short essay on captain america

Why I'm Writing Captain America

And why it scares the hell out of me

Two years ago I began taking up the childhood dream of writing comics. To say it is more difficult than it looks is to commit oneself to criminal understatement. Writers don’t write comics so much as they draw them with words. Everything has to be shown, a fact I knew going into the work, but could not truly know until I had actually done it. For two years I’ve lived in the world of Wakanda, writing the title Black Panther . I’ll continue working in that world. This summer, I’m entering a new one—the world of Captain America.

There’s a lot to unpack here. Those of you who’ve never read a Captain America comic book or seen him in the Marvel movies would be forgiven for thinking of Captain America as an unblinking mascot for American nationalism. In fact, the best thing about the story of Captain America is the implicit irony. Captain America begins as Steve Rogers—a man with the heart of a god and the body of a wimp. The heart and body are brought into alignment through the Super Soldier Serum, which transforms Rogers into a peak human physical specimen. Dubbed Captain America, Rogers becomes the personification of his country’s egalitarian ideals—an anatomical Horatio Alger who through sheer grit and the wonders of science rises to become a national hero.

Rogers’s transformation into Captain America is underwritten by the military. But, perhaps haunted by his own roots in powerlessness, he is a dissident just as likely to be feuding with his superiors in civilian and military governance as he is to be fighting with the supervillain Red Skull. Conspirators against him rank all the way up to the White House, causing Rogers to, at one point, reject the very title of Captain America. At the end of World War II, Captain America is frozen in ice and awakens in our time—and this, too, distances him from his country and its ideals. He is “a man out of time,” a walking emblem of greatest-generation propaganda brought to life in this splintered postmodern time. Thus, Captain America is not so much tied to America as it is, but to an America of the imagined past. In one famous scene, flattered by a treacherous general for his “loyalty,” Rogers—grasping the American flag—retorts, “I’m loyal to nothing, general … except the dream.”

I confess to having a conflicted history with this kind of proclamation—which is precisely why I am so excited to take on Captain America . I have my share of strong opinions about the world. But one reason that I chose the practice of opinion journalism—which is to say a mix of reporting and opinion—is because understanding how those opinions fit in with the perspectives of others has always been more interesting to me than repeatedly restating my own. Writing, for me, is about questions—not answers. And Captain America, the embodiment of a kind of Lincolnesque optimism, poses a direct question for me: Why would anyone believe in The Dream? What is exciting here is not some didactic act of putting my words in Captain America’s head, but attempting to put Captain America’s words in my head. What is exciting is the possibility of exploration, of avoiding the repetition of a voice I’ve tired of.

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And then there is the basic challenge of drawing with words—the fear that accompanies every effort. And the fear is part of the attraction because, if I am honest, the “opinion” part of opinion-journalism is no longer as scary it once was. Reporting—another word for discovery—will always be scary. Opining, less so. And nothing should really scare a writer more than the moment when they are no longer scared. I think it’s then that one might begin to lapse into self-caricature, endlessly repeating the same insights and the same opinions over and over. I’m not convinced I can tell a great Captain America story—which is precisely why I want so bad to try.

In this endeavor, I’ll be joined—hopefully for all my time doing it—by the incredible Leinil Yu on interior panels and Alex Ross on covers. Both Leinil and Alex are legends. Even if you don’t consider yourself a comics-head, you should check out their work to see what the best of the form has to offer. I’m lucky to have them—and have been luckier still to have a community of comic creators ( Matt Fraction , Kieron Gillen , Jamie McKelvie , Ed Brubaker , Kelly Sue DeConnick , Chip Zdarsky , and Warren Ellis , among others) who’ve embraced me and helped me learn the form. And I’ve been lucky in my editors— Sana Amanat , who brought me on; Wil Moss , who edits Black Panther; Tom Brevoort , who’s editing Captain America; C.B. Cebulski , who just helped me refashion the script to the first issue; and Axel Alonso , who first broached the idea of me writing Cap.

Finally, but most importantly, I have to thank the black comic creators I admired as a youth, often without even knowing they were black— Christopher Priest , Denys Cowan , Dwayne McDuffie , specifically—without whom none of this would be possible. There has long been a complaint among black comic creators that they are restricted to black characters. I don’t know what it means to live in a world where people restrict what you write, and the reason I don’t know is largely because of the sacrifices of all those who were forced to know before me. I have not forgotten this.

Captain America #1 drops on the Fourth of July. Excelsior, family.

The Moral Philosophy of Captain America

In a story from the early 1980s, Captain America uses his amazing powers to destroy a renegade American intelligence agency that is plotting an attack on the Soviet Union in order to make the United States the last remaining superpower. Confronting the plotters, the comic-book hero makes one of many declarations of faith that resound throughout his more than 70-year-long career as a fighter against evil: “I represent the American dream! A dream that has precious little to do with borders, boundaries, and the kind of blind hatred your ilk espouses!”

The authors of Captain America’s early adventures were liberals, and something of the universalistic spirit of American liberalism has infused the character they invented. Created as a contribution to the U.S. struggle against the Axis powers that was already on the horizon, the Captain first appeared on the scene nine months before the attack on Pearl Harbor. Throughout the war years the comics were an enormous popular success, but the Captain failed to make the transition into the bleak peace that followed. His sterling qualities ill-suited to the grim intrigues of the cold war, he vanished from view, seeming at times to have been killed off.

The heroic fighter resurfaced in the 1960s and with occasional intermissions has been saving the world from darkness ever since. Selling hundreds of millions of comics in many countries, the character has spilled out into television and movies. A sequel to Captain America: the First Avenger (2011), in which Chris Evans played the superhero —Captain America: the Winter Soldier —has just been released, with Evans in the title role again and Scarlett Johansson as a former KGB agent who has defected to join the battle against evil. The action in these films is set in the present, and plans are afoot for further adventures. There is no sign of the Captain giving up his mission.

When he first appeared in March 1941, Captain America was the alter ego of Steve Rogers, a skinny art student from New York who had been transformed into a super-soldier by the U.S. army. Trying to enlist, but rejected because of his scrawny physique, Rogers agrees to be used as a subject in a secret project. Injected with a special serum and exposed to a course of radiation with “Vita-Rays,” the scrawny young man acquires astonishing strength, resourcefulness and courage. Captain America isn’t a superman; he is an average human being whose powers have been enhanced to the nth degree. It may be the fact that he is so recognizably human that makes him the most modern of the comic superheroes.

As the writer who launched the superhero in his most recent incarnation in 2012 put it, the Captain “is a patriotic soldier, directed by a personal ethical compass, belief in the American dream and faith in his fellow man ... He can punch bad people and jump through glass. He’s the person you wish you were.”

Appearing in the run-up to U.S. entry into a world-shaking conflict, the Captain has always embodied the good in human beings. In his new book, The Virtues of Captain America: Modern-Day Lessons on Character from a World War II Superhero , Mark D. White argues that there can be no better model of ethical behavior today: “Cap’s ‘old-fashioned’ moral code is exactly what we need to restore civility and respect in the 21st century in both our personal lives and our political debates. He is what ancient philosophers—yes, more ancient than Cap—called a moral exemplar.”

For White, who teaches philosophy at City University of New York and who has published widely on ethics as well as written about other comic-book heroes, the Captain is loyal to “timeless principles of freedom, equality and justice.” These principles are distinctively American, White believes, but he is keen to dispel “any illusion that Captain America is a jingoist flag-waver ... Instead he embodies an inclusive patriotism that balances idealism with clear-eyed pragmatism.” His principles are universal: as White puts it, he believes “American ideals apply to everyone—not just all Americans, but all people around the world.”

You might be wondering whether White is serious in making these large claims, but he means what he says—and says it with some style. Enjoyable and consistently stimulating, presenting complex arguments in ways that will be accessible to just about any reader, The Virtues of Captain America is popular philosophy of a high order. The trouble is that, because he takes Captain America so seriously, White doesn’t see any problem in treating the superhero’s American ideals as universal human values. Like the Captain himself, he thinks they are one and the same.

