Captain America vs. The Tricky Dick

February 25, 2019 9:59 PM

Steven Attewell describes how Captain America fights back against a smear campaign by CREEP CRAP and is ultimately able to bring down a scheming US president in the early '70s.

Along the way he realizes he cannot win if he keeps ignoring the struggles of oppressed (metaphorical) minorities.

This is part of Attewell's People's History of the Marvel Universe over at Lawyers, Guns and Money that started with a post explaining how Captain America was not just a supporter of Roosevelt's anti-fascist foreign policy but also stood for the values of the New Deal.

Attewell's glossed Captain America previously and previouslier.

posted by mark k (11 comments total)

This sort of thing is why the Marvel movies will only ever be second rate to me as they lack that inherent anti-authoritarianism of the comics.
posted by MartinWisse at 12:02 AM on February 26, 2019 [4 favorites]

Even the Hulk movies?
posted by Kirth Gerson at 3:53 AM on February 26, 2019

Even the Hulk movies?

I'll grant the first ( Ang Lee ) Hulk Movie was anti-authoritarianism, but don't see evidence in anything since.
posted by mikelieman at 4:36 AM on February 26, 2019

"but don't see evidence in anything since"

I guess we all take different things from movies. Captain America: The Winter Soldier and Captain America: Civil War seemed particular anti-authoritarian to me, as well as Black Panther having an anti-imperialist thread. Thanos seems like the ultimate authoritarian - what happens when someone who believes they are righteous and doing good achieves ultimate power.

Most of the movies involve facing off with some baddie looking to rule the world or destroy it, though I'd agree that they're not specifically calling out problems with authoritarianism per se.

I wouldn't necessarily even argue that the Marvel movies stand equal to the best of Marvel comics, but that's a whole 'nother discussion. Many of us remember the high points of the Marvel stories we read as kids and forget there's a lot of dreck that you had to sift through to get it. The original creators of these stories had the luxury and burden of shoveling out stories monthly for an audience primed for the product vs. having to convince people who see superhero stories as second class to put butts in seats. (At least at first. We might be over that particular hump now, though I keep waiting for the general public to get bored with superhero flicks the way they did with westerns or musicals.)
posted by jzb at 5:53 AM on February 26, 2019 [6 favorites]

Steven is one of my good friends, I'm pointing him over here now!
posted by Navelgazer at 6:13 AM on February 26, 2019 [1 favorite]

Also, I highly recommend his Race for the Iron Throne series if GoT is anyone's bag.
posted by Navelgazer at 6:15 AM on February 26, 2019 [1 favorite]

Yeah, it's easy to cherry-pick comics stories over several decades, from the likes of Steve Englehart or Mark Gruenwald, to name just a couple of the more prominent Cap writers. But superhero comics are at the top of their game when they illuminate the dilemma between superheroes challenging corrupt and oppressive institutions, and superheroes becoming corrupt and oppressive institutions, and how even the lines between them could blur. Alan Moore played in all the corners of this sandbox very well in the eighties, with Miracleman setting up a world dictatorship that was a paradise with the superpeople unquestionably in charge, Watchmen having the 22nd Amendment repealed after Doctor Manhattan wins the Vietnam War at Nixon's request, and V bringing down a fascist dictatorship in favor of a benevolent anarchy (albeit with the threat of the new V coming in and blowing more shit up if necessary). Gruenwald actually got to the superhero-dictatorship story before Moore with his Squadron Supreme miniseries, although it's not as well known; it's well worth looking up to see how that sort of überarchy could turn out disastrously, even with the best of intentions. Frank Miller came squarely down on the side of super-dictatorship with The Dark Knight Returns; it was supposed to be cool because Batman was righteous, and if you didn't like it, then fuck you, liberal.

The movies (at least the MCU ones) have had the benefit of selecting the best of these stories and often making significant improvements on the original. Civil War is an excellent example of this; the original was a sorry hash of a story, written by Mark Millar long after he'd decided that he could make way more money off of awful exploitation crap like Wanted or Kick-Ass. (For an elegant pisstake on the comics, see MeFi's own mightygodking's rescripting of it in I Don't Need Your Civil War.) Captain America: Civil War is so much better in every way that it should probably have a differen title.
posted by Halloween Jack at 7:10 AM on February 26, 2019 [6 favorites]

I liked superheroes but I didn't really have access to comic books as a kid, so my main exposure was whatever animated TV dreck I could find in the '70s. These were not very sophisticated, to say the least.

I love Attewell's write ups; I had no idea so much was going on in the comics so long ago. I kind of figured the "discrimination is bad" spin on the X-Men was about the height of what writers were doing until the late '80s.
posted by mark k at 8:01 AM on February 26, 2019 [3 favorites]

This is a great write-up and I was unaware of this arc. Amazing how directly political it is.

My favorite political Cap moment is during Gruenwald's run-up to Cap 350, when "The Commission" tells him he needs to act on their orders, essentially. He refuses, and when they tell him that they own and provide the costume and shield he wears... he turns them over then and there. He then wears the great red, white, and black "US Agent" costume (with a shield made by Stark, which he also returns when it turns out the latter has been collaborating) for 20 issues or so, traveling around operating as a free agent. Meanwhile the Commission establishes John Walker (IIRC) as the new Cap, formerly the super-patriot, but he loses his mind and kills (among others) some right-wing costumed bad guys who killed his parents. Eventually things return to normal.

But in the background pulling all the strings is revealed to be the Red Skull, who has usurped Steve Rogers' body and face, saying outright that the best mask under which to pursue world dominance is that of a "handsome aryan male" or something along those lines. It's pretty fabulous. I'm probably mixing these things up a bit but it's a fantastic arc.

Personally I also really liked Civil War - the comic series and the movie - but it was pretty lopsided and heavy handed. I mainly just liked seeing Cap be right and fighting successfully against regulatory overreach.
posted by BlackLeotardFront at 12:04 PM on February 26, 2019 [3 favorites]

Just wanted to add if you're curious, found the issue where Red Skull mentions that stuff and excerpted the bits here just so you know what it looked like. Can't remember where the commission confrontation is, but the head of the commission does get iced later in issue 350.
posted by BlackLeotardFront at 1:44 PM on February 26, 2019

The Waldenbooks in my small home town had a meager selection of comics. Groo was a high point for me, and my exposure to super-hero comics was limited to Mad Magazine spoofs (Superduperman and Captain Marbles). It sounds like maybe I should have been thankful for that filter.
posted by Brocktoon at 2:19 PM on February 26, 2019