This is a brand-new featured called "A Political World," where we spotlight 20th Century comic book stories that came out back when comic books were not political at all, unlike comic books nowadays.

A reader on Twitter asked about this storyline when I referenced it during my write-up on Steve Englehart when Englehart placed on our countdown of your picks for the greatest comic book writers of all-time, so I figured I'd write about it and it made me think that it would be fun to write about notable "political" storylines from a time period where some people would like for you to believe that comic books weren't so overtly political (such a time period never existed).

In a great interview with the always informative George Marston at Newsarama, Steve Englehart explained the impetus for the original "Secret Empire" storyline:

I was reacting to Watergate. For readers who aren’t up to speed on 70s politics, then-President Richard Nixon ordered his people to break into the Democratic headquarters and steal stuff, and they got caught. So it became a big deal because in those days, there was a real idealism in the air, and the thought that the president of the United States could commit such a crime was unthinkable. Today, things are very different, but in those days it just fascinated the country. There were statesman on both sides of the aisle who were more concerned with the republic than any political party, so there was a bipartisan inquiry into what Nixon had done. And it was conducted by people who knew what they were talking about, who were doing a good job, and it was being broadcast on all three or four channels. So every day, when the hearings were on, people would sit down and watch the Watergate hearings on whichever channel.

It was like a political thriller in real life, this sort of daily unfolding of the inner workings of this conspiracy. I saw Nixon give a speech on TV and I thought to myself, “This guy knows he’s guilty, and he knows they’re gonna get him.” He was saying the opposite, but somehow that came through to me.

So Watergate just engulfed everything, and I’m writing Captain America, which is supposed to take place in the same America – everyone lives in the “real” New York City. I thought there was no way Captain America could just keep fighting the Yellow Claw with that going on. And some of it was just hubris and luck – they could have convicted Nixon the next day and I would have been writing a story about something that was already over with. But it looked like it was going on for a while, so I capitalized on that.

The storyline began in earnest (there was some hints of where things were heading earlier in the year) in 1973's Captain America #169 by Englehart and artists Sal Buscema and Frank McLaughlin, when suddenly a series of ads debut that try to twist the public against Captain America and the easily duped public quickly find themselves doubting the good Captain...

Cap tracks down the man behind the ads, Quentin Harderman.

This was an obvious reference to H. R. Haldeman, Richard Nixon's Chief of Staff who had to resign in April of 1973 due to his involvement in the Watergate scandal.

Harderman gets Cap to agree to a fight with a boxer, but in reality, the boxer is actually the Tumbler, one of Cap's old villains. Cap recognizes him, of course, and goes to arrest him when they meet, but then suddenly the Tumbler (who the public just thinks is a normal boxer) drops dead!

The villain who kills him is called Moonstone, who tricks the public into believing that he is a superhero as he arrests Captain America for murder...

Harderman then breaks Cap out of jail in Captain America #171, using a group called the Sanitation Unit to make it look like Cap is in cahoots with them...

This, again, is an obvious reference to the "White House Plumbers," the special operative group that broke into the Watergate.

Cap defeats them, but decides to go on the run anyways to clear his name. He then learns that Moonstone and Harderman are both part of an elaborate criminal conspiracy known as the Secret Empire (an old criminal organization that Englehart is re-purposing for this storyline - Englehart was big on re-using old pieces of Marvel continuity), who want to rule the United States from behind the shadows. He discovers this from Professor X, who reveals the existence of the Secret Empire in Captain America #173 because the same criminal group is also secretly hunting down mutants!

Captain America and his partner, the Falcon, go undercover as two disenfranchised guys and, of course, the Secret Empire tries to recruit them...

They get taken to the Secret Empire's headquarters where they find the missing mutants...

It's all about a plot in the conclusion of the storyline in Captain America #175, where the leader of the Secret Empire, Number One, uses the mutant-powered flying saucer to attack the White House, where Moonstone will concede that they are too strong for anyone to defeat, so we should turn the control of the country over to the Secret Empire!

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Cap, though, stops the saucer attacks and also defeats Moonstone in front of everyone, who quickly turns on Harderman when Harderman tries to turn on him...

So Moonstone fills in the world (who are following the feed live on TVs everywhere) on the evil plot.

But then Number One shows up and tries to escape into the White House!

Cap follows and it turns out that Number One IS the President! And then he KILLS HIMSELF IN FRONT OF CAP!

That's a pretty bold thing to do, right? How do you have the President off himself during the middle of the Watergate scandal? This was still MONTHS before Nixon actually resigned.

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Englehart explained the bold decision to Marston:

So by the time I was looking to end the “Secret Empire” story, I was thinking about what that would do to Captain America, if he really came to terms with the stark fact that America in practice is different from the ideals of America. I started thinking about the Nomad story, and it seemed like the most efficient way to get there was to have a really shocking ending to Secret Empire. It wouldn’t have been all that interesting if he chased a guy into the Oval Office and the guy said “OK, you got me. Take me away.”

The country was so hyped up – no one expected Nixon to kill himself – but the whole thing was highly dramatic. America became highly dramatic. To run it back to today, as I said, in retrospect, the whole thing was like a political thriller unfolding, and I had a sense of how it would end. As it turned out, I was right, but I saw it as this big political thriller. And right now, as a country, we’re in the middle of this big political thriller again. But I can’t tell you how it ends – I don’t have a sense of that this time. I know how I want it to end. [laughs]

The whole thing ends up disillusioning Captain America so much that he quits as Cap in the following issue...

After a couple of issues of Falcon fighting on his own, Cap debuts a new superhero identity in Captain America #180, as Nomad, the man without a country!

Don't worry, Cap eventually returns to his old identity.

So there ya go, one of the most overtly political storylines that you can imagine at a very difficult time in American history.

Okay, folks, I'm sure you have suggestions for good political storylines from the "good old days when comic books weren't political," so drop me suggestions at brianc@cbr.com!