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Captain America: sources, unabridged notes, further reading
🕑 Added 2015-04-14 20:53:30 +0000 UTC Loose Canon: Captain America - Sources & further reading http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_United_States-themed_superheroes http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_propaganda_comics#Private_corporations Captain America: The United States versus Itself, Through the Eyes of a Wartime Fictional Hero http://www.americansc.org.uk/Online/Captain_America.htm http://www.academia.edu/6702300/How_did_major_comic_books_attempt_to_influence_American_perceptions_of_Nazi_Germany_and_Japan_during_World_War_2 http://splashpage.mtv.com/2011/07/25/captain-america-the-first-avenger-comics-guide/ How is Captain America not a massive racist? - http://the-toast.net/2014/08/13/history-lesson-captain-america-fandom/ http://www.lawyersgunsmoneyblog.com/2013/10/steven-attewell-steve-rogers-isnt-just-any-hero Captain America hates America! http://workbench.cadenhead.org/news/2492/because-he-fought-alongside Man of steel - Pentagon propaganda flic http://www.salon.com/2013/05/06/man_of_steel_pentagon_propaganda_flic_partner/ Pentagon Quit the avengers because of its ‘Unreality’ http://www.wired.com/2012/05/avengers-military/ Who’s strong and brave, and here to save the american way? Captain America is not the first character that was created literally for American war propaganda, but he is certainly the most enduring and most well-known. Hugely popular during the war, Cap came back to the Marvel fold in 1964 and has been a mainstay of Marvel comics ever since. The war ended, but the character moved on became a character in his own right, and at the same time a constantly evolving statement on the personification of America. So for most of Captain America’s existence, he was NOT punching Hitler in the face. So, over his many iterations over the years, how has his America-ness influenced his depictions? Steve Rogers, Captain America is kind of the tofu of American superheros; he takes on the flavor of not only the time in which he is being written but also whoever is writing him, Steve Rogers aka Captain America is an ever-changing reflection of American ideals. Blindly patriotic Hitler-puncher? Check. Anti-government dissident? He’s been that, too. Jingoistic France-hater? He has, unfortunately been that as well. But most often he has been the defender of the defenseless, regardless of what country they hail from. Because that’s what America does. Right? Riiiiight? Before the recent Captainssance courtesy of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, in the mainstream, Captain America was more shorthand for a blind, comically patriotic person. "boy captain america over here" - men in black But is that really representative of the character, whose mythology stretches back over seventy years? Propaganda So let’s talk propaganda. The superhero genre was only about three years old when Cap punched his way onto the scene - Action Comics #38 and the invention of Superman - a character that also got drafted into the propaganda effort, so to speak - came three years prior. So in 1941 Timely comics, which would be rebranded as Marvel comics about twenty years later (source?), released Captain America #1. Captain america comics were sent in huge numbers to american troops overseas. In contrast to the jaded troops we see in the 2011 film, Captain America comics were actually super popular and effective at boosting morale. Because Steve Rogers had no defining character traits to speak of, troops saw themselves in Cap, and the kids back home saw themselves in Bucky Barnes, Captain America’s young… ward… such as it were. He’s basically Robin, and yeah, it’s a little creepy. Captain America’s enemies were rarely real world enemies, Red Skull being the most popular and enduring, but they were coded in the same way that other flavors of propaganda colored the enemy: animalistic, weak, evil, alien and feminine. Steve, in contrast, is strong, pure, and masculine. He has no interest in the underlying cause of the conflicts, like all comic heroes of the day, he just knows that punching faces will solve the problem forever. the first we ever see of Captain America is of him famously punching hitler in the face. an image lampshaded almost seventy years later in his first... REAL feature film adaptation. But, also remarkable is the fact that his signature weapon is and has always been a shield. the shield - sometimes even has the constitution written behind it cap represented a collective ideal as well as an individual one - he is literally the embodiment of an ideal. an ideal, that like the man himself, is completely fictional. The most simplistic of all possible patriotic embodiments, while fluidly ignoring