Captain America: The First Avenger or “The Star-Spangled Man with the Plan”

 Okay, I’m afraid there’s going to be a lot of disclaimers regarding this post. And I’m aware that I just did a disclaimer for disclaimers. You’re welcome.

Anyway, I don’t know if you’ve guessed it or if I’ve already said it, but I am on the spectrum. This means that when it comes to obsessions, I go all in. I develop the kind of obsessive fixations that it’s a miracle no fictional characters have filed restraining orders against me. Though even if this does happen, I see no drawbacks. They’ll have to appear in court to file the restraining order, so I’ll get conclusive proof that said character exists and get something with their signature on it. Of course, I’ll also have conclusive proof that this is not only the worst timeline but also the stupidest one, so now I’m conflicted. 

Point is that Captain America is one of these obsessions, so any review of his movies will probably be longer and more insanely detailed than the others. I am trying to liven up the wall of text effect with some pictures, lots and lots of them. And as always, I'll try to throw in some dick jokes. 

First up, the origin. And I’m sorry, but I have to totally put this in the main post.

This is the debut cover for Captain America. Said issue proceeds to be page after page of Nazi-punching action, Nazis getting their rear ends handed to them, Nazis being depicted as the repugnant monsters they are, all this months before the US had entered the war. 

And the Nazis had a scary amount of support in the USA; a lot people were more sympathetic to their cause than they were towards any of the other Axis Powers. The people involved with this comic faced numerous death and bomb threats. The mayor of New York assigned the NYPD to protect them, basically saying, “We got your back. Keep up the good work.”

Oh and Jack Kirby and Joe Simon? Both men were Jewish, both had friends and family in Europe who would lose their lives in the Holocaust, and when the US finally entered the war, both men enlisted and did their part in the war. 

Captain America was an intensely personal creation for Simon and Kirby, and it’s one of the reasons the infamous Hydra!Cap rubbed so many the wrong way. Because taking a character created by two Jewish men as a neverending Take That against fascism and having it turn out that he has been part of a fascist organization all along?! Did I mention this is also during a year (2016) in which fascism and Nazis are making a comeback? Yeah, have yourself a lengthy and thorough takedown of Secret Empire: Part One, Part Two, & Part Three

If you want to see a story that did everything Secret Empire did but better and managed to do so in only one issue, read What if Captain America was Revived Today? It’s part of Marvel’s What if? series and despite coming out in 1984, it’s rather eerily prescient.

It must never be forgotten that Captain America actually hates America. Bah,  how dare he wear the red, white, and blue when he clearly only has love for one of those colors?

So yeah, my Captain America love runs deep. It’s why though it pains me to admit this, but I feel that ultimately the MCU failed his character. Don’t get me wrong: they did do some great work with his character. I’ll give you a quick heads-up: there’s going to be major gushing on Captain America 2: the Winter Soldier and Captain America 3: Civil War. Sorry, but I don’t make the rules and...okay, well, I do make the rules but still #sorrynotsorry

Though I’m wondering if in much of this review, I’m going to be in violation of my rule where each movie will be discussed based on the movies that had already been released. Like I said, the viewers of the current movie couldn’t have known X would be fleshed out in Movie Y, so to be fair, we are going to approach these films based on what the average movie-goer would have seen at the time. Well I have already broken this rule before and will likely do it again in the future. It seems to be something with rules, where laying one down all but guarantees it will be broken at some point, especially when it comes to discussion/debate.

Still, I feel that the MCU ultimately messed up when it comes to Cap and over the course of this series, I will make my case for it. It’s a damn shame, especially since they did do great things with the character, but they got scared and tanked everything.

