The prelude to Ta-Nehisi Coates' new Captain America series came out on Saturday. It's a bounty of political / historical / comic-book allusions. Gonna go (and revisit) some interesting places. 
Let's take a close look into where Coates might be taking Marvel's most venerable (and consistently political) series. This story was free last Saturday, and you still might be able to get one at your local comic shop!
This story is narrated by a mysterious woman, addressing someone who she regards as successor to Captain America, the super-soldier of simpler times (back when everyone but the German Bund agreed Nazi-punching was fine?)
Cap's watching a bunch of Hydra wannabes (no "actual dangerous Hydra" uniforms, helmets, weapons) confronted by an anti-Hydra group that's visually referencing antifa. Clear echoes of Charlottesville; Cap is just watching, doing nothing (like the thin black line of SWAT officers)
Brief interlude: thanks to @douglaswolk I want to add, you can get this comic free right now, in the Marvel app or here -- comicstore.marvel.com/Free-Comic-Boo…
“Anti-SJW” trolls and channer types already started screaming about this scene a while back, claiming that Coates was going to have Captain America side with antifa against the green-Nazis of Hydra. Not so much, he seems grim and avoidant.
This harkens back to a Captain America story from 1982 that surfaced in conversation last January when Richard Spencer was punched; in this story, Cap plays “both sides are bad” with a Nazi and a Jewish protestor
Although former Captain America writers have used this story to suggest that Cap opposes punching Nazis, it’s worth noting that author J.M. DeMatteis portrays Cap as being out of touch and unaware of modern white supremacists & anti-semitism
He's also rattled that the organizer of the counter-protest against the Nazi rally is... his girlfriend Bernie's hitherto unmentioned ex-husband! So there's more going on here than a purely political stand
Back to Coates' story in 2018, the mysterious villain preaches "moral relativism?" "Muddled America" is exactly the kind of thing that makes Steve Rogers paralyzed, tearful, or anguished) in many stories across decades. When the American Dream conflicts with itself, it hurts him.
Apparently she's Russian -- and simultaneously wants to debunk American media stories about Russia, invoke the revolutionary past, and claim that "might makes right" in classic strongman fashion.
For a deep-dive, let's take a closer look at those photo-referenced panels about Russia, shall we? This one's the family of Tsar Nicholas II, as portrayed in pre-revolution photos circa 1913. (Fun fact: in the past, Black Widow was occasionally hinted to be a descendant.)
This one is the march of 100K women, mostly textile workers, striking in 1917 against the Tsar for "Bread and Peace" -- the first International Women's Day and the start of the Russian Revolution
And the third appears to be the 1945 meeting of Russian and American soldiers at the Elbe River, near the close of World War II. A lot of Russian history there for a Marvel comic! And this narrator does not appear to be an existing character.
On the National Mall, a helicopter drops an armed man onto the protest who immediately starts shooting everyone (Hydra and antifa alike). This is Nuke, usually portrayed as a hyper-patriotic slaughterer of anyone he's told is America's enemy (inside the US or not!)
Nuke was originally written by Frank Miller in 1986, in the midst of US involvement in the Contra-Sandinista conflict and not long before the Iran-Contra scandal was revealed. He's frequently confused and runs on adrenaline pills.
And while Oliver North (the new head of the NRA) was carrying out his arms-deal machinations, Nuke was being manipulated by the Kingpin against his enemies -- including, of course, the "lying press." Note that Kingpin's words are directly echoed by Coates in the new 2018 villain.
He was initially a Daredevil foe whose one weakness was being confronted by his idol: Captain America. Lately, Nuke has increasingly been portrayed as the "anti-Cap" (HT @RowanKaiser)--a dark mirror of patriotic soldiering that upsets Cap horribly, causing HIM to go ultra-violent
Rather than the "lying assassins and soft-hearted fools" that Kingpin complains about, our new Russian villain targets "parasites" (shades of Ayn Rand, anti-semitic dogwhistle) and "feeble minds." And it turns out she's got an army of Nuke clones!
On the next page, we find out who's behind all this: a coalition of the military (General Ross, long-time Hulk nemesis), science (Norman Osborn), commerce (a faceless board, possibly something like Roxxon) and religion (someone like Red-Skull affiliate cult-leader Mother Night)
This helps put the "Power Elite Protocols" into context: the Power Elite (a new villainous alliance) is a strong reference to Marxist sociologist C. Wright Mills' 1956 classic. It's all about a non-obvious and hereditary ruling-class coalition (military, corporate, government).
Mills' work was in turn strongly influenced by Franz L. Neumann's study of how the Nazis rose to power, which served as a strong warning about how something similar could happen in a capitalist democracy
In the story, Captain America takes out the first mass-shooter Nuke, but then a whole damn SHIELD Helicarrier crashes into the National Mall. "So that America may be strong again," says our villain. Manufactured crisis to incite unrest? War? Or what?
Cap is now shown shielding some black bloc types from this explosion, but it seems like the initial Charlottesville-style conflict was just the target / kindling / patsy for this super-villainous plot
The squad of Nuke clones emerges (from the Helicarrier?!) all chanting their Vietnam-era (MIA/POW-obsessed?) mantra. What happens next? Have to check out Ta-Nehisi Coates' first full issue on JULY 4, 2018!