Captain America’s values, according to White, aren’t a product of America’s history as a modern country. They go all the way back to the Greeks: “I’m going to present Captain America’s personal morality in terms of virtue ethics, a type of moral theory originating with ancient Greek philosophers such as Plato, Aristotle and the Stoics ... If we look at them this way, Cap’s values are old-fashioned, dating from about 2,500 years ago, but many philosophers (including myself) regard the work of the early virtue ethicists as timeless.”

Examining five basic virtues—courage, humility, righteous indignation, sacrifice and perseverance—White aims to show how they are vitally necessary today: “The lessons of the virtue ethicists are more important now than ever—and a ‘man out of time’ such as Captain America can see that better than anyone.”

Sadly, the suggestion that Captain America embodies Aristotelian virtues verges on the absurd. That Aristotle assumed his account of the human good could be realized only by middle-aged, property-owning males is well known. What is more important, from the standpoint of White’s argument, is the absence in Aristotle’s thinking of any of the modern liberal ideals that Captain America embodies. Consider an idea such as personal autonomy. Certainly Aristotle believed that individuals are responsible for their actions; but there is nothing in him of the idea that they are the authors of their lives. Even the favored few, in Aristotle’s account, model themselves on the same conception of human excellence.

The modern belief that the good life comes in divergent forms, with each person’s containing something peculiar and unique, was unthinkable in ancient Greek times. If Aristotle could somehow have imagined the Captain’s mission of giving everyone freedom to live as they choose, he would undoubtedly have reacted with incredulous contempt.

It’s not just modern liberal values that Aristotle lacks. There is also a striking absence in his thinking of ideas and beliefs that have shaped western thinking over the past 2,000 years. A struggle against evil is the pivot of every one of the Captain America stories. Yet there is no idea of evil in Aristotle’s ethics or anywhere else in ancient Greek thought. Yes, there are bad states of mind and character such as imprudence and cowardice. But the Greek exponents of virtue ethics had no belief in evil as an active force on the world. That is an inheritance from monotheism, and more particularly from the rather strange version of Christianity that America received from the Puritans.

According to White, the Captain embod­ies principles and virtues that are timeless and universal. In fact, the Captain is shaped by moral ideas and beliefs that are historically highly specific. The view that the world is torn between the forces of good and evil is the most obvious example. It is often described as Manichaean, though this risks doing a disservice to the Iranian prophet Mani (216-276), who seems to have believed the outcome of the cosmic struggle was uncertain. In contrast, the Captain never betrays the slightest doubt that good will triumph in the end.

In terms of the longer history of theism, the Captain’s view is distinctly unorthodox. At least since St. Augustine—himself a convert from Manichaeism—the dominant theist position has been that good and evil are not separate forces; they run through every human heart. The Captain could only have appeared in America, which, more than any other modern society, has been shaped by an aberrant strain of Christianity in which the moral universe is understood in starkly binary terms.

Why White should have failed to notice the formative influence of American religion on the Captain’s mission of fighting evil is an interesting question. Part of the explanation may be the professional deformation of academic philosophy. Especially in America, contemporary philosophy is obsessively secular; showing any unduly sympathetic interest in religion is a quick way of committing career suicide. Some of the popularity of virtue ethics may have come about for this reason. Many philosophers have recognized that utilitarianism and rights theory are impoverished ways of thinking about ethics. Few have cared to explore the Jewish and Christian traditions from which modern western ethics actually developed. Instead they look back to the Greeks. Lacking any sense of the ways in which moral ideas change—because contemporary Anglo-Saxon philosophy is also thoroughly unhistorical—they do not realize that the ancient exponents of virtue ethics lived in a world in many ways almost unimaginably remote from our own.

A striking feature of White’s account of the Captain’s virtues is its unblinking moral parochialism. White praises the Captain for his humility, and it is true that the Captain is not known for boasting about his extra­ordinary feats. In one story he even tells the president that he is reluctant to speak to the press about his feats because it will sound too much like bragging. (In the end the Captain complies with the order of his commander-in-chief.) But there is nothing Aristotelian in the Captain’s behavior.

Never betraying any doubt as to his superior abilities and valuing others only to the extent that he can see something of himself in them, Aristotle’s conception of an ideal human being looks nowadays more like a model (always male) of arrogant pride. Alasdair MacIntyre—a contemporary philosopher who generally favors Aristotle’s way of thinking about ethics—described the Aristotelian ideal as being “almost an English gentleman,” and dismissed it as “appalling.” Whatever you think of the English gentleman, it is clear that humility isn’t a virtue Aristotle would have recognized.

The trouble with talk of timeless virtues is that not many virtues are timeless. It makes sense to think of prudence and courage as humanly universal—lacking these qualities entirely, no one can live well. But there have been many conceptions of what it means to live well, and they aren’t all compatible. The virtues of Homeric heroes aren’t just different from those of Jesus. For Hector, turning the other cheek would be mere cowardice. Again, Greco-Roman hedonist philosophers such as Epicurus and Lucretius wouldn’t have admired the all-embracing compassion of the Buddha; for them, such universal sympathy would have been an obstacle to peace of mind. The same kind of moral conflict breaks out today when believers (religious or secular) collide with skeptics. For skeptics, a capacity for doubt is a virtue. For believers, it looks more like a feeble refusal to make up one’s mind. What is virtuous in one moral outlook may be a vice in others.

There is not much sign of doubt in White’s account of human values. Along with most other English-speaking philosophers today, he writes as if every human being is born essentially a liberal and becomes anything else by accident or mistake. He tells us that the Captain embodies “the core ideals of the United States of America ... Refocusing our attention on these ideals, remembering what we have in common while debating our differences, is the first step toward recovering a sense of national unity and restoring civility to our political life.” A little skepticism might have been useful here. As Alexis de Tocqueville noted more than a century and a half ago, America is the most sectarian of all modern societies. Its deep divisions are unlikely to be healed any time soon.

However much at odds with itself America may be, there can be no doubt that the Captain is a peculiarly American superhero. What then accounts for his undoubted appeal beyond America’s shores? In one of his exchanges with the super-villain the Red Skull, the Captain indignantly rejects the idea that universal freedom and equality is a myth:

“A myth, is it? Then America herself is just a myth—as are liberty, and justice—and faith! Myths that free men everywhere are willing to die for! It’s tyranny which is the myth—and bigotry which is an abomination before the eyes of mankind! It’s you who are the fool! For humanity has come of age—and as long as love not hatred fills men’s hearts the day of the tyrant is ended!”

Maybe it is this simple-minded faith that accounts for the Captain’s wide and enduring popularity. Many will go to the film of his most recent exploits simply for the entertainment they provide—the fast-moving action scenes and powerful special effects. But there is also something soothing in the Captain’s adventures, and reassuring in the moral world he inhabits.

When Captain America first appeared on the scene, the world was faced by a threat that anybody halfway decent and not willfully self-deluding had to see as extremely malign. Today there is no single threat to civilization, just a morass of problems and conflicts that look more or less intractable. In such circumstances, it is not surprising that the Captain should make another appearance. The reason for his popularity isn’t that many people still believe in his black-and-white moral world. It’s that so many no longer can.

John Gray is the New Statesman’s lead book reviewer. His latest book, The Silence of Animals: on Progress and Other Modern Myths,  is published by Penguin.

This piece originally appeared on newstatesman.com.

Superhero Captain America in Marvel Comics Essay

Captain America is an imaginary superhero performing in the comic books in the United States of America and produced by Marvel Comics. Captain America currently belongs to the Marvel, and he was created by Joe Simon and Jack Kirby, he made his first appearance in “Captain America Comics #1” in March of 1941. Captain America was intended to be a loyal super soldier who clashed the Axis influences during the World War II over and over again and appeared to be the most prevalent character for the duration of the time of war. The admiration of the fictional soldier served as an inspiration for the brave soldiers that were defending their country and maintained their morale (Howell 802).

Captain America dresses in clothing that stands for the American flag theme, and is equipped with an almost indestructible armor that he tosses at his enemies. The character is frequently portrayed as the doppelgänger for Steve Rogers, a fragile undeveloped human being heightened to the highest of human excellence by an investigational serum in order to assist the United States administration’s forthcoming exertions during the war (Morrison 76). In the case of Captain America, the philosophy and determination of this innovative character was unpretentious: to gather the sustenance for the World War II by generating an American super-soldier that youngsters could follow. Nonetheless, nowadays he appears to be a hero for all people and inspires the individuals of all ages (Jowett and O’Donnell 123).