And for the record, my unhappiness isn’t just because my ship didn’t become canon. I don’t deny that I am hardcore Bucky/Steve shipper, but I wasn’t really expecting my ship to become canon. I figured the people involved would be too wussy, but... :clamps hand over mouth:

Let’s just say I have fanfics to fulfill my needs and as always, I take refuge in Discontinuity. I recognize that canon has made its decision, but given that it is a stupid-ass decision, I’ve elected to ignore it. In fandom, you can reject reality and substitute your own without the negative consequences that come with trying to do this in the real world. It’s a privilege I intend to use to my advantage. Hence why I have my collection of fanfics. And I’ve also written a few of my own. There I said it. Whether I'll point you towards any of my fanfics remains to be seen. 

Anyway, I probably shouldn’t use the fact that one half of my pet pairing is named after a president* widely suspected of being Gay to bolster my ship, but I will. Sometimes I wonder what the in canon explanation is for his name. Why would anyone name their child after a president whose main accomplishments, aside from being Gay, were putting away an insanely impressive amount of alcohol and being a complete and absolute wuss at a time when the country is most in need of strong leadership? Oh well, it could be worse. He could have been named after Millard Fillmore and can you think of a single nickname for Millard Fillmore that isn’t completely embarrassing?

As the film unfolds, no doubt you’ve quickly noticed one of the ways the film breaks with comic book continuity. If The First Avenger was accurate, then Bucky would be like twelve years old. Instead, his character has been cast as being a year older than Steve. This does make it easier for me to ship them. While some comic fans can probably pull up material of them being all shippy together, my personal opinion is that Steve would have a hard time thinking of someone he knew when they were, um, statutory, in that light.

From what I’ve heard, the reason DC Comics overflows with Robins and Superboys, whereas Marvel has almost no child sidekicks, is that Stan Lee, by all accounts, hated the child sidekick trope. And since he ruled the roost for so long, he continued to cast a long shadow even after he left. 

But I also think it adds a nice dynamic to the relationship. Because as it’s shown, Bucky has spent his life saving Steve, so it’s kind of interesting when things are reversed: Steve no longer needs someone to save him, Steve is the one the girls are flirting with, that sort of thing. Plus, I get the feeling that Bucky has long waited for Steve to become famous just so he can publish a memoir called: “He Was Always a Stubborn Pain in the Ass: a memoir by Bucky Barnes.”

But I am getting ahead of myself just a little. 

As I'm rewatching the Phase One films, I find myself noticing the shaky quality with many of them. The first Iron Man movie was a solid launching point for the MCU, but then it is followed by The Incredible Hulk which was all but completely unmemorable. Iron Man 2, while fun, was mostly a retread of the previous film. Thor was a bit more of a solid film, but as said before, the Thor movies don't quite fit in the MCU as well as the other characters; they have an insular quality, where few of the events feel like they spill into the larger universe. The Thor movies are generally considered the weakest films in the MCU and it kind of shows. 

Captain America: First Avenger is a much-needed step up in quality, easily possessing the best aesthetic of the Phase One films. Good call, getting the guy who gave us The Rocketeer** to do this movie. Joe Johnston clearly knows how to do 40s pulp like few others. First Avenger is a visual delight the way none of the other Phase One films are. But I wonder if that may be part of the problem. 

First Avenger is a very much romanticized view of the WWII era, falling in line with the general romanticized view people have of that era. Here's the thing: no one was calling WWII "the good war" while it was actually being fought. During that era, peoples' thoughts were the same as in any other war: "Can we win this?" "Are our boys going to come home?" Only when Vietnam went to hell, did we start referring to WWII as "the good war," fantasizing about an era of clear, unambiguous good guys and bad guys. 

At the same time, though, I am a little conflicted. Superhero films are inherently about romanticization, the modern-day version of stories about the knight-errant. We all know reality would be much more complicated. The kind of person who would feel a need to put on a mask and beat the shit out of anyone they've deemed deserving, is much closer to the bully who would beat you up in gym class and take your lunch money than any noble do-gooders. The same is true of medieval knights where the romanticization masked a much grimmer reality. 

