alias_sqbr

I had a great time at the con, but spent most of it resting. On the upside, this means I don't have much to write up. This was the first panel I went to and I wrote more detailed notes than I did for any of the others haha.

Captain America Vs America:
There were two old school comics fans, including Stephen Dedman who did his Phd on scifi and the US military, and one younger fan who got into the comics via the movies. They made for a nice variety of points of view.

Captain America is about the ideals of America, not any given administration, and has, for example, punched Nixon or stood up against McCarthyism. Him fighting America is a repeated pattern.

He was originally a draftee with a secret identity who had to sneak around to do hero-ing, while Stan Lee was a draftee who had to sneak around to make his comics. Stan Lee only avoided court martial for using military faxes by saying "do you really want to court martial me for making Captain America comics", got hired to do propaganda instead. Meanwhile Clark Kent was drafted and kicked out for "bad eyesight" which is what happened to his artist.

Cap retired to be a school teacher in the 1950s because it was felt like all threats were external and unpunchable.

Civil War, comics and movie, is about him rebelling yet again.

I asked why the MCU has avoided any specific political references, unlike the comics. The panelists agreed it results in a more universal appeal that doesn't age the way specific references do.

4 issues of all 400 or so comics published during the Vietnam War acknowledge that the war was going on. Readers wanted it that way, many were drafted and didn't want their escapism to mention the conflict.

Cap is an example of non toxic masculinity. His pacifism is somewhat symbolic, even if he's complicit in lots of death he keeps his hands clean of direct murder, so he can stay a pure symbol.

Question from audience: has any soldier used Cap as a model for refusing an order? Cap, no. The Punisher, yes.

Cap's origin HAS to be WW2 since it's a war where the US was unambiguously the good guy. The Punisher was a product of Vietnam, the stars and stripes replace by skull and crossbones. Civil War comics end with Cap dead, the Punisher putting on his hood. Though then Bucky becomes Cap.

The MCU puts the Punisher in Afghanistan instead and it works pretty well.

New "Captain America" characters tend to be evil.

Civil War superhero registration: a metaphor for gun control? Or Jewish registration during WW2?? Multiple interpretations.

Audience Question: has anyone addressed that "america" is not just the USA? Apparently not. Also his flag is the flag of Puerto Rico/Texas?

Audience Quetion: do the comics ever discuss/acknowledge Australia? Not really. So why do we like it so much? Universal(ish) themes. Plus we are ensconced in US culture, so we tend to care about it.

MCU prediction: Steve will die. Bucky will take over. From the Ideal to someone who needs redemption.

Options affected by copyright and merger disputes, so the US government has some say in how Captain America and other MCU plots will move forward.

Big movies like Infinity War don't really explore political themes or individual characters they're the big cathartic explosion/catharsis the others build up to.