Fandom is a fickle thing.

Being a fan of a particular franchise or character can bring immense joy and happiness to your life. It can give you a lifetime of entertainment and an opportunity to connect with others who feel the same way you do.

On the flipside of that coin, fandom can bring a sense of entitlement, a feeling of ownership that can lead one to feel betrayed when something doesn’t fit neatly into the preconceived ideas you have created in your mind. And it can lead you to lash out, to alienate others from experiencing that same joy and happiness that brought you to fandom in the first place.

As fans, we walk a fine line between adoration and condemnation.

Now, it is no secret that I am a fan of Captain America. Cap has been my favorite character since I was 6 years old. The character has not only entertained me but also inspired me. Captain America is the embodiment of self-sacrifice and service. His symbol is a shield, a form of defense and protection. Captain America places himself in front of danger and protects those who are in need, regardless of their persuasion. And he does this not for reward, but because it is the right thing to do.

This is why in 2017 when Nick Spencer wrote the crossover event Secret Empire, where Captain America is revealed to be a sleeper Hydra agent and initiates a fascist takeover of the United States, I was pissed off.

How dare he? How dare he do this to my character? And I was not shy in my condemnation of this storyline. I was enraged at the impugning of the reputation of my beloved Captain! I was indignant, I was inconsolable, and in hindsight, I suppose, a bit insufferable.

But time has passed. Things have changed. Fandom now is polarized in ways I could never have imagined, so much so that my views on my own fandom have reversed. I have learned to give up my entitlement and my ownership of things that never belonged to me in the first place, and simply enjoy the thing for what it is.

So with that in mind, it was time to revisit Secret Empire and judge it on its own merits and not weighed down by the baggage I brought to it. And I found that…it’s okay.

Secret Empire is an action-packed political thriller with superhero overtones. It tells an alternate-universe story of a USA that gives in to its baser instincts, one that commits evil in the guise of doing good. And there are elements of this story that seen in the political landscape of 2025 seem downright prescient. It has its flaws – it’s a crossover event, of course it does. Sometimes the characters act in ways that are expedient to the plot rather than what is naturalistic to that character. Sometimes events unfold in ways that are a bit too convenient. But these are flaws of all crossovers and not inherent to Secret Empire.

Overall, it’s a good story. Not one of my favorites, but good nonetheless. Nick Spencer is a fine writer. He spins a good yarn. And Secret Empire is exciting, and funny, and has a few punch-the-air moments. I would never have seen that with the veil of fandom pulled over my eyes.

Fandom is a fickle thing. And I continue to walk that fine line. But I have found that to be a fan of something is to let fandom go. And judge a thing for what it is, rather than what you think it should be.