Turning Captain America into an anti-Trump symbol, even softly, is one of the most dangerous monetary gambles Marvel, and Disney, could make.
This article attempts to take on a political issue in entertainment by going straight down the middle and discussing the philosophies behind political movements in media. The author nor this site advocate for any particular political position, nor any political party.
In terms of readership it has been one of our biggest articles of all time. In terms of my reporting, it’s up there in the top ten I’ve ever been able to leak. The alleged news from three different sources reaching out to me about Marvel potentially bringing back Chris Evans for the Secret Wars Avengers movie sent shockwaves through the Twitter and through leadership of the MCU. It wasn’t supposed to be out there. And yet, here we are with what I believe to be the first reporting of the Steve Rogers Captain America returning for the expressed purpose of making a modern political statement.
Is Marvel Bringing Chris Evans Back for Captain America to Disown MAGA?
In my opinion, it’s a huge mistake.
In the original article, I was very careful to report exactly what I had heard and what I had been told. Today, however, I want to give my own personal thoughts. I want to do so without being particularly political. Instead, I want to go deeper to something than transcends modern political divisions — I want to speak to the philosophy of it all.
I think the movement often referred to as “MAGA” or “Make America Great Again” is more than just Trumpism… whatever that might be. Whether you are for or against it, I try to look beyond the slogans and the personalities that drive the current political climates and I look for what is below the surface. In the case of conservatives today, they seem to be in two camps. One is far larger than the other. And in that far larger camp, there seem to be two driving thought processes which encapsulate the world problems as they see it. The first is that conservatives have historically been driven by the idea of individual freedom. I think that’s still the case. In the reverse, Democrats and leftists… though not classical liberals… are particularly interested in group identities. This is one of the key differences between the two philosophies underpinning the politics — individualism versus identitarianism. Is your identity derived from your individuality or from your group? And to what degree? The other component driving modern conservative’s largest camp is a desire to group the world into a hierarchy of needs. And at the top of that hierarchy is the country in which one lives. It seems to me that believers in this modern conservativism think that if they live in the United States, then the United States should come first in the decision-making process of its leaders. That’s not to say they’re ultra-nationalists and hate the rest of the world… they just expect that all the other nations should be doing the same, and in doing so, competition will drive countries to by their best. Democrats and leftists, on the other hand, tend to think that there are global problems which should be solved by global powers — climate change, for example, drives their philosophical beliefs to say that all countries should sacrifice. And if others don’t, we still should.
These are the sorts of philosophical differences which are seldom explained. Catchphrases and corporate-driven narratives are much easier to propagandize the general public with. And you can’t blame the truck driver or the postal worker for falling for these sorts of things, any more than you can blame a doctor or a teacher. Everyone is working, taking care of their families, and the level of detailed thought they can spare for politics is lower on the list. Political powers know this and take advantage of it for both sides.
We’ve already seen the deeply divisive politicization of Steve Roger and his villains in Marvel comics. One of the most egregious was turning Dr. Jordan Peterson into Red Skull.
Some more red skull Peterson memes… See https://t.co/hLiV66qZHj for Red Skull Peterson merchandise proceeds to charity. Up first: a bus for an African school. My sister and I funded a library there previously. pic.twitter.com/SonCHf1HbQ
— Dr Jordan B Peterson (@jordanbpeterson) May 17, 2021
That’s why making Captain America into a political statement for the modern world is a decidedly wrong idea. And it threatens to deeply damage the Marvel brand, the Disney brand, plus put Marvel head Kevin Feige at severe odds with Disney CEO Bob Chapek. Will Captain America deal with these deep philosophical differences I just explained? Probably not. Instead, the message is likely to be distilled from a less middle-ground position, driven from an inside-politics self-propaganda, and almost certainly derived from the left. That means the message will almost certainly castigate the right, almost certainly present their beliefs in a cartoon and unfair manner. I would expect the same from a right-leaning suite of creatives who were trying to encapsulate the wrongs of the left. It is the nature of personal bias — one that we have to sacrifice our own rightness in order to escape. That’s very hard to do and it surely won’t happen inside a writer’s room determined to slam a modern politician and separate Captain America from half the country.
It is a product of extremism unfortunately. More and more we see particular political entities decided that they can speak about and portray their opposition as less that citizens. They are criminals, vermin, evil. That’s a dangerous message which destabilizes society and dehumanizes neighbors. It’s even more dangerous when it comes through entertainment aimed at young people. It threatens to misdirect their aim. Instead of seeking out real bad guys to take down, it leads to a path of condemnation with those who are loving but have differing opinions from your own. It is anti-diversity, propagandized right into your modern myths.
And surely it is a major threat to The Walt Disney Company’s utility with Marvel. Except for taking on religion and spirituality, I see no more dangerous path for Disney than for its studios to continue injecting modern political beliefs into material that should be timeless.
So what do you think? Do you want superheroes to be super focused on modern politics? Or do you want archetypal stories that focus on broad morality and ethics? Let me know in the comments below. As always, keep reading That Park Place for all the latest news that should be fun!