all of the more unpalatable aspects of the American identity. Steve Rogers, an American born from Irish immigrant parents on July 4th, 1917 in the Lower East Side of Manhattan, New York. There has actually been a lot of recent scholarship as to the type of New York that Steve would have grown up with, but, again, Steve wouldn’t get a solid backstory or personality traits until later. unlike other, propaganda comics, Cap is an explicit agent and creation of the US military After the serum he’s the blonde aryan Nietszchiean ubermensch - and this was intentional. Deliberate send up of Hitler’s racial science - America’s ubermensch is made, not bred, a physically disabled and malnourished kid from a poor working class background. Also the German-Jewish defector scientist who creates steve was also there from day one - a thinly veiled reference to Einstein. And normally this sort of frankenstein story is a cautionary tale, but it works out fine for Steve. Yeah we got your ubermench and HE DOESN'T LIKE YOU HITLER In a way Cap is the anti-superman - where Clark is midwestern, Steve is Urban Jewish scientist was an element from day one Steve is created by Dr. Reinstein, a very thinly veiled allusion to the real story of Albert Einstein. In a matter of speaking, Steve is the a-bomb before the Americans got the real deal up and running. But he is the best a-bomb he can be! 1944 serial Grant Gardner slight paunch, real boring ep 1 15:04 “lyman’s dynamic vibrator” tee hee There was an anti-communist Cap in the 50’s, but that didn’t go well. I’m kind of surprised they even bothered to retcon him, but they did. the 1944 Republic serial, while technically Captain America, was most likely based on Fawcett Comics' Mr. Scarlet, as it sticks to the basics of Scarlet's source material and has practically no hint of Captain America's. As a character, he is… flat as a pancake. But then, pretty much all comic characters from the 40’s were The only thing that makes OG remarkable is the propagandistic nature of his… self, and how popular he was. And also the sheer number of times he punched hitler. Characters resembled character types rather than actual characterization. later versions of Cap where he is more of a character, less genericized. The fact that he is an artist, studies the fine arts - probably surrounded by communists, Jews, anti-fascists. When Steve signs up to fight, it isn’t out of a blind loyalty. He’s not just pro-American, he’s anti-fascist. Nazism poses an existential threat to the America he believed in. This is reflected in his rationale in the movie. It isn’t out of blind loyalty, but because he “doesn’t like bullies” Cap didn't work well in the post-war context.. Unlike superman who didn't have the very specific defeat-hitler reason for being, Captain America, being defined by America, became a little lost. in the 1950's, comics were being born down on with the emergence of studies on the effects of mass media on children - comics created the CCA as a monitoring agent rather than letting the govt. do it for them at the height of the McCarthy era. Somehow this results in cap being rebranded as "commie-smasher". Yeah. This version didn't do too well, and would eventually get retconned as not-Steve Rogers. The REAL Steve rogers, according to the comics timeline, disappeared with Bucky Barnes in 1944. Neither body is found, both are presumed dead. Return of Captain America (1966) - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QnTP8NX_DQo some charming proto-he-man animation going on here - pretty much a verbatim retelling of what happened in the comic Originally they got rid of bucky because they wanted to get rid of the kid sidekick thing this animation is amazing It’s kind of amazing that bucky didn’t come back until the original winter soldier arc … in 2005 Return & The Avengers - 1964 onwards An intentional contrast to DC comics and their old guard - The nascent Marvel comics leads skew younger, like the readership, and also more diverse and socially conscious. y'know... for the 60's... for comics in the 60s rather than just revamping him, they take a more rip van winkle approach - he's a man out of time, his hey day was the black and white patriotic bombast of the 40's, only to be awakened during the social turmoil of the 60's this unfrozen caveman lawyer approach would set the stage for pretty much every captain america adaptation from here on out. Cap also has one of the more homogenous origin stories so strap in, we’re about to see a lot of white dudes get thawed out. from here on out Captain America finally has a defining character trait! Being the man out of time, and reconciling his identity as an american icon with the changing times. Since the 60's Cap has been a mainstay of the avengers, usually in a leadership position. He also always had his own books - this is where partners with marvel's first african american superhero african AMERICAN. Black panther is not American. Sam Wilson aka the falcon. In fact for most of the 70's the book was rebranded as Captain America and the Falcon. And how does cap spend his days in the 70's? Why, patrolling harlem with the falcon and helping keep the kids off the streets! It is FABULOUS. Steve's relationship with his title became tenuous at times He sits vietnam out altogether - instead begins to sympathize with people acting against america's interests.