The Economist: Too far with the Photoshopping?

A 2014 media poll recently named this image from The Economist as the most shocking cover from a print publication so far this year

The suggestion that Captain America could possibly be aligned with the sleeper agency that took down a global intelligence network is clearly a hard pill to swallow, particularly for the US. When you read the article and understand the angle that the magazine is taking in analyzing the global environment, it's easy to reach the conclusion that this particular Photoshop job was aimed primarily at selling issues.

The implication is that the recently revealed HYDRA was ultimately using a national hero as a sockpuppet is an interesting one. Yes, this image is disturbing, but really can we be sure Captain America is one of the good guys? Well I'm pretty sure he is, and the senate hearings and inquiries into the information dump orchestrated by Black Widow Natalia Romanova seem to confirm this theory, but before the chain of events set in motion by the metal armed Russian agent began, were The Avengers really doing the bidding of HYDRA?

SHIELD's collapse seems to have created an opportunity for Tony Stark and co. to privatize global security via their newly trademarked Avengers brand, and I'm not sure many commentators are keen to see how this kind of superhero security will pan out in the long run. Is private protection less susceptible to corruption, or are we better with government agencies protecting us against this new generation of galactic and pan-dimensional threats?