As you might have heard by now, in today's Ultimate Comics: Ultimates #15, Captain America is elected president of the United States in a special election. (He takes the oath in #16, shown to the right.) America is the real world may be divided ideologically, but the Ultimate version is divided physically, with various grouping of states separated from the union and under various forms of government or rule.
(MILD SPOILERS AHEAD)
One of these is the West Coast, which has begun protecting its borders from refugees from the warlike southwest region using drones developed by the late Hank Pym (and called, naturally, Wasps). After the drones go offline and starts killing indiscriminately, Cap defies orders to stay out of the West Coast and leads the Ultimates into California to battle the Wasps. Americans across the country are so impressed and inspired by the TV images of Cap that they vote for him as a write-in candidate in the special election, and at the end of the issue, Carol Danvers calls him on a payphone to tell him he won.
In a press release, Marvel Comics released three pages from Ultimate Comics: Ultimates #16, written by Sam Humphries and pencilled by Luke Ross, showing Cap's acceptance speech (courtesy of Bleeding Cool)--click to enlarge.
Whatever the differences in character or politics between the Captain America in the Ultimate Universe and the more familiar one from the mainstream Marvel Universe, this is Captain America who we know, love, and admire. As he says, "America is deep in crisis--we're divided, mistrustful, nervous, and scared." Appropriately for such times, Cap strikes a inspiring tone: "This crisis calls us all to do our best. To rebuild our fragile unity. To find the strength equal to our challenges." This is not a partisan message--it is a universal message, and one we hear all too seldom from our elected leaders or candidates for office.
Can Captain America heal the once United States of America in the Ultimate Universe--can he be Abraham Lincoln, as Humphries said to the Washington Post? I think it's a fairly good bet he will, but since this is the Marvel Ultimate Universe, there's no way to tell what the country will look like when it's over. The Ultimate line gives Marvel creators leeway to stretch the realism the mainstream Marvel Universe is known for, so the usual fan assumption of "things will always go back to the status quo" doesn't always hold.
What about America in the real world? As outlandish as it may seem, I think the character of Captain America, whether in the mainstream Marvel Universe, the Ultimate Universe, or the movies and animated series, can help bring the fractured interests in our country back together. As I've written before, he provides an example of principle over politics, exemplifying the founding virtues of justice and equality that all Americans can embrace in general, even if we disagree on how to understand or implement them. His ethics, so often caricatured as black-and-white, show us how we can and should act towards each other with both care and respect, so that each of us can pursue his or her own interests and dreams consistent with the rest of us doing the same.
It is interesting to note that Captain America dealt with presidential politics once before, as a candidate for a populist third party. This was also during an election year in the real world, in Captain America (vol. 1) #250 (October 1980), written by Roger Stern and co-plotted and pencilled by John Byrne. After an entire issue of deliberation and advice from half the Marvel Universe, in the end he declined:
In this case, he turned down the candidacy to maintain his idealism and avoid the compromises that come with any position of political leadership. He makes a terrific point: any leader must find a way to balance the myriad interests within society, and in order to do that, he or she always risks disappointing or alienating one group or another. Cap wanted to stay above that so he can remain a symbol of the American dream for all.
Why did the Captain America in the Ultimate Universe make a different choice? Perhaps he felt that if he didn't accept the position of president of the United States of America out of a desire to avoid political compromise, all Americans would lose given their advanced state of national decay. Perhaps he felt that serving as president was the only way he could preserve the American dream in that reality, both through his actions and his example. The Cap in the mainstream Marvel Universe was not "ready to negotiate... to preserve the republic at all costs," but the Ultimate Cap did not feel he had that option, and "decided to answer the call of the people" in a time of near-collapse of that republic.
But in both cases, Cap emphasized that it is up to the American people to take care of themselves however they can, whether through private or public cooperation. In 1980 he told the American people, "you need to look within yourselves to find the people you need to keep this nation strong... and God willing, to help make the dream come true!" and in 2012 he told them, "America has asked me to lead them. I ask America to look within themselves."
In whatever form he takes, Captain America always stands ready to help, fight, and lead--but he demands that we all pitch in too. Ultimately (pun intended), perhaps that's the message we can take from this latest comics development and apply to the real world, especially when each of us votes in November for the person we think can best lead us out of our current economic malaise and identity crisis. In other words, who will be our Captain America?
hey mark, i been a fan of your blog, and i am too, a huge captain america fan, but i always wanted to get your opinion on this
cap has sometimes been linked to nazi mythology
cap/steve rogers being a blond haired blue eyed, "aryan"... and becomes human perfection, but also at the same time being build to be the anti-nazi, what do you think
Posted by: Spadedust | July 27, 2013 at 07:48 PM
Hi, Spadedust --thanks for your comment, and sorry it took me so long to reply.
I see your point and the irony of it -- but I don't remember many mentions of it in the comics, aside from an occasional comment by the Red Skull. For instance, when Arnim Zola puts the Skull's mind in a clone of Steve Rogers, Skull refuses to wear his mask, saying "it would be a pity to hide this beautiful Aryan Face" ("Resurrection," Captain America, vol. 1, #350, Feb. 1989). But when he faces Steve Rogers, he says that he is posing as a "disarmingly handsome American businessman," and does not mention anything about his Aryan appearance ("Seeing Red," same book).
You definitely hit the nail on the head when you said he was created to be the "ideal man" -- becoming a sort of Ubermensch -- but for the explicit purpose of combating Nazism and fascism. So even though his appearance and his creation ironically echo some Nazi themes, I think it's more important to look at the ideals he represents, especially his inherent belief in the equal worth of all people -- definitely not a Nazi ideal!
Posted by: Mark D. White | August 5, 2013 at 07:38 AM
thank you Mark, i agree with you..... what makes Steve Rogers, a great man... is not his physical enhancements or his looks..... its his character, his belief in the good of all and the equality of everyone...
another interesting thing s the different codes between Steve Rogers and Bruce Wayne
Steve Rogers kills, if he has to.... Bruce doesn't kill
what do you think about that sort of contrast
Posted by: Spadedust | August 14, 2013 at 12:45 AM
So sorry again for the delay... I've been thinking about this for a while. Despite his much-lauded ideals, ultimately Cap is a pragmatist; as the narration in Captain America #184 reads, Cap acts according to "principles, tempered by understanding, honed by reality." He doesn't want to kill, and he looks for any way to avoid doing so, but at some point he recognizes he must, nonetheless doing it with regret. (Look at the storyline in Cap #321-324 in which he is forced to kill a terrorist -- marvelous exploration of Cap's thoughts before and after.) Cap maintains his principle of not killing as long as he can, but once it conflicts with other principles -- such as saving other lives -- then he makes a judgment call. And as I explain in my upcoming book on Cap, his judgment has evolved over the years as the stakes have increased so that he more often endorses killing and torture that he never would have abided before.
Batman, on the other hand, is more stubborn, as I explained in this post: http://www.comicsprofessor.com/2012/04/another-perspective-on-why-batman-doesnt-kill-and-the-problems-with-it.html. He holds to one principle and doesn't recognize the existence of others, so he never has to balance them as Cap does. Batman will never kill the Joker, no matter how many lives he would save by doing so, because he adheres to that one principle above all -- but Cap might, especially if the killing is imminent and there's no other way to defuse the situation. (Of course, Batman's writers will never put him in that situation, as the writers of "Man of Steel" did to Superman this summer!)
Posted by: Mark D. White | September 22, 2013 at 02:13 PM