- after Marvel's watergate equivalent Steve resigns as Captain America and becomes Nomad, the "man without a country" - that's how hard he goes. ‘ - the occasional existential crisis - "looking for america, but can't find her" (cap 176 - 83, 122) He resigns AGAIN during the reagan administration, and his replacement embodies a different american ideal. His jingoistic attitude that reflects a large segment of American Culture during Reagan’s administration (1981-1989), embodied by other fictional characters such as the movie hero ‘Rambo’ (1982, 1985, 1988). When Cap reassumes his alter-ego - he decides Captain America identity is a symbol of America’s ideals rather than of its government. So it's not fair to say Steve's character didn't change since the 40's - he has his ideals, and they are pretty specific. For a good chunk of the 70’s the Falcon is even in the title of the series and it’s Cap and the Falcon, fightin’ crime on the mean streets of harlem 137 - steve joking w/ falcon: “ want me to think you’re a racist?” Steve becomes an NYPD officer - mostly just wants to keep the kids off the street Sam Wilson's love interest calls him an Uncle Tom. She then (correctly) accuses him of being a chauvinist. He forces her to kiss him anyway. Oh, also the Red Skull and a bunch of Nazis are in charge of the militant Black Power movement. Because of course they are. Red Skull at one point pulls a lex luthor, becomes a wealthy businessman and in that way infiltrates America's economy - what we'd see “Dresden. You didn’t understand what we’d done here until September the Eleventh. These people weren’t soldiers. They huddled in the dark. Trapped.” To make the comic’s star-spangled superhero appeal to an antiwar youth audience, Englehart took on the duality and contradictions not only of the comic book superhero, but of America itself. During his first four issues (Nos. 153-156) Captain America: The New Deal, v.4 #5, 2003. Captain America v.4 #11, 2003: “I remember a time when it was easy to feel pride in this ‘country’. When ‘this’ country celebrated the victories of its loyal soldiers. When ‘this’ country was my country right or wrong. And most of the time it was right. But times have changed, haven’t they? The battles are less clear, the wars less noble, the cause less right, even in the shadow of 9/11. Dark men with a ‘cause’ come at us like thieves in the night. Men who consider their ‘cause’ noble. Men who consider their cause ‘holy’. Men whose ideals carry power, and weight, and substance and make us seem wrong, but whose actions, reprehensible and vile, make murderers look right. This government can be wrong. Our politics can be flawed. We are, after all, a complex system run by human beings.” 1979 After the success of The Incredible Hulk and Wonder Woman CBS thought, hey, who else can we make a super-hero show out of? And what more obvious a choice to capture late 70’s disillusionment with the US and economic ennui than Captain America? CBS ended up commissioning TWO TV movies and while the first one is considerably worse than the second, due mostly to the presence of a slumming Christopher Lee, they’re both pretty bad. http://twitchfilm.com/2011/10/marvel-in-the-1970s-dr-strange-and-captain-america.html Steve Rogers is played by former USC football player, and future Big McLargeHuge Reb Brown. He is a not a soldier. In fact I’m not sure what he is really other than like... an easy rider. the most relaxing Captain America intro you’re going to find Ten minutes into the movie I couldn't really can’t tell if Steve is post-serum or not. As it begins, not sure that you aren’t accidentally watching a porno. What kind of a car crash leaves no damage to your person but does damage your shirt. Seriously, ten minutes into the movie I couldn't tell whether steve is supposed to be post-serum or not. He is pre-huge. Steve is… really dumb. But then I’m not sure Reb Brown is capable of playing anything but really dumb. “Man, I don’t need this.” “I know you asked me to do something, but I’d kind of rather do nothing.” “I just want to ride around, man. It’s the 70’s. We don’t even care about the Cold War anymore, we just ignore it!” The SECOND time he drives off a cliff, turns out it’s maybe gonna be a problem. They 6 million dollar