In 1941, World War II battlegrounds in Europe had expanded far through the Atlantic to the United States, but it was not the war yet. Nonetheless, the internal anti-fascist campaigns have developed to be tougher. After having fully embodied the war situation, and given the militaries the main inducement, Captain America became the American spirit figure. Everything in America was dedicated to maintaining, extenuating, or contributing to the war (Murray 81). The character of Captain America was not dissimilar to any other kind of mass media, which all aided to maintain the combat determination. Obviously, Captain America’s robust guidance and willpower was destined to represent the insolence that the United States had when they arrived to the combat (Cord 326).

Captain America was robust, influential, courageous, and especially faithful to his nation. This appearance of a courageous and principled forerunner, with red, white, and blue clothes, was shaped with a very straight character to be the expression of loyalty during the war. Another significant component to deliberate is that the inventors of these comic books required influencing a huge amount of populace; consequently, they possessed rather vibrant purposes to make the books eye-popping, stimulating, and interesting.

I appear to be a follower of the Marvel comic books, and it means a lot that a fictional simple character was able to evolve into a symbol of an epoch, especially a difficult one. Even despite the fact that the character is not real, Captain America manages to maintain the position of a role model not only for the combats but for the children and adults up to these days. Nonetheless, the educational aspect of the character has been deteriorating since the war, as people do not need to be educated about the military actions anymore (Hayton and Albright 28).

Although Captain America is a superhero, he still needs to continue progressing and developing. The Marvel was and remains to be a great corporation of the epoch; and Captain America holds the role of the legend of the world.

Works Cited

Cord, Scott. “Written in Red, White, and Blue: A Comparison of Comic Book Propaganda from World War II and September 11.” Th e Journal of Popular Culture 40.2 (2007): 325-343. Print.

Hayton, Christopher and David Albright. O Captain! My Captain! Jefferson: McFarland & Company, Inc., 2009. Print.

Howell, Thomas. “The Writers’ War Board: U.S. Domestic Propaganda in World War II.” The Historian 59.4 (1997): 795-813. Print.

Jowett, Garth and Victoria O’Donnell. Propaganda & Persuasion , Thousand Oaks: SAGE Publications, 2011. Print.

Morrison, Grant. Supergods: What Masked Vigilantes, Miraculous Mutants, and a Sun God from Smallville Can Teach Us About Being Human , New York: Random House, Inc., 2012. Print.

Murray, Chris. Popaganda: Superhero Comics and Propaganda in World War Two , Copenhagen: Museum Tusculanum Press, 2000. Print.

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IvyPanda. (2020, August 24). Superhero Captain America in Marvel Comics. https://ivypanda.com/essays/superhero-captain-america-in-marvel-comics/

"Superhero Captain America in Marvel Comics." IvyPanda , 24 Aug. 2020, ivypanda.com/essays/superhero-captain-america-in-marvel-comics/.

IvyPanda . (2020) 'Superhero Captain America in Marvel Comics'. 24 August.

IvyPanda . 2020. "Superhero Captain America in Marvel Comics." August 24, 2020. https://ivypanda.com/essays/superhero-captain-america-in-marvel-comics/.

1. IvyPanda . "Superhero Captain America in Marvel Comics." August 24, 2020. https://ivypanda.com/essays/superhero-captain-america-in-marvel-comics/.

Bibliography

IvyPanda . "Superhero Captain America in Marvel Comics." August 24, 2020. https://ivypanda.com/essays/superhero-captain-america-in-marvel-comics/.

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Captain America: Changing Conscience of a Nation

• R. Joseph Parrott

In March 1941, the United States remained neutral while World War II raged in Europe and Asia , but the country was inching toward war. Newspapers announced policies to support the Allies like the Lend-Lease Act, even as isolationist sentiment earned space in opinion pages.

Yet next to the adult fare at the newsstands was something far less ambiguous: a four-color spectacle featuring a red, white, and blue clad figure holding a shield in one hand and using the other to punch Adolf Hitler square in the jaw.

This was the first appearance of Captain America. Created by writer Joe Simon and artist Jack Kirby in the eponymous Captain America Comics #1 , the patriotic hero became a breakout star for Timely Comics (the company that would evolve into Marvel Comics ).

The cover of Captain America Comics #1 from March 1941 (left). Interior artwork from the same issue (right) . Artwork by Jack Kirby.

Joined by young sidekick Bucky Barnes, Captain America placed the United States firmly on the side of the Allies months before Pearl Harbor . Over the decades following his debut, Cap—as fans called him—has continued to anticipate and reflect our changing national attitudes toward war and patriotism.

Captain America was Steven Rogers, an undersized youth who wanted desperately to fight overseas. Classified “4-F,” or unfit for military service, Rogers accepted a role in an experimental program meant to create an army of super soldiers to defeat the Nazis, only to become the program’s sole success when German agents murdered the scientist leading the research. Together, he and the United States would—in the words of the first issue— “gain the strength and the will to safeguard our shores.”

Nine months after Captain America’s first appearance, the United States entered the war for real. While superhero rivals Batman and Superman mostly stayed home, Timely plunged Cap into battle in Europe and the Pacific.

Stories of fanciful Nazi invasions reinforced the real sense of insecurity that accompanied the war, while stereotyped depictions of Japanese enemies mirrored the dehumanizing propaganda used by allied governments.

Captain America’s Sentinels of Liberty membership card, 1941 (top). Captain America's Sentinels of Liberty kit postage, 1941 (bottom).

These dynamic adventures made Captain America an unofficial part of the war effort. His winged visage enlivened patriotic calls for children to collect scrap metal and buy war bonds. Fans could join the Sentinels of Liberty, whose card featured a saluting Cap alongside a set of principles that pledged members to honor God, the constitution, and their duties as citizens.

Captain America Comics continued to be published until 1949, but postwar sales faltered without a real-world conflict to give the character weight.

The Korean War brought Rogers (now a professor!) out of retirement as “Captain America, Commie Smasher!” in 1953, but Korea was no substitute for the “good war.” Four-color McCarthyism could not pull enough coins from adolescent pockets to prevent the superhero revival from fizzling.

Still, it was hard to keep a good character down. The iconic duo of artist Jack Kirby and writer Stan Lee brought Cap back for good in 1964, during the self-proclaimed Marvel Age of comics.

A 1992 photo of Jack Kirby from The Art of Jack Kirby (left) . Stan Lee speaking at the 2014 Phoenix Comic-Con. Image by Gage Skidmore (right).

Lee rejected the simplistic, perfect heroes that typified previous comics in favor of fantastical soap operas grounded in very human emotions, where heroes bickered and faced personal crises, punctuated by kinetic fights choreographed by Kirby.

Ignoring the 1950s revival, Lee and Kirby had the Avengers fish Captain America out of an ice flow where he had lain since World War II. They positioned the character as a time-tossed representative of old-school American values set adrift in the turbulent 1960s. This contrast became an essential element of the Captain’s mythos and a ready plot device for both celebrating and critiquing contemporary society.

The resulting stories increasingly distanced Cap from the realities of the day while reinforcing the national celebration of World War II as the good war fought by the greatest generation. After a brief trip into North Vietnam in 1965, Captain American generally avoided the conflict—and the larger Cold War—as it became increasingly unpopular with Marvel’s college-age fanbase .

Instead, the Captain faced a rogue’s gallery centered on unrepentant Nazis, such as the Red Skull and Baron von Strucker’s fascist Hydra organization. As anti-war protests roiled the nation, the best way to preserve the altruistic self-conception of U.S. power at the core of Captain America was to tie him inextricably to past glories.

More than just a man out of time, Captain America became a symbol out of time.

Cover of Secret Empire #1 (May 2017). Artwork by Mark Brooks (left) . Teaser poster for Secret Empire . Published by Marvel Comics (right).

The dramatic tension between Cap’s timeless ideals and the churn of contemporary politics reached its apex amidst the Watergate scandal of 1974. In an obvious allegory of Nixonian malfeasance, the multi-issue Secret Empire arc culminated at the White House, where writers implied the president—who commits suicide in the Oval Office before a stunned Rogers—had been at the head of an evil cabal.

