters and unwanted groups, and an aggressive, hostile stance against foreign states. However, despite HYDRA Cap's [[KlingonPromotion decisive removal of Red Skull]] and his hatred for Skull's politics, a lot of Nazis remain with HYDRA and the HYDRA council - among them Sin, Crossbones, Zola,Faustus, and Gorgon.

* TheAlcoholic: Played With. As he's a hologram, and thus unable to consume alcohol, [[spoiler:AI Tony]] has recalibrated his behavioral modifiers to express his emotional response to their current situation. The rest of the resistance even call him "The Drunk."

** In addition, the Ultron/Hank Pym Hybrid is still residing in Alaska, building an army of Ultrons, and with [[spoiler:the fall of HYDRA]], the treaty between Ultron/Pym and HYDRA Cap would end as well, meaning that the Age of Ultron is invevitable.

* BondVillainStupidity: Zemo's fondness for EvilGloating gets the better of him twice in Issue 9: first he is [[JustBetweenYouAndMe too busy telling T'Challa]] about HYDRA's secret [[SealedEvilInACan sleeper army]] to realize his guard robots are being electrified until he's tackled by the Winter Soldier, and then he's gets so caught up in a WeMeetAgain moment with Bucky, that T'Challa can take him out easily while still handcuffed. Needless to say the secret sleeper army doesn't get released, either.

* DeconReconSwitch: Of the LighterAndSofter archtype that Marvel's been ignoring around since ''ComicBook/AvengersDisassembled''. On the side of {{Deconstruction}}, we have the following: one Captain America has quit and the other has revealed himself to be a villain who has taken over the continental United States. Many of the powerhouses have been locked away, leading to a RagtagBandOfMisfits to save the day. The Black Widow has decided to take a bunch of {{Wide Eyed Idealist}}s and transform them into {{Tykebomb}}s for the sole purpose of killing Steve Rogers. And, throughout it all, everyone has called out ''everything'' that has lead them to this point. Pymtron has called out Tony and Steve over their wars and scheming and the Champions have called out Natasha over her desire to turn them into murderers. Sam has spent his entire part of the story being chewed out for pulling a RageQuit on everyone. And when the going gets tough, everyone breaks down, leading into the {{reconstruction}}. Clint feels that the Hulk deserves to kill him for what he did to him (and by extension for all of the heroic infighting in general) and is talked down and given back hope, both Tony and Carol admit that they screwed up with the Civil Wars, Natasha realizes that turning the kids into murderers isn't the way to go, Sam ultimately returns to take up the shield one last time to give everyone hope and Steve finally breaks down and becomes the comic book super villain he should be in these kinds of stories. Long story short, ''Secret Empire'' piles on so much DarkerAndEdgier that everyone is forced to realize that they shouldn't be heading in this direction and pushes back.

** One of the ''Sam Wilson'' tie-ins shows a group of working class citizens saying that they don't mind living under HYDRA, that all the negative coverage of HYDRA from the media can't be trusted, so they're fine with living in in a fascist dictatorship headed by the one man they feel they ''can'' trust: Captain America. Plus HYDRA continues to create jobs and boost the economy, so they are better off this way. Many have noted this seems like a blatant (if somewhat exaggerated) take on the early 2017 political discourse in America.
* DownerBeginning: Starts off with Steve finally enacting his plan. He orchestrates an Chitauri alien invasion where most of the cosmic heroes lead by Captain Marvel go to fight them while on ground level, Baron Zemo's start running amuck through Manhattan forcing the Defenders to engage them. All the while the Iron Men are trying to get the shield over the planet up. It's here Steve shows his full colors and has HYDRA take over S.H.I.E.L.D. He manually activates the force field over the planet, cutting off those in space and leaving them at the mercy of the Chitauri second wave and activates a black dome over Manhattan, isolating the city before finally announcing HYDRA's takeover. The story then goes a few months later with most of the U.S under HYDRA's control, the heroes on the ground scattered with small pockets of resistance groups doing what they can and the off planet heroes still stranded in space.

