Spoilers ahead for Captain America: Sentinel of Liberty #3 and #4!
The hero Captain America is engaged in a long and dramatic struggle against a new group of villains, the Outer Circle, who have all the right cards to be chosen as the big villains for Phase 5 of the MCU. Secretly pulling the strings of the entire world for a century, the Outer Circle also planned to use Captain America as one of their weapons, which makes Steve Rogers their sworn enemy.
One of the most successful MCU movies was Captain America: The Winter Soldier, which had Hydra as the main villain, revealing that the secret organization survived World War II and had been plotting to take over the world for decades, infiltrating the U.S. Government and even S.H.I.E.L.D. The movie was a critical and commercial success due to an effective blend of action, suspense, and spycraft. To replicate that success for its upcoming Phase 5, the MCU can look at Captain America's current villains in the comics, the Machiavellian organization called the Outer Circle. This group has their own super soldier assassins, called the Redacted. Captain America is used to fighting against secret societies, but the Outer Circle brings conspiracy theories to a whole new level, which proves to be rather intriguing.
Marvel Comics' current ongoing series featuring Steve Rogers is Captain America: Sentinel of Liberty, written by Jackson Lanzing and Collin Kelly, with art by Carmen Carnero and Nolan Woodard. After preventing a terrorist attack in New York, Steve becomes aware of a worldwide plot involving a secret organization that has seemingly been manipulating the flow of history for the past century. Following their tracks to a power plant in Germany, Captain America discovers the forge where his shield was created, learning that it has a much more sinister meaning than he thought: it's not his symbol, it's the Outer Circle's. The Super Soldier was supposed to be just another weapon in the Outer Circle's arsenal, but the circumstances and Steve's moral fiber made him escape his role as a pawn, or at least that's what he hopes.
While the idea of a powerful organization that manipulates world events from the shadows is certainly not new, the Outer Circle is unique enough to make it interesting. Its five members each represent one aspect that rules the world: The Machine, The Power, The Money, Love, and the most mysterious one, The Revolution. Over the past century, they have been able to exploit and direct the actions of seemingly independent actors, including the U.S. Government with its Super Soldier program, Russia's Winter Soldier, and even Peggy Carter. Apparently, they even instigated World War II. What's most interesting, however, is their connection to Captain America's symbology. The five members of the Outer Circle call back to the five points of the star on Captain America's shield, which is actually the symbol of the group: an outer circle that controls, two inner circles that obey, and a star that represents their weapons, the super soldiers.
Captain America's current mission is to reclaim his symbol from the Outer Circle by foiling whatever plan they may have for the world. This group is quite unique in the Marvel landscape because they are far from the traditional depictions of supervillains. Instead, they are conceptually closer to the conspiracy and espionage stories that work quite well with the Captain America character and are perfect to adapt to the big screen, as The Winter Soldier movie proved, which makes the Outer Circle the perfect big villains for the MCU's Phase 5.
Captain America: Sentinel of Liberty #3 and #4 are available now from Marvel Comics.