So, here's the podcast! Some NSFW language. There is a part one, but we don't talk Secret Empire in there. This is the Secret Empire talk.

I'm lurking until about the 26 minute mark. Then I RAR.

After reading the last issue (and I haven't read Cap #25) if the WWII Cap thing is going the way I think it is, I'll be ok with at least that revelation.

It's basically what people figured was going on.

Cap is evil for shock value, in a storyline widely reviled in the comics community, and Nick Spencer saves it at the end by making an alternate-but-good Cap who's identical in every way to the Captain America we like who shows up and beats up Nazi Cap.

So basically he sacrificed main universe Steve Rogers for the sake of selling issues, and now it's going to be Alternate Steve Rogers as the main heroic version until everyone forgets the difference.

I don't know why Marvel can't just... make a good event that isn't entirely reliant on shocking the reader. I remember reading Marvel comics because I wanted to see good guys fight bad guys, and have good character moments.

Spider-Man was my favorite for years and years just because I found the character of Peter Parker so engaging; he often didn't have all the answers, and he didn't always get the girl, but that was okay, because at the end of the day he did his best, he beat the bad guy, and that was good enough. It was inspiring. These days it's just good guys punching up other good guys in storyline after storyline where characterization is second to whatever crappy storyline's been cooked up by whoever Marvel's favorite writer of the month is.

This isn't even getting to how empty this plotline was. Captain America becomes a Nazi, but Nick Spencer bends over backwards to convince everyone he isn't racist or bigoted in any way (except against Inhumans!) which means there's really no... substance, to the story. What's the point of him being with Hydra if it's just a generic take-over-the-world plot? This could have been Cap brainwashed by virtually anybody and the plot would have been exactly the same. The fact that the bad guy was Hydra was pretty meaningless, in the end.

Did they ever explain why Cloak couldn't just bypass the Darkforce shield? They're the same dimensional energy.

I am made of matter, and I can't just bypass a matter barrier.

Wasn't Hate-Monger at one time a part of the cosmic cube that was involved in this story line ???

Cloak can enter and exit the same dimension at will. Once entered it hasn't shown to be able to limit the movement of users with the restrictions Darkforce energy has made in a completely different dimension (I.e. Earth).

And matter is an oversimplification of the situation.

Blackout pulled a similar stunt in Avengers Under Siege. And Captain Marvel (at the time) got trapped in the Darkforce Dimension. She escaped when a different user opened a portal over in the West Coast.

A simple "No, they haven't addressed it" would have sufficed. Or an "I don't know, if they have".

I did get a chuckle out of this, but I don't think it accurately reflects how Cloak's powers are supposed to work in the comics.

Where's Doorman when you need him ???

Unhinged, maybe?

Could be.

I'm just thinking, he is connected to the Darkforce.
One would think that he would have helped with everything going on in NY during the first several books of this mini-series.

If it's not Hitler then perhaps it's some trace of him that lingered inside the cosmic cube (since he had previously been trapped within it). And this is somehow infecting/affecting Steve/Cap.

Not that it matters much, but I think Doorman left to become the new Deathurge or something serving Oblivion

Guess we're not going to see what this *ahem* master strategist & tactician is capable of in this event,after the initial set up?
He's already watched all of his plans go tits up without doing anything but expect the Cosmic Cube to bail him out.

Eh, Superman 3 did this story better and it only took about 20 minutes and not 2 years.

Though Richard Pryor would be a hilarious Falcon.