Captain America - American Hero, Patriot, Anti-Fascist, and Now a Terrorist
Whether it Hitler or the Red Skull, Captain America has long been portrayed as a symbol of freedom fighting against the tyranny of fascism. What is fascism?
Captain America understood that America was more than just allegiance to a flag or blind nationalism. Without a commitment to freedom, the right to vote, equality under the law, and free speech, America is nothing:
This is why Captain America was seen as a hero. It was not just because he could put a whupping on a pro-master race fascist like the Red Skull:
It was because Captain America's acts of heroism and bravery were in pursuit of the idea of America as a land of freedom and opportunity.
Well, under Trump's America, Captain America is a terrorist, since there is no such thing as antifa group. Antifa is short for anti-fascists, but is not easily defined. It’s said to be a political protest movement comprising of autonomous groups affiliated by their militant opposition to fascism and other forms of extreme right-wing ideology. Thus, antifa is just shorthand for groups of people who oppose fascism, which explains why Trump wants to crush folks who oppose fascism.
https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/us-news/donald-trump-pledges-classify-antifa-22116534
US president Donald Trump has pledged to classify Antifa a 'terrorist organisation' and has blamed them for the riots that continue after the death of George Floyd.
Outraged Americans have been protesting against police brutality after Mr Floyd, 46, died on Monday in Minnesota when a police officer put his knee on his neck for over eight minutes.
Antifa, a shortening of 'anti-fascist' is a movement and not an organisation.
While many of the protests have remained peaceful, some have become violent with protestors looting and lighting life-threatening fires in the street.
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Last edited Thu Feb 25, 2021, 08:21 PM - Edit history (1)
The premise was "What If Captain America were revived today?" ("today" being 1984).
It has two different Caps being revived: First, the 1950's replacement Cap, who's a McCarthyite Bircher-in-all-but-name, who'd been created to get back that ol' WW2-Cap "living symbol of patriotism" spirit during the crusade against the commies. At some point in the '50s he became inconvenient and was put in some sort of suspended animation. Some time in the 70s he was released by a "patriotic citizen", who was a janitor at the secret facility where he was being kept on ice. Once again posing as WW2 Cap, he becomes a magnet for RW politicians and other zealots.
Including one who wants to put severe restrictions on immigrants, get tough with unruly minorities, and reinvigorate "the real America". With fake-Cap's backing he wins in a landslide. Fake-Cap endorses militias, the "Sentinels of Liberty", to confront protesters. At one such protest, fake-Cap's higher-level backers have a sniper shoot him so it can be blamed on the protesters and justify a crackdown, Reichstag-Fire-style.
Fake-Cap survived (believing it was the protesters who shot him), and went on to help his backers consolidate power under -- I kid you not -- the America First Party. The Sentinels of Liberty are elevated to practically an internal occupation army. They build walls to seal off minorities from the rest of the country, most notable the Harlem Wall. An Emergency Information Freedoms Act is passed to restrict the press. To maintain the appearance of following the 1st Amendment, some dissent (within limits) is allowed. One such dissident is the New York Daily Bugle's cantankerous and idiosyncratic editor/publisher, J. Jonah Jameson.
This is the environment in which WW2 Cap, Steve Rogers, is found in the ice and revived by a submarine crew (submarine duty being the main "See? We're not discriminating. We accept the good ones." job for minorities and Jews in the Navy).
The old-timer sub skipper is able to identify this Cap as the real one, and when they get back to port he sneaks Cap to the Resistance, led by Jameson, Nick Fury, Sam Wilson (who's not The Falcon here, but instead leads "the Black Cadres," intentionally modeled after the Black Panther Party), and Spider-Man.
I give the above rundown to set the stage for the couple of pages below. Clipping panels here and there don't do them justice.
The Resistance strikes back at the America First Party's first national convention in Madison Square Garden. With all the restrictions, its leader is a veritable shoe-in to win the election, and once he's in place he'll consolidate further and make himself the king of America.
First, however, the Resistance upstages the festivities...
Over the next several pages Cap & fake-Cap fight, and other Resistance members take out the Sentinels in the room and keep the TV cameras running. Being the real deal, Cap beats the fake. The crowd reacts, and Cap says his piece.
End scene.
The resolution is wildly simplistic, sure, but they had to wrap it up on a high note.
