Captain America was created by Joe Simon and Jack Kirby to be a symbol of freedom, hope, equality and kindness.
Captain America was created to be a pillar of justice and compassion and courage and empathy.
Captain America was created to be someone who would always stand up for what was right.
Captain America is traditionally considered one of the truest heroes in the Marvel Universe.
Captain America, Steve Rogers, became Captain America because of how kind, courageous, and compassionate he was.
Captain America was created by TWO JEWISH MEN DURING WORLD WAR II, as someone who would ALWAYS STAND UP FOR THE LITTLE GUY.
THE FIRST ISSUE OF CAPTAIN AMERICA FEATURED HIM PUNCHING HITLER ON THE COVER.
TO MAKE CAPTAIN AMERICA HYDRA IS DISGUSTING AND I REFUSE TO BELIEVE IT AND I REFUSE TO ACCEPT IT AS CANON. I SUGGEST YOU, OR ANYONE WHO READS COMICS OR HAS THE SLIGHTEST BIT OF CARE FOR THE CHARACTER OF CAPTAIN AMERICA, DOES THE SAME.
THIS IS HORRIBLE.
WHAT THEY’RE DOING IS NOT ONLY COMPLETELY INSENSITIVE BUT DISGRACEFUL, DISRESPECTFUL, COMPLETELY AND UTTERLY INAPPROPRIATE, AND HONESTLY DOWNRIGHT DISGUSTING.
Its so offensive and so, so inappropriate. Doing this? Is practically shitting on the memory of Joe Simon and Jack Kirby. And I am completely, and utterly offended. Stop this. Boycott this. Keep blogging, sharing, tweeting, do whatever is in your power to #SaveCaptainAmerica and #SayNoToHydraCap
Whatever it is you have to do, do it. Joe wouldn’t of wanted this. Jack wouldn’t of wanted this.
We need to plant ourselves like trees on the river of truth, and tell the whole world, “No, you move.”
captain america was created by jack kirby and joe simon, two jewish men.
the creation of captain america was consciously political. in an environment where nazi sympathizers in the united states were mainstream and vocal, kirby and simon wanted to have their say, too, and encourage people to open their eyes to the moral crisis of allowing nazi germany to continue its actions. they received so many death threats and hate letters that they had to have police protection.
we need to continue to remember this, especially in light of marvel’s current efforts to de-politicize at every turn while still reaping the benefits of kirby and simons’s inherently political creation, not to mention their downright erasure of jewish presence in their universe.
For the first time in my life, I’m glad someone has died.
Earlier this year, my Jewish great-grandmother passed away, after decades of PTSD, death, war, famine and illness. One of the most inspiring forces in her life, however, was the bright-eyed look her children, her grandchildren, and her great-grandchildren would give her when they talked about the ‘really cool man in blue, he beats up nazis!’ That, as you can probably guess, was Steve Rogers.
This shouldn’t surprise anyone, but I am fucking livid.
How dare you take a character that is the epitome of good and justice and standing up for all those who can’t do it themselves and being that beacon of hope for so many people and turn him into a fucking Nazi? (I don’t care if HYDRA is “different” or “not the same” as Nazi Germany because it was based on it. As far as I’m concerned, there isn’t any difference between the two.)
And for what? Shock value? It’s garbage and I hope people continue to call them on it.
You can’t take over 70 years of established, not only canon, but personality and heart and how and who that person is at the core and pull a 180. It doesn’t fucking work like that. It doesn’t.
It’s lazy, shitty writing and should not only not be tolerated, but also not excusedfrom professional writers. This is the type of shit I’d expect to read in a fanfic by a twelve year old who is just starting to write and thinks BIGGER is BETTER and dropping things in out of nowhere is what makes for good writing because no one saw that coming.
It doesn’t.
Something that makes matters worse for me is how fucking smug they are about it:
SPENCER: Rick Remender, who was the previous writer on Captain America, had been building towards this story of Hydra having infiltrated various institutions of government and various super teams. I thought that sounded like too big of a story. I drilled it down and thought, what if there’s just one very valuable Hydra plant? What if they’re looking for 100 people, but there’s just one? So I started asking, who’s the worst person it could possibly be? It was really obvious straight away that there’s nobody who could do more damage and nobody that could be a more valuable Hydra plant than Steve Rogers. That was really the genesis. It sprang pretty organically from story ideas that were already on the table. (X)
I’m really stuck on one word: Organically.
Organically.
There is no fucking universe that exists where Steve Rogers being a Nazi could be even slightly considered a natural progression of events. All you did was think, you know what would be fucking crazy? If Steve Rogers has really been a Nazi the whole time?! Yeah, that would be crazy, also not even remotely believable. There’s no way that this works in the universe.
You didn’t even try and establish it in any way. You just dropped it in there and want me to go back and read all his previous comics to see the “darker” edge that everything has now that I’ll know he’s been secretly HYDRA this whole time. That’s not how it works. You can’t just drop things in because it’s “cool” and “unexpected” and “all the cool kids are doing it.” Writing doesn’t work like that and people are going to notice and question it. (Just ask Game of Thrones fans.)
What’s so fucking ironic to me is that the other day people were up in arms about how if Captain America were to get a boyfriend, that would somehow ruin his entire character’s history. But making him secretly a Nazi doesn’t? You need to pick a side and stick to it or just call yourself what you are: homophobic/biphobic. (Side note, I was actually going to write a post about #GiveCaptainAmericaABoyfriend yesterday and thought I better wait until morning because I was so upset. Who’d have thought I’d have woken up to something that would infuriate me beyond belief?)
