23 Marvelous Movies: Captain America: The First Avenger

The summer of 2011 saw the releases of four major superhero movies: Green Lantern, X-Men: First Class, Thor, and Captain America: The First Avenger. The former was DC's first crack at establishing a cinematic universe for themselves, but it came massively short. The latter three Marvel branded films, however, solidified that company's progressing dominance of this new stage of the genre. Thor and Captain America especially were noteworthy for continuing the Marvel Cinematic Universe's winning streak, proof that audiences were becoming more and more welcoming of these larger than life characters in their own standalone stories before seeing them together in one flick. 

Captain America: The First Avenger is yet another example of how Marvel Studios was expanding its roster of cinematic heroes. The series started off with a snarky narcissist who needed to see the consequences of his actions, to a genius trying to escape his most monstrous side, to a literal god who gains humanity from losing his power, to an aspiring soldier who wanted to do whatever was the right thing.

Captain America, while being a generally well-known character among the Marvel comics, and the entire superhero genre for that matter, the main thing that was going against him being a worldwide favorite was his explicit patriotism. Seeing how America hasn't always been viewed by the rest of the globe with favor, it was going to take a lot of charm, likeability, and humanity for people to look beyond the stripes and stars.

Marvel, once again, brought on the perfect auteur to give this movie its style: Joe Johnston, best known for directing the pulpy cult-classic The Rocketeer and a biopic of another man who aspires to be more than what society expected of him, October Sky. He obviously had a grasp of how much sincerity was needed to bring the perfect American to the big screen. 

Steve Rogers, brought brilliantly to the screen by the original Human Torch, Chris Evans is a hugely welcome addition to not just the Marvel Cinematic Universe but the entire superhero film genre. Not since Christopher Reeve's Superman had filmgoers seen such a beacon of selflessness, compassion, and integrity, without a shred of irony, darkness, or ego. At a time when any other protagonist like that would be written off as bland or unrelatable, Marvel actually had the guts to present what it knew audiences wanted after so many years of rugged anti-heroes and brooding loners.

And Steve wasn't just born as the saint that he is either. When we are introduced to him, he is a literal 90 pound weakling with numerous medical problems and a history of being picked on in a time when everyone has to do his part for his country. He only becomes a better person due to the enhancement the serum gives him, which only strengthened his best traits.

And the most admirable trait of this film is how committed it his to keeping Steve as a pure person. It doesn't force some reason for Steve to show a flawed side, save for one scene where he tries to drown his sorrows after he thinks his best friend is dead, and even then, he can't get drunk because of what the serum has done to his cells. Then he immediately goes back to his virtues.

The film is so committed to respecting the legacy of this character and why he was made in the first place, that it features a shot of children reading comic books with a cover of him punching Adolf Hitler in the jaw, just like how he was introduced to the public in real life, all to a song made specifically for the movie, Star-Spangled Man With a Plan, composed by Alan Menken, perhaps the first contribution Disney made to the MCU after buying Marvel. 

What makes Steves ascend to heroism so interesting is how gradual it is. After the experiment proves to be a success, he saves a child from the Hydra agent who killed the man that gave Steve the "super-soldier" serum in the first place. The public reacts warmly to this story, and so the government plops him into a cheesy outfit to give speeches about why Americans should buy war bonds. He instantly becomes an American icon, but when he is actually in front of the U.S. soldiers in Italy, they're too jaded to be inspired by him. But when he saves Bucky's whole unit from captivity, he's respected there as well. He then summons an admirably multicultural team (most likely a large taboo in the 1940s) to take down Hydra, but after Bucky seemingly dies, the stakes become more personal, and he ends up taking on Schmidt alone. After he defeats Schmidt, he flies Schmidt's plane containing weapons of mass destruction into the Arctic before it can kill anyone.

The whole progression is very smooth because Steve is literally getting better with everything that gets thrown at him.

It's also in this film that we are introduced to Hydra, this universe's Nazi science division, so it doesn't matter that its leader, Johann Schmidt aka Red Skull, isn't the most layered of the Marvel villains. He even has a connection to Steve that's similar to the one between Bruce Banner and Blonski in the Incredible Hulk. Schmidt took the same "super-soldier" serum that Steve took, which made his evil trades even worse and gave him a hideous facial defect that explains his nickname. Not the most compelling reason to why he's so evil, but it fits well into this story at least, besides, this is a movie that's unafraid to be a comic book flick. Hugo Weaving also brings the same dark charisma that he could pull off in his sleep. It's a shame that he would never play this character again.

As a sidenote, Schmidt has obtained the ultimate power source to take over the world: the Tesseract. This blue cube of cosmic force would become a key part of the MCU for reasons we will see in future reviews.

Schmidt's descend into full-blown evilness, even by Nazi standards, also gives Dr. Erskine the perfect reason to select Steve among all the other soldiers to provide the serum too, on the condition that Steve remains a good man even when he's not the perfect soldier.

But unlike Tony Stark who tends to jump into missions by himself, Steve doesn't have a suit to protect him and relies more on his friends.

Refreshingly, Agent Peggy Carter doesn't start off as Steve's love interest who always give him pep talks. Upon first meeting, she sees him as everyone else does: a skinny little shrimp who doesn't realize he's unfit to stop the evilest force in the world. And her cynicism doesn't stop there either. At one time, she sees another woman kissing him and assumes that he has feelings for that woman. While she is somewhat of an "emotion support" for him, Hayley Atwell gives her more than enough spunk to stand as her own, becoming the first truly layered female character in the MCU. It's no wonder she had her own TV series.

As for returning characters, Steve's best friend, Bucky Barnes, is someone who doesn't believe Steve has what it takes, only his doubt is more driven by concern for this little guy. The two are very believable as best friends, certainly more so than Tony and Rhodey.

One final aspect that makes Captain America such a unique character in the original Avengers roster is how his debut film ends, with him being denied a chance to be with his girlfriend and incredibly confused and disorientated in a place seventy years into his future. The only reward Steve gets for sacrificing himself is becoming an icon for his country at the cost of being with the woman he loves. 

Another brilliant factor of the ending is that it reminds us that Steve is in a world where he will have, inevitably, have to operate with some very different characters from him. Once Nick Fury welcomes him to this "greater universe", we know that we will get to see the model American citizen butt heads with the son of the man who helped give him his superpowers. And we can't wait to see that happen.