Team Cap vs. Team Iron Man

Team Cap vs. Team Iron Man: Should A Political Entity Control Large Military Super Human Strength?

Political entities should not control the large military superhuman strength or superhero movies or comics. These superhero movies are a reflection of political worries/anxieties of our time using lurid mythology. The basis of superhero chronicles, after all, is political. They depend on the acknowledgment of insufficiencies of the state. If the government is doing its job, why would society need superheroes?

The difference in stands between Captain America and Iron Man in the Avengers is an example of a complex link between comic books/movies and politics. Iron Man is for the Sokovia Accords, the fictitious legislation projected to regulate the activities of superheroes, limiting the actions of Avengers. Captain America (Cap), on the other hand, is anti-authoritarian. A political and personal disaster plays out in a sequence of knockout fight series. The basis for regulation is that superhero movies rely on super-villains to endanger humanity (Maruo-Schröder, 12). However, from the analogy, the enemies are power-hungry political groups and the heroes themselves as their characters rattle. Study shows that heroes have often formed part of popular culture and cultural imagination, adjusting to conform to contemporary ideologies. The notion is true of Captain America (Cap), whose very name carries a political tag (Dittmer, 623). The influence of the Captain America comic series on American political dynamics cannot be ignored or underestimated. The popularity of the series was, for instance, based on its capacity to reflect contemporary American political views and narratives (Vergeti 25).

Wright writes that Captain America was a political creation, “a metaphorical war against Nazi oppression, anticipating the real American war that they believed was inevitable” (Wright 36). Captain America: “The Winter Soldier (2014),” the Captain makes a discovery that SHIELD, an organization he is working for, has been corrupted by Nazi fragment group HYDRA. The “World Security Council” is destitute to stop them. Captain’s suspicion of oversight is an indication that administrators are impartial and are not accountable (Munoz-Gonzalez, 70). .Despite good intentions, Captain’s movie history point out that any political organization is susceptible to corruption, and it is the individuals to decide whether or not to trust their leaders. While other characters belonging to Team Iron Man would ask: “Who watches the watchmen?” Captain asks: “Who watches our watchers?” (Hughes, 548). Political entities can be corrupted to direct the contents of the superhero movies to conform to their interests. Hence they should control such creations.

            Again private entities, unlike the government, have to lure the public to buy whatever they are selling. The sale is dependent on goodwill. In a conversation with Iron Man, Captain America argued that private organizations are accountable for their actions (Huddleston 1). Wrong actions translate to bad outcomes; similarly, when they perform according to expectations of the public, they get incentivized. Captain America: “We may not be perfect, but the safest hands are still our own.” Even Iron man, at one point, had to shut arsenal after acknowledging the damage that they caused—implying that private entities are keen on their actions, which dictates the goodwill (Huddleston 2), company collapse where painted with a bad reputation.

            Besides, Captain America always opposed a consolidated power when he was fighting in World War II or countering SHIELD. His primary issue with SHIELD was the absence of transparency of information. In an ideal society, power is known to corrupt. Competition for government services creates automatic checks and balances. The minutes those in authority have a monopoly over power, the public bid goodbye to freedom. Politics is all about self-interest. True to this statement is that HYDRA infiltrated SHIELD, and individual interests played a significant role in the infiltration (Nadkarni 3). The same can happen with the UN and all-powerful governments. The monopoly of power provides an opportunity for collusions and infiltrations, for collaborations and cronyism between powerful entities. It is always about “who watches the watchmen” (Hughes, 552). Libertarians come in to provide checks and balances, and less government control does not imply that they stand no regulation. Libertarians believe and advocate for law and order just like Captain American.

Maruo-Schröder in a study argued that egalitarian discussion about the necessity of an independent political authority to regulate emissions of the superhero movies, and the accord itself has turned in an unbending process detrimental to the course of the film. The treaty displays an apt image of the incompetency of the authority to identify the “real criminal.” The leaders are, for instance, hunting for “rogue” Avengers instead of real culprits such as Col. Zemo, who is answerable for the bombing. The accord or an attempt to regulate comic movies through political entities has changed from being a potentially empowering document into a deterrent “an inconvenient, even dangerous hurdle that prevents the Avengers from pursuing justice” (Maruo-Schröder 25).This notion is underscored by the fact that Captain America does not support it.

Conclusively, superhuman military strength or the superheroes serve to point out the inefficiencies in the government. These activities are purely political as they thrive in highlighting contemporary circumstances such as wars and political inefficiencies. The check and balancing role such entities play makes it impractical to place them under the control of political entities.

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Works Cited

Dittmer, Jason. “Captain Americas Empire: Reflections on Identity, Popular Culture, and Post-9/11 Geopolitics.” Annals of the Association of American Geographers, vol. 95, no. 3, 2005, pp. 626–643., doi:10.1111/j.1467-8306.2005.00478. x

Huddleston, Gabriel. “Superheroes as Monsters as Teachers as Monsters as Superheroes.” Journal of Curriculum Theorizing 34.5 (2019).

Hughes, Jamie A. “Who watches the watchmen?”: ideology and “real world” superheroes.” The Journal of Popular Culture 39.4 (2006): 546-557.

Maruo-Schröder, Nicole. “Justice Has a Bad Side”: Figurations of Law and Justice in 21st-Century Superhero Movies.” European Journal of American studies 13-4 (2018).

Nadkarni, Samira. “I Believe in Something Greater than Myself”: What Authority, Terrorism, and Resistance Have Come to Mean in the Whedonverses.” Slayage: The Journal of the Whedon Studies Association 13.2 (2015).

Verge, Mariam. Captain America and Iron Man: American Imperialism in the Cold War. MS thesis. 2017.