man him. So this one goes down as the only version where his injection is nonconsensual. then eventually he adopts the moniker because his father embodied the american ideals… really a lot… somehow. “a rather deadly weapon” … watch it gently glide into the breezy summer afternoon you’d do more damage if you threw your keys It’s a … motorcycle helmet. And a track suit. “I want to look the way he did.” Because…. For reasons that I'm sure made sense at the time, CBS mandated that the film not be too close to the comics, and the result has only resembles Captain America in that he's the product of a drug experiment. and they are trying to make the “captain America” thing work and it just lands with a thud. You know son… there was a reason people… maybe made fun of your dad post helicopter - “just how much gain can it be?” worst line read This Steve embodies the American ideals by being lazy and noncommittal 1990 - Captain America From the director Cyborg, Nemesis, and... Cyborg Nemesis So the studio commissioned this sucker, and when it was done they took one look at it and went NOPE, we are not releasing that. Starring Matt Salinger of... uh... JD Salinger's son fame, this starts not with cap's childhood backstory but red skull's Red Skull is italian, for I have a feeling the same financial reason Final Justice was set in malta. And Steve is from Redondo beach, because they couldn't get a permit to shoot in brooklyn? Like Reb brown he is also pre-huge, this was before we could cg people smaller so steve appears to have a foot thing in lieu of being small and sickly "It's just that I love you!" I love you too lamp "why's he the best?" shut up, phil he just is and after the procedure he looks exactly the same "HEIL HITLER" hey, at least it's Nazis in this movie mentor figure we've barely met dies "he's our only hope doctor" what about that nuclear bomb we've been working on, heard maybe we've been making progress on that front And when Salinger does put on the costume makes you really appreciate the effort they went to in the new movies to make that costume not look ridiculous his shield is clearly just a sled And on his first mission he ... fails utterly and immediately - last hope huh? red skull: "i could be president of the united states" we have laws against that actually in action for, cumulitively, a day and then failed utterly as far as they know red skull killed jfk and mlk - classy historic fuckup found in ice so that's why they made red skull so young - so he could be like a threatening old italian in the 80's - 1990 was basically the 80's okay? president sends his chunk friend ned beatty instead of secret service... military... cia... to alaska.... he's captain america alright. This is not the only time he steals a car in this film, by the by. takes him this long to accept it? well in fairness the 40's he came from looked exactly like the 80's It also contains the best shot ever in an action scene - kids playing ball in the middle of the road . he's more like captain team america "not going to blow it this time" like every other time most of captain america takes place in italy in fairness that is also true of the other one, but it was set during ww2, which did not take place in america legit rubber ears also, the martin luther king estate ok'd this, but not the speeches for selma Like all the crappy captain america things, the fact that he's captain america is completely incidental - he's just random superhero guy. The America aspect is left to the wayside you know how batman is batman because, like, he is the night? he's captain america in that he's a xenophobic asshole who steals cars Ultimates The Ultimates … ….. …. I’m not entirely sure why the Ultimate universe exists outside of ultimate spider-man aka the good one besides to make Nick Fury look like Samuel L Jackson. Ultimate spider-man aka the good one featured an aged down peter to run concurrent with the movies, which, fine. But for the likes of ultimate x-men and the ultimates, a “more realistic, gritty” approach was the intent here. The Ultimates was intended to be a more realistic and gritty reboot of marvel. Only… the main universe kind of had that covered. This sort of thing was running concurrent to the likes of Grant Morrison’s New X-men so… in order to REALLY differentiate itself the Ultimate universe had to go out there to the point where it often slingshots WAY around realistic. Enter Mark Millar, patron saint of angry 13 year old boys. There’s one early issue of Ultimate X-men where Magneto strips george w bush naked and makes him lick Magneto’s boooooots. So. The Ultimates takes the personality traits of the avengers and makes them extreeeeeme. Hank Pym is a SUPER domestic abuser and Tony Stark is a SUPER alcoholic and the hulk is a would-be rapist who eats people…. so