March 2011 marked the 70th anniversary of Captain America, and if you’re any kind of nerd/geek this fact probably slapped you in the face more than once in an internet search or in a visit to your favorite websites (like us, right???).
Recently Jeph Loeb, head of Marvel television and writer of several Captain America story arcs sat down to talk about the iconic American superhero, comparing him to Superman, another character that Loeb is intimately familiar with.
“Cap is a born leader and someone who always dreamed of being a hero,” Loeb said. “He’s an inspiration to the Marvel Universe — a standard by which every hero should try and reach. By the same token he’s not as apple pie as Superman — he’s been a soldier in wartime — he can be as bad-ass as Wolverine.”
Loeb goes on to say that Captain America’s start as a soldier during World War II has shaped him into much more than just a patriot.
“The patriotism is not as key to his character as the heroic aspects,” Loeb said. “Steve Rogers believes in the best of humanity — regardless of race, background or religion. He’s about freedom — these all happen to be aspects of being an American, but his beliefs are universal.”
[The Shakedown]
It’s interesting that Loeb makes the argument that Cap’s heroic aspects are exclusive from his patriotism, and I can agree to an extent: many young Americans enlisted to fight in WWII out of a sense of duty to combat the evil. After Pearl Harbor the we felt that the war was on our doorstep and it was our duty to defend our way of life. The nobility of the cause can’t be denied. WWII was one of the only truly necessary wars in our country’s history. But the real nobility of that fight is only something that was revealed in retrospect. The U.S. didn’t join to stop the Nazi advance. We didn’t know at the time the extent of Hitler’s genocide and megalomania until we were in the thick of it and saw it for ourselves. We joined because we were attacked.
So yeah, Steve Rogers is a hero’s hero, no doubt. But I don’t think that heroism is exclusive of his patriotism. I think his patriotism is as big a part of his character as anything else. That being said, I think Steve Rogers has a unique definition of of patriotism. I don’t think he’s a blind patriot, or that he doesn’t have his own (sometimes negative) opinions about how we do things in the U. S. of A. I think he believes in what our country CAN be, and tries to lead by example.
But if Civil War taught us anything it’s that Steve Rogers doesn’t have a problem with saying, “F&#K the government.”
[Source] Hero Complex