The Secret Empire story fundamentally transformed Captain America’s relationship to the U.S. political project. Lamenting he had to watch “everything [he] fought for become a cynical sham,” Captain American temporarily gave up the shield.

Writers used Captain America’s disillusionment during this period to explore the darker side of American politics and policy, without abandoning the superhero genre’s ultimate optimism.

They rewrote (retconned in comic-speak) the McCarthy-era Captain America into a jingoistic stand-in, turned racist villain and temporarily replaced the idealistic Rogers with a brash, violent anti-hero during the Reagan Era.

Isaiah Bradley, a black Captain America born out of experiments on hundreds of African Americans. Promotional image from Marvel.com (left) . Artwork for the cover of Truth: Red, White & Black 1 (Jan, 2003) featuring Isaiah Bradley as Captain America. Art by Kyle Baker (right) .

In the 2000s, one miniseries even adapted elements from the historic Tuskegee Study to portray World War II era scientists creating a second, black Captain America by experimenting on hundreds of African Americans.

Even as the subject matter of Captain America 's storylines grew more morally complex, writers continued to position Steve Rogers himself as a paragon of increasingly rare virtue. He became Marvel’s personification of a vague, idealized “American Dream”—exemplified by 1980’s Cap for President! story—that contrasted with the more ambiguous reality.

This meant keeping the hero at arm’s length from the government post-Watergate, even when 9/11 gave Rogers a reason to fight. While Cap did square off against Al-Qaeda and bomb-wielding terrorists, by 2004 he was also defending an Islamic scholar held unjustly in Guantanamo Bay by overzealous military officers.

More than a patriotic hero, Captain America became a symbol of the nation’s conscience.

It was a version of this Captain America that formed the loyal opposition in major storylines like the massive 2006-2007 Civil War crossover event—with its allegorical allusions to the War on Terror and the PATRIOT Act—and ultimately moved beyond comics when Chris Evans’s affable Steve Rogers became the moral center of the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

The cover of Civil War: Front Line #01 . Published by Marvel Comics (left) . Cover of Civil War 7 (Jan, 2007). Art by Steve McNiven (right) .

Cap’s inherent morality made the 2017 storyline that saw a (false) Captain America lead Hydra’s takeover of the United States all the more shocking to many readers, even as a commentary on the global surge in authoritarian nationalism . (The real Steve Rogers won out in the end, of course, with help from longtime ally The Falcon.) Recent issues have seen writer Ta-Nehisi Coates explore the process of burnishing a tarnished symbol.

Such storylines have fed culture-war criticisms that comics have become too political in recent decades, or perhaps too politically correct. But as Captain America’s 80-year history reveals, this is far from a new development.

From his origins in World War II, Captain America waded into national debates with sometimes blunt force. Since the 1960s, his stories have reflected complex ideas about patriotism, recognizing national flaws while clinging stubbornly to an inherent, even exceptional belief in the United States.

Want to Learn More about Cap?

Joe Simon et. al. Captain America: Evolutions of a Living Legend (Marvel, 2019)

J. Richard Stevens, Captain America, Masculinity, and Violence: The Evolution of a National Icon (Syracuse, 2018)

Matthew J. Costello, Secret Identity Crisis: Comic Books and the Unmasking of Cold War America (Continuum, 2009)

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'Captain America: The First Avenger' Review Essay (2014) [part of 'Special Feature: The Marvel Cinematic Universe' - pp.17-24]

2014, Scope: An Online Journal of Film Studies

(pp. 17-24) Although paving the continuity road towards 'The Avengers', 'Captain America: The First Avenger' is as interesting for the ways in which it differs from the previous four Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) films as for its similarities and connections with them. Fittingly, at the heart of the film is the notion of mould-breaking, as the emergence of Captain America (Chris Evans) simultaneously heralds a new beginning for U.S. efforts in the Second World War, and the disappearance of a promised future army of Super-Soldiers with the death of scientist Abraham Erskine (Stanley Tucci) at Nazi hands. In Marvel comics, the status of Cap as a one-off is regularly foregrounded in the dynamic of his relations with other heroes; respecting this singularity, Cap's origin as an instrument to fight a specific war is developed by director and screenwriters in a way that accounts for the existential loneliness, as well as the matchless virtues of heart and courage, of the character.

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Captain America's MCU Story Explained

The Marvel Cinematic Universe has now been around for more than a decade and spanned roughly two dozen different films starring dozens of characters on various worlds and in various time periods. It's an immensely complex shared universe full of stories — but even amid all that complexity, the story of Steve Rogers, a.k.a. Captain America , is particularly complicated. 

Sure, Cap's story starts simply enough. He's a kid from Brooklyn who wants to do good in the world and keeps volunteering to join the army, but then he gets drafted into a program that makes him a super soldier, tangles with HYDRA, and then things get really complicated when he's frozen in ice for nearly 70 years. 

As the resident man out of time in the Avengers, Steve Rogers brings a unique perspective and a very different experience to the team as a whole, an experience that gets even more complex when you factor in his long-lost friend who's a brainwashed assassin, his decision to form a splinter team of Avengers, and the whole time travel thing. To make sense of it all, here's Captain America's whole twisty MCU story, explained.

A constant volunteer

Steve Rogers was born in New York City in 1918. By the time he reached adulthood he was an orphan, and relied instead on his chosen family — his best friend, James Buchanan "Bucky" Barnes. By 1943, as World War II raged in Europe, both Steve and Bucky were trying to enlist in the U.S. Army, but while Bucky was accepted, Steve's multiple chronic illnesses and small stature led to constant rejection, even when he attempted to use fake names and addresses to enlist. 

Steve's luck changed when he met Dr. Abraham Erskine, the head scientist in an experimental program called "Project Rebirth," which aimed to create a "Super Soldier" to help turn the tide of the war for the Allies. Steve was accepted into the program on a trial basis, and his courage impressed one of the program's supervisors, a British officer in the Strategic Scientific Reserve named Peggy Carter. Others in the program remained unconvinced that Rogers was the man for the job. 

Then came the moment that put Rogers over the top. In an effort to prove that one of the stronger, bigger men would be better suited to the procedure, SSR Colonel Phillips threw a dummy grenade on the ground at camp. Rogers was the lone man who dove on it while everyone else fled, and that settled the matter. Steve Rogers would be the man to take Erskine's Super Soldier Serum.

Project Rebirth

Steve Rogers was driven back to New York City to take part in the Project Rebirth procedure under Erskine's supervision. The night before, Erskine warned him of previous attempts that hadn't gone well, including one on a German officer named Johann Schmidt who was at that very moment pursuing his own ambitions in Europe as the leader of the fascist organization known as HYDRA. Though extremely painful, Rogers' version of the procedure went smoothly; he emerged with a dramatic increase in height and muscle mass, boasting enhanced abilities and free of his previous chronic illnesses. 

Rogers' first encounter with HYDRA sadly arrived just moments after the procedure, as a HYDRA agent snuck into the room and gunned down Erskine. Steve was able to pursue and catch the agent, but he committed suicide before he could be questioned. 

Erskine's death changed the course of the SSR and Project Rebirth, as his formula apparently died with him. With only one super soldier at their disposal, the U.S. government pressed Steve Rogers into service immediately — but it wasn't the kind of service he wanted.

From war bonds to the front line

Captain America was viewed by Congress as more important to the war effort as a symbol than he was as a soldier, and so Steve Rogers was dressed in a colorful costume and sent on a tour throughout the United States to sell war bonds, followed by a tour of Europe to increase morale for the troops. After spending the rest of 1943 doing shows instead of fighting battles, Steve grew weary, and then saw his chance to fight. In Italy he learned that Bucky's unit was MIA, and opted to stage a one-man rescue mission for his friend. With the help of Carter and industrialist Howard Stark, he dropped behind enemy lines and rescued Bucky and a number of other troops, proving himself as a front line asset in the fight against HYDRA. He also met Schmidt, who revealed his own encounter with the super soldier process had transformed him into the Red Skull. 

In an effort to clear out HYDRA and disrupt its operations, Steve recruited a crack team of commandos, including Barnes and Dum Dum Dugan, and they begin a series of missions throughout 1944 to infiltrate HYDRA bases and rescue captured Allied soldiers. As Steve fought on, the legend of Captain America grew.

