Really nice essay. I don’t know about the perception of Captain America by US fans, but where I live nobody ever really cared about him. I always found it pretty boring as it showed way too much patriotism — it bothered me as teenage reader, maybe because my own country never taught me to appreciate it. When I saw Evans being cast for it, I thought “hell, here they are using a famous comics character just to promote that teenage flick pseudo-actor”. I know, I am bitter sometimes… Well, must say that both films are surprisingly good (haven’t seen Civil War yet), and I gladly admit that I fell flat on my face.