The iconography of a character called Captain America isn't really one you can misinterpret. His name's Captain America, for one thing, plus there's all the stars and stripes. From his very conception to the modern day, Steve Rogers has been the very personification of America, from his propaganda beginnings to the ways he was used to explore Reaganism, Clintonism and his part as a jaded patriot during the Civil War that saw him killed off. In the recent Winter Soldier film, the character was used as a vehicle for examining the Edward Snowden revelations of government spying on their own people, and how that squared with a character that was meant to represent said government dealt with that. That film was based mostly on a Cap run by Ed Brubaker and Steve Epting that was a rollicking good romp, bringing back the Bucky character (who was long assumed to be only comic book character who would never be resurrected, along with Spider-Man's Uncle Ben) and revitalising Captain America. Not only do they examine Cap's place in the post-9/11 US, but he also stands in for the American people and how they were totally cheated. Steve Rogers grew up in the times of Modern Liberalism and FDR's "New Deal", a promise during the Great Depression that the American Dream was alive and well and anybody could reach out and grab it. In the Brubaker/Epting run, the naive and idealistic Cap is under constant attack not just from a cadre of costumed villains, but a cadre of costumed villains under the auspicious of the owner of a global corporation looking to consolidate his control of the planet. Which sounds pretty shady and comic book bad guy, but is really just how modern capitalism works, teasing the everyman with the notion that he can be anything he wants when a select few actually pull all the strings, whilst strangling the American dream they dangle in front of everyone. And no amount of shields to the face can stop them, fun though it is to see.
Tom Baker is the Comics Editor at WhatCulture! He's heard all the Doctor Who jokes, but not many about Randall and Hopkirk. He also blogs at http://communibearsilostate.wordpress.com/
