Captain America is square. He’s always been square, and he always will be square. It’s built into the DNA of the character. When Joe Simon and Jack Kirby launched the adventures of the Sentinel Of Liberty back in 1941, he was pure propaganda—a star spangled hero punching out the Axis Powers. Maybe that’s why, after the war ended, the character simply disappeared. “Old soldiers never die,” General Douglas MacArthur famously told a joint session of congress, “they just fade away.” It’s probably for the best that Cap faded away before the onset of the jingoistic, paranoid fifties. (A brief, failed attempt to reintroduce the character in 1953 as “Captain America…Commie Smasher!” gives us a glimpse of what we avoided.) When he made his reappearance in the Silver Age, he became the thawed out super soldier that we all know and love today: still square, sure, but more of a ‘roided up crime fighter than a political cartoon.
Even more than most comic book creations, however, Captain America has retained an intrinsic symbolic function. (All but unavoidable when half your name is America.) Over the years, various writers—Roger Stern, J.M. DeMatteis and Mark Gruenwald—have tapped his symbolic quality and used the character as a springboard to deal with various social problems (racism, extremism, homophobia), shaping him into one of Marvel’s most fascinating creations.
Some of the more interesting work on the character was done by Ed Brubaker in 2005 when he penned the now-classic Winter Soldier storyline. It did not come as a surprise to many fans of Captain America that Marvel Studios—once it had established the character in 2011’s Captain America: The First Avenger, and deployed him in 2012’s The Avengers—would turn to Brubaker’s sprawling political mystery as the basis for the next film, Captain America: The Winter Soldier, which hits theaters April 4th.
Brubaker’s The Winter Solider finds Steve Rogers in a bad mood. Foiling a terrorist attack on a train, Rogers is uncommonly brutal—snapping arms and grinding out threats through clinched teeth in a manner more reminiscent of Batman than Captain America. Asked about it by a concerned Agent 13, Rogers admits to feeling weighed down, haunted by bad memories:
You know what I see when I dream, Sharon? I see the war. My war. After all this time, I still dream about foxholes in the black forest… Still hear the screams of terrified soldiers. Smell their blood and tears… I still dream about Bucky. Him and all the others I couldn’t save…
Bucky is, of course, Bucky Barnes, the childhood friend of Steve Rogers who would become Captain America’s sidekick during the war. What Rogers doesn’t know at the beginning of the Winter Solider saga is that Bucky—long thought dead—was captured by the Soviets and transformed into a shadowy super assassin. Unfolding over thirteen chapters (Captain America #1-9 and #11-14, with art by Steve Epting, Mike Perkins, Michael Lark, and John Paul Leon) the storyline spans the globe and several decades of the 20th century to culminate in a epic showdown between the old partners.
The best storylines in superhero comics almost always manage the neat trick of delivering expected pleasures with unexpected pleasures. On the expected pleasures front, we want to see our favorite characters being themselves. You want Spider-Man to be his smart-ass self, you want Batman to be brooding and intense. In this respect, comic book heroes are no different from other long-form narrative protagonists (Tarzan, Sherlock Holmes, Harry Potter). You buy a Captain America comic because Steve Rogers is a known entity and you like him. You know he’s a man defined by a largeness of spirit and a basic goodness. Of course, you also know that he has super-strength and can do some precision discus throwing with his vibranium shield.
But the real key to a standout storyline concerns those unexpected pleasures. Anyone can write a story about Captain America thumping heads and bouncing his shield off walls, but a truly gifted writer finds a previously unexplored dimension of the character and seeks to do something new with it. What Brubaker finds in Steve Rogers is his sense of loneliness, the man out of time quality that has long been with the character but has rarely been exploited for emotional darkness. Brubaker takes a man of innate decency and puts him into the middle of a complicated (and, at points, convoluted) political landscape. The Winter Soldier is as much about crooked backroom political deals and shadow government operations as it is about explosions and fistfights. And this is a world where Steve Rogers doesn’t belong. Brubaker doesn’t give us a hero who easily overcomes this conundrum, he gives us a hero who struggles to find his footing, who reacts with rage and anguish at finding out that he’s being lied to on all fronts. When Steve finally comes face to face with Bucky, the pathos of the moment is that the Winter Soldier is really the only one who could hope to understand him.
We’ll have to wait and see what screenwriters Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely, and directors Anthony and Joe Russo do with their adaptation of this story. While no film could encompass the full breadth of Brubaker’s twisting tale, the filmmakers have publicly stated that they intend to stay relatively faithful to the books. Early buzz on the movie has been excellent—with Marvel Studios quickly signing the Russo brothers to helm the third Captain America feature. One thing is for sure: The Winter Soldier provides rich opportunities for the good captain.
Jake Hinkson is the author of the books Hell On Church Street, The Posthumous Man, and Saint Homicide. Read more about him at JakeHinkson.com. He also blogs at The Night Editor.