However, while romanticization is often painted as a bad thing, to say that there's no value in it is very simplistic. Superhero stories, just like the knight-errant tales, are a way of exploring the nature of power, what it is and how it should be used. And the general moral of these stories is "that those who have power should use it to help other people, rather than abuse it and set themselves up as despots." That's generally a good moral that more people should be taught. 

And more and more, I've come to believe that realism is overrated. We seem to live in a stunted reality, where we've lost the ability to dream of anything better. Try to suggest any advancement in the course of human rights, try to advocate for a brighter future for everyone, advocate for the government to provide services outside of fellating the rich and killing brown people, and you'll inevitably be greeted with choruses of "Be realistic." And I could go further with this, point out that the loudest voices for realism, tend to also be profoundly unrealistic in their own way, but I feel I'd be moving too far away from the subject of this post. So let's get back on track. 

Anyway, I'm not sure to what extent things should have been depicted differently in this film. Like I already said, superheroes are an inherent romanticization, but I think leaning more in on some of the less noble features of the WWII era could have really added some flavor. Whether it would have really changed the ultimate approach to the character, I'm not sure. 

And for the record, I'm not one of those people who are willing to accept any amount of insane tech, but throw fits over Steve Rogers not being racist and sexist. 

Yes, the era he grew up in, was profoundly racist/sexist. But here’s the thing: there were people back then who knew it was wrong. It’s entirely possible for someone to come of age in that era, realize bigotry is wrong, and work to combat that attitude until they die. For example, Juliette Gordon Low, the founder of the Girl Scouts of America, came of age in the Deep South and grew up on tales about the Lost Cause. As a result, she had some regressive views of Black people. But at some point, she realized her views were wrong and spent the rest of her life trying to do better. When a troop of Black Girl Scouts weren’t allowed to march in a parade, even though the White troops were, Low pitched a fit and got them in.

In fact as a general rule, while the pervasive bigotry of the past is something that needs to be taken into account when discussing it, at the same time, it cannot and should not be used as an excuse to completely exonerate people. Just because a lot of people believed that something that is wrong was right, does not, in fact, make it right. And throughout history, there were always a handful of people who swam against the tide, your John Browns or Victoria Woodhulls, to give a few names. 
It also kind of goes in line with Steve Rogers’s “I don’t like bullies. It doesn’t matter where they came from.” attitude. But I freely admit that my view of Steve Rogers is colored in part by the delightful Steve Rogers vs. the Media series  (and yes, I do love the entry titled “Bucky Barnes is a Goddamn Menace”) and Steve Rogers is Historically Accurate. 

Anyway, I have my own reasons regarding Steve's views on race and gender. But first, I should probably talk about the damn movie, before you people contemplate coming to my house and beating lengthy Morse Code messages into my skull with a tire iron. 

The movie establishes a key fact right off the back: Steve Rogers is and always will be, a rule-breaking little mothereffer. Basically, he's been trying repeatedly to enlist in the US Army by lying on his enlistment forms. This is, for those not in the know, a felony. So yeah, not too surprising that a character whose first appearance has him committing multiple felonies will proceed to continue to treat rules as more like guidelines, really.

But Steve's not having much luck and looking over his list of ailments, you kind of understand why. 

The first list is the one seen in the movie, but the second is one seen in Disney promotional materials. Thought I ought to provide both just because. 

I've heard people say that Steve Rogers's list of ailments points to him having survived a very bad Scarlet Fever episode. Me, not having a medical degree, I can't give too much information on this. I do know that treatment for Asthma back then was mostly "Pray that it stops." There were treatments, but generally ineffective ones. Those handy-dandy little steroid inhalers are a post-war invention. I have heard that Asthma was also regarded as something of a somatoform illnesses, the wheezes supposedly representing the stifled cry of the inner child crying for its mother. 

