The Curious Case of Captain America, By Felix Serrano – Robot Dialog #20
February 8, 2011 Felix Serrano 2 Comments
Super Bowl Sunday I was having dinner with a group of friends who could care less about how bad the game was and we were all discussing a serious topic so no phones or media around. By the time I got home I was going through the ritual of settling down for the night, first email that pops up was from someone who was at dinner with me “DUDE!” with 2 links.
One was the link to the Captain America SB spot. A few days earlier I had seen the movie poster and have since been wrestling with whether or not I like Chris Evans as Cap. I’m still undecided. On one hand I think he looks pretty cool in the suit. But then I start seeing Chris Evans the dorky underwear model and think to myself (I’d have a hard time taking this mimbo seriously). Like the Green Lantern trailer, this one raised some flags that I’ll refrain from commenting on just yet until I see more. Hopefully I’m being pessimistic about this one. However, I’d like to thank the effects team from the Curious Case of Benjamin Button for providing us with the technology to see a pretty cool transformation of Steve Rogers the scrawny guy to Steve Rogers the Super Soldier. I buy it.
It may be time to call a priest for Spider Man: turn off the dark. Critics have pretty much raped it. I think this one Is in critical condition in the ICU. Our prayers are with all those who have purchased tickets.
The other link I mentioned before was Thor. It looks Badass.
‘nuff said.
Check out the best thing I’ve seen all week. I’m sure this is nothing new by now, but it’s still a great fan film.
Thanks all!
-F
McCarthy
February 9, 2011 - 12:49 pm
At first glance, the accompanying photo made me think Dick Cheney was playing ol’ winghead.
MOTU
February 9, 2011 - 1:00 pm
That film is bad ass.
Felix Serrano
February 9, 2011 - 3:50 pm
@ Kevin – HA!
@ MOTU – Which film? The Truth About Benjamin Button or the fan film?
don
February 9, 2011 - 4:11 pm
im skipping captain america because its a propaganda film. there is nothing ‘glorious’ about war. america NEVER wanted to be involved in w2, until the ‘internationalists’ decided it should be so. 30 million russians, 20 million chinese, millions of europeans all dead for money, and now they make movies talking about how it was a ‘romantic’ period???
and i love how marvel comics never had a minority character back then. jack ‘kirby’ and stan ‘lee’ only hired ‘white’ people to write and draw comics.
i hate war, im sick of the internationlists.
Jonathan (the other one)
February 9, 2011 - 4:58 pm
Don, you’re so full of crap it’s dripping out your ears.
First off, unless the “internationalists” you decry were in the Japanese High Command and authorized the bombing of Pearl Harbor, you’re totally off base from your first sentence. There were a number of Americans who wanted to stop the atrocities in China (ever heard of the Flying Tigers?), and a small clade who were aware of the crimes being committed in Europe and sent assistance to the British. It was the attack on Pearl, though, that got the rest of the country behind the idea of not letting some self-appointed “children of the gods” run rampant over the world.
“Marvel Comics never had a minority character back then”? You are aware, of course, that “back then” there was no Marvel Comics – Marvel was founded from the remains of Timely Comics, in the early ’60s. Early Marvel did feature a number of “minority” characters, unless you think that Jews make up a large fraction of the US population. As for the Timely days, there would have been massive boycotts, organized burnings, and possibly legal problems if someone were to introduce, say, a black or latino character who wasn’t a stereotype (with one exception – you could have latinos in “Zorro”). The times were different then.
Maybe if you’d crack an actual history book, rather than relying on the John Birch Society to tell you what happened, this missive wouldn’t have been necessary…
Felix Serrano
February 10, 2011 - 6:18 am
Don…I love you, but…it’s just a fantasy film with the backdrop of WW2. Nothing else. It’s a guy in a red white and blue costume fighting a guy with a red skull for a head.
If we were to keep track of all the wrongs in the world and live our lives by that we would drive ourselves insane.
The internet can be pretty damaging and enlightening at the same time. Be sure to clean your information filters once a week for optimum perception.
R. Maheras
February 10, 2011 - 11:48 am
Allen “Bert” Christman, a fine comic book and comic strip artist, and the artist who followed Noel Sickles on the syndicated comic strip “Scorchy Smith,” was a member of the Flying Tigers and was reported machine-gunned by a Japanese fighter after he bailed out of his damaged aircraft.
Christman quit “Scorchy Smith” in 1938 to join the U.S. Navy, and a couple of years later, because the U.S. was not yet at war, he resigned his Navy commission to join the Flying Tigers and help the Chinese fight off the Japanese invaders.
Note to don: I laugh whenever someone tells me they are “anti-war,” because it’s foolish, idealistic nonsense. It’s no different than stating one is “anti-crime” — as if simply taking such a stance will someday cause crime to go away.
