Captain America and the Winter Soldier Special #1 takes Marvel's secret history to a whole new level with a real world historical figure

Captain America and the WInter Soldier Special #1 art

(Image credit: Marvel Comics)

Marvel Comics has a longtime penchant for adding secrets into the history of the Marvel Universe, but a newly released preview of Captain America and the Winter Soldier Special #1 from writers Jackson Lanzing and Colin Kelly, artists Kev Walker, JP Mayer, and KJ Diaz, and letterer Joe Caramagna takes things to a whole new level, mixing fantasy and reality as it reveals the secret origin of The Revolution, one of the members of the Inner Circle.

For those not in the know, The Revolution was just murdered by Bucky Barnes, the Winter Soldier, who took his place among the Inner Circle, dubbing himself the New Revolution.

That story, told in Captain America: Sentinel of Liberty #6, hinted that the original Revolution was none other than actual historical figure Gavrilo Princip, though it wasn't exactly clear if this was the intent.

Now, the aforementioned preview of interior pages makes it clear that's exactly who he's meant to be. Check it out, and read on for more info:

Image 1 of 6

Now that you've seen those pages, we'll give you a quick real-world history lesson on who Gavrilo Princip actually was. In reality, Gavrilo Princip was a 19-year-old Serbian revolutionary who believed in the unification of all Serbian people under a single identity who, in 1914, assassinated Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria, kicking off a chain of events that would quickly lead to the start of World War I.

In reality, Princip died just a few years later in prison at age 23 of tuberculosis. In the preview, it's established that he was secreted away from the prison and brought back to health by the organization, with his likeness in the preview pages much closer to his real-world likeness.

(No word on the previous issue's mistake in calling him "Prussian," which Princip was not, and it's not clear whether he's meant to have a bionic arm or not, as Princip's arm was amputated sometime before his death - we'll forgive both discrepancies for now, in the name of comics).

Captain America and the Winter Soldier Special #1 goes on sale November 16.

There's a secret history of the Marvel Universe, and it's surprisingly deep.

I've been Newsarama's resident Marvel Comics expert and general comic book historian since 2011. I've also been the on-site reporter at most major comic conventions such as Comic-Con International: San Diego, New York Comic Con, and C2E2. Outside of comic journalism, I am the artist of many weird pictures, and the guitarist of many heavy riffs. (They/Them)