Steve Rogers is Historically Accurate has a post discussing what these ailments would have meant for Steve and the kind of treatments, such as they were, that would have been used to treat them, but I think there is a more important issue to bring to the fore: Eugenics

Yeah, this is a fun post, but I do feel it's something that should have been brought up in discussion of Steve Rogers's character. 

Because y'see, all of Steve's various ailments would have been seen as proof of his inherent inferiority. He would have grown up being called a burden on society, hearing from an early age about how his mother and the world would be better off without him in it. And Eugenics wasn't a fringe science, but one believed by just about every educated person growing up in the era, including the doctors Steve likely went to when he was sick. So yeah, the very people who are entrusted with his care, also believe he shouldn't, y'know, exist. In fact, there's ample evidence that the Nazis drew inspiration from America's campaigns against the Indians and programs related to forced sterilization of so-called undesirables. 

So if you're wondering why Steve's such a rebellious little mothereffer, it's because he knows from personal experience that the best and brightest can be horribly horribly wrong. And basically my headcanon is at some point, Steve was like, "If I can't believe what is said about me, can I believe what they say about the Blacks and Jews?" Hence his more enlightened views. 

All right, less historical discourse, more movie. 

Well, you gotta feel for Bucky Barnes. He's had to spend his life dealing with someone like Steve, saving him from fights he starts because he feels like it's up to his ninety-five pound self to save the world, and he's trying to have a nice night before getting shipped out, only for his friend to go behind his back and try to commit another felony.

Yeah, my personal headcanon is that everyone at that recruitment office basically sees Steve coming and is like, "Oh God, it's that guy," and immediately start have to arguing amongst themselves about who has to deal with that stubborn pain-in-the-ass. Because yeah, communication wasn't as instantaneous as the Internet makes it nowadays, but people did talk to each other. There was this marvelous invention called the telephone that while nowhere near as portable as a cell phone, it did make it so people could communicate over long distances.  

I know I am an obsessive weirdo who reads entire volumes out of random gestures. But I just can't help but get that vibe from the way the nurse whispers in the doctor's ear and how that guard makes a point of coming back into the room at the sound of the scale. And yes, I do believe that Steve was probably planning to futz around with the scale, because a guy willing to commit multiple felonies probably wouldn't feel too guilty about rigging the scale. In any case, Dr. Erskine had to have gotten Steve’s faked reports from somewhere. My guess is that the stations have started passing information around, warning about Steve.

Luckily though, he makes the acquaintance of Dr. Erskine who is willing to give him a chance, and it's off to boot camp he goes. And he immediately proceeds to make the acquaintance of Peggy Carter, aka another character who causes me to question my commitment to heterosexuality. Then again, between all the time I spent drooling over Jennifer Connelly in The Rocketeer and Peggy, I wonder if I just have a weakness for 40s cheesecake. Though I've also long had a weakness for British accents, so there's that added benefit.

Yeah, as far as I'm concerned, the above photo is totally canon. Peggy was totally going to eat that boy alive. So is the next photo...

All right, all right, I'll stop with the Peggy Carter pins and fangirling. Though, here's one more for the road: She is awesome and deserved better.

As you can imagine, boot camp for Steve goes about as well as you'd expect for a guy suffering from multiple ailments. 

Tommy Lee Jones understandably has his doubts about all this. And I know his character has a name--Colonel Chester Philips--but I refer to him as Tommy Lee Jones, because Tommy Lee Jones plays the same character in just about every one of his movies: the hard-bitten military man or the hard-bitten lawman. It's generally a good character, so you don't mind it too much. From the looks of things, Tommy Lee Jones is one of those people who was just born old. 

A few things: One, I really hope that Steve doesn't believe that the US military regularly throws live grenades at its candidates. Though I kind of figure that he is well aware that he's not likely to last long in combat, so he's like, "If I'm going to go out, I'm going to go out as the hero." Who knows how differently the MCU might have played out if someone had said to Steve, "Maybe you're the plucky young comic relief."

