Marvel Heroes: Captain America
I watched Captain America: The First Avenger recently, this time, trying to notice the nuances of the character of Steve Rodgers. And with that in mind, while watching it, I started to realize this movie’s subtle differences from the other MCU films.
The very first time I watched it as a young teen, I didn’t like it as much as the first Iron Man movie.
But after watching it with fresh eyes, I’ve started to like it.
Captain America is well-known for his self-righteous way of doing things. He’s a man out of time who has always lived by his principles of doing the right thing. But what other thing makes him stand out from the other characters in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, in the likes of Tony Stark/Iron Man, Thor or Natasha Romanoff/Black Widow?
This article will basically be about Captain America’s unique hero’s journey.
So, we start off with this point:
He’s not a brash or flawed character in the beginning
If we look at the beginning of the stories of Iron Man, Thor or Black Widow, we get to see their dynamic growth, from being people who are broken, brash or flawed, to being better versions of themselves. This takes place in a steady manner through their stories.
For example, Thor is a brash character in the first Thor film, he goes to seek war with another kingdom, gets stripped of his power and ability to wield Mjolnir and gets cast to earth, becomes humbled, sacrifices his life in the process and becomes worthy to wield Mjolnir again.
This isn’t necessarily the exact same way with the other characters but you can get to see their arches and an almost similar pattern in their journeys.
So, what about Steve Rodgers? Well, in Captain America: The First Avenger, the film focused on the character’s qualities of being good-hearted and idealistic from the beginning. From the get-go, it’s easy to tell that Steve is the boy-scout and an untarnished protagonist compared to someone like Tony Stark.
But the movie shows that he isn’t, before and after he gets the super-soldier serum. This is something his mentor-figure, Dr. Erskine tells him,
A humble origin
Something else to point out is Steve’s humble background, something probably most of us can relate with. Not all of us are endowed with the wealth of billionaires like Tony or macho brashness like Thor.
Despite his humble background, we see Steve’s determination to join the army to serve his country, something he’s always wanted to do all his life, but he’s setback is his physical frailty.
He’s always wanted to join the army to fight for his country; his willingness to do the right thing. Here’s something that we can relate with, the desire to do the right thing but also being unable to do it. We can be held back from who we want to be and where we want to go.
A not-obvious hero transformation
After Steve receives the super-soldier serum, he doesn’t immediately become an un-relatable character. This is what Dr. Abraham told him before he volunteered for the test. But that’s not just the reason for his not-obvious hero transformation.
One would expect that after receiving these super-soldier abilities and transforming from the frail Steve Rodgers to Captain America, he would go straight to war and save the day like other superhero cliché situations like Iron Man who after building his first suit fights terrorists.
After Dr. Abraham gets killed, being the only one who could create the serum, Steve is the only super-soldier. Colonel Chester Phillips sees Steve as just an experiment and being the only super-soldier isn’t enough.
Instead, he becomes a campaign symbol, something he volunteers to do as he’s always wanted to serve his country. But this isn’t enough.
But with some encouragement from Peggy, he takes the opportunity to use these abilities to save his friend Buck Barnes and 400 men who were held hostage in a Hydra base.
Tragic sacrifice
Another contrast between Steve’s origin story and that of Iron Man and Thor are their sacrifices.
Iron Man and Thor are ready to sacrifice everything for the greater good and later come out alive and get their rewards.
Steve’s sacrificial acts, however, take a tragic route, in that he makes a permanent sacrifice. This is because of the flaw within himself which is his actions entangled in his virtues.
Let me explain this. Steve wants to stand up for the little guy and do the right thing, because he wants to prove himself, to himself. He wants to prove a point that he can make a difference, even when everyone tells him otherwise. This is where Dr. Erskine and Peggy Carter (especially Peggy) come in.
Erskine believes Steve will save America, and chose him for the super-soldier program:
Peggy, as the other breath of fresh air for Steve, tells him that he’s already a hero and he doesn’t need to prove anything. Steve can’t accept this, not yet, because he hasn’t proven himself, which he does in saving New York from being bombed by crashing the Red Skull’s bomb-laden plane into the Arctic.
Captain America: The First Avenger chooses to sticks to the simple pure ideas that Steve Rodgers portrays. It doesn’t have as many quip one-liners or modernize its tone in comparison to other MCU films.
But it rather embraces the good-nurtured character of Captain America completely. Captain America, isn’t just about him standing up for the sake but recognizing what’s right and doing so, inspiring us to do the same.
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