Captain America is a Fallen Idol
Originally posted on Thinkspot, May 8th, 2021.
I knew things would go badly. When I first heard that Leftist Ideologue Ta-Nahisi Coates was tasked with writing the Star Spangled Avenger, I knew it was inevitable that he would force Captain America to say things he would never say.
I know Coates mostly by his reputation. I’ve only read a few issues of his Black Panther run, back when it was being illustrated by comics legend Brian Stelfreeze. When Stelfreeze left, my interest went with him. Coates’ work wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t good either. In the end, my expectations were proven right. As is public knowledge now, Coates reinvented the Red Skull as a parody of clinical psychologist Jordan Peterson. We now live in a world where the secondary model of Nazism is based on a well-reasoned intellectual whose philosophy can be summed up as “take responsibility”.
Unfortunately, this is neither a first for Marvel, nor even Captain America. In the late 2000s, Ed Brubaker rose to prominence. Unlike Coates, Brubaker was a great writer that understood the comic medium. His breakout hit was writing Captain America, wherein he took the risky gambit of breaking one of Marvel’s few sacred rules. He brought Bucky Barnes back from the dead and reinvented him as The Winter Soldier. He went on to acclaimed runs on books like Daredevil and The Immortal Iron Fist.
Captain America was killed in Marvel’s Civil War and Brubaker made the Winter Soldier into Steve Rogers replacement. Alongside his friend the Falcon, this new Captain America went out to save America from evils such as white supremacy. That isn’t uncommon. Cap is known for fighting actual Nazis. However in this case, the white supremacist group was a bunch of angry, white anti-government types. Specifically they were being compared to the Tea Party. Using signs directly taken from images at Tea Party rallies, Marvel directly linked a multi-racial, party reform group with white supremacy and anarchy. When the act naturally went sideways, Marvel tried to spin it as a “lettering error”.
Looking back, this was about when the change started. Comic books stopped being for everyone. Ideology slowly, but surely started creeping into the lives and mouths of icons. Comic book professionals and Left-leaning websites began openly chasing away the fans who had been the bedrock of the industry for the better part of a century. We were too male, too old and sometimes too white. Comic books, they said, needed to get rid of the old, toxic fans and embrace a new, diverse wave of fans that would bring comics into a Golden Age. To that end, they started bringing in more Social Justice-minded writers. Prominent Left-leaning writers of the old guard, such as Mark Waid and Gail Simone had formerly written great stories for fans of all demographics. Now Mark Waid is writing a comic book which makes a mockery of school shootings, turning the students into literal, superpowered Social Justice Warriors. Gail Simone has openly to refused write any comics that do not feature Transgender characters. Many of these Professionals would take to twitter to attack fans publicly and personally. The cultural divide skewed sharply Left and spared no room for nuance or civility. Gone were the days where notorious lefty, Denny O’neil and rightwing stalwart Chuck Dixon could come together and make Batman comics that a 9 year old black girl and a 41 year old straight, white male could both enjoy.
That new, better wave of comic book fans never came in. The old fans are slowly falling away as the stories they used to love become less and less about them and more about the vanity of the writers and editors.
These characters are Icons. Legends that are meant to inspire us.
In his truest form, Captain America should lean neither Left, nor Right. He represents the best in all of us. Kindness, strength, bravery and honor. He would never call people “weak men” for listening to someone who tells them to stand up straight and never lie. The real irony is that, if anything, Steve Rogers is a lot like Jordan Peterson.
#jordanpeterson #captainamerica #steverogers #marvelcomics #mcu #redskull #parody #chaos #comics #comicbooks