There will always be those who, given the opportunity, will use military force to subjugate weaker neighbors, take their resources, or confiscate their land. Just as there will always be criminals who, given the opportunity, will harm, steal from, or bully their neighbor.
As someone who spent the lion’s share of his life in and around the military, I’ve found that the vast majority of military people are the last folks who want to go to war. So I guess, in that respect, it’s ironic that most military people are what you’d apparently classify as “anti-war.”
MOTU
February 10, 2011 - 12:50 pm
Marvel’s made some bone head decisions regarding race (The Mad Arab, Bucky reintroduced as a 6 foot 2 black man) but Stan & Jack did some pretty bad ass stuff regarding black characters.
They created The Black Panther when the real Black Panthers were considered a terrorist organization by many in the USA. Stan also wrote a story that sent the F.F. to South Africa during the height of Apartheid.
Kirby created one of the coolest black characters EVER, The Black Racer. The fact that black people don’t ski made it even cooler.
Hey-anybody remember when DC had a black character called…wait for it…The Invisible BOY?
Nobody knows the trouble I’ve seen…
JosephW
February 10, 2011 - 11:01 pm
MOTU: “Hey-anybody remember when DC had a black character called…wait for it…The Invisible BOY?”
Uh, no. I don’t remember that at all. When was this? I do remember a Black character named Jacques Foccart who became the second Invisible KID.
There WAS an “Invisible Boy” who was Black, but that was in the film, “Mystery Men.” “Mystery Men,” of course, was loosely based on characters who appeared in Bob Burden’s “Flaming Carrot” comics, none of which were ever published by DC. (The character himself was a new creation for the movie, though allegedly based on a joke that Burden had once told.)
And the Black Racer? Cool? Um, your opinion and all that, but seriously? A character whose sole power was to kill people? Really? This is cool? Whatever.
don
February 11, 2011 - 11:37 am
hey guys. sorry, i am not brainwashed into thinking any war is glorious OR necessary. america NEVER wanted to be involved with w2. america was an isolationist country, until the internationalists decided to step in.
poor little ‘other’ johnny on the spot. please read WAR IS A RACKET by GENERAL Smedley Butler. he warned about the upcoming w2. he warned that if things did not change, Japan would be forced to show it’s hand.
it is hard for those to grasp the true nature of war, the media, and politics, when you actually believe the drivel they feed you every day on cnnbcfoxnews.
poor lil’ johnny on the spot! the lil’ guy is weeping all the way to the klinton library.
don
February 11, 2011 - 11:41 am
by the way, i PROUDLY sleep on this side of the fence for PEACE. it is funny, the reactions i get when i proclaim we need peace. look at johnny on the spot’s ‘wolf blitzer cnn’ response! classic.
i want peace, and this fool is defending war.
if you can grasp at the absurdity of defending war profiteering, you too might join me in trying to make the world a better place for everyone, not just the elitists.
R. Maheras
February 11, 2011 - 2:09 pm
It’s easy to “proudly sleep on the side of peace” when there’s a “brainwashed” military around keeping the wolves at bay.
Try such rhetoric in Sudan, Somalia or other countries where civil authority has broken down, and where it’s every man for himself.
carlos franco
February 11, 2011 - 2:26 pm
@mike and joseph w,
the invisible boy was the affirmative action token in the legion of super heroes, the futuristic, 99c store Justice league of america. how do you know they were low rent super friends? they had more members than fukin facebook n yet couldn’t EXIST without transporting SUPERBOY to the future n have him join. basically clark is beyonce and the legion is the other two:)
JosephW
February 12, 2011 - 1:34 am
@carlos franco: Sorry, but I can’t find ANY reference to an “Invisible Boy” aside from the one I mentioned as being in the film version of “Mystery Men.” If you can give me some issue numbers of any DC title where this character appeared, please do so. The ONLY “Invisible” character that I can find belonging to the Legion was “Invisible Kid,” a character who was initially white (Lyle Norg) until Keith Giffen’s first LSH run which introduced the African, Jacques Foccart. (The character was the brother of a young girl who’d been possessed by Computo.)
As for your asinine comment about “couldn’t exist without transporting Superboy to the future,” you really don’t what the fu k you’re writing. The Legion, as their origin story related, was already a group BEFORE they invited Superboy to join. (Go back and actually READ that story.)
MOTU
February 12, 2011 - 4:04 pm
Joseph wrote,
‘And the Black Racer? Cool? Um, your opinion and all that, but seriously? A character whose sole power was to kill people? Really? This is cool? Whatever’
The Punisher does the same thing, So does Thor’s Hela Norse Goddess of death and about a zillion other characters in comics.
Regarding the ‘Invisible Boy’ and ‘The Invisible Kid’ you may be right but there are another zillion reasons not to call any black character ‘invisible’ anything.
Putting it bluntly- calling a black character invisible is as fucked up as you can get,