ABSTRACT
The reboot of Captain America reestablishes one of the most iconic Marvel characters and one whom, given his unambiguously patriotic traits, is perhaps the most interesting in terms of the exploration of American identities in the post 9/11 period. In this chapter, we trace the development of the character from his inception in the World War II era, through McCarthy’s America, The Civil Rights Movement and counter culture and his resurrection in the years following the 9/11 attacks. We analyze the reboot in terms of the somewhat simplistic Manichean “us vs. them” narrative with particular focus on how the reawakening of Cap at the end of the first film sets him up for the much more complicated roles he plays in Winter Soldier and the Avenger’s franchise. Winter Soldier builds upon some of the themes discussed in the Batman and Iron Man analyses (Chapters 1 and 3) and creates a terrifying allegory of government surveillance capabilities being used against democratic norms and, ultimately, as a tool for the summary execution of people that the New World Order (HYDRA) considers to be subversive.
