Tag: captain america

The Super Soldier and the German Psyche

actuallyclintbarton:

katiebakes641:

Hoo boy, we’re going deep down the rabbit hole with this one.  I hope you’ll bear with me, as this might be will be a disturbing post.  Here, have some shirtless!Seb as a precautionary measure:

image

(source)

He’s laughing at me because I’m kind of a masochist.  Anyway, check back with him if you need to.

I have German heritage on both sides of my family – my paternal great-great grandparents came over sometime in the early 20th century (don’t know much about them) and my maternal grandmother grew up in Nazi Germany.  Plus I was a history major specializing in European history from 1871 to the Cold War.  So…I know some things.  You could chalk up all that to another reason this movie was like catnip to me.  That said, it will take a bit to unpack all of this, so bear with me.

The idea of there being a superior race was pretty much unheard of before European imperialism and the Atlantic slave trade.  Before then, Europeans didn’t have much cause to compare themselves to the rest of the world.  But over the course of the 17th-19th centuries, that small part of the globe came to control the remaining 85% of the world.  Suddenly, they were faced with millions upon millions of “savages,” and had to justify their superiority.  Their right to subjugate the rest of humanity.

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Eugenics started [in America], Germans just ran with it.

THANK YOU FOR SAYING THIS.  This is something that we do NOT get taught (or that we didn’t get taught when I was taking community college history classes, let alone high school), and I know it’s just an aside, but THANK YOU.

Nazi Germany based all its initial forays into eugenics on programs in America that were active in over 20 states.  That may not really be the topic of this post (which is a good one), but it is very very important to make sure people know.

urulokid:

thunderboltsortofapenny:

suddenly really want the opening to Cap 3 to be a replay of the train, re-shot from different angles to really mess with the perception of what happened and who’s POV this is supposed to be and the sound is harsh and abrasive and too loud and you can hear the bullets ricochet and the guns blast, the klnnng of the shield against metal and you can really hear how raspy Bucky’s breath is and how calm Steve sounds and then

“Bucky look out”

and the blast of the laser and the cacophony of the shield and the guns and the side of the train and metal on metal being torn apart and then just the wind the air howling and screeching and the metal groaning underneath Bucky’s hands and barely hearing Steve call out and the wind the wind the wind

and no music and no lead up just the wind and “take my hand” and the wind and then the drop-

and then he jerks awake and tries to catch his breath and all the audience sees is this figure in shadow in bed, trying to find his footing again, and you can’t really tell if it’s Steve or if it’s Bucky

because it doesn’t really matter, because they both dream about the damn train

why this

How fandom reinterpreted Captain America’s politics for the 21st century.

copperbadge:

wintercyan:

hellotailor:

In the 2011 Captain America movie, Steve Rogers’ first mission after getting his supersoldier powers is to go on a propaganda tour.

Rather than saving kittens from trees or battling supervillains (or fighting the Nazis, which is what he actually signed up to do), Steve ends up as a USO performer, touring with a team of chorus girls.

Each night, they perform a song called “Star Spangled Man,” during which Captain America punches a Hitler lookalike on the nose and implores the audience to buy war bonds. The whole thing is a perfect parody of 1940s sepia-toned Norman Rockwell patriotism, and Captain America—or rather Steve Rogers, behind the mask—grows to hate it. He wanted to do his duty back when he was an undernourished, asthmatic artist, but now he’s a muscle-bound Adonis, it turns out his main job is to sell comics and appear in propaganda movies.

Captain America: The First Avenger follows a pretty typical superhero storyline: an underdog character gains superpowers, battles adversity while trying to do the right thing, suffers a loss, and finally defeats the bad guy. Of course, the movie ends with Cap crashing his plane into the ocean and waking up in 21st-century New York , but the lack of a happy ending is the only major departure from the traditional superhero narrative.

The interesting part is how Captain America’s fandom chooses to interpret him not just as a character, but as a symbol.

“Star Spangled Man” is a perfect example. In the movie, it’s a cheesy musical number that’s used to illustrate Steve Rogers’ growing frustration with being a “performing monkey” rather than a real soldier, but fans remixed it to have a more nuanced meaning. Ryan Sanura recorded a haunting acoustic cover of the song, inspired by a fanfic by author and Marvel fan Sam Starbuck, in which Steve Rogers comes across a modern-day interpretation of the song. “It’s not an anthem to raise money for a war or get enlistment numbers up,” Steve realizes. “It’s a cry out for help. Who’ll rise and fall, give their all for America?” In the 21st century, the answer is no longer clear.

[READ MORE]

An article on Steve Rogers as Marvel’s most politically engaged superhero, written pre-CA:TWS; it’s fascinating to consider those of the article’s predictions which came true in the movie (and the aspects of the movie which the article didn’t manage to predict), the speculations on the fandom’s interactions with and influence on the source material, and the description of the fandom’s ongoing mission to redeem Marvel’s villains.

I was also happy to see a reference to copperbadge, whose works in the Captain America fandom I’ve come to greatly appreciate (and whose original fiction novel Trace I enjoyed reading recently – go check it out, guys, it’s free!).

Oh, and do yourselves a favour – don’t forget to check out the music tracks embedded in the article for ultimate feels.

I thought I had reblogged this but according to my drafts NOT SO MUCH.
 D:

Oh, hey look, it’s a fandom-positive article about how fans and their transformative works can expand and enhance themes in a canon and give them broader, greater meaning to their audience. Also namedrops Sam, so it’s pretty much awesome.

How fandom reinterpreted Captain America’s politics for the 21st century.