Yeah. I mean, I get that they want to give the conflict between SHIELD and Hydra the moral gravity of a conflict between competing ideologies, but the fact that there's no clear Hydra ideology beyond "we want to be in charge" undermines that. Yeah, explicitly linking Hydra to Nazism could add a level of darkness to it that they don't necessarily want in an adventure story marketed to kids -- but I do think that Marvel is, as you say, trying to have their cake and eat it too that way.
Well, let me be clear here: I'm not criticizing the plot per se. The plot -- "There's an evil conspiracy within the government, and Our Heroes must defeat them before they take over!" -- would work no matter what Hydra's ideology is. If Hydra were a bunch of corporate CEOs trying to launch a coup a la Iron Man 3, it would work. If Hydra were a bunch of aliens, it would work. If Hydra were agents of the Vegan Police, it would work.
My critique is two-fold: 1. That it seems implausible to me that an organization that grew out of the Nazi Party would have abandoned key aspects of Nazi or fascist ideology, because of the psychological foundation upon which fascism is built; and 2. that giving Hydra the motifs of fascism -- their Nazi-like symbol, the "Heil Hitler"-like "Hail Hydra," the modified Nazi salute -- without giving them an explicitly fascist ideology hurts the verisimilitude of the story, because we're left not fully understanding their motivations beyond "wanting to take control."
My critique, in other words, has to do with what motivates the Hydra characters more than the plot per se.
Side-note: Three years ago, when I went to see Captain America: The First Avenger with a friend of mine who is Jewish, she said she was disappointed. She wanted, she said, to see Captain America fight Nazis, but he spent the whole film fighting Hydra instead. I tried to argue to her that Hydra were just Nazis by any other name, but her disappointment persisted.
My interpretation was that Hydra was going to kill the President, Vice President (if the office hasn't been left vacant post-Iron Man 3, that is) the Cabinet, and most of Congress, leaving Senator Stern and enough surviving Members of Congress (possibly themselves Hydra agents?) alive so that Stern could get appointed Senate President Pro Tempore and thereby be immediately elevated to the Presidency per the 25th Amendment. (This especially seems to make sense, because the targeting imagine that listed President Ellis was actually of the Capitol -- apparently President Ellis was on the Hill that day, which is unusual but not impossible.)
From there, I assumed that the new Hydra-controlled government would "defeat" the Hellicarriers and "discover" that SHIELD had been behind the coup, and leak info to the public implicating SHIELD and Our Heroes in the coup and the mass murders, thereby turning public opinion against them and leaving the government in the hands of Hydra. I just assumed Hydra would stay publicly unknown even as it took power, perhaps later establishing a new front organization in the form of a new, American fascist political party.
That's just my interpretation, though -- it's just as legitimate to interpret things as, Hydra was just going to seize power openly in the chaos of having overthrown the major world governments.
Side-note #2: This is President Matthew Ellis's second coup attempt in as many years. Poor guy needs to catch a break!
From there, I assumed that the new Hydra-controlled government would "defeat" the Hellicarriers and "discover" that SHIELD had been behind the coup, and leak info to the public implicating SHIELD and Our Heroes in the coup and the mass murders, thereby turning public opinion against them and leaving the government in the hands of Hydra. I just assumed Hydra would stay publicly unknown even as it took power, perhaps later establishing a new front organization in the form of a new, American fascist political party.
That's just my interpretation, though -- it's just as legitimate to interpret things as, Hydra was just going to seize power openly in the chaos of having overthrown the major world governments.
Side-note #2: This is President Matthew Ellis's second coup attempt in as many years. Poor guy needs to catch a break!
Side-note #3: SHIELD has apparently been branded a terrorist organization... why? I mean, the general public has to know that SHIELD was behind the Avengers, who saved the world in the Battle of New York. And the Snowden-style super-leak means they should know and understand that Hydra infiltrated SHIELD and was behind the coup/mass murder attempt. Granted that it makes sense for the U.S. government to shut SHIELD bases down and put them under U.S. Army control temporarily, but the idea of declaring SHIELD a terrorist organization and legally dissolving it seems like a ridiculous over-reaction in defiance of what ought to be common public knowledge.
Also, when do we think Natasha's hearing at the end of TWS takes place relative to the events of Agents of SHIELD? She certainly didn't seem in any danger of imminent arrest the way Coulson and company are, yet everyone knew she was SHIELD.
Side-note #4:
Who else do you think Hydra was targeting in their mass murder attempt? Right off the bat, I imagine they were going to target the U.S. Supreme Court, the Pentagon leadership, the Canadian P.M. and Parliament, NORAD, and as many other major governments -- British, French, German, Russian, Chinese, Italian, Japanese, E.U., etc. -- as they possibly could. On top, of course, of the various super-powered persons out there.