In all seriousness, Steve probably knows he won't last long in combat, but if in dying, he can protect at least one person, then as far as he's concerned, it's worth it. 

Though yeah, Bucky, this is why you need a backpack leash for Steve. Because first he goes behind your back and enlists in the US military and before you know it, he's volunteering to be experimented on by a German scientist for his country.

Steve comes out of Mr. Stark’s machine a big slab of roast beefcake, but long story short, a Hydra assassin kills the doctor and rather than getting a whole squad of super soldiers, they’re just left with one. And what do they decide to do with him?

I’m probably cheating, but this will be presented mostly without comment. Because there is nothing I could possibly say that would add to this.

Yeah, this movie probably gives you a questionable view of the US military. First of all, it was entirely too easy to assassinate Dr. Erskine. But the biggest problem is that you get one kickass super soldier and the only things you can think to do with him is to either keep him in a lab or have him sell war bonds? It’s stuff like this that makes me question Tommy Lee Jones’s bonafides as a military man.

The tour ends rather abruptly when Steve hears that Bucky’s unit has been captured and the army has no intention of planning a rescue. And Steve, being the sensible thinker that he is, decides that the smartest thing to do is to single-handedly plunge himself behind enemy lines armed with the tin shield he uses in his act along with a chorus girl’s helmet. Steve Rogers: Master of Well Thought-out Decisions.

It’s why in the second episode of Falcon & Winter Soldier, when Bucky said, “Steve would have a plan,” I was like, “Bitch, do you know who you’re talking about?!” Because Steve’s plans often consist of “Step One: Throw Myself Into A Fight, Literally Or Figuratively.” SOB regularly throws himself out of planes without a parachute. You, of all people, should know better.

For the record, regarding the Disney+ series,  I enjoyed WandaVision and so far, I’ve liked Falcon & Winter Soldier. But again, for the most part, the television series are off-limits, so this will be the extent of my reviews of the shows.

Well, it turns out that it is remarkably easy to creep around a German military base with an American flag on your back. So we’re also probably getting a questionable view of the German military as well. Though in my defense, that’s technically Hydra, not the German government. 

And finally our hero and villain meet.

Ah, I always found it to be one of the delightfully weird moments of the MCU, when Hugo Weaving takes off a Hugo Weaving mask to reveal Hugo Weaving wearing a mask...

Though Erskine, I kind of feel like this is something you should have brought up with Steve in your conversation. Even if it is really Schmidt’s fault for trying out something still in the beta version, this seems like important information, the fact that it might give you the body of a Greek god or it could melt your face and turn you into a nightmarish horror. Though that further calls into the question the original plan behind the super soldier serum. If the side effects run the gamut between “Oh God yes!” to “Dear God No!” why would you go through with the original plan to create whole squads of super soldiers? It just seems like too much potential for things to go horribly wrong. Granted Erskine had concluded that the serum did what it was supposed to, by enhancing what was there, so that good becomes great and bad becomes...well, the outside just matches the inside a little better.

But I suppose this is an opportunity to mention another area where this movie shines: the villain. The Red Skull is nowhere near as charismatic as Loki, but he is memorable in the way most of the other villains of Phase One aren’t; he isn’t just a man in a business suit. So he’s definitely not the villain I’ve dubbed as Zero. Feel free to keep debating who Zero is. Because Zero is completely lacking in any memorable traits and say what you will about the Red Skull, but he is memorable.

I’d give him a three. While he is much more memorable than a good chunk of Phase One and Two villains, while he does show some vestiges of his grand, operatic self, at times, the Red Skull comes across just as a jerk, rather than the over-the-top supervillain he is in the comic books.

FYI, the difference between a mere villain and a supervillain is one of grandeur and scale. Like Nigel Tufnel, supervillains go to eleven. If someone keys your car and your idea of revenge is to track down the guy who did it and key his car, you’re merely a villain. If someone keys your car and your idea of revenge is to track down the guy who did it, so you can drop a several ton piece of metal shaped like a key on his car, that’s super-villainy.

