Now that the dust has settled, was it really that bad?

No. I just wish they committed to the Cap-Sleeper-Agent shit

No but I wish they kept Steve as a bad guy.
The concept of someone as pure hearted and noble as Steve espousing and believing in Hydra collectivism was great. I wish they kept that aspect plus the New Tian stuff regarding the mutants being deported to California

I enjoyed most of it, some parts were rocky and hackneyed (like keeping all the powerhouses outside the planet and basically doing squat), but other than that, the lead up to it was great, the plotting was fun, and while some of the heel turns made no sense (such as having Thor so obsessed over Mjolnir that he joins Hydra, as well as Punisher being such a loyal follower of the cause), it had some of the best moments and tie-ins. The Pymtron issue is probably one of the highlights for me.
Finally, I wish Quasar wasn't used as a plot device and actually survived, and that Starbrand was actually used instead of barely trying to break the shield then die a stupid death in Avengers Legacy.

Attached: hydracap.png (644x815, 568K)

The Punisher one made sense to me
The Thor one didn’t
But I liked the idea of a force like Hydra indoctrinating morally ambiguous heroes through actual coercion instead of mind control drugs or magic or some shit

That much was hinted with Doctor Faustus' manipulation of the water supply, though they didn't follow through with this. At least there was that creepy relationship between Wanda and Vision, in which both were manipulated to follow Hydra and the whole thing felt off-putting, but in a good way. Waid is probably one of the few who still care about that relationship (also judging by No Road Home's hand-holding at the end), so even if it was crazy, that Avengers tie-in made the most sense in the context.

True
And we do see manipulation of the water supply but I think that was more for the normal populace (though again, I wish they wouldn’t rely on such an easy out for explaining why people in America might give into a collectivism ideology)
I really fucking liked the epilogue issue where Hydra Supreme and Steve talk about the repercussions and takeaways of Hydra’s occupation
Honestly, again, I just wish they stuck to their guns and maybe just kept original Steve as Hydra Supreme and had the “true” captain America return to nothing since he was just a mental manifestation of that cosmic cube girl’s thoughts

>No but I wish they kept Steve as a bad guy.
He still is. The cube spawned a magic clone that took over as Cap.

Yeah but I mean I wish they didn't make a "good" Steve clone that sticks around so we can have our 'good' steve and 'bad' steve
I kinda just wish they'd commit to something that lasts and changes shit up in a big way.

>"underground freedom fighters"
oof
didn't even read this and I could feel the reused plot points screaming out to me.

I still don't get why Stevil didn’t breed Kamala

Far from the worst Marvel Event, but pretty disappointing payoff for Spencer's Cap run.

Sam should have stayed Cap afterwards having finally learned to stand by his beliefs rather than take half-measures every time like he did in the main run.

And it would have been nice if Zemo had a turn where he had to accept Stevil was the fake and help save the original.

Yup

Yes. It was fucking trash and it's taint lingers still. This was the final sign for me to walk away from Nu-Marvel entirely.

>It had 10/10 build up, but it couldn't stick the landing.

This.

Compared to other events it was a commercial failure, got so much bad publicity that Disney allegedly told them to fix the mess up, also allegedly had to change a lot of the story and added the Steve in the cube sequences, and was forced to bullshit a reason Kobik didn't return everything to normal. It was such a bad trainwreck that Alonso deservedly stepped down. Marvel was on the verge of becoming irrelevant in the comics industry. This is what allowed DC to get such a jump in sales and good PR.

>Far from the worst Marvel Event, but pretty disappointing payoff for Spencer's Cap run.
This, it's not the worst, but it might just be the most disappointing event in comic history.

>And it would have been nice if Zemo had a turn where he had to accept Stevil was the fake and help save the original.
Meanwhile with Illuminated.....

Attached: tumblr_pqfkykfE1l1uwlmkuo1_1280.jpg (1200x1845, 754K)

Yeah, with Civil War 2 it had really bad reception but sold ok for an event (but still underperformed for a book proclaiming the deaths of characters). Secret Empire had extremely bad reception from different parts of fandom and underperformed relative to a lot of other events.