I am so looking forward to this one. More than IM3, more than Thor 2. I can’t wait for Tasha and Sam. I can’t wait for Steve. I just can’t wait.
Thanks for this quick look at the themes. Once I heard the title, I learned enough about to know the plot to follow along, and of course Cap’s “man out of time” deal was going to be a part of it, and now I am real excited to hear that comics focused on some stuff I’m looking forward to, like the security state and corruption.
I like Captain America as being a good-natured, cheerful fellow more than I like “brooding loner man-out-of-time” Captain America.
Spider-man introduced anxiety and angst in a big way to comics. I’m sick of anxiety, both in real life and fiction.
And, well, the Man-Out-Of-Time thing isn’t interesting to me because that’s my life. I should have lived centuries ago.
Why would I want to read about superheroes dealing with things that plague me in real life?
I mean, we don’t read comics to see Hank Pym deal with long grocery lines or finger-shut-in-door pain.
I’ve always thought ‘cheerful’ Captain America to be highly disgenious to both his situation and as represention of the time he came from. First we tend to lionize the Allies in WW2 but let’s not forget Steve grew up in a highly racialized climate, and while I don’t think that should make him automatically racist, he should have been aware of it…espically since he fought in a war with an army that still largely segernated it’s troops. Second he fought in a war…the most violent war of all time. Third he is literally out-of-time…not feeling out of place (which, let’s be honest here, if you were born centuries ago you would’ve been a peaseant or serf…shitty living…what I think you meant is ‘I should of been rich and powerful years ago’). Everything he knew is dead, his America is dead expect the problems, the inequality between people are still there, people are still largely racist, homophic, sexist and so on. It’d be like he fought that war for nothing, nothing really changed. So yeah I like Steve with an edge of pathos. He’s lived, by all accounts, a shitty life and died for a country and dream that didn’t really deserve it. His friends died. He openly sacrfices his body and emotions for an ideal that might never come true.
I think over time that’d wear a man down to numbs.
I don’t think that I have ever looked forward to a movie more than this one before in my life. Because of Ed Brubaker, I consider Bucky Barnes one of my most favorite characters of all time, and this particular arc is just one of those all time greats. I know Brubaker himself has given it his own seal of approval (and even has a cameo in the film!), so I’m pretty confident it’ll stay true to the core spirit of the comic.
(Amused you mentioned Captain America in the 50s, since they later retconned those stories by saying it was an imposter running around as Cap. Ah 50s!Cap)
Steve Rogers is a man out of time, and by time displacing him from his past he’s also grounded in a very specific time in a way that other superheroes can’t be. Spider-man and the X-Men are eternally young whether it’s the 60s, the 80s, or 2014. Steve Roger’s youth on the other hand can always be the same: he is a poor kid from an immigrant family, an artist. He has explicit politics that are grounded in reality, and he works great as a character who repesents the ideal of America, which is frequently at odds with the muddiness of the country’s actions.
So yeah, being time-displaced is fertile ground for personal drama, but at least as important is the way it allows us to navigate the difference between the real and the ideal America. h/t Steven Atwell, who wrote about this stuff very eloquently last year.
http://www.lawyersgunsmoneyblog.com/2013/10/steven-attewell-steve-rogers-isnt-just-any-hero
Wow, ColinR, thanks for that link!
I didn’t realize it was widely known that Bucky Barnes is the Winter Soldier.
I’m glad they went with this story line for the movie because the Winter Soldier is the only hero “resurrection” that I have ever really enjoyed.
one of my favorite things about Steve’s pain? is that it’s REAL. it’s not bullshit “man-pain” created by fridging someone he loves, it’s not something twisted just to CREATED it — it’s a natural extention of who he is and why there’s even ANY STORY AT ALL.
i loved the arc when it came out. i’m hopeful for the movie.
@BDG: Would Captain America–to say nothing of the real life allied soldiers and resistance fighters–who fought WWII really feel he’d fought the war for nothing? Preventing genocidal maniacs from conquering the world is a far cry from nothing. And certainly there is still a great deal of inequality in our society, but is America really still “largely racist, homophobic, and sexist”? The loudmouths on talk radio, FOX news, and the internet might lead one to believe this, but is this a true reflection of what most individuals think?
Are people still largely sexist, racist, homophobic? Yeah, to some degree. In America it’s practically in our national DNA; slavery is hard-coded into our constitution. The shape of the United States is carved out of territories that belonged to Native Indians, Mexicans, and Hawaiians; it is built on the backs of african-american slaves. Our institutions are inherently corrupted and suspect, and maybe always will be. And no matter what we think or feel about that, we’re carried along by centuries of inertia; we can’t really help but internalize a lot of attitudes and opinions that we probably don’t always think about. It’s unconscious. It’s in our systems in ways that are so insidiously normalized that they are difficult to even see. (This is the United States I’m talking about, but I think every country has its own similar issues, in one way or another.)