EXTREEEME. Except, oddly, captain America. Who is basically the post-9/11 embodiment of many people's american ideal. It was … it was a rough time. Ultimate Captain America is less an extreeeeeme version of the guy in 616 and more a logical alternative. I say “logical” in that some people have said, “hey, wouldn’t a guy from the 40’s be kind of a jingoistic, belligerent prick?” This version of Steve hangs out at the old folks home - Bucky survived the war and is one of Steve’s only friends - and he is also openly religious. He also… goes to fight Iraq. … … I guess it had to happen at some point. And he also hits people while they’re defenseless and starts fights when he’s angry. He later murders his enemies after they are beaten and defenseless. That guy proclaimed himself to be the middle eastern alternative to captain america. Awkward. Here’s where the idealism dies. “A stand for france” Ultimates also gives us probably the most infamous and not in a good way frame of Captain America in all of the comics. And it gets a fuuuuuull page, too. If you weren’t in America post-9/11… well… the France thing… And, no, I don’t think it was meant to be parodic as Millar spends an entire panel in the next issue congratulating himself on what a funny joke that was. The most post-9/11 thing that ever post-9/11. You HAD to know that wasn’t going to age well, Mark Millar. Personally I don’t think someone for whom fighting alongside the french resistance was only a few months ago would be towing the party line of freedom fries, but hey. straight out of World War 2 would become unfrozen, look at the war and Iraq and go, yep, that looks legit, clearly these situations are equal and deserve my time and super soldier-ness unless they were indeed a blind nationalistic zealot. And Millar isn’t even American. What is your deal, dude? Iraq war-era politics complete with the anti-french witticisms of the day. It’s not a completely unfair interpretation, and there is something interesting about the idea of Steve being genuinely unable to relate to anyone under the age of 80 and IN FAIRNESS by the end Steve decides that going abroad to fight for the US instead of fighting for the world is a bad thing. But Steve Rogers, French-hater, is dumb no matter which way you cut it. This version of Captain America doesn’t care if we’ve lived up to the ideals of the greatest generation. Marvel’s 1602 Marvel’s 1602 was a one-off miniseries written by Neil Gaiman, the basic thrust being that the events of the marvel universe took place 400 years earlier, and centering around the Roanoake colony and Virginia Dare. Blonde-haired, blue-eyed Steven Rogers is her Native American bodyguard Rojhaz. The Native American part is sort of handwaved away with oh.. some welschmen must have gotten fresh with one of the native women. But where all of the other characters are actually of their time, albeit mutants, Doctors strange and so on, turns out that Rojhaz is the ACTUAL captain America who was sent back in time from a future fascist America. And it’s Steve’s presence in the past that causes some rift in the universe and also makes it so the heroes of his time appear 400 years earlier. So he’s gotta go back to the future or the universe will explode. Only he doesn’t wanna go back, you guys! See now that he’s in the past, he can make it so all the bad never happens! We can circumvent the genocide of the natives, we can make it so slavery’s never a thing! No McCarthyism, no Cold War, no Space Jam! But Nick fury tricks him into going back, so no better America for you, cap. Nice try though. Cartoons There are roughly one shit million Marvel cartoons from the last fifteen years, and about half of them are avengers-type things. As they are all pretty samey, I will do a quick rundown. Ultimate Avengers - 2006 Ultimate Avengers, as implied by the title, is loosely based on the first Ultimates limited run. Like Ultimates 1 the plot is about how aliens allied themselves with the nazis and come back after steve becomes unfrozen caveman lawyer. aliens just… poking around with their little alien claws at human workstations and Steve is not surprised. “Hitler’s dead!” smack about 3 min 28 - bucky marries caps gal - I’m sure they had decaf in the 40’s cap 30 - weird arlington scene outside of new york 34 hulk did 9/11? 44 - nobody fucking listens to cap Once the Avengers team up, Steve’s arc revolves mostly around nobody listening to him - a problem he did not have in Ultimates, but hey, at least this version has an arc. “nobody listens to me” 67 - “they had a great leader” Super hero squad show 2009 This show is the rare Marvel-based comedy, so the Unfrozen Caveman lawyer aspect is not only played up, it seems to be Captain America’s main defining attribute. Oh, he’s just so happy! 