Following the rescue, well, before we get to the montage, we have to talk about this scene.

One of the beauties of the worldwide web is that I am no longer confined to ranting about things to family members; I can inflict them on complete strangers as well. So sit back as I lay out just why I hate scenes like these.

The idea behind these scenes is that the female character in question is supposed to be doing a spunky “Girl Power! Don’t-take crap-from-no-man!” bit. But the problem with these kinds of scenes is that the heroine comes across less as a BAMF girl and more as an unhinged psycho. Because let’s look at it this way. 

One, do you really think that Steve is the type of guy who would cheat on you? Two, even if he is, I’m fairly certain that he has enough sense to not do it when you’re only a few feet away from him. Steve may not be inventing things like perpetual energy, but he’s not rock-stupid. And finally, what if the shield hadn’t stopped the bullets? Then congratulations, you just killed your one super soldier all because you were in a jealous snit and couldn’t be assed to talk to him, like a normal person!

:deep breath: 

Don’t get me wrong—Agent Carter forever sealed my girlcrush on her—but I still really hate this scene. We already got some good scenes showing off what a badass she was. This, like I said, just serves to make her seem like an unhinged psycho.

Anyway, the promised montage ensues. 

And once again, I find myself debating to what extent this movie should have been, regarding the less than savory aspects of the 1940s. Because for those not in the know, the US military was segregated until 1948. There were Black soldiers and Japanese-American soldiers serving in WWII, but they were in separate units from the White soldiers. 

So yeah, a unit like the Howling Commandos wouldn’t have been a thing. Frankly, I think could have made for an interesting element if there had been some nod made about the unusual nature of this unit. I mean, two of them are fighting for a country that doesn’t see them as fully human and since one of them (Jim) is of Japanese ancestry, at the time he’s off fighting for his country, his country has imprisoned his family in concentration camps.

No doubt, there's someone out there who will be "um, actually, they weren't technically concentration camp," and well, I have a few things to say regarding that. One, if a society finds itself in a position where it has to debate whether or not something qualifies as a concentration camp, chances are pretty good that regardless of the answer, things have gone appallingly wrong. And two, it's a rule I have: if you ever say anything like, "Technically it's not," then chances are pretty good that it'll turn out to be exactly what someone says it isn't. Oh and "they're not concentration camps because the prisoners are dying from disease and neglect rather than being actively murdered," is not the sterling defense Conservatives seem to believe it is. 

Yeah, I should stop interjecting recent politics into all this. Even if I stubbornly believe that all art is political, I should still try to stay on track. 

Unfortunately, all good montages must come to an end, and arrive at a the scene that will serve to set the tone for most of the final act. 

This film is still very much a romanticization, but after train scene, it's never quite as triumphant as before. The death of Bucky just casts too much of a shadow for it to go back to before. Looking back on Steve's arc as shown in both the solo pics and the other films of the MCU, I am struck by the constant theme of disillusionment that keeps showing up. The First Avenger is relatively uncomplicated and straightforward, but in the rest of the MCU, Steve is constantly being betrayed or let down by someone or something. I would go into detail about this, but I've already violated that rule I've made and I should try not to push it further. Plus, this early on in the franchise, my analysis wouldn't make as much sense or have the same impact. 

Though the conversation Bucky and Steve have about Coney Island before they get on the train, well, I do believe that Bucky does, at times, serve as 2/3 of Steve's impulse control, but I do like how it points out that Bucky isn't a complete nursemaid like the fandom has a tendency to paint him as. My guess is Steve spent his life dealing with people either treating him like he has the plague or like he is made of spun-glass and is tetched in the head. 

Bucky was the one person who treated him like he was normal, because even though, he didn't want Steve to enlist and worried about him dying (not an unfounded fear between his "Come at me, bro!" attitude and numerous ailments), he did want Steve to have a life. So he didn't completely molly-coddle him. 

