Favorite Characters: Capt. Steve Rogers a.k.a. Captain America (The Avengers)

Seriously, how much does Cap rule?  The greatest strength of The Avengers franchise is its richly varied cast of characters – there’s so much to love about all of them, and the highest Avengers in my estimation are often the ones who I watched most recently.  But despite all that excellence, I think Cap might be my favorite of them all (some Cap-related spoilers.)

Steve Rogers, the asthmatic weakling who lied on enlistment form after enlistment form, desperate to do whatever it took to join the fight against the Nazis.  One military scientist looked at him and saw, not a shrimp, but a brave man with a good heart – a man who would always understand the value of strength because he knew how it felt to be weak.  One super-soldier serum later, he was Captain America.

I really love the idea that it had to be Steve, because more so than being strong, Captain America had to be good.  The serum amplifies everything about a person – physically, of course, but more than that.  If that person is cruel or self-serving or reckless, the serum makes them more of that than they were, and Dr. Erskine gets that so much power has to be in the hands of someone who won’t abuse it.  That’s why, even as Steve struggles in his initial training, he continually proves why he’s the one for the job.  Whether he’s risking his life for others or using his smarts to make up for his physical shortcomings, everything he does shows that he’s the right choice.  Tony, shortly after meeting Cap, calls him a “lab rat” and declares that “everything special about [him] came out of a bottle,” but he completely misses the point.  It’s not until he really gets to know him that Tony understands why the world needs Cap.

Some find this to be dull, feel that Cap is a boy scout who’s always right and never forgets to floss.  Next to “grittier” heroes like Tony or Black Widow, Cap might come across as flatter, less complicated.  Not to me, though.  I see Cap struggle plenty – even though his moral compass is in good working order and he doesn’t generally hesitate to do the right thing, it’s still tough to do it.  Frequently, what Cap feels is his responsibility doesn’t mesh with the orders he’s given, and for a soldier, that can be a problem.  Both of his solo films feature him veering off and doing his own thing, with varying levels of pushback (and Civil War obviously looks like it’s going to continue that trend.)  Besides, good doesn’t have to equal boring.  Not that I don’t enjoy grayer characters, because I do (all my love to Black Widow,) but “good” characters can be just as engaging.  Sadly, in the midst of the current antihero craze, it seems there’s not much interest in putting forth the effort to make them so.

One of the things that impresses me most about Cap is his incredible resilience.  He has had a rough time of it.  He lost friends in the war, and he lost his entire world when he got trapped in the ice and woke up in the 21^st century.  Now, he’s in an unfamiliar time where so much is unknown to him and the woman he loved is slipping away under dementia.  He’s seen his best friend suffer horrific mental violations and been forced to fight him, endeavoring all the while to remind him who he really is.  And in the face of all that, Cap just keeps going.  He fights, he reaches out, he honors the past, he makes new friends/allies, and he dutifully chips away at all the history and pop culture he missed.  He doesn’t give up or turn bitter.  He doesn’t insist that the world owes him a break.  He takes all that pain and sublimates it into something good.  Now, that’s a hero I want to follow.