Spoiler warning for Falcon & Winter Soldier #5!
The Falcon and Winter Soldier tried to stop Hydra from coming back but ended up doing the opposite. In Marvel Comics' miniseries about the two heroes, Sam Wilson and Bucky Barnes have been investigating a new Madame Hydra causing a civil war in the dormant terrorist syndicate. But in the final confrontation of Falcon & Winter Soldier #5 when faced with the question of whether to one leader of Hydra over another, the two formerly-Captain-America heroes made the wrong choice, meaning that the monster-themed villains will rise once again.
Falcon & Winter Soldier #5 is the finale of a five-issue miniseries written by Derek Landy with art by Federico Vincentini, color by Matt Milla, and lettering by Joe Caramagna. The two heroes are on the trail of Veronica Eden, a friend of Bucky's who went missing. They soon found Veronica Eden calling herself the new Madame Hydra and trying to take over the organization in a power struggle with classic Hydra top man Baron Zemo.
Hydra has been on the outs since they were toppled in Secret Empire, the storyline where the Red Skull warped reality and made Captain America into Hydra's supreme leader. The new blood of Hydra is clearly influenced by that period; Eden's costume looks like a cross between Captain America and Harley Quinn. She gave Bucky and Sam an ultimatum: if they defeat her, her rival Baron Zemo will come to power and use Hydra to rot America from within, but if they let her take Hydra over, she promised to simply blow up the people in power and target "no innocent people". She asks the heroes to judge the "lesser of two evils".
In issue 5, Zemo and Eden finally collide with Falcon and Winter Soldier caught in the middle. The battle is a hilarious farce. Since the Hydra soldiers are planning to shoot whoever loses, the two heroes and two villains work out the numbers and punch them all out. it turns out Zemo is happy to cold-cock the soldiers who came with him if he smells disloyalty. They even work together to defeat Eden's second-in-command, the Natural, in case he has the same idea. When the dust clears, Bucky strongly considers killing them both and ending Hydra for real, but Falcon gives the "this isn't who you are, don't be a killer, that's what Hydra wanted" speech and he backs down.
That's when things go south. A Hydra agent with second thoughts blows Veronica Eden's shoulder off. Zemo straps on a jetpack he had lying around nearby and flies off, leaving Falcon and Winter Soldier to haul off his wounded challenger.
Superhero stories don't have to have happy endings, but this conclusion throws out the moral conflict of the series in an unsatisfying way. Yes, Sam and Bucky were never actually going to pick one Supreme Hydra, because "the lesser of two evils" isn't compatible with their ideals. It could also be said that there's a lesson about extremists who recruit the vulnerable being turned on by their own recruits... but is that lesson "it's better to abuse them, like Zemo"? And how is it served by Zemo simply zipping away while Bucky stares at him, refusing to use the gun on the ground next to him? That funny team-up battle isn't funny anymore, because it means Falcon & Winter Soldier fought by Zemo's side and helped him bring Hydra back, a move that will affect the Marvel Universe for years to come.
Falcon & Winter Soldier #5 is available now from Marvel Comics and Comixology.