Though I've heard it pointed out in the fandom that Bucky's serial number as given in the movie, points to someone who was drafted into the war, rather than someone who enlisted of his own volition. I don't know how true this is--not sure how to check on NY serial numbers for an enlisted man vs. a drafted one--but it could be used for some dramatic weight in later materials if the people involved so choose.  Think of the character turmoil born of how Steve is so desperate to fight as to repeatedly commit felonies in an effort to do so, but meanwhile, Bucky is only going because he is being forced to and wants desperately to get out of it. Oh the dramatic fanfics that could be written!

FYI, my collection of Steve/Bucky encompasses just about all the fanfic genres: fluff, angst, high school AUs, etc. I have to admit in the past, I had been annoyed by the phenomenon of shipping in fandom, but now...like I said, I'm hardcore Steve/Bucky.  

Slightly tasteless joke: Is it just me or did everyone else wonder if Steve's inability to get drunk would play a role in Civil War? Kept wondering if something like this would play out. 

Character A: We need someone to drink Tony Stark under the table. 

Character B: That's impossible! No man's liver could handle that amount of alcohol!

Steve: *ahem*

But you know final fights have to happen and long story short, Steve crashes in Antarctica and winds up frozen for seventy years. 

This key plot element to Cap where he's "the man out of time" as he's often called, came about because for those of you unfamiliar with your comic book history, the Golden Age of Comics, which started with the release of Action Comics #1, ended with WWII. After the war, what followed was a precipitous drop in the readership of comic books, including superheroes. The Axis Powers made for great villains for the heroes to beat up, but once Germany and Japan have surrendered, bye-bye to using them as your Big Bad/Mooks. 

So a lot of heroes who had dominated the era, were swept into the dustbin of history and for a while, Cap looked like he would be one of them. His title was discontinued and for years, he didn't appear in the comics. 

Then Silver Age happens and at some point, someone involved at Marvel was like, "Let's bring him back." But you need to come up with an explanation as to where the hell he's been all this time. So they retconned it as to while he was presumed dead after a mission in the Arctic, in reality, he was just frozen in an iceberg. Storytelling-wise, from there, all you have to do is come up with some way for the characters to discover him and thaw him out and you're done. 

And it worked. Cap quickly became a major fan favorite and just about every incarnation of The Avengers has him involved in some capacity, often as the leader. He is kind of the moral center of the Marvel Universe, the one character that all the heroes, regardless of their hangups/backstories, respect, which is probably why he winds up in the position of leader so often. When dealing with clashing egos and all the headaches which come with organizing, it helps to build around the one person everyone can respect. 

The "Man Out of Time" angle also adds an interesting wrinkle to his character, putting him in a perpetual Fish Out of Water situation. The Fish Out of Water trope is, at times, overused to the point of becoming a cliché, but there's a reason it endures: like all tropes, when done right, it works. People relate to feeling alienated, where you thought you had some idea as to how the world works, only to be hit in the face with reality. Cap wakes up, only to have to face a new reality with a new history he needs to parse out, while dealing with the fact that everyone he knew best, either has one foot in the grave or is, well, in the grave. There's a shitton of dramatic potential and any writer worth their salt has the sense to plow this fertile ground silly. 

Of course, this plot element might become trickier because initially, it wasn't too unrealistic for there to still be some of his former WWII buddies around, but as decades have piled up...it's not like Steve can't still be the "Man Out of Time" but some of the best aspects of this story element comes from when he interacts with people he knew back then, talks to Peggy Carter after she has had seventy years to move on and create a new life without him becoming a senior citizen with a completely different history, whereas for him, she is still the hot twentysomething agent he fought alongside. 