* EleventhHourRanger: [[LampshadeHanging Lampshaded]] pretty hilariously with Peter Parker. Due to having to deal with the Hydra-alligned Otto Octavious attempting a Hostile Takeover of Parker's Industries in his own series, Peter ends up missing majority of the Event. He literally doesn't appear until the penultimate issue, asking what he's missed out on.

** [[spoiler: ''Secret Empire: Omega'' hints that Natasha did this, and is now back at working as an assassin.]]

* HeelFaceDoorSlam: Deadpool gets this in a brutal fashion. [[spoiler: It's revealed in his tie-in issues that after having a last minute change of heart, Wade was the person to leak the information to Maria Hill about Blackout controlling the dome surrounding New York. Maria Hill takes the information he gives her...only to trap him under a collapsed building for days so that he won't get out and help in the final battle. By the time he finally gets out, the battle is already over and no one knows about Wade's contribution [[ComicBook/SecretInvasion once again.]]]]

* {{Hypocrite}}: Superior Octopus claims that Peter Parker is self-deluded, selfish, petty and spiteful, all faults he himself possesses (due to his own belief that he will use Parker Industries to make the world better, and has no problem humilating Parker and targeting his employees in the process).

** In ''Occupy Avengers'', the new Nighthawk is told not to kill the the HYDRA soldiers because she'll go down that path. She throws is back, claiming that it's war and if they aren't stopped here and now, more will just come.

* MoleInCharge: Steve is leading SHIELD as Director and the heroes against the simultanteous attacks by the Chitauri and HYDRA, while secretly leading the HYDRA attacks as Supreme Leader.

* MyGodWhatHaveIDone: Namor ends up realizing what he's done to his subjects by the time his storyline in ''Brave New World'' is over and realizes he's made a very grievous error in judgement.

-->'''Hank:''' '''''[[BerserkButton How dare you?!]]''''' ''I'' discovered Pym particles. ''I'' took artificial intelligence to the next level. ''I'' founded the ComicBook/AvengersAcademy! What have ''you'' ever done?! ''You'' were a ''lout'' and a ''cretin'' who made his fortune [[ArmsDealer selling weapons to]] ''[[ArmsDealer murderers]]''. Your arrogance started ''[[ComicBook/CivilWar two]]'' [[ComicBook/CivilWarII wars]] -- your [[ComicBook/SecretInvasion incompetence]] put ''ComicBook/NormanOsborn'' [[ComicBook/DarkReign in power]]! And you try to lecture ''me''?! Every day I had to hold this [[ComicBook/{{Ultron}} monster]] inside me at bay -- do you understand what he would ''do'' if I let him loose? He would [[KillAllHumans incinerate the flesh of every man, woman and child on Earth]] and ''laugh'' about it! [[WhatYouAreInTheDark Every day I live with this, and I save the world a hundred times over!]] But I made ''one'' mistake -- '''one mistake'''! ''Years'' ago! And it's all any of you will ever remember me for -- all you ever say about me! You think I can't hear the whispers?! The way you ''look'' at me when I walk into the room?

* ShaggyDogStory: [[spoiler:Deadpool's quest to be a hero, which really kicked off over in ''ComicBook/{{AXIS}}'' comes crashing in with this event -- thanks to a WrongGenreSavvy moment, Deadpool joins HYDRA, thinking it's the right thing, only to realize that he's probably made a poor decision and try to do good again, only to have Maria Hill pull a HeelFaceDoorSlam on him and bury him under a parking deck. By the time he gets out, the day is saved and he's missed his chance.]]

* SixthRanger: Due to the fact that Kamala, Scott and Sam are stuck in their own storylines and away from their teammates, Ironheart, Falcon, Wasp and the new Patriot become this to the Champions.

** [[spoiler:Rick Jones]] manages to discover computer files detailing Selvig's work and succeeds in sending it to the resistance, before he is apprehended.
* StatusQuoIsGod: The US was taken over by HYDRA for an undefined but significant period of time. It's generally expected that people will remember this approximately as often as they remember [[ComicBook/TheCrossing the time Kang brainwashed Iron Man]] or [[ComicBook/TheKangWar took over and nuked Washington DC]]. Las Vegas is still destroyed, but will apparently be rebuild in record time judging by ''Ben Reilly: Scarlet Spider'' - though all her citizens who were killed are still dead. While C-List characters who died appear to remain dead for now - as does the temporarily revived [[spoiler:Bruce Banner]] - [[spoiler:Black Widow]] is hinted to be alive within the pages of ''Secret Empire: Omega.'' And while the changed version of Steve Rogers remains in custody, a good, unaltered Steve Rogers is also back.

