So I’ve been pissed at Marvel and Nick Spencer for a year — but last July I finally got to talk to him (albeit on Twitter).
And I came to the realization that I was being an asshole and I backed off.
For those of you joining us late, it is because the current Captain America storyline has Steve Rogers, a character created by a Jewish writer and artist team specifically to counter the rising fascism of Nazi Germany, was revealed to be a secret Nazi since childhood.
For those of you wondering why I give a crap that a comic book is normalizing fascism, let me point you at this Smithsonian article.
Nick Spencer’s responses, in tweets that have since gone missing, was that this was something that had been done to Steve Rogers, that he was suffering because f it, and that it would be set right.
So I backed off. I apologized. I defended Nick Spencer to people that were even more pissed off at him than I was, maintaining that he wasn’t advocating fascism, merely privileged and tone-deaf and caught up in telling this story he thought of without bothering or caring about the impact stories have on our culture — particularly stories involving icons like Captain America.
Recently Marvel has announced Nick Spencer’s Secret Empire crossover special event — in which we learn that the Nazis won WWII, the Allies used a desperate last-minute alteration of reality to undo it and Steve Rogers, the disabled kid turned superhero who was first depicted punching Adolf Hitler in the face was originally a Nazi, supposed to have been a Nazi, and is only truly happy as a Nazi.
And Sam Wilson, the Falcon who became Captain America gave up the shield, apologized for ever sounding like a Social Justice Warrior, and says that Steve Rogers is the only true Captain America.
After this came out.
It’s becoming increasingly apparent to me that Marvel values the fascist voice and dollar more than mine — although the TV series Agents of SHIELD’s current storyline goes between throwing shade at and directly repudiating Secret Empire — and perhaps I should take the hint.
I know it’s middle aged white guy entitlement, but the reason it’s important to have a Captain America that’s a white man is because that’s who the Nazis and white supremacists claim to speak for. It’s not Captain America’s job to lead the fight against fascism, it’s to stand between the fascists and those they would victimize.
So, weak, and crippled and angry and as lousy of an example as I am, I am Captain America until Marvel forces me not to be. And I need all of you good people, who understand that the United States of America is strong because of diversity and acceptance, who know that it isn’t gender presentation, skin color, preference, or religion that makes one an American to be Captain America with me.
And Marvel Entertainment and specifically Nick Spencer, for either flat-out lying to me or listening to my concerns and problems and then specifically writing the story to make them worse, you owe me an apology.
In public.
In writing.
Just like I apologized to you.