A noble sacrifice

By 1945, Captain America and his "Howlin' Commandos" had succeeded in helping turn the tide of the war, but it came at great cost. During a mission to capture the Red Skull's chief aide Arnim Zola, Bucky fell to his apparent death, leaving Steve and the rest of the Commandos to gain the location of HYDRA's final stronghold from Zola. 

Steve then discovered Red Skull's endgame. Using a powerful artifact called the Tesseract (later revealed as an Infinity Stone), he engineered weapons of mass destruction which he planned to drop on America with the help of a long-distance bomber. Steve snuck onboard the plane and, in the ensuing confrontation, Red Skull seemingly died when the unshielded Tesseract pulled him through a wormhole. The Tesseract then fell into the ocean, to later be recovered by Howard Stark. 

With HYDRA defeated, Steve was left alone on the damaged plane, and realized he couldn't risk landing it because there was a chance the weapons would detonate and kill countless civilians. While radioing with Peggy — who he'd recently shared a first kiss with — Steve revealed his intention to crash the plane into the ocean and sacrifice himself. So, near the end of World War II, Steve Rogers flew a plane into the Arctic Ocean and passed into legend, becoming an American hero who, as far as the rest of the world knew, gave his life to save countless others.

Man Out of Time

In the years following his apparent death, Captain America became a national symbol of heroism, spawning everything from trading cards to museum exhibits. Peggy Carter went on to co-found S.H.I.E.L.D. and later married and started a family, with Steve always alive in her memory, and it was S.H.I.E.L.D. which continued to hold out hope to at least discover his body. 

At last, in the early 2010s, a breakthrough happened. S.H.I.E.L.D. scientists searching in the Arctic uncovered the aircraft and Rogers' intact, frozen body, then discovered to their amazement that Steve was somehow still alive, having been frozen in time by the ice. 

At first, S.H.I.E.L.D. director Nick Fury tried to keep Steve unaware that he'd been in stasis for nearly seven decades, constructing a 1940s-era hospital room and even playing 1940s baseball games on the radio so Rogers would be deceived, until one day he heard a game on the radio that he knew had already been played. His deception revealed, Fury appeared to Steve and revealed the truth: It was 2011, and he would have to adjust to life in a new world, because he might need to save it again someday very soon.

The Battle of New York

In 2012, Rogers was called back into action when the resurfaced Tesseract, which had been in S.H.I.E.L.D. custody for years, fell into the hands of Loki, who planned to use it to open a wormhole and summon an alien army to Earth. At Fury's urging and working alongside S.H.I.E.L.D. agent and Captain America superfan Phil Coulson, Steve teamed up with Tony Stark/Iron Man, Bruce Banner/the Hulk, Thor, and S.H.I.E.L.D. operatives Natasha Romanoff/Black Widow and Clint Barton/Hawkeye to form the Avengers. 

The team's relationship was rocky at first amid a clash of personalities, but Coulson's death at Loki's hand galvanized them, and Steve in particular took point as a field captain for the group. When Loki used Stark Tower to open his wormhole over New York City, the Avengers took to the streets to fight the ensuing Chitauri invasion, with Steve often taking point in getting civilians away from danger. In the chaos, the World Security Council opted to bomb New York rather than risk the invasion spreading, but Stark was able to divert the missile while Romanoff closed the wormhole. After Stark narrowly escaped death, the Avengers took Loki and the Tesseract into custody, sending both back to Asgard with Thor. Their mission complete, the Avengers went their separate ways, and Steve became a full-time S.H.I.E.L.D. field operative.

An old friend

Working closely with both Fury and Romanoff, Steve remained an active S.H.I.E.L.D. operative for the next two years, pouring himself into his work even as he tried to learn as much as he could about his new time. Everything changed when, after growing suspicious about data recovered by Romanoff on a mission, Fury was nearly killed by an assassin known as the Winter Soldier. 

Working while on the run from an internal faction seeking to destroy them, Steve and Romanoff uncovered the truth: HYDRA had managed to infiltrate S.H.I.E.L.D. and had been working as a sleeper cell for years. Fury was attacked because he and Romanoff had found data that would compromise HYDRA's plan to use S.H.I.E.L.D. assets to kill millions. Then there was the bigger secret: Bucky had been kept in stasis for decades, brainwashed, and given his own super soldier treatment, making him the Winter Soldier. 

In the ensuing battle, Steve, Romanoff, and Fury — with an assist from soldier Sam Wilson/Falcon and his experimental flight pack — were able to expose HYDRA and stop its planned attack at the last moment. Bucky escaped in the chaos after Steve refused to kill him, but not before saving Steve's life and gaining a new curiosity about who he really was.

From HYDRA to Ultron

With S.H.I.E.L.D. in ruins following the HYDRA discovery, Rogers re-teamed with the Avengers to take out the remaining HYDRA cells now under the command of Baron Wolfgang von Strucker. While infiltrating the last HYDRA stronghold in Europe, the team discovered two new metahumans — Pietro and Wanda Maximoff — who'd gained their abilities through Strucker's experiments. 

After defeating Strucker, the Avengers faced a new threat when Stark's experimental AI technology known as Ultron gained sentience and began formulating a plan to wipe out humanity. After Ultron crippled the Avengers in a fight, a rift formed between Stark and Rogers as Steve questioned Tony's motives in trying to build "a suit of armor around the world." 

The Avengers regrouped in Sokovia, where Ultron attempted to launch an entire city into the sky before dropping it back to Earth like an asteroid. With the help of the Maximoffs and Ultron's own android creation Vision, and with Rogers again acting as field commander, the team was able to defeat Ultron's robotic army and prevent the city from impacting Earth, losing Pietro in the process. 

With Ultron defeated, the original Avengers went their separate ways, so much so that Hulk fled the planet in a Quinjet. Rogers took command at the team's new upstate New York facility, and prepared to train a new team of Avengers with Romanoff including Wanda, Sam, James "Rhodey" Rhodes/War Machine, and Vision.

In 2016, Steve met two new challenges. The first came after an operation by his new Avengers team caused civilian casualties, leading a number of nations to come together and establish the Sokovia Accords, a new system of regulations to keep superpowered heroes in check. Stark, believing the Accords were a necessary way to save innocent lives, stood by the new policy, while Rogers stood in opposition, believing "the safest hands are still our own." The conflict was complicated by the re-emergence of Bucky Barnes, who remained triggered by various brainwashing codewords. These codewords fell into the hands of Helmut Zemo, who launched a plan to bring down the Avengers from the inside, using Barnes' assassination of Howard and Maria Stark in 1991 as the fulcrum point. 

Tensions rose and culminated in a physical battle between Stark and his loyal Avengers and Rogers and his  Avengers squad. The battle continued at a secret HYDRA facility in Siberia, where Stark learned that Barnes had killed his parents. Bucky and Steve fought Tony to a stalemate before escaping, permanently fracturing the Avengers. Steve took Bucky to Wakanda in an effort to finally remove his Winter Soldier conditioning, and began performing covert operations with Natasha, Wanda, and Sam as a fugitive from the U.S. government. In an act of friendship, Steve left behind a letter and a cell phone so Tony could call him if the need ever arose.

The Battle of Wakanda

More than a year passed as Steve and his team continued to carry out covert operations around the world, but their time in hiding was interrupted when they had to rescue Wanda and Vision (the pair were quietly dating at the time) from a pair of alien invaders in Scotland. This was followed by a call from a returned Bruce Banner, who revealed to Steve that Thanos had begun his final push for the Infinity Stones, threatening all life in the universe. Vision, who held the Mind Stone in his head, offered his life if it meant the stone would be destroyed and Thanos would be stopped, but Steve refused. 

While Tony carried out his own fight with Thanos off-planet, Steve called in a favor to King T'Challa of Wakanda, and the two prepared for a pitched battle in the tiny African nation. Thanos' army arrived in a push to get the Mind Stone, and Steve led the charge to hold them off while Wakandan scientist Shuri tried to remove the Stone from Vision so it could be destroyed. Though Thor, Groot, and Rocket arrived to reinforce their fight, Thanos himself later appeared to take the Stone. Wanda used her power to destroy it, but Thanos used the Time Stone to rewind time and take the Mind Stone from Vision's head. Though Thor nearly killed Thanos, Thanos snapped his fingers wielding all six Infinity Stones, wiping out half of all life in the universe.