** When Spider-Man defends himself on how "Parker Industries is mine," Doctor Octopus scoffs that the only reason Peter even ''has'' a business is because Ock started it when he was in Peter's body.

* YouAreInCommandNow: [[spoiler:How Steve Rogers attains absolute power. The Secretary of Defense and the President of the United States cede control of all Federal personnel up to and including the U.S. Military to Steve in the face of an unchecked Chitauri invasion, a HYDRA invasion of a nuclear armed Sokovia, and the failure of the planetwide shield meant to protect Earth from said alien invasion. The Secretary and President go into hiding and expect Steve to clean everything up for them. When Sally Floyd mentions that he took over America, he corrects her by saying that he took over nothing - they gave him the power, so he stepped right on in.]]

** The state of Scarlet Witch throughout most of the series.0

* DemonicPossession: Doctor Voodoo's body is briefly taken over by a "shadow parasite" during the
''Uncanny Avengers'' tie-in.

* DemonicPossession: Doctor Voodoo's body is briefly taken over by a "shadow parasite" during the ''Uncanny Avengers'' tie-in.

-->'''Namor''': [...]I'm disappointed in you all. You truly believe the Monarch of Atlantis would bow to HYDRA? That was merely a part of the game. Now I stand at the verge of my greatest victory - [[AllAccordingToPlan just as I intended all along]].

* AreYouPonderingWhatImPondering: [[Comicbook/TheUnbelievableGwenpool Gwenpool]] attends a news program that underwent a HYDRA HostileShowTakeover. The host asks "are you thinking what I'm thinking?", she goes "you know it"... and then she goes "Baba booey!" for the camera as the host kicks the HYDRA soldiers keeping the two hostage.

* ''SelfDemonstrating/{{Deadpool}}'' #31-36 [[labelnote:E ]] Last issue is part of the ''Aftermath'' epilogue. [[/labelnote]]

* DeconstructedCharacterArchetype: Of the BigGood, TheCape and the LegacyCharacter - Steve Rogers has always been the moral compass for the Marvel Universe, to the point where Sam Wilson always found himself under Steve's shadow even when Steve gave him his blessing. This bled into the normal citizens, who criticized Sam at every turn because he "wasn't Steve", thus, when Sam quit and they got back Steve, they ended up with a Steve Rogers who was seeking to take control of the world with a fascist army. The Marvel heroes who have always used Steve as a moral compass have found themselves lost and uncertain and the citizens who have taken Steve at face value now find themselves regretting such a thing when he comes after them because they're criminals, Inhuman or mutant.

'''Deadpool:''' Ask yourself: Has anybody ever said that about Captain America---and been right?

* TraumaCongaLine: The events of ''Secret Empire'' serve as this to [[GooGooGodlike Kobik]], the [[{{Tykebomb}} very being]] responsible for creating [[EvilCounterpart Hydra Supreme Steve Rogers]] in the deluded belief that HYDRA is the best thing for the world. Seeing the results of her handiwork and the sheer malevolence of her own version of Steve Rogers has ''finally'' opened her eyes to [[BrokenPedestal what HYDRA truly stood for]]. As a result, she recreates [[[[TheParagon the original Steve Rogers]] and helps to end HYDRA's rule over the United States of America. The experience has [[CharacterDevelopment allowed Kobik to mature somewhat]], as she resolves to never support fascism again.

* TraumaCongaLine: The events of ''Secret Empire'' serve as this to [[GooGooGodlike Kobik]], the [[Tykebomb very being]] responsible for creating [[EvilCounterpart Hydra Supreme Steve Rogers]] in the deluded belief that HYDRA is the best thing for the world. Seeing the results of her handiwork and the sheer malevolence of her own version of Steve Rogers has ''finally'' opened her eyes to [[BrokenPedestal what HYDRA truly stood for]]. As a result, she recreates [[[[TheParagon the original Steve Rogers]] and helps to end HYDRA's rule over the United States of America. On the other hand, the experience has [[CharacterDevelopment allowed Kobik to mature somewhat]], as she resolves to never support fascism again.

