The first issue of Captain America: Steve Rogers includes a bigger twist than we believed possible for one of Marvel’s purest heroes.

Look, I’m not going to bury the lede, because thanks to an early copy getting leaked and the hair-trigger hysteria that Twitter and Tumblr fandom fosters, news of this huge and horrifying reveal is already everywhere. Here’s the big twist of Captain America: Steve Rogers, the one more unlikely than death, de-seruming and even getting a boyfriend — Captain America is with Hydra.

If you’re newly arrived in the comics world, say, off of the back of the catch-up post I just wrote for solely this purpose: er, sorry. What can I say. Surprise?

But how did it go down?

Let’s back up a little bit and recap. Captain America: Steve Rogers, penned by Nick Spencer with art by Jesus Saiz, shows us a newly re-invigorated Steve Rogers, returning to service as Captain America, with a new uniform, a new shield, and a new team. As he heads up a dangerous operation — stopping a HYDRA suicide bomber on a packed train — he reflects on the moments in life that shape a person and influence their ideals of what it means to be a hero. This is exemplified in a flashback to Steve’s early childhood in 1920s New York, when a well-dressed, independent woman defends Steve’s mother from his father as he begins to beat her in the street.

Steve also tells us the history of the bomber himself, Robbie Dean Tomlin, a new follower of the Red Skull who’s in way above his head, and through this story we see how the Skull is recruiting – appealing to extremist right-wing neo-Nazis and white supremacists, citing real-world current issues such as the Syrian refugee crisis in Europe. On this mission, Cap’s current team is introduced — S.H.I.E.L.D. Commander Sharon Carter as his mission head and long-term love interest, Rick Jones, a former sidekick most recently known as the hacker The Whisperer, and two of his former minor superhero proteges, Jack Harrison, known as Jack Flag, and Cathy Webster, Free Spirit.

The team save the train, but Steve is unable to talk Robbie out of setting off the bomb and killing himself. Steve and Sharon – who’s now a fair bit older than Cap, thanks to his recent return to his ultimate physical prime – have a heart-to-heart about what’s going on with the new regime of Hydra, in which Steve seems more unimpressed than usual about the actions of his oldest enemy. Maria Hill, who’s still the public head of S.H.I.E.L.D., despite privately facing a tribunal for her actions in Avengers Standoff, lets the pair know that Baron Zemo (who disappeared at the end of Standoff) has been found at last, with his hostage Dr Erik Selvig in tow. When Steve and his team confront him, Cap orders his new sidekicks to keep fighting the hired goons Zemo is in the midst of recruiting and takes off after the Baron’s plane himself. It’s when he gets on board that everything we thought we knew about the Sentinel of Liberty shatters into pieces.

Although Steve seems genuinely determined to put a stop to whatever Zemo has planned, that doesn’t change what happens next. Seeing his Captain in peril, Jack Flag flies up to the plane to assist — much to Steve’s dismay. In the final scene of his 1920s flashback, we see his mother’s elegant savior inviting her – and Steve – to join her “civic league” to improve the community, and, well… there’s no sugar-coating it, it’s Hydra. Steve’s been involved in Hydra since childhood, and that’s where his loyalties lie. With an apology, Steve pushes Jack out of the plane, most likely to his death, and has another moment of reflection, about how Jack believed he was doing what was right and deserved better, but ultimately explains that he has dreams of a better world too, and utters the two least likely words to ever come out of Steve Rogers’ mouth: “Hail Hydra.”

What?

What. What what what what what what what.

Okay, so there’s obviously a lot to unpack here, because whaaaaaaaat. The implication of the flashbacks and current events in Steve Rogers: Captain America are that Sarah Rogers was inducted into Hydra before WWII, and brought Steve into the fold, instilling a loyalty and a belief system into him that predates Project Rebirth and his entire Marvel history. That he’s been a supporter of Hydra — or his ideals of them, seeing as he seems to take issue with their current status — for his entire life, and that for some reason, something about the situation at hand drives him to reveal himself.

This scenario has some serious Grant Ward vibes going on — the whole idea of Steve doing his job as Captain America genuinely, without an agenda, yet living his whole life with low-key Hydra loyalty. It doesn’t seem like he was sabotaging situations at every turn, just biding his time until… something. He’s fought Zemo many times before. What was it about that moment in the plane that made Steve feel the need to blow his cover, kill his friend, and declare his allegiance? In front of Selvig, no less? Most distressingly, he doesn’t even seem evil — he’s still Steve. He’s still saying beautiful, noble things. He’s just saying them about Hydra. What the hell? What is it that Steve Rogers believes the world should be, that he thinks Hydra can offer?

It goes without saying that this reveal is receiving a lot of immediate backlash. There are obviously a million ways in which this prospect is completely sickening: for starters, Captain America was created by Jack Kirby and Joe Simon — both Jewish — in the period before the USA had officially entered WWII, as a piece of critical commentary on the USA’s apathy towards Hitler and the situation in Europe. The idea of this particular man, this impeachable icon, this left-leaning, anti-government little guy, being with HYDRA — being a Nazi — is just too much to bear. And believe me, Marvel want you to hate this. They want you to be sickened by it. Then there’s, well, every single other thing Steve Rogers has ever done since his creation. Do all his past actions, his past words, and most importantly, given the common inner monologue device that comics use to move a story along, his past thoughts mean nothing? Was he really with HYDRA all along, waiting for his big opportunity?