Confronting the Titan

Three weeks after the battle in Wakanda, Steve and a team of Avengers were shocked by the return of Tony Stark and the appearance of Carol Danvers/Captain Marvel. Together they learned that Thanos had used the Stones again on a distant planet, and Steve led a team to go there and take the Stones back. When they arrived, they found that Thanos had used the Stones to destroy the Stones, rendering their effort useless. Thor beheaded Thanos in a rage, and the team returned home. 

Five years passed, during which time Steve did his best to be a help to others in a world decimated by Thanos. While Natasha led field operations for the remaining Avengers, Steve spent much of his time in New York City, attending support groups for survivors and trying to keep up morale while acknowledging that he himself was having trouble moving on from defeat. 

Everything changed when Scott Lang re-emerged after being lost in the Quantum Realm, and revealed to Steve and Natasha that time travel could be a possible solution to undoing Thanos' harm. They approached Stark, who was at first reluctant to help but, after cracking the time travel problem, returned to the Avengers facility to launch a mission to retrieve the Stones.

Into the timestream

Using Pym Particles as their time travel fuel, the Avengers split into teams to journey back to previous encounters with the Infinity Stones in order to steal them and form a Gauntlet of their own that would undo Thanos' snap. Steve journeyed with Stark, Banner, and Lang to New York in 2012, and successfully recovered the Mind Stone after a battle with his own past self. When the Space Stone was lost after it fell into Loki's hands, Tony and Steve launched an unplanned journey to 1970 New Jersey to recover it at a secret S.H.I.E.L.D. facility. While there, Steve stole Pym Particles to facilitate the trip home. 

Though Natasha was lost during her mission to capture the Mind Stone, the Avengers succeeded in getting all six Infinity Stones, and Banner (now in permanent Hulk form) snapped to undo the decimation. It worked, but moments later a past version of Thanos arrived, having learned of the Avengers' plan via Nebula's memory banks. A battle ensued in upstate New York, and at one point Steve was the last soldier standing. He proved himself worthy of wielding Mjolnir and led the reformed Avengers in a massive fight which culminated in Tony sacrificing himself by wielding the Stones and using them to kill Thanos and his entire army, ending the Infinity War once and for all.

A second chance

With Thanos defeated, it was important that the Avengers return the Infinity Stones to the exact places where they took them to prevent disastrous alternate timelines from continuing and disrupting the flow of time in general. Steve took this responsibility on himself, and had a conversation with Bucky about his plans before leaving. After Tony's funeral, Steve stepped back on the time platform and went back through the various points of origin of the Stones. This took him to Earth in 2012 and 1970, Asgard in 2013, and the planets Morag and Vormir in 2014. Steve was only supposed to gone a matter of seconds for the Avengers in 2023, but he missed his timestamp. 

Steve had saved extra Pym Particles to use after returning the Stones, and used them to travel back to the 1940s to reunite with Peggy Carter and live out the rest of his life in peace with her. He didn't reveal himself to the Avengers again until moments after he left them in 2023, appearing on a bench by the lake at the Avengers' upstate facility to reveal what he'd done. Now an old man who'd spent the last half of his life happily married, he handed over his shield to Sam Wilson, making him the next Captain America while also declining to reveal any details about his married life.

Dancing with Peggy

Avengers: Endgame , and by extension Steve Rogers himself, doesn't shed a lot of light on what exactly Steve did with the intervening decades he finally got to spend time in after previously "living" through them while frozen in ice. That's left a lot of room for speculation by fans, and the most prominent question is whether he actually created an alternate timeline by refusing to return to the present. Apparently, the answer to that is no. 

"We are not experts on time travel, but the Ancient One specifically states that when you take an Infinity Stone out of a timeline it creates a new timeline. So Steve going back and just being there would not create a new timeline," Endgame co-writer Christopher Markus said . 

That just means there were two versions of Steve Rogers who existed between the 1940s and the 2020s, though one of them spent most of that time frozen. It's quite possible, then, that Steve is now the father of Peggy's children who were referenced in past MCU installments, and it's also possible those children have some super soldier blood. Whether that adds to Steve Rogers' legacy in the future remains to be seen.

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Marvel Revises Comic in Which Captain America Called U.S. ‘Deeply Flawed’

Changes to an essay in the hero’s voice cause a stir.

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By George Gene Gustines

Marvel Comics No. 1000, a special issue in honor of 80 years of storytelling , was supposed to be a cause for celebration. But revisions to one page of the comic, which came out Wednesday , are casting a pall over the festivities.

The page, written by Mark Waid and drawn by John Cassaday, is narrated by Captain America. In earlier versions of the page that comic-book retailers received in July, the star-spangled hero opened with: “I’m asked how it is possible to love a country that’s deeply flawed. It’s hard sometimes. The system isn’t just. We’ve treated some of our own abominably.”

He went on to say that fixing America’s system is “hard and bloody work” but that it could be done when enough people take to the streets, call for revolution and say, “Injustice will not stand.”

Captain America concludes: “That’s what you can love about America.”

The version that arrived in stores and online, however, has new text, also written by Waid, in which Captain America ruminates on his own image, not the United States: “Captain America isn’t a man. It’s an idea. It’s a commitment to fight every day for justice, for acceptance and equality, for the rights of everyone in this nation.” The hero says that those qualities — “not hatred, not bigotry, not exclusion” — are the values of true patriotism.

Marvel and Waid declined to say why the page was changed. But in an email message, Waid expressed frustration at how his original text was being presented. “I’m disappointed that the cherry-picked quotes circulated by the media severely mischaracterize what was actually written,” he wrote. While the essay was critical, he added, “As written, Cap is supportive of America as a whole.”

The change to the Captain America text comes nearly two weeks after The Guardian reported that the cartoonist Art Spiegelman said he was asked to remove criticism of President Trump from a foreword for the upcoming book “ Marvel: The Golden Age 1939-1949 ,” published by the Folio Society. The essay, which The Guardian published , included the line, “In today’s all too real world, Captain America’s most nefarious villain, the Red Skull, is alive on screen and an Orange Skull haunts America.” Spiegelman said he was told by the Folio Society that Marvel was trying to stay apolitical. Folio and Marvel didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment on the change.

Captain America, who made his debut in 1940 (though the comic had a cover date of 1941), has a long and tangled relationship with American politics. In the issue of his own title that came out Wednesday, written by Ta-Nehisi Coates and drawn by Jason Masters and Sean Izaakse, he finds himself at the Southern border of the United States, helping to guarantee safe passage for a group of migrants. When one of them asks why they were being hunted, Cap answers: “Ignorance. Ignorance and hate.”

In 2016, a story twist made the hero an operative of Hydra, a Nazi-like organization that was out for world domination. Fans of the character did not like seeing the patriotic champion in such a light, prompting Marvel to issue a statement asking readers “to allow the story to unfold before coming to any conclusion.”

The character eventually returned to the side of the good guys but not without damage to his reputation. That is one of the themes Coates explores in the current Captain America series. “This is a game of public relations,” an ally tells him. “If that doesn’t suit you, I’ve got a better word: redemption.”

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An earlier version of this article misspelled the surname of an artist. He is John Cassaday, not Cassady.

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George Gustines is a senior editor. He began writing about the comic book industry in 2002. More about George Gene Gustines

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Home — Essay Samples — Life — My Heroes — Captain America and Ironman: My Favorite Superheroes

Captain America and Ironman: My Favorite Superheroes

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What i find passionate in both of them.

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Captain America

An origin story | a read-along ebook.

Available Formats

Read-Along with Marvel!

After being chosen to take part in Operation: Rebirth, Steve Rogers was transformed from frail and sickly into a powerful Super-Soldier.

Now, with his trusty shield at his side, Steve Rodgers fights for liberty and justice for all as Captain America, the First Avenger!

This updated version of the Origin Storybook features word for word narration and is timed to coincide with the release of the CAPTAIN AMERICA: THE WINTER SOLDIER film tie-in program.

