Captain America: Anti-Patriot?
I missed out on reading the Marvel Civil War series, but found out about it when the media went into a frenzy with Captain America Vol. 5. Issue 25, where Steve Rogers/Captain America is assassinated on the steps of a courthouse. At the time I was amazed by the fervor that this image, as well as the storyline brought to America, but I reasoned that at some point I’d get a chance to catch up with the storyline.
As part of an English class on American Identity, I wrote a short 1000 word essay on the symbolism of Captain America and what he represents to the average American (I figure that living in the U.S. for the past almost-10 years gives me a good basis for comparison). My professor just approved my final essay, which adds to the previous essay and looks at the concept of American patriotism as reflected within comic books, in particular the Marvel Civil War series and the implementation of the Superhero Registration Act (an allegory to the Patriot Act) within the series storyline. I’ll be examining whether Captain America died a patriot, and what his death meant to the everyday Americans that read the series and read the issue with his death. How cool is it that I get to read comic books for a college course?