There's no denying that the Internet is, at times, a dark and scary place. Gene Roddenberry believed that better technology would lead to better communication and thus, soothe over longstanding religious/ethnic hatreds, but unfortunately, he didn't realize that all the worst people would have just as much access to the tech as the good people. But more often than not, I am grateful for this amazing place for stuff like the picture below. 

Because god knows where else would I get this kind of analysis. I suppose I could dig up textbooks about 40s fashion and learn on my own all the inconsistencies with the woman's wardrobe, but it would take longer and probably be nowhere near as succinct. 

And I have no problem accepting this as canon, the idea that Nick was testing Steve, rather than it turning out that his costuming department really sucks. 

And that's The First Avenger. I hope I didn't get too didactic or boring with all the history lectures. Next on the slate marks the end of Phase One, the movie that all these intro films were building towards: The Avengers.

Credit Scene is just a promo for the upcoming Avengers film. 

Stan Lee Cameo: he's in the audience, waiting to see Captain America.

None of the deleted scenes really added anything. The commentary was mostly talk about how they made the props and sets, which may be interesting to some, but I prefer hearing more about the storytelling, why they made the decisions they did.

*When it comes to the debate, I’m on Team Buchanan Is Gay As Fuck. I believe that there is enough convincing circumstantial evidence pointing to it. Yeah, I know there’s no absolute solid proof, but short of inventing time travel, there really isn’t any way of getting absolute solid proof. Even if we did get solid proof, like filmed him and William Rufus King (the two men lived together for ten years and King is also widely suspected to have been Gay) getting it on, there would still be people who will try to dismiss said evidence, given how desperately people seem to want to rewrite LGBT people out of history. I can just picture them going, “Yeah, they’re just wrestling, just doing some totally manly heterosexual naked wrestling.” 

Because it can get kind of ridiculous how people will try to write LGBT people out of history. I cannot track down the article, but I remember it talking about letters James I wrote to another man. The article gave the usual “the close friendship between the two men” line, even though the same article admits that James I referred to this man as his husband and built a secret passageway so he could visit him more often. That’s something completely heterosexual best bros do, refer to each other as their spouse and go to the trouble of building secret passageways to see each other. 

Especially since if this article was referring to George Villiers, James I was pretty damn shameless about it, giving him just about every royal title he could, and regularly showed up to court functions with him on his arm. I wonder how the fundies would feel if they knew that the guy behind their favorite translation of the Bible was likely Gay or Bisexual. And of course, it couldn’t be possible that the translators had grievances against King James and some of that worked its way into their work.

tl;dr LGBT people have always been a part of history and didn’t spring into being with the passage of Roe v. Wade.

**There are movies that are just a pure joy to watch, that just serve to remind you why you love movies. The Rocketeer is one of them. There’s something so beautiful and charming about how warm-hearted and idealistic the film is, its complete sincerity a refreshing break from the ironic detachment that so many of our entertainment trafficks in. It is “Rah, rah, hooray for the USA!” and is unabashedly patriotic, but it does so in a way that isn’t jingoistic hateful towards anyone. Well, okay it is hateful towards Nazis, but it used to be that was considered a good thing.

Again, which is more depressing: the way “torture is wrong” was transformed into a radical statement or the way “Nazis are bad” was transformed into a radical statement?

I realize that not everyone has the same headcanons I do and generally, I try to respect other’s opinions, but as far as I’m concerned, you’re not allowed to make Cap a fascist or an antivaxxer. The fascist part has already been explained, but as for the antivaxxer thing, the mothereffer has likely had most of the illnesses vaccines can prevent. These aren’t abstract horrors to him. He’s had them and may have lost classmates to them. 

And in the unlikely event that any antivaxxers are reading this, as one of those Autistic people you hate and fear so much, I have this to say: Get bent. To live in a society, you have to pay your dues and vaccines are one of your dues. If you’re not willing to pay said dues, you can go off-grid, live in a cave and eat roots and berries, while the rest of us enjoy the perks of being a part of a society.