With all that is going on in the world, we decided now was a perfect time to revisit Nick Spencer's Captain America run and Secret Empire. It's almost scary how relevant this run is today. We start with the first 21 issues of Sam Wilson Captain America. There's several things that really stand out about this run:

• As we stated in our Captain America Character Corner, previous Captain America runs have dealt with Steve being a symbol and being disillusioned by those that try to corrupt that symbol. What Spencer does with Sam is ask what if what the symbol of Captain America stands for leaves out some important parts of America?
• Pre-Secret Empire, Spencer has Sam dealing with some pretty heavy issues (immigration, police brutality, etc) and uses those to put Sam in some no-win situations that help to break Sam's belief in what he's fighting for
• Misty and some younger heroes are used to call out Sam's inaction and focusing on the people against him instead of the people for him
• Issue 10 with Sam giving the eulogy for Rhodey is the funeral Bill Foster never got
• Sam beating the shit out of US Agent makes us wish that MCU Sam could talk to birds
• The way evil Steve undermines Sam is rooting in the very same tactics Black folks see in real life

On the next episode we'll cover the first 15 of Steve Rogers Captain America then wrap it up with Secret Empire.

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