All Marvel has done is take a character who is beloved and known—whether from the comics, the films, or everything—and forced them to be something that is not only unbelievable, but also completely against their character.
Not only that, but why the fuck should I care? Why would I want to continue reading Steve Rogers’ comics knowing that he’s a fucking Nazi? Why would I want to go back to any of his old stuff knowing that he’s a Nazi?
Congratulations Nick Spencer and Tom Brevoort, you have effectively killed both the Captain America franchise as we know it, as well as Steve Rogers.
They have written him into a corner; there’s no way out. It is what it is. Steve is and apparently always has been a Nazi. There’s no escaping that fact now. But more than that, there’s no fucking redemption for him now. He made an active choice to be a part of this regime. He wasn’t brainwashed or used against his will; he fucking chose this, regardless of how nonsensical it is.
There is literally nothing they can do to make this right again, except apologize and pull the entire comic and say that it was in extremely poor taste and that they’re going to disregard it.
So they’ve written him into a corner yet they still want me to read it. Why would I? What is left for me? To watch as someone that I’ve loved and admired, who apparently is a Nazi in disguise, kill and destroy all my other favorites? Am I supposed to watch the epitome of good and justice and the ideal/belief that we can do better, try to build up a white supremist ideal? Am I supposed to root for him and the other racists?
Apparently, yes. I’m supposed to read it and see what happens.
I’m going to make this very clear: I don’t fucking care what happens. That’s where Spencer and Brevoort have miscalculated. As far as I’m concerned, and clearly many, manyothers, knowing Captain America is a Nazi, in whatever way and for whatever reasons, is more than enough for me to never touch it with a fucking ten foot pole. At this point it doesn’t fucking matter if it’s retconned; Steve is tainted now and there’s no getting out that damned spot.
So all you who are saying just give it chance, please shut it. I honestly hope no one spends any money on them at all. I would love to see if fail spectacularly.
The other thing that’s enraging is that they don’t even fucking realize the implications. I myself own probably at least a dozen Captain America shirts. They’re tainted for me now. Am I supposed to wear them while feeling like I’m sporting a nice swastika across my chest? (Tweet that says this.)
That’s basically what they’ve done and they don’t even seem to realize it, or worse care: they made the most iconic symbol for America and Justice into a Nazi symbol. Especially at a time where there’s so much fucking hate in the world, you’re going to make one of the only consistently good and honest characters into someone that supports that?
There’s tons of children out there who idolize Captain America as he is. How are you going to continue selling his merchandise when what you’ll be doing is advocating the Nazi ideals? Are you going to pull all the t-shirts and costumes and action figures? You’re going to have to, unless you want to explain to the parents of the world why you’re making toys of Nazis for young children. Are you going to stop a little kid wearing a Captain America shirt and explain to them what it means now? It doesn’t mean good and fun and heroic; it means evil, hateful, and villainous.
You see, Captain America is bigger than the comics. It’s bigger than this stupid fucking plot twist. He obviously is as shown by this outrage. He doesn’t just belong to the comic book readers or the film watchers, he belongs to everyone.
Apart from all of that, you need to take into account the antisemitic-ness of this entire debacle. Captain America was literally created by two Jewish Men, Jack Kirby and Joe Simon, to be a response to all the Nazi and Hitler propaganda as well as all the antisemitism that was happening all over the country (and world). And you’re going to take that legacy and piss all over it? Not only the creators themselves, but the person Steve was and what he stood for for over seventy years? I’m not going to delve much deeper into this because I am not Jewish and don’t feel it’s my place to be a mouthpiece, but if you don’t see how disrespectful, hurtful, wrong, and disgusting this is, there’s literally nothing I can say that will help you transform from the human garbage you are.
This idea that you need to make your characters “bad” to be interesting is again, lazy fucking writing. You couldn’t come up with any good story? I could think up so many that would not desecrate his entire existence.
So you want him to go dark? Easy. Fucking show it. Give me the Steve who’s tired of loosing and not making as much progress as his enemies, as HYDRA. Show Steve slowly starting to compromise his ideals because he thinks and sees it as being for the greater good. Show Steve’s beliefs slowly morphing into the ends justifying the means and every time we’re on Cap’s side because we still trust his judgment; we still know that he’s trying to do good but it’s not as simple as it was. Things are not black and white and Steve’s not the best as the gray areas. Show me a Steve who’s starting to live in that gray area, always excusing himself and having others going to bat for him because he knows that he’s making a difference.
Show me a Steve who’s finally confronting Red Skull or another member of HYDRA and Steve going, “I’m not going to let you do this.”
And them responding,” You already have. We couldn’t have asked for a better agent.”
Show Steve feeling outraged because he would never! But he had. All those times he bent the rules, crossed the line, did something he wouldn’t do, it allowed HYDRA to get further and further into his mind, his heart. He opened the door and they were able to wriggle through. Show me a Steve who’s wrestling with this and the guilt and the desire to break free and I will read that shit up like there’s no tomorrow.
But turning him into a HYRDA agent, a Nazi for shock value with no understanding of his character of the implications you’ve caused, is bullshit and I’m not standing for it. I hope you all don’t either.