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Pioneering the Future of AI-Enhanced Storytelling

Captain America: Civil War

A classic story of revenge, told from a surprising perspective.

In an ensemble film where many characters deal with various obstacles and emotional struggles, one expects the character named in the title to be the primary point-of-view.

Not so with Captain America: Civil War .

While Steve Rodgers (Chris Evans)–Captain America–serves to push forward a certain agenda that influences much of the conflict in the film, Tony Stark (Robert Downey, Jr.), the Iron Man, offers us the intimate personal view of conflict only seen through a Main Character perspective.

Tony opens up his journey with a look back at a significant moment in his life: the last time he saw his father and mother alive. He shares with us his deep emotional baggage: he wishes he would have told his father he loved him like his mother asked, instead of acting like a petulant and immature child. This regret forms the foundation for abdicating control of decision making to outside authorities--

--decision making that Steve Rodgers demands must be held by the individual. In fact, Steve’s stubbornness to consider any other viewpoint other than his goody two-shoes 1940s black-and-white wholesome American values influences those around him to want to punch Steve in his “perfect teeth”.

Steve acts as Obstacle Character in Captain America: Civil War , not Main Character.

A Balanced and Purposeful Narrative

When you set the Main Character Problem to Control in Dramatica®, the Obstacle Character Problem automatically sets itself to Consider . This is, of course, after you select certain obvious Character and Plot Dynamics. The film ends in Triumph ( Story Outcome of Success & Story Judgment of Good ) and finds itself driven by actions and a dwindling number of superhero friends who can come into conflict before Iron Man and Captain America must go head-to-head ( Story Driver of Action & Story Continuum of Spacetime ).

Steve’s headstrong point-of-view suggests a maintaining of resolve and an impact sourcing from an internal perspective ( Obstacle Character Resolve of Steadfast and an Obstacle Character Throughline of Mind ). It also explains the presence of Peter Parker as an extension of this point-of-view through a narrative technique known as an Obstacle Character Hand-Off . Peter fills in for Steve in his absence and challenges Tony to reconsider his way of doing things. In order to balance out these similar points-of-view, Tony must pivot away from focusing first on the fallout of his actions ( Main Character Resolve of Changed and Main Character Approach of Do-er ).

In an action packed four-quadrant film like this, a Male Main Character Problem-Solving Style is a foregone conclusion. Writing a Holistic Problem-Solver would only serve to isolate the Audience and drive away much of Marvel’s core Audience.[^mental-sex]

[^mental-sex]: To understand why this is the case, please read about the concept of Problem-Solving Style .

Tony is driven to control the situation. Steve is driven to consider right from wrong first. Put the two together and you set the foundation for the conflict felt between the Main Character and Obstacle Character Throughlines, respectively.

You also lock down the one storyform that determines the thematic concerns of the entire story, while simultaneously communicating the purpose of the film.

Message and Purpose

Captain America: Civil War is a story of revenge ( Objective Story Throughline of Physics ). Whether motivated out of personal loss or job security, the attempt to limit the destructive damange caused by the Avengers only serves to increase the amount of loss of life. ( Objective Story Issue of Self Interest and Objective Story Problem of Control ). The Scarlett Witch's initial gesture to save Captain America's life represents an act of control that goes horribly wrong ( Story Driver of Action ). Seeing the Avengers as blindly looking for the next fight, the proposed Sokovia Accords aim to prevent and avoid any further casualities ( Objective Story Focus of Pursuit and Objective Story Direction of Avoidance ).

Unfortunately, this kind of approach only perpetuates the conflict. What is needed is a breaking free from constraints and an embracing of the chaos ( Objective Story Solution of Free )--the kind of purposeful and proactive response Tony Stark needs to take, both professionally and personally.

Connecting Objective to Subjective

Tony’s Augmented Reality presentation defines for us what it feels like to be isolated and alone. The lack of Pepper Potts’ presence and the loss of his parents set the stage for a personal account of someone who will do anything to put off what they see as inevitable ( Main Character Throughline of Universe , Main Character Issue of Delay ). As the "Futurist", Tony always looks down the road to avoid any devastating personal consequences Main Character Concern of the Future ).

In short, Tony’s personal motivation to control his own situation matches the motivation to control conflict found in the larger narrative. "Eyeballing" that shot at the end resolves both his personal Throughline and the Objective Story Plot Throughline of revenge ( Objective Story Solution and Main Character Solution of Free ).

The Bad Guy Protagonist

The Dramatica theory of story makes no judgment as to the altruism of the Protagonist of the narrative. A Protagonist pursues and considers while the Antagonist prevents and reconsiders. More often than not, this aligns with common cultural understandings of good and bad. Protagonist do good, Antagonists do bad. Some stories, however, take an alternative approach.

In Captain America: Civil War , the “bad guy” Helmut Zemo (Daniel Bruhl) seeks to tear apart the Avengers by pitting Iron Man and Captain American against one another ( Story Goal of Obtaining ). This relentless pursuit of revenge places Zemo within the objective role of Protagonist. Tony’s arrival at the Siberian Hydra facility places him in a perfect position to witness the real events of his father’s death and give him reason to fight both Cap and the Winter Soldier--and to lose control.

Zemo exacts his revenge and wins ( Story Outcome of Success ).

The End of the Avengers, the End of a Friendship

The Relationship Story Throughline balances out the Objective Story Throughline in much the same way that the Main Character balances out concerns of the Obstacle Character. Within the Objective Story perspective of Captain America: Civil War , we witness the separation of the many parts of a team. Within the Relationship Story Throughline we witness the failure to resolve another kind of team: a friendship .

Their friendship struggles as the basic belief in their relationship and the trust inherent in a friendship fails to motivate flow ( Relationship Story Problem of Faith ). This dysfunction eventually transforms what they once had into an arrangement more adversarial in nature ( Relationship Story Throughline of Psychology , Relationship Story Concern of Becoming ).

Steve's olive branch letter stating "I'll be there for you" persists this problem of Faith: their friendship never resolves. Like the Avengers themselves, Steve and Tony find their personal team fractured–setting up the potential for resolution resting in the next installment of the series.

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Captain America facts for kids

Captain America is a fictional character, a superhero appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics . Created by cartoonists Joe Simon and Jack Kirby , the character first appeared in Captain America Comics #1 (cover dated March 1941) from Timely Comics, a predecessor of Marvel Comics. Captain America was designed as a patriotic supersoldier who often fought the Axis powers of World War II and was Timely Comics' most popular character during the wartime period. The popularity of superheroes waned following the war and the Captain America comic book was discontinued in 1950, with a short-lived revival in 1953. Since Marvel Comics revived the character in 1964, Captain America has remained in publication.

Captain America wears a costume that bears an American flag motif, and is armed with a nearly indestructible shield that he throws at foes . The character is usually depicted as the alter ego of Steve Rogers , a frail young man enhanced to the peak of human perfection by an experimental serum to aid the United States government's efforts in World War II. Near the end of the war, he was trapped in ice and survived in suspended animation until he was revived in the present day. Although Captain America often struggles to maintain his ideals as a man out of his time with its modern realities, he remains a highly respected figure in his community which includes becoming the long-time leader of the Avengers.

Captain America was the first Marvel Comics character to have appeared in media outside comics with the release of the 1944 movie serial, Captain America . Since then, the character has been featured in other films and television series, more recently in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) portrayed by Chris Evans in Captain America: The First Avenger , The Avengers , Captain America: The Winter Soldier , Avengers: Age of Ultron , Captain America: Civil War , Spider-Man: Homecoming and the upcoming Avengers: Infinity War (2018) and its untitled sequel (2019).

Captain America is ranked sixth on IGN 's "Top 100 Comic Book Heroes of All Time" in 2011, second in their list of "The Top 50 Avengers" in 2012, and second in their "Top 25 best Marvel superheroes" list in 2014.

Tactician and field commander

Super-soldier serum, weapons and equipment, images for kids.

Captain America has no superhuman powers, but through the Super-Soldier Serum and "Vita-Ray" treatment, he is transformed and his strength, endurance, agility, speed, reflexes, durability, and healing are at the zenith of natural human potential. Rogers' body regularly replenishes the super-soldier serum; it does not wear off.