2010 - avengers earth's mightiest heros This series, featuring a fallout boy cum pokemon theme song opening marks the first attempted tie-in with the movies. It is competent and unremarkable save for this guy’s RDJ impression. I like also how this show manages to cut hitler out of world war 2 entirely, so that's nice - apparently hydra originated in a more russia-ly direction one of the few versions where we get to see young bucky in steve's backstory - by which i mean KID bucky and not adult peer bucky This version of steve is unreasonably belligerent and puts civilians in danger. At least at first. less guy out of time so much as not keen on jokes, because soldier Avengers Assemble - 2013 This show, while not officially in the MCU canon like, say, Agent Carter, is based off of the movie universe. So with the exception of the Hulk, who is inexplicably articulate, and Falcon who is… just there and does not share his movie counterpart’s backstory, they’re basically kiddiefied versions of the movie characters. But Steve does get a sass upgrade. “you call them avengers? I call them loose cannons” hey namedrop! Only he means cannon with two ns. This show only has one. SPELLING. Post 9/11 - The Winter Soldier Wouldn’t call him mopey, but certainly a much more sedate and contemplative cap. Civil War During hte mid-2000’s Marvel decided that the smartest business move would be rather than And while the events all have their detractors, Civil War may win the award for the most tedious. The basic premise is that the American government passes a superhuman registration act - Iron Man supports it, Captain America opposes it, nothing about anyone’s actions make sense and everyone is completely out of character to make the whole “civil war” premise work. So it’s no real surprise that this, too, was written by odious fuckboy Mark Millar. Civil War is one of those things that was interesting in theory but when you watch the execution past the initial premise it's like... wait, what? Cap is portrayed as a reactionary hothead - there’s not even a period of contemplation, the first time we see him he goes off the rails. he seems to oppose the registration act for the same reason Ron Swanson would. Rather than opposing a law he sees as unjust in, you know, a legal way, as he usually does… always does, he goes underground, lots of collateral damage, and people die. Meanwhile Tony Stark and Reed Richards create some interdimensional gulage where they keep unregistered super-people. This doesn’t seem to be woven into the word of the law but they do it anyway. the titular civil war is between Cap and Tony, but Steve and Tony don't even interact until issue 3, whereupon Steve almost immediately betrays Tony, who in that scene is behaving pretty reasonably. the titular civil war is between Cap and Tony but they never even talk to each other except for in a one-shot towards the end where the reader is reminded of everyone’s position. then he just gives up in issue 7 because fighting is bad. superheroes fighting causes collateral damage. steve's really sorry. you know, because he couldn’t deduce that that might happen Then after he surrenders a reporter schools him because he doesn't REALLY love america, he doesn't know what myspace is or watch american idol. I dunno. Nobody’s allowed to make sense and everyone has to be stubborn to the point of lunacy in order to make this work, but then I guess that’s the basis for every superhero vs. superhero thing that Marvel has done in the history of ever. Just, this one’s trying to be smart and…. ….. Steve is a hot mess but honestly the award for character assassination goes to poor tony. Although the award for literal character assassination goes to steve, as he gets murdered at the end. Which has nothing to do with civil war, actually, it’s red skull who does it. Oh, he comes back. steve somehow manages to make it about tony's alcoholism and tony somehow manages to make it about steve's dad They have no personal connection so the fact that they're at "war" is meaningless. And as he is written once again by odious fuckboy Mark Millar, he's a jerk on the level of a gritty reboot. So basically he's ultimates Cap, He does one nice thing off screen, apparently. spider-man's the only one with an arc - cap comes out fists swinging from the very first issue I feel like I can’t discuss Civil War without mentioning Ed Brubaker’s excellent run on Captain America, which ran for 50 issues before, during and after Civil War, although comparing the two makes civil war look worse because the character in captain america and the character in civil. This run is where the winter soldier arc comes from - yeah, they didn’t bring bucky back until 2005. And it ties in a LOT with Steve’s past in world war two. Even a nice, subtle “fuck you” to the “stands for France” panel. (Captain America, Vol 5. #3) Wherein cap