That particular Cap speech occurred, sadly, before I was a regular reader. (In 84 I was firmly planted on Transformers and GI Joe... and my father's old Silver Age stuff in the attic.)
Cap's always been one of my favorite characters, though--the reruns of the bad 70s TV movies and choppy 60's animated series were enough to get me hooked on the character. It wasn't until later in the 80s that I could fully appreciate the nuance of the stories.
The arcs that stand out most for me are the one there Cap gets dosed with a designer drug while busting up a manufacturing and distribution center in NYC. It bonds with the Super Soldier serum in his blood, makes him hallucinate, and the only way they can get it out (once they've caught him) is the strip the serum out of his system. When they tell him they can scrub it of the drug and get it back into his system, he refuses--more willing to have to work his ass off to maintain his abilities than to be a hypocrite for taking a stand against drugs while he has his own making his life easier every day.
That story was shortly followed by another one where the Senate subcommittee in charge of the Captain America identity decided to assert their ownership of the name and appearance. They demanded Cap work as their mouthpiece to rally support for a war or two and some other political projects. When he refused, they told him his only option was to stop being Captain America. And so, Steve Rogers, who's entire life had been dedicated to being Captain America, turned over the uniform and shield rather than go against what he knew was right.
That, of course, led to John Walker, the Super Patriot, becoming the new Cap. Yeah. That went well. Kinda like the story in the original post. (Guess they did do that every decade or so...)
I think Cap would be a big fan of John Stewart but not so much of most of the other news outlets Americans consume. And the state of politics today? He'd just hang his head in shame.
Brilliant, my good man. Brilliant.
Cap's always been one of my favorite characters, though--the reruns of the bad 70s TV movies and choppy 60's animated series were enough to get me hooked on the character. It wasn't until later in the 80s that I could fully appreciate the nuance of the stories.
The arcs that stand out most for me are the one there Cap gets dosed with a designer drug while busting up a manufacturing and distribution center in NYC. It bonds with the Super Soldier serum in his blood, makes him hallucinate, and the only way they can get it out (once they've caught him) is the strip the serum out of his system. When they tell him they can scrub it of the drug and get it back into his system, he refuses--more willing to have to work his ass off to maintain his abilities than to be a hypocrite for taking a stand against drugs while he has his own making his life easier every day.
That story was shortly followed by another one where the Senate subcommittee in charge of the Captain America identity decided to assert their ownership of the name and appearance. They demanded Cap work as their mouthpiece to rally support for a war or two and some other political projects. When he refused, they told him his only option was to stop being Captain America. And so, Steve Rogers, who's entire life had been dedicated to being Captain America, turned over the uniform and shield rather than go against what he knew was right.
That, of course, led to John Walker, the Super Patriot, becoming the new Cap. Yeah. That went well. Kinda like the story in the original post. (Guess they did do that every decade or so...)
I think Cap would be a big fan of John Stewart but not so much of most of the other news outlets Americans consume. And the state of politics today? He'd just hang his head in shame.