What’s changed is that it’s become socially unacceptable to act in ways that are overtly bigoted. Sometimes that leads to self-examination–when say something that causes offense, or even just think it, we can re-examine our assumptions, and change for the better. Or sometimes people don’t rethink their attitudes at all–they just have learned not to give voice to certain opinions outside certain communities.
Steve has always struck as man who fights for ideals rather than people. Or rather he’s fought for what is right, and when your defining fight failed to change your society at home some 20-70 years later? I could see that demotivating a man. Along with your country becoming one of the world’s big boogie men? Again I don’t know how the man does it (outside of the authors haha). After all that I’d like to point I said it’d feel like not it was indeed nothing. It was obviously something.
As for your second thing, and not to be rude, looking for opinions of individuals on systemic discrimination is unnecessary. One simply needs to look at the data to see how far and how little you’ve come. Incarnation rates of POC (in an increasingly for-profit sector), increasing economic inequality, and debate if humans can marry in some states, huge civilian causalities in imperialistic wars, open political discrimination against women etc. I’m not saying America hasn’t progressed; I’m saying just because there is less shit in the shit pile doesn’t make it not-a-shit pile. And I’m not trying to get on some uppity nationalistic high, my own country is just as bad as yours in many aspects; we’re just sneakier about it.
‘which, let’s be honest here, if you were born centuries ago you would’ve been a peaseant or serf…shitty living…what I think you meant is ‘I should of been rich and powerful years ago’
Of course. Wouldn’t you want to hear Mozart and Lizst at their actual preformances? Or see The Amber Room? Or see a Tarpan or Avebury? Or hear the Manx language?
Or, wonder of wonders, to live in China before the Cultural Revolution.
And, well, I know that Steve Rogers should be traumatized and devastated from all that’s happened; but, well, heck, Astro Boy was friggin sold and lived in a world where robots were oppressed and mistreated. The Greatest Robot On Earth alone should have crushed Astro’s idealism and belief that someday, robots will stop fighting.
I realize that it would make absoltely no sense and would be terrible, but I kind of wish we could go back to the fun and silliness of the Silver Age.
I think history shows that nations that achieve an enormous amount of power, from the Romans through the era of the British Empire, almost inevitably become afflicted with arrogance and complacency. Sadly, this may simply be the nature of the human animal (Which is not to say that we shouldn’t fight against it, a struggle that Cap embodies). While I’m sure a real-life Captain America would be stunned that the US has failed to progress in certain areas–and perhaps has even regressed–I wonder if he wouldn’t be equally amazed at the strides society has made. When he went on ice at the end of WWII the military was segregated. When he was thawed, it no longer was, and shortly after, the Civil Rights Act was passed. Could the young Steve Rogers have conceived of this? (and before anyone else points it out, yes, I’m aware that the Civil Rights Act didn’t magically make racism go away). As for the attempts to legislate against same-sex marriage, one can actually see this as a sign of progress. If the polls are correct, most Americans are in favor of allowing consenting adults to marry whom they wish. Certain segments of society feel threatened by this, and so they push back, with some success. But the tide of history is gaining momentum, and I think big changes will come (some already have) within my lifetime (and I’m not young). Regarding wrong-headed wars of choice and the grotesque rates of incarceration of black Americans, no argument there. These things are indeed soul crushing. I might add to that list America’s worship of guns. The human animal is too often easily consumed by fear, prejudice, and small-mindedness. But I believe we have an equal capacity for nobility. These twin realities coexist and are often intermingled in the same place, in the same era, indeed in the same indivuduals. The devils in our nature are insidious and often come cloaked in righteousness. We look out our windows now and everything looks ominous. This is why we need Captain America. To remind us of what we can aspire to. (Apologies for the long-windedness–and also my inability to figure out how to skip lines for new paragraphs).
This discussion is an illustration of why Captain America is such a fascinating character. He makes us think about what America was, what she is and what she should be. And he himself never stops trying to live up to what she should be.
I do love that Captain America is about the ideal of a soldier, rather than the reality. He does not carry a weapon; he carries a shield. He does not kill; he protects. And this is used to good effect in the comics and the movies in his interactions with Tony Stark–Iron Man is like the embodiment of the military-industrial complex. Of course these guys have their differences in methods. Of course the poor son of immigrants finds the scion of the 1% kind of insufferable.
And Captain America ultimately takes on the leadership role between the two, and they work together despite their differences because they’re heroes.
Speaking of the “worship of guns”, here’s my ideas on that. This whole idea that guns are bad is reasonable; I mean, accidents and shootings are atrocious and simply should not happen at all. Guns are dangerous. Bullets are bad, too. Bullets kill people, too. And blanks. Any kind of ammunition is bad.But I don’t see people protesting against ammunition, for some reason.
Why ammunition and gunpowder get off scott-free from the gun’s (well-deserved) associations really confuses me.
If you’re going to protest the worship of guns (which you probably should protest because DUH), it would be more fair to additionally complain about gunpowder and ammunition.
Complain about guns if you want, I’m all for that, but don’t let ammunition and powder just get off scott-free. That’s not fair.