#cap fans

Here’s why I have a problem with Hydra!Cap. Last week, I was half an hour late to class because I stayed with a woman who collapsed in my campus train station until the EMTs took her away. The firemen, EMTs, and cop asked if I knew her and when I said no, they said I could go. When they asked why I stayed I pointed to her Captain America shield shirt and “I can’t leave a fellow Cap fan in distress. It’s not what Steve Rogers would do.” It’s the NOT real reason, obviously. Human decency, concern for my fellow man, the Code of Ethics of the NASW that require that I make sure that people have appropriate care to the best of my ability while maintaining professional boundaries, etc. 

However, that was the quickest way to explain my reasons to a diverse group of people who I knew were likely exposed to this cultural icon, at least for me. People know what who this character is and what he stands for. He’s been around long enough that the ideals and compassion he evokes is imprinted in the collective consciousness.

But, like many, I am completely turned off by the small enclave of “Cap fans” or “Stuckies” or whatever they call themselves who spew hate at Tony Stark and/or RDJ for whatever their arcane reasons. Honestly, please go ahead and like what you like, but don’t throw hate at other characters and fandoms. What a waste of creative energy. Grousing that RDJ shoehorned his way into CACW (not true); grousing that Tony, Spidey and Black Panther all took time away from the Bucky shippin’ (yup, probably -- but as much as some of you would like a movie to just focus on that, it’s not a compelling enough story. The writers and directors knew this. Even AS IT WAS, interestingly, most critics didn’t even mention the Steve-Bucky throughline, while praising the roles played by RDJ, Tom Holland and Chadwick Boseman...). These are disingenuous reasons to hate on a character, and when you do so, all you’re doing is turning people off to the thing you like. Running something down doesn’t build up your fave; it just makes you AND YOUR FAVE look bad.

“Civil War” actually ends on a very conciliatory note. You KNOW these heroes will mend their fences and come together as friends again. They’ll have to - more threats are coming and they’ll be needed to save the world again, in true comics style. This is a middle movie; it HAS to end in the middle of things, on the cliffhanger of whether they can ever all reconcile. But you know they will. Cap and Tony are the classic Marvel brothers-in-arms, sniping at each other while adoring each other - THAT’S WHAT MADE MCU’S “CIVIL WAR” SO PAINFUL. It’s a family fighting; it’s brother against brother.