Doubtful. Seriously doubtful. It’s been planned since Spencer took over the Captain America books in 2014, so right now, yes, this is true. However, will it remain true? No way.

If you’re ready to hang Marvel, or Nick Spencer specifically, out to dry over this new development, I need you to take a few deep breaths and remind yourself that comics are akin to soap operas — they’re so long-running that they often depend on creating the most heightened or nonsensical melodrama possible. They have no boundaries and no solid rules about their own canon. Stakes are always raised. Pretty much nothing is ever permanent. This tumblr post says it better — and funnier — than I can, but you get the point. Plus, this is a device many writers have used in the past and many writers will use again: what’s the worst thing that could possibly happen to your character? Inflict it upon them, and then have them prove their worth by overcoming it. This reveal is the problem presented in the first issue of a new run — a run titled, may I remind you, Captain America: Steve Rogers. I’m pretty confident that the rest of the run will be dedicated to unraveling what the hell is going on here, and restoring Steve to his rightful position as our hero.

Right off the top of my head, I can name two relatively recent arcs in which major Marvel heroes were made pretty damn evil. Last year, in Superior Iron Man, Tony Stark became a straight-up supervillain when he chose to hang on to the effects of the events in AXIS, which brought out all of his darkest elements. He only returned to his normal self after Secret Wars, when the universe was literally destroyed and brought back, effectively re-setting him. Prior to that, Superior Spider-Man spent over a year’s worth of issues featuring a Peter Parker that was possessed by Otto Octavius, Doctor Octopus, without the Avengers realizing. This stuff happens in comics, all the time. The idea of Steve as a lifelong Hydra ally is kind of a lot worse than a temporary possession, but there are a myriad of explanations as to what could be going on here.

Aside from Marvel’s standard McGuffins — clones, brainwashing, life model decoys, Skrulls, or alternate universe counterparts — Steve has very recently experienced not one but two major events that altered the fabric of reality. As mentioned, the events of Secret Wars destroyed, restored and combined several Marvel universes, leaving some characters changed – perhaps the Steve of the 616 is not actually the Steve we are seeing right now. There’s also what happened at Pleasant Hill — Kobik, the cosmic cube being with the processing skills of a four year old girl, restored Steve’s life, and it’s quite possible that something went wrong there. The depiction of his abusive father seems especially, well, not-canon, with the recent one-shot comic in Captain America’s 75th anniversary edition, in which Steve breaks into a crate of his own belongings in a government facility to rescue a memento from his father, fresh in the minds of readers.

Then there’s the fact that the Red Skull’s daughter, Sin, returned along with him, and that Steve’s elegant 1920s Hydra heroine, the one who says he’s “destined for greatness” is named Elisa Sinclair. Time travel, maybe, that someone needs to stop in the present before Sin sets Steve on this horrid path? There are endless options to why this may not be what it seems, including plain old misdirection — perhaps Steve is deep undercover. Perhaps he’s playing a part to get to the Red Skull, and we’ll see more of those flashbacks, in which he learns about Hydra and rejects them. Either way, one thing’s for sure: this story isn’t over yet. It’s only just getting started.

While making Steve permanently evil may serve to pointedly cement Sam Wilson as the true Captain America (something that people both on-page and in real life have trouble accepting) or to pointedly cement the divide between the comics and the movies in the wake of the shake-up that now sees Marvel Studios head Kevin Feige reporting directly to Disney instead of to Marvel Entertainment CEO Ike Perlmutter — but I honestly don’t think they’re that stupid. Schism or no, the world know and adores Steve Rogers thanks to the movies, and interest in the character draws in thousands upon thousands of new readers. It just does not seem plausible, on any level, to turn one of their most beloved characters into a straight-up Nazi villain forever. They’re not going to risk losing what he brings to the Marvel franchise. I mean, they won’t even risk make him bisexual, and that’s something hundreds of thousands of people are crying out for. They’re simply just not going to commit to this being the true past and the true future of Steve Rogers.

Maybe the reason I’m not freaking out about this is because I’m deluding myself. This cannot possibly be a permanent retcon for the character… Can it? Stay tuned for Captain America: Steve Rogers #2, due out on June 29. Marvel’s synopsis of the issue reads: “As Steve battles a resurgent Hydra more dangerous than ever before, he must confront a ghost from his past!” Hmmm. Perhaps the time-traveling Sin theory might bear some weight, but this could mean literally anything – he’s got quite a lot of past. Steve is also set to take part in this summer’s Civil War II event, and Spencer has revealed he’ll be trying to prevent it at all costs. Is that part of his Hydra agenda?

In the meantime, cheer yourself up by looking at the artwork from Skottie Young’s adorable Captain America: Steve Rogers #1 variant cover.

Oh god, what’s Bucky going to think about all this?

Captain America: Steve Rogers #1 is available in store and online now.