The Hollywood Reporter (via
The Hill) told of a URL they discovered based on Hydra that redirects to the president's page:
Try typing "hail-hydra.com" into your web browser and see where you end up. Spoilers: You won't see a page for the fascist organization now led, in comic books at least, by a newly evil Captain America, but, instead, the official White House website's page for President Donald J. Trump.
It's unknown who set up the redirect, but the URL was originally registered back in 2014 by someone in the Australian town of Nobby Beach, Queensland. The redirect would appear to have been set up in the middle of last month, with the last update to the site showing as April 16 — far in advance of recent political upheaval that only underscores the popular conspiracy theory that President Trump is attempting to obstruct investigations into potential ties to Russia by firing FBI Director James Comey.
I have no idea if the URL in question was set up by anybody close to Marvel's staff, but the timing of this case sure looks suspect. It certainly sounds like a deliberate attack on Trump. They also say that:
While Marvel attempts to distance its current Secret Empire Hydra comic book storyline from real-world parallels, it's worth remembering that the original Secret Empire — an offshoot of Hydra — was headed by a previous U.S. president. The 1974 Captain America and The Falcon storyline by Steve Englehart and Sal Buscema showed an unnamed president commit suicide when his identity became known, in an allusion to the then-contemporary Watergate scandal surrounding Richard Nixon.
Well even the older story is honestly ludicrous (mainly because over all that, Steve was shown quitting his role for a short while and becoming Nomad), even if Nixon made mistakes in his time. But while it may have been one thing to write up a metaphor for Nixon back in the day, making
Steve Rogers the villain this time - all for the sake of shock value, lest we forget - is revolting in the extreme, and hopefully, the majority of the readership's staying away this time. After all, we're supposed to be rooting for Steve, not viewing him as some kind of slimy creep who supposedly worked for evil forces in a warped distortion of the MCU.
The same people who wanted Comey fired because Hillary now hypocritically want Trump impeached because Comey.
ReplyDeleteApparently, Marvel now does Bizarro logic: "No More Politics = More Politics Than Ever Before!"
ReplyDeleteTo be more generous than necessary, I could somewhat forgive the recent comics' political lulz against the "No More Politics" edict, as they were produced many months in advanced. This website idiocy, not so much.
As of this writing, I just tried it, so copying/pasting hail-hydra.com in the address bar -> the official White House page is still in effect. Stay classy, Marvel!