states, “That’s why it really galls me to hear my own people dismissing the French as cowards” Tea Party protest in a slightly negative light in “Captain America” No. 602 in 2010, the right-wing blogosphere and Fox News cranked up their outrage machine, 2011 Captain America: The First Avenger The surprising choice to make this a period piece - surprising in a good way. If you're going to make an entire movie dedicated to cap's backstory, best course of action is to develop him in his own time, THEN make him the fish out of water. This might mark the first time that Bucky is actually OLDER than Cap. steve comes from a long line of dead soldiers somehow, and he believes in the cause. Don’t disrespect the propaganda, jerk. the modern captain America stands in some contrast to movies like Man of Steel and Transformers which do get heavy DOD subsidies and do require script approval from the government before they get it. Yes, this is still a thing. But while this film didn’t exactly go down that road it really doesn’t shy away from Captain America’s roots as propaganda. An extended scene where he is used as a literal propaganda item, makes serials, comic books - might be one of the best scenes in any of the marvel movies. “I’ve knocked out adolf hitler over 200 times” 01:01:21 oh yeah they don't speak german they speak german accent "mustard gas" "dutch oven" "seriously, jersey?" that's where our malls will be "i'd settle for just one woman" - steve has ideals gdi "There are men laying down their lives" - steve just wants to die in battle really agent carter is the obvious choice here The Tooch’s super serum is like special smurf juice - good becomes great, bad becomes red skull. relevant especially for captain america as a mere concept - just like in the original comics, this can be read as a parallel for the US needing to develop the a-bomb before any of the axis powers did. Good guys do good things with power, bad guys do bad things. But, again, Steve is chosen because of his very specific reason for why he wants to go to war: “do you want to kill nazis?” “I don't want to kill anyone. I don't like bullies, I don't care where they're from." tommy lee jones' ideas on power and masculinity - in a way, he’s describing OG Cap from the 40’s. “he’s a bully.” He IS a bully. First he harasses Agent Carter, who goes all strong independent woman on him, and then he bullies steve. But Tommy Lee Jones doesn’t respect steve, because he is small and effeminate. 20:51 - “we have the best … men.” first steve is intuitive - (22:30 - captures the flag.) then he is self-sacrificing. The super soldier isn’t an ultra-masculine chauvinist, but a chaste, sensitive artist. 00:52:00 his lack of pomposity is what makes it work, 00:28:00 even in little ways, like when Peggy says “i had him” instead of the typical patronizing bravado. he is humble, he doesn't come across as entitled, even when he's asking inappropriate questions "do you fondue" 00:56:33 worst he ever gets is "yeah well i think you been doin it with howard stark" “nobody’s perfect” 01:12:53 - I beg to differ. Steve Rogers, Perfect Human "you have no idea how to talk to a woman" - that's how everybody talks to women back then... back now. "i can swim!" best joke red skull - supposed to be opposite sides of the same coin and oh do they fail no one's gonna notice that giant america shield, isn't that a prop... steve? The tone is appropriately comic booky, which does serve to soften the really dumb mid-movie reveal of the red skull. There’s a certain scharzeneggerocity to weaving's performance, you almost expect him to start doing villain puns. “you’re FIRED.” ...so where does hitler figure into all this? This movie opts not to demonize Nazishydra logo - the not-zis, with their not-stikas. 01:29:17 “Hail Hydra!” - Hang Glider! Avengers Where Captain America: The First Avenger ends with Steve as unfrozen caveman lawyer, The Avengers (Avengers: Assemble in the UK for trademark reasons) serves as steve’s acclimation to the modern world. There's an indeterminate gap of time between the first Captain America and the Avengers. Let’s take MCU Steve - again, if we’re going for racism, how is he not a huge fucking racist? will just leave it at this - the MCU is not our universe. The army of this WW2 appears to be integrated. 