Although he lacks superhuman strength, Captain America is one of the few mortal beings who has been deemed worthy enough to wield Thor's hammer Mjolnir.

Rogers' battle experience and training make him an expert tactician and an excellent field commander, with his teammates frequently deferring to his orders in battle. Thor has stated that Rogers is one of the very few humans he will take orders from and follow "through the gates of Hades". Rogers' reflexes and senses are extraordinarily keen. He has blended judo , karate , jujitsu , western boxing , kickboxing , and gymnastics into his own unique fighting style and is a master of multiple martial arts. Years of practice with his near-indestructible shield make him able to aim and throw it with almost unerring accuracy. His skill with his shield is such that he can attack multiple targets in succession with a single throw or even cause a boomerang -like return from a throw to attack an enemy from behind. In canon, he is regarded by other skilled fighters as one of the best hand-to-hand combatants in the Marvel Universe, limited only by his human physique. Although the super-soldier serum is an important part of his strength, Rogers has shown himself still sufficiently capable against stronger opponents, even when the serum has been deactivated reverting him to his pre-Captain America physique.

Rogers has vast U.S. military knowledge and is often shown to be familiar with ongoing, classified Defense Department operations. He is an expert in combat strategy, survival, acrobatics, parkour , military strategy, piloting, and demolitions. Despite his high profile as one of the world's most popular and recognizable superheroes, Rogers has a broad understanding of the espionage community, largely through his ongoing relationship with S.H.I.E.L.D.

The formula enhances all of his metabolic functions and prevents the build-up of fatigue poisons in his muscles, giving him endurance far in excess of an ordinary human being. This accounts for many of his extraordinary feats, including bench pressing 1200 pounds (545 kg) and running a mile (1.6 km) in 73 seconds (49 mph/78 kph). Furthermore, his enhancements are the reason why he was able to survive being frozen in suspended animation for decades. He is highly resistant to hypnosis or gases that could limit his focus. The secrets of creating a super-soldier were lost with the death of its creator, Dr. Abraham Erskine. In the ensuing decades there have been numerous attempts to recreate Erskine's treatment, only to have them end in failure. Even worse, the attempts have instead often created psychopathic supervillains of which Captain America's 1950s imitator and Nuke are the most notorious examples.

Captain America has used multiple shields throughout his history, the most prevalent of which is a nigh-indestructible disc-shaped shield made from an experimental alloy of steel and the fictional vibranium. The shield was cast by American metallurgist Dr. Myron MacLain, who was contracted by the U.S. government, from orders of President Franklin D. Roosevelt , to create an impenetrable substance to use for tanks during World War II. This alloy was created by accident and never duplicated, although efforts to reverse-engineer it resulted in the discovery of adamantium.

Captain America often uses his shield as an offensive throwing weapon. The first instance of Captain America's trademark ricocheting shield-toss occurs in Stan Lee 's first comics writing, the two-page text story "Captain America Foils the Traitor's Revenge" in Captain America Comics #3 (May 1941). The legacy of the shield among other comics characters includes the time-traveling mutant superhero Cable telling Captain America that his shield still exists in one of the possible futures; Cable carries it into battle and brandishes it as a symbol.

When without his trademark shield, Captain America sometimes uses other shields made from less durable metals such as steel, or even a photonic energy shield designed to mimic a vibranium matrix. Rogers, having relinquished his regular shield to Barnes, carried a variant of the energy shield which can be used with either arm, and used to either block attacks or as an improvised offensive weapon able to cut through metal with relative ease. Much like his Vibranium shield, the energy shield can be thrown, including ricocheting off multiple surfaces and returning to his hand.

Captain America's uniform is made of a fire-retardant material, and he wears a lightweight, bulletproof duralumin scale armor beneath his uniform for added protection. Originally, Rogers' mask was a separate piece of material, but an early engagement had it dislodged, thus almost exposing his identity. To prevent a recurrence of the situation, Rogers modified the mask with connecting material to his uniform, an added benefit of which was extending his armor to cover his previously exposed neck. As a member of the Avengers, Rogers has an Avengers priority card, which serves as a communications device.

Captain America has used a custom specialized motorcycle, modified by the S.H.I.E.L.D. weapons laboratory, as well as a custom-built battle van, constructed by the Wakanda Design Group with the ability to change its color for disguise purposes (red, white and blue), and fitted to store and conceal the custom motorcycle in its rear section with a frame that allows Rogers to launch from the vehicle riding it.

1974 Comic Art Convention program featuring Simon's original sketch of Captain America

United States of America]] and a document reading 'Sabotage plans for U.S.A.'

Avengers #4 (March 1964). Cover art by Jack Kirby and George Roussos.

Captain America #109 (January 1969). Cover art by Jack Kirby and Syd Shores.

Captain America and Bucky's debuts, in Captain America Comics #1 (March 1941 Timely Comics). Art by Jack Kirby .

Captain America #180 (Dec. 1974). Captain America becomes "Nomad". Cover art by Gil Kane and Frank Giacoia.

Captain America #350 (February 1989). Rogers as "the Captain" vs. John Walker as Captain America. Cover art by Kieron Dwyer and Al Milgrom.

Steve Rogers' physical transformation, from a reprint of Captain America Comics #1 (March 1941). Art and story by Joe Simon and Jack Kirby .

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Why Captain America: Civil War Is so Important

Favorite Quote: "What is impossible with man is possible with God." Luke 18:27

We all have choices to make. There isn't one day that goes by without us making a choice of some sort. But some choices are heavier than others.

This is the question: With everything happening in the world today, how are we to live? Who are we to follow?

And that is where Captain America comes into play.

For those of you who don't know (yet), Captain America is one of the oldest superheroes produced by Marvel Comics, coming into being shortly after WWII. The original plotline had him striving against the Axis powers, whether they be spies or Adolf Hitler himself. As time wore on, the comics changed to suit the times, with the captain fighting communisim, then (in peaceful times) alien invaders and various other supervillains. In the film world, it's basically the same: Captain America fights Hydra, a Nazi-spawned orginization bent on controlling the world, then joins the Avengers to fend off the Chitauri, Loki and Tony Stark's rouge robot, Ultron.

But outside the Avenger movies, Steve Rogers has been fighting another battle. In the Winter Soldier, S.H.I.E.L.D. plans to unleash a trio of Helicarriers set up with scanning technology which can identify and eliminate anyone and everyone who could become a threat to S.H.I.E.L.D..

"This isn't freedom. This is fear." Steve says.

And then it's revealed that Hydra has infiltrated S.H.I.E.L.D., and even the Black Widow agrees that S.H.I.E.L.D. needs to be revealed for what it really is. The result is another battle with many casaulties. Then the Civil War comes around, and the government sets out an argument that superheroes are dangerous and must be controlled. They cannot fight battles unless the government sends them, and they cannot argue with the government's decisions. If the heroes don't comply, they will be imprisoned.

Steve doesn't trust the government after the events in the Winter Soldier, especially after the director of S.H.I.E.L.D. seemed very hesitant to destroy Hydra and after all, the Avengers did save people without the government having to tell them to do it. Why should they register? Why can't they be free to help whoever, whenever?

While the real-world government may or may not have Hydra in it's ranks, there is another disease spreading in it: Corruption, selfishness, greed, and zealotism. It's hard to find any heroes there, anyone who believes in righteous behavior. So should we follow them?

There are two sides to the Civil War: Tony Stark's "If we can't accept limitations, we're no better than the bad guys", and Steve Roger's "If I see a situation going south, I can't ignore it". Both are right.

The answer to the question comes in two parts.

Part one: "Let every person be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except by God, and those that exist have been instituted by God." -Romans 13:1

"Remind them to be submissive to rulers and authorities, to be obedient, to be ready for every good work." - Titus 3:1

"And we urge you, brothers, admonish the idle, encourage the fainthearted, help the weak, be patient with them all. See that no one repays anyone evil for evil, but always seek to do good to one another to everyone."

"But Peter and the apostles answered, 'we must obey God rather than men.'" - Acts 5:29

"But Peter John answered them, 'whether it is right in the sight of God to listen to you rather than God, you must judge.'"

The choice is yours. Man or God?

Contains spoilers for all movies containing Captain America.

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