Warning! Spoilers ahead forCaptain America#2!
Marvel has introduced a newCaptain America, who serves as a counterpoint to the original, Steve Rogers, in Marvel’s latest update to the patriotic hero’s origin story. The newCaptain Americaseries teams up Rogers, freshly revived after decades on ice,with his modern-day successor, David Colton, who already comes across as a much more cynical version of the hero.
Captain America#2, by the creative team of Chip Zdarsky and Valerio Schiti, sends Colton and Rogers into the heart of Doctor Doom’s country of Latveria on their first mission together.
From the start, it becomes clear the divide between the two Captain Americas is more than just generational, but instead evokes their significantly different worldviews.
Marvel’s New Version Of Captain America Is Already Defining Himself In Contrast To Steve Rogers
The crux ofCaptain America’sorigin story, whatever era it is updated to fit into, revolves around his need to acclimate to a world that left him behind decades prior. The newCaptain Americaseries is no exception, but it notably puts a more gritty, realistic spin on this perennial theme.
Rather than finding humor in Steve Rogers adapting to using an iPhone, or struggling to keep up with contemporary slang,Captain America#2 mines drama from the fact that Rogers’ straightforward understanding of geopolitics is a relic of a past era. New Cap David Colton, meanwhile, represents the “realpolitik” 21st-century view.
That is, in Rogers' black-and-white view, Doctor Doom is a tyrant, and therefore should be overthrown. Colton’s perspective is colored in shades of gray, as he sternly remindsthe OG Captain Americathat their mission isn’t regime change, but rather hostage extraction, to which Rogers begrudgingly admits he needs to learn how to exist in this new era.
How Long Can Marvel’s Two Versions Of Captain Americas Coexist?
Marvel has already sowed the seeds of potential conflict between Steve Rogers and David Colton, who is quickly being established as a different Captain America for a different kind of America. Their characters could quickly come to embody “traditional” heroic values in contrast with the jaded, anti-heroic tendencies of modern protagonists.Captain America#2 teases the fault lines already clear from their interactions.
The issue makes this most overt in the momentwhen David Colton scolds Steve Rogers for “thinking [he] can make things better” in the world.Of course, rather than this disparity of views leading to open conflict, it is also possible that working with the first Captain America could sway Colton to a more idealistic perspective.
Meaning that rather than coming to blows over their different interpretation of American values, andthe role of Captain America, the two characters could learn from each other moving forward, and both become stronger versions of the hero thanks to one another. Only time will tell how the newCaptain Americaand the old will be able to co-exist.