00:49:00, 00:51:39, 01:11:53 - integrated army Also steve is shown to be highly sensitive and highly adaptive, so given that one of the first things he sees is nick fury being in charge, he can probably pretty quickly deduce that things have changed. People REALLY hate the idea of the idea of Steve even mucking up by saying something that would have been totally cool in the 40’s but wasn’t anymore because Steve is JUST that intuitive. would have been funny even to have a well-meaning flub. (blast from the past- “oh my stars, a negro!”) Even if he was the most egalitarian socialist that ever lived he’d probably say something well-meaning and inappropriate. So, I’m going with different universe, different rules. Steve's paradigm shift is more in the subtext, which for a movie as full as this one is is kind of a good thing. fish out of water, but not obnoxiously so. “I understood that reference” breaks up slapfight between iron man & thor by NOT fighting Steve still talks like he’s performing when his guard is up - calls natasha ma’am all the time. “There’s only one god, ma’am.” Defends a bunch of Germans - subtle bit of character development, that Steve defends a group of Germans without question or comment. And puts on his stage persona while he's there. The Avengers rather famously sought and was denied the aforementioned DOD subsidy - and all of this stuff is off the books so we may never know exactly what went down, but apparently the long and short of said denial being that the script just wasn't propagandistic enough. Cap is at first not okay with Tony breaking into the mainframe - but then does snooping of his own. not blindly loyal. 1:06:12 Steve Rogers, Perfect Human vs. Tony Stark, Worst Human 58:29 - correctly guesses that Loki is trying to turn them against each other. 1:07:52 - shield building weapons - same weapons that the not-zis built closest we get to Steve Rogers, Not Perfect Human is when he repeatedly tries to goad to goad Tony into putting on his Iron Man suit so they can punch it out Like Men 1:12 This is very un-like steve, but then there’s an evil god-rod in the room so okay. uses a gun very briefly 1:22 - comics not so much with the using of guns (like Batman). Movies it’s not an issue. Traditionally Captain America is not pro-gun, which is kind of ironic because, y’know, America appears to be a little freaked out by Coulson’s fanboyism. A fact which Fury later guilttrips/exploits Steve’s arc in the Avenger’s isn’t really about modernity, and it’s not about him proving himself a leader - he knows he can lead, more like can he deal with fucking Tony Cap takes leader role, no one questions this. It’s not not there, it’s just more subtle - he calls Natasha ma’am all the time. Also this: “There’s only one god ma’am, and he doesn’t dress like that” My god is manly god. Winter Soldier Where Captain America: The First Avenger is a coming of age war story, The Winter Soldier is more of a conspiracy thriller. At the start of the movie he seems more comfortable with the unfrozen caveman lawyer thing - there are subtle changes in his language - he isn’t calling women natasha all the time. 57:10 - “captain america steal a car” - I see what you did there, movie. When he first meets Sam Wilson, he immediately rejects the idea of the good old days as being a better time. He doesn’t deify the whole greatest generation thing - Sam almost looks relieved. Steve’s got some internal conflict, but it has fuck-all to do with Bucky. in the avengers when he’s doing his rage punch thing he doesn’t even think of Bucky. “Is this the first time you lost a soldier?” - probably referring to Bucky. Winter Soldier is also much more topical - it deals with themes of terrorism and heavily with government transparency. Winter soldier is considerably less comic booky in tone than either the first movie or the avengers, and Steve’s main internal conflict is that of serving the country he knew versus the changing nature of the country today. The America-ness of Steve’s America is front and center. nazis infiltrating SHIELD is… lame. It’s extremely lame. 1:04 - “what we did not realize is that if you try to take humanity’s freedom, they resist” man nazis are dumber than I thought. Like, the movie stops just short of implying that HYDRA planned 9/11. So where the first half of the film dealt in shades of grey that spoke very much to the current state of things, the second half, not so much. “How do we tell the bad guys? They’re the one’s shooting at us.” Sigh. Bucky - winter soldier turn makes more sense in the comics since Bucky was cap’s ward, not his peer who was in most regards more experienced than Steve. 10:30 “SHEILD doesn’t negotiate” how early aughts of you 17:41 - greated generation convo 25:30 - steve goes to military support group 32:40 bucky shows up 1:36:40 - “price of freedom is high” 1:04:51 - HYRDA framed Julian Assange 20:51 - “wanted to do what was right - not sure what that is anymore” “thought I could follow orders, serve - it’s not the same” Steve and Natasha = Edward Snowden so the reveal that most of the bad things that have gone down in the world since WW2 is because of secret hydra It was nice to be able to stop blaming all of our problems on misfortune, bad people and short-sighted international policy made in our own self-interest and just say it's all HYRDRA's fault
