One thing I wish comic writers would let be a consistent part of Steve Rogers character is his love of comic books. Firstly it would bring down the curtain of âCaptain America is a stoic, boring jackass who literally only cares about warâ by giving him something childish and silly to care about.
But also, Steveâs love of art, especially how that evolves in the modern era, would be really interesting to explore;
Steve would have been a teenager in The Golden Age of comics; started in 1933. This was branded by a tidal wave of superhero stories; used as propaganda during the rise of Nazis, but also used to write romance, crime dramas, comedies etc.
The Golden Age of comics started around the same time The Hayes Code took effect; taking advantage of the moral panic surrounding cinema, these rules were put in place to heavily censor which stories were allowed to be told, and about who. This code was kept in use until the 1960s, However these rules did not affect comic books, which is part of why they became so popular leading up to and during the war.
(There was a Comics Code created in 1954, but it started to wane in the 1970s, and was completely caput by 2011).
This is all a lot of backstory to say; Steve Rogers grew up loving comic books to the point of wanting to create his own, it being one of the few easily accessible pieces of media he could enjoy. With the cinema being an occasional luxury and televisions being excluded to the wealthy, all without the censorship of The Hayes Code clouding the writing. Despite widely being viewed as âlow brow childrenâs entertainmentâ Steve was able to engage in mature subjects and themes that movies wouldnât allow.
Becoming Captain America he got to, at least distantly, be involved in the very comics he loved, becoming Americaâs First (known) Superhero.
He then returns to the modern day (letâs work with the movies timeline here) to find that comics have evolved so far past the point of what he knew.
Comics are still âchildrens booksâ, but now there are graphic novels. Stories made explicitly for adults, with more drawn violence, sex and crime than would have ever been considered in the 1930s.
There are stories from people of different ethnicities and religions, stories from different countries entirely! All with unique art styles and mediums, far past the simple yet repetitive style of The Golden Age.
In Captain America comics Steve not only worked as a freelance cartoonist, but he actually worked on in-universe Captain America comics (meta, yet confusing). He didnât have any control over the scripts themselves, but we know he obviously wouldnât work on a comic that didnât align with his values, given he once left a job after his boss used antiSemitic language.
Honestly, I do not think Steve would be interested in picking up superhero stories in his free time. His identity and how the public views him has been shaped by the comic books written about him while he was away at war, and when he was dead. Those comic books were the lynchpin to the propaganda every generation after his death absorbed, and it has done nothing but make his job harder and his life lonelier.
If he ever goes back to working on comic books in the MCU however, I do actually think heâd work on superhero stories again, maybe even Captain America ones. This is the first time he can actually have a hand in how heâs being portrayed, and I like to think heâd use his influence behind the scenes to push forward graphic novels that have a more realistic, historically-accurate opinion of him and the war, than the ones trying to sway a Childs understanding of history in one direction.
(Yes, this would mean Steve gets to cherry-pick how he is written based on his own perspective, but having way too much faith in his own opinion is literally his biggest character flaw. Let the man have his Achilles Heel).
My own personal take on how his ending shouldâve gone post-Endgame is that he loses the serum, goes back to college to restart his degree, and takes on a job as an artist for Captain America comics. Specifically Samâs Captain America. If he canât support Sam on the field then he can support him from home, pushing forward stories detailing how perfect, and intelligent, and heroic his best friend is.
Not relevant but interesting;
It wasnât until the end of WW2 and Nazis that there were no longer the clear cut âgood-guy, bad-guyâ routine for children to sink their teeth into. Superhero comics tried to keep up by continuing their propaganda, but the interest waned. (notably the 1950âs Captain America comics written by Stan Lee had him staunchly fighting communists with the same gusto as Hitler. These comics did not do well, and obviously that entire storyline was retconned). The Hayes Code itself ended in 1968, with Cap returning to comic books only 4 years earlier.
