Why Captain America is my Favorite Marvel Superhero
Okay, okay, hear me out on this one. disclaimer, there are spoilers in this for the MCU, Star Wars, and Game of Thrones. First, Tony Stark’s arc is more dynamic, I totally understand why people like him better, and this is in no way meant to be me discrediting that. This is me explaining why I find Captain America’s story to be more compelling. His is similar to Jon Snow’s and Obi-Wan Kenobi’s, and can relate to Superman’s for a simple reason. In most cases, the hero arc is one where someone overcomes a great obstacle, a personal flaw, so forth. They grow as a character, change, and become a better version of themselves.
Jon Snow, Obi-Wan, and Captain America all have one thing in common. They’ve already arrived where they need to be internally. Their arc is not overcoming a personal flaw, its not journey of self. Its the defending against constant challenges to their person that defines their character arc. Over and over these three characters are pushed by forces around them, emotions, friends, attachments, loves, and so forth, constantly having the base of their character, doing the right thing, be challenged. A disclaimer, I am not any of these characters. I am not yet centered on doing the right thing no matter what, and I hope to get there some day.
Its less “dynamic” of a character arc, but its a whole lot more difficult to maintain doing the right thing than it is to get there, at least from personal experience. Think about it from this past election. Trump would say one thing after another that people would cringe at. But when Biden said something cringeworthy, it was a much bigger deal. Why? Cause he was expected to say or do the right thing. Shouldn’t we hold ourselves to the same standards, that a bad thing should be a bad thing?
Diving into Captain America, the first we see him he’s getting beat up by some bully, and we hear the iconic, “I can do this all day.” From that moment on, Steve has been established as a pure “good guy” in our eyes. He loses his best friend, he fights Red Skull and puts the plane down in the ice, missing a date with the first girl who loved him back, he’s turned on by Shield, over and over he defends the right thing to do, protecting Bucky, defying the Sakovia Accords, and in the end, he returns all of the Infinity Stones, THEN gets to spend his life with Peggy. He does everything in his power to do the right thing, the selfless thing first, before doing something for himself. Same with Jon Snow. Jon gives everything time and again to save the race of men from the White Walkers and bring about peace, dying, watching his first love die in front of him, killing his second love, and in the end gets to be in the North. Obi-Wan trains Luke, sacrifices himself, all to see balance brought back to the force. If Satine had said the word, he would have left the Jedi Order, but he didn’t.
So yeah, that’s why he’s my favorite, he does the right thing no matter what, rather than making his way there, and I hope one day to get there myself. The Superman anecdote may actually be someone’s quote, so I won’t pretend to have come up with this myself. What I really like about what they said was that most superheroes put on their uniforms or costumes, etc., or started as a normal person and then became something more. Superman on the other hand has always been super. He’s always had these powers. But when he’s not defending the world, his “costume” is that of Clark Kent, who needs glasses, is rather timid, and is basically the opposite of who Superman is. He chooses not to be super when he could always be. I respect that.
If you still think they have lame character arcs, that’s okay. I hope this does make a few of you think. Alas, the quote. I actually don’t really have a good one for this, or any for that matter. So, falling back on the internet, I really like this one. Cheers everyone:
“The time is always right to do what is right.” Martin Luther King Jr.
