http://www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/story/503132p-424376c.html
And, of course, this video tribute (view at your own risk...Oy!)
Captain America died today.
As an imaginary character living in an imaginary world of superpowered heroes fighting outlandish villains, Captain America was still, well, a little different.
His modern incarnation -- a man born of the depression and created during World War II revived and forced to reconcile his values in today's world -- was at once uncomfortably cornball and choke-back-the-manly-tears inspiring.
In the comic world, this is going to piss people off. But there's a tradition here. Back in the late 60s, the writers had Captain America quit and become "Nomad" when he couldn't represent the America he saw on the streets and in the Capitol. In the 90s, I've read, he was forced by the government to hand over his shield to John Walker -- more "my country, right or wrong" than the exemplar of the American Ideal.
What captures America today? Captain America has never been more a 'man out of time'. His government no longer holds itself out as a shining beacon meant to bring the free peoples of the world together. Instead, we hold forth that we must protect our own at all costs, and if the rest of the world won't go along, we'll go it alone. Where legitimate dissent is viewed as anti-American. Where supporting the troops means putting more of them in danger, for reasons increasingly unclear. Where we act like bullies and fools and wonder why no one likes us...
It's been a few years...time for Captain America to be recast.
If I were the storyteller, by the way, I'd call the assassination of Steve Rogers a ruse. The original Captain America goes underground, while others take his place. Steve Rogers dons a new mask and takes a tour of his namesake country to rediscover who Americans are these days, for real. To get back to basics. To find out the price of milk. He gets on the Internet, finds out what makes people happy and what really scares them. Discovers who we really are and what those ideals are that we really need a Captain America to uphold and protect.
And, along the way, who really needs a good kick in the head.
Wednesday, March 07, 2007
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2 comments:
The Onion had some great words from the street in response to this. http://www.theonion.com/content/node/59490
Brian
Thanks, Brian... much awesomeness there... the Onion folks are clearly fans...
Quite an impressive level of media coverage for a fictional assassination, don't you think? Beyond Spider-Man, I never get the feeling that most Marvel characters have that high level of pop culture signifcance that, say, Superman and Batman do. But clearly, something about Captain America has touched a bit of a nerve. Again, I'll say, having read the comics over the years, the character has definitely brought out an impressive level of inspiriation and idealism in writers.
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