Captain America's Real Superpower

[by britaneeleeann-blog]

I love this analysis of the nature of Captain America's real superpower. It's excerpted from a post written by joshversus --

So now Secret Empire has revealed its Shyamalan Twist and given the readers a Good Guy Steve Rogers as well as Hydra Cap, and the kinds of dickbags who, when this whole bullshit began were dismissing people’s complaints with “oh come on, don’t you know how comics works, it’s all going to be put back at the end, blah blah blah…” are crowing I-Told-You-So’s.

But here’s the thing:

Yeah, fucknuts. We always knew this.

People were never upset because we thought suddenly, for the first time in comics history, a major publisher would decide to throw one of its foundational heroes in the garbage bin and leave it that way. We always, always knew that they’d walk this shit back. Find my earlier posts where I specifically talk about how they’re going to do that (and why it’s still going to stain the character for ages, possibly permanently).

People were upset because you took a shit on the character they came to read, and who means something to a lot of people.

See, Cap’s not cool. Captain America is not hip. Nobody’s putting the goofy flag costume on the list of “most badass looks in comics” or anything. His super powers are not flashy or even terribly impressive against the lineup of Marvel’s other premier characters: he’s pretty strong (again, not all that strong comparatively), and he has a shield that he can throw. That’s it. Those are not top-tier powers, and from an objective viewpoint, they’re barely putting him above Hawkeye if you wanted to do power rankings for the Avengers.

Because those aren’t his real superpowers.

His real superpower is his moral center. As Tony says in The Avengers, he’s a living legend who lives up to the legend. Tony’s not talking about Steve fighting some mind-controlled bad guys to get to a switch on the helicarrier, or punching Chitauri. He’s talking about the way Steve inspires people - the way Steve’s sincerity and certainty in doing the right thing, defending people, and standing against wrong makes other people want to be better. Captain America has never been a symbol of blind patriotism, but of the better nature of the U.S., and of people in general.