A major aspect of Captain America lore for years has been the presence of sinister groups. Hydra was the most famous, of course, but recently the Power Elite was also unveiled. It was a secret society that Peggy Carter and the Daughters of Liberty had to deal with. Once again, this danger in the shadows affected Steve’s life, causing him to question his country and exactly who he could truly trust.
Ironically, in Captain America: Sentinel of Freedom, the Captain realizes he’s been a pawn for decades at the hands of a new Hydra-like faction: the Outer Ring. This group is as devious a puppeteer as Red Skull or Aleksander Lukin from Ed Brubaker’s series. Interestingly, as Steve faces them head-on, what’s been revealed so far really makes the Outer Circle ideal for the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and it has to do with a suicide squad turn.
The outer circle has enslaved its army
Captain America: Sentinel of Freedom #5 (by Jackson Lanzing, Collin Kelly, Carmen Carnero, Joe Caramagna, and Nolan Woodard) has Steve and Bucky attacking the group’s aerial citadel, similar to the MCU’s Red Room of Black Widow. Along with the defector, Redacted, their plan is to bring down the five generals behind this corporation: Machine, Power, Money, Love, and Revolution. However, only the latter is present, fiercely defended by an army.
After a mass brawl, Captain America asks a female fighter to lay down her gun. She is scared, but the captain assures her that he knows they were set up with bombs. If they disobey, the Revolution will blow them up, nodding to the way Amanda Waller leads Task Force X. Luckily, this legion of Suicide Squad is freed when the Redacted blows up the servers, cutting the connection, allowing to Bucky and Steve going to fight the Revolution, and foreshadowing the road to the Cold War event.
The outer circle can build on the foundation of the MCU
Now, it’s been known that Hydra has been running big events in the MCU for a while, but the Outer Circle predates that. They actually engineered the concept of war in the “Century Game”, orchestrating things to have Steve and his shield become their weapon while manipulating Bucky’s life from childhood so that he becomes the soldier of the war. ‘winter. Simply put, they toyed with Hydra and the Winter Soldier program, making it the ultimate secret organization.
So, seen as Captain America: New World Order promising to give Sam Wilson’s Captain America everything he can bargain against the leader, it would be an organic move to have the Outer Circle as a new, but old group, pulling all the strings. It’s easy to see them evolve in warfare beyond human soldiers, employing the leader to create new super-soldiers to fend off Hydra’s flaws. As a result, the New World Order would be more about the Outer Ring seeking to recalibrate after the failed Hydra infiltration. What would be even more twisted is if, rather than willing soldiers and terrorists, they used neural bombs to enslave people to work for them. This would leave Sam’s crew fighting an army they were afraid to hurt, giving the villains the mental advantage.
It fits the ethos of an MCU, as it loves a secretive group that has no problem using slaves, but this time giving them the option to choose. In that sense, they can disobey and stand on the side of justice, but they will pay the ultimate price: who can be used to break Sam. This kind of power can even trickle down to the sadistic outer circle controlling Sharon’s new role. Carter as Power Broker. In the process, Sam, and perhaps Bucky’s Thunderbolts, would now have an even deadlier foe in the form of this immortal symbol that goes beyond a hydra that thrusts its head back. And who knows, with Secret Invasion abound, the Skrulls inside the outer circle would further raise the stakes, confirming that Hydra is just the tip of the iceberg for a slaver with unlimited range.