* OrwellianRetcon: All original history books that deal with World War II and beyond are destroyed and replaced with HYDRA's version.

* BerserkButton: Ultron-Hank totally snaps when Tony intentionally mention [[NeverLiveItDown his infamous Jan incident]].

* NeverLiveItDown: {{Invoked}} and deconstructed. After Ultron-Hank ([[NotBrainwashed mostly Hank]]) delivers a TheReasonYouSuckSpeech to the assembled heroes due to their recent obsession with LetsYouAndHimFight, [[spoiler:AI!Tony]] snidely brings up the time he hit Janet. Ultron-Hank snaps and delivers a vicious beatdown, all the while ranting that after all his other accomplishments, triumphs and attempts to redeem himself, it's not fair that he is constantly derided and dismissed for one mistake he made in his past while the other heroes constantly screw up in much more destructive fashions only to be EasilyForgiven.
--->'''Hank:''' '''''[[BerserkButton How dare you?!]]''''' ''I'' discovered Pym particles. ''I'' took artificial intelligence to the next level. ''I'' founded the ComicBook/AvengersAcademy! What have ''you'' ever done?! ''You'' were a ''lout'' and a ''cretin'' who made his fortune [[ArmsDealer selling weapons to]] ''[[ArmsDealer murderers]]''. Your arrogance started ''[[ComicBook/CivilWar two]]'' [[ComicBook/CivilWarII wars]] -- your [[ComicBook/SecretInvasion incompetence]] put ''ComicBook/NormanOsborn'' [[ComicBook/DarkReign in power]]! And you try to lecture ''me''?! Every day I had to hold this [[ComicBook/{{Ultron}} monster]] inside me at bay -- do you understand what he would ''do'' if I let him loose? He would [[KillAllHumans incinerate the flesh of every man, woman and child on Earth]] and ''laugh'' about it! [[WhatYouAreInTheDark Every day I live with this, and I save the world a hundred times over!]] But I made ''one'' mistake -- '''one mistake'''! ''Years'' ago! And it's all any of you will ever remember me for -- all you ever say about me! You think I can't hear the whispers?! The way you ''look'' at me when I walk into the room?

** In issue 4, Ultron!Hank (primarily Hank) calls out all the heroes present on their constant infighting and ideological squabbles instead of, you know, actually doing hero stuff, wondering where it all went wrong. When AI!Tony retorts that their bonds started to erode the moment Hank hit Janet, an InUniverse NeverLiveItDown, Hank furiously calls them, and especially Tony, out on how, even though he's saved countless lives and made numerous sciencitific breakthroughs, all the other heroes ever remember him for is that ''one'' mistake he made while in the middle of a mental breakdown.

** In ''Thunderbolts'' #11, Kobik decides to make Bucky part of her "secret HYDRA club" by altering his past. He isn't exactly overjoyed about this, naturally, and yells at her for turning Steve into a bad guy and lying to himself, even though he protected her. [[VillainousBreakdown She doesn't take it well.]]

* EvolvingCredits: The covers to the main ''Secret Empire'' saga transform the logo, having Cap's shield evolve into the HYDRA logo, only for it to shatter and reveal the original shield.

-->'''Issue 6 {{Narration}}:''' This is the story of how we fell for the last time. The moment we were broken. Overrun. We gazed upon the devastation -- [[SelfInflictedHell and we found in it ourselves]]. [[JerkassRealization We saw everything we'd done to cause it.]] [[MyGodWhatHaveIDone How had we managed to fall so far?]] How had we managed to sink so low? Had we lost our way? Why did we do this to ourselves? Why did we do this to each other? [[DespairSpot And so we closed our eyes, and prepared for judgment.]] [[SillyRabbitCynicismIsForLosers But not all of us. Some of us still knew how to be heroes.]] And in that moment of reprieve -- we began to remember. Began to remember how to stand again. Remembered the evil we stood against. [[WeHelpTheHelpless Remembered who we fought for.]]

-->'''Riri''': Everyone who is active